Pundits are sick of the SEC after mass March Madness losses during opening weekend
The SEC just doesn't mean more to several pundits who have Southeast Conference fatigue following a disastrous weekend for five programs -- namely Kentucky, Auburn, South Carolina, Florida, and Mississippi State -- who bowed out during March Madness's Round of 64.
Mike Farrell Sports' Rock Westfall condemned Greg Sankey's idea to remove auto-bids from the NCAA Tournament; claiming that he should stage his own tournament to include schools Westfall feels are "pretenders."
"Sankey has his share of fanboys, but his success and greed have gone to his head," Westfall prefaced before saying, "He has become the most powerful man in college sports. But as the saying goes, power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
"Perhaps a better idea than Sankey's is for the rest of the leagues to kick out the SEC and Big Ten from March Madness. Let Sankey have his own tournament. He can allow all his SEC pretenders in the field."
Former FSU quarterback-turned-CBS Sports analyst Danny Kanell took a shot at both SEC basketball and football, asking a what-if about the ACC receiving the same treatment in both sports that he believes the "It Just Means More" conference receives.
"Imagine if the ACC was gifted 2 teams into the CFP every year in football or 8/9 teams into March Madness every year," Kanell tweeted.
SEC hate has gone too far from mainstream media
Just as the Mountain West has been unfairly picked on as teams from the Group of Five (Six?) conferences, the SEC is receiving an unfair amount of hate right now. Though five teams bowed out early, Alabama, Tennessee, and Texas A&M all won their opening round matchups and the former two squads are Sweet 16-bound.
And to address Kanell's point, just as FSU was robbed of a College Football Playoff berth in 2023, Georgia also has legitimate gripes as perhaps the most talented team to be left out of the final four-team field.
One season, and certainly not one weekend, determines a conference's worth. Over the next few years, these overreactions will be cold takes as the SEC returns to its perch as the overlords of college football.
College basketball will continue to be dog-eat-dog, though, and the SEC winning the big dance remains a difficult climb for all 16 teams, of course including Texas and Oklahoma as of this coming Fall.