Matt Barrie supports SEC's ability to break away from college football, takes shot at Big Ten depth

Georgia president Jere Morehead and head football coach Kirby Smart drove headlines last week in Destin at the SEC spring meetings when they suggested the conference could potentially pull away from the rest of college football and form its own postseason playoff. It was a controversial suggestion, to be sure.

ESPN analyst Greg McElroy, a former Alabama quarterback with some national championship experience, wondered whether the proposal might grow legs over time. He posited a question to SEC Nation’s Matt Barrie on the Always College Football podcast.

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“Now there’s the coach, Kirby Smart, saying, ‘Well we’ll just go do our own thing,'” McElroy explained. “What’s your response to the SEC’s threat, or are they posturing, where are they at right now if the SEC were to pull away and do their own thing?”

Barrie didn’t hesitate. He thinks the SEC is in a unique position to do it if it so chooses.

“Here’s the difference between the Big Ten and the SEC,” Barrie said. “The SEC’s automatic wins used to be Vanderbilt and, when Dan Mullen was there it wasn’t Mississippi State, but Mississippi State. Those used to be the two games where you’d go in and feel like, ‘I feel pretty good about our chances to get a win.’

“Well now Jeff Lebby‘s got Mississippi State as a thorn in everybody’s side. And now you’ve got Vanderbilt coming off a playoff (push), they just flipped a five-star quarterback from Georgia to come play at Vanderbilt. Those are your two outs? Those are your two easy teams? South Carolina, what were they, 4-8 a year ago? They’ve got as much talent as anyone on their roster.”

That some of the teams that can often appear at the bottom of the SEC standings still give you pause as a coach when they appear on your schedule is sort of the thing Barrie was getting at. He drove home the issue.

“So the point being you don’t really get an off week,” he said. “You just don’t.”

How is that different from other leagues? Well, Barrie just doesn’t see as much competitive depth anywhere else in the country.

That’s unique to the SEC, he claims. He offered up the next best contender as a conference, then took a bit of a shot.

“Big Ten, I don’t know,” Barrie said. “But I know Oregon‘s a mainstay and I know Ohio State is a mainstay and I know Penn State and Michigan every other year, and USC with Lincoln Riley. That’s all I know about that league, right?

“So for the SEC to say they can break off and do their own thing, well that would be pretty entertaining, because every team is pretty damn good. Whereas the Big Ten, you’re kind of a top-heavy league with nothing in the middle or the bottom.”