Rhett Lashlee isn’t here to listen to praise for the SEC.
On Tuesday at ACC media days, SMU’s coach took an opportunity to take a shot at college football’s strongest conference and attempt to take it down a notch.
“The same six schools have won the SEC since 1964. Not a single one is different from 1964,” Lashlee said, per Sports Illustrated’s Bryan Fischer. “That’s top heavy, that’s not depth.”
Technically that’s incorrect, but we’re not going to stop Lashlee while he’s rolling because we love a good conference feud.
Since 1964, Alabama, Florida Georgia, Tennessee, LSU, Auburn and Kentucky have won SEC titles. That’s seven teams, but there is an asterisk. In 1976, Kentucky was awarded co-champion status after Mississippi State forfeited its win over the Wildcats from that season, moving Kentucky to 5–1 and giving it a share of the conference title with Georgia. The next season, Kentucky went undefeated in conference but was ineligible for the SEC championship due to NCAA violations.
Given all of that, we’ll lean towards saying Lashlee is basically correct here.
In fact, since 2000, only five teams have won an SEC championship, as Tennessee’s last came in 1998.
The 42-year-old Lashlee is entering his fourth season as SMU’s head coach and has been excellent during his time in Dallas. In 2022, he led the Mustangs to a 7–6 record, but since has authored back-to-back 11–3 seasons and led them to the first round of the College Football Playoff in 2024.
Given the politics around college football conference strength and how it relates to CFP seeding, we would expect more coaches to take stances like this in the future.
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