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Notre Dame’s commanding win over the Indiana Hoosiers on Friday night set off a firestorm of SEC superiority, from a conference that loves to hold other teams to standards theirs can’t live up to.

The most obvious example is Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin, who ignored his own team’s three terrible losses to unranked teams to criticize the College Football Playoff committee. 

READ: Lane Kiffin Mocks Indiana For Pathetic Performance Against Notre Dame

But it’s not just Kiffin; the entire SEC-based internet lost its collective mind on Saturday morning, demanding that a three-loss Alabama team, or a three-loss Ole Miss team should have been rewarded for mediocre seasons. It’s not surprising, but it is objectively anti-reality. And it’s yet another example of how the SEC is more than happy to ignore inconvenient stats when it benefits them. 

For example, Kirk Herbstreit, who works for the SEC’s media network, said on College GameDay Saturday morning that Indiana didn’t belong on the field against Notre Dame. Indiana had a poor offensive showing on the road against arguably the best defense in the country. Alabama meanwhile, the team that so obviously deserved to get in because of its inherent superiority, was worse on the road against a mediocre 6-6 Oklahoma team.

But that’s just one example, and objective stats have even more humble pie to serve up to SEC supremacists.

Alabama has some major problems, and Kalen DeBoer doesn’t have enough time to figure them out.

TUSCALOOSA, ALABAMA – OCTOBER 12:  Head coach Kalen DeBoer of the Alabama Crimson Tide looks on prior to facing the South Carolina Gamecocks at Bryant-Denny Stadium on October 12, 2024 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

Texas Not Subject To Same Criticisms As Other Schools, Weirdly

Joel Klatt brought up on X Saturday morning that Texas, by the standards of SEC media on ESPN, also had a very weak resume. Texas didn’t have a single win over a team that finished the 2024 season ranked, and lost twice to the only currently ranked team they played.

Somehow, they’ve avoided any discussion or criticism over whether they belong.

But those are anecdotes. And thankfully, we have a more objective way to measure how good a team’s record actually was. 

An advanced stats ranking system called FEI has a “Strength of Record” metric, where teams are ranked based on the expected record an elite team would have against their schedule. Effectively, if a generically elite team played the same teams Texas or Indiana played, how many games would they be expected to win?

Here’s how the teams ranked in the latest update:

  1. Oregon
  2. Georgia
  3. Indiana
  4. Notre Dame
  5. Ohio State
  6. Penn State
  7. Boise State
  8. Texas
  9. Tennessee
  10. BYU
  11. SMU
  12. Army

Notice who isn’t on that list? Alabama and Ole Miss. See where Texas ranks compared to Indiana? Not a great look for the SEC now, is it?

Here’s how the teams strength of schedule lined up:

  • Notre Dame – #46
  • Texas – #31
  • Ole Miss – #34
  • Indiana – #42
  • Alabama – #25

Those are all fairly close. Yet Indiana lost one game, Alabama and Ole Miss lost three. And Texas’ schedule is only that ranked that high because they had to play Georgia twice.

The SEC just can’t handle or accept the reality that Bama and Ole Miss did not belong in the playoff this year. Regardless of how the playoff games look, the SEC team’s performance over the course of the season did not justify inclusion. And dealing with disappointing in this case means relentlessly clowning themselves by ignoring standards if they apply to them.