The signs are everywhere, the undeniable has arrived. The boogeyman is dead.
After Georgia’s final and inevitable unraveling Thursday in a 23-10 wipeout loss to Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff Sugar Bowl quarterfinal, the SEC’s last national title hope is a newbie.
Who just arrived from a conference it once scoffed at.
Well, look who’s laughing now: all of college football. Once Ohio State eliminates Texas next week in the Cotton Bowl semifinal, there will be no doubt.
Rejoice, everyone. The SEC finally received its comeuppance.
All of the beaten down and battered at the hands of the SEC for the last two decades, all of the ostracized and outcast that got brief respite from Michigan’s national title last season, got a full-blown end to it all this time around.
The boogeyman is dead. The only question: for how long?
Georgia hasn’t win a College Football Playoff game since winning back-to-back national titles in 2021-22.
Alabama hasn’t won a College Football Playoff game since it beat Group of Five school Cincinnati in 2021.
LSU hasn’t won a College Football Playoff game since 2019.
SEC faces big questions in 2025
If you think that’s a bad look, take a glance at 2025. As college football pushes blindly into a new cash-fueled frontier – with the SEC at the forefront – the once sleek machine is breaking down all over the 16-team conference.
Alabama just finished a season with four losses for the first time since former coach Nick Saban’s first season in 2007. A few hours before the Sugar Bowl kicked off, Tide quarterback Jalen Milroe announced he was headed to the NFL — leaving the program in turmoil at the most important position on the field.
Not to mention the uncertainty at the most critical position of all: coach Kalen DeBoer.
Georgia lost three games in a season for the first time since 2018, and it’s now clear that coach Kirby Smart’s decision two years ago to hire his unemployed best friend and college roommate (Mike Bobo) as offensive coordinator has gone horribly wrong.
The Dawgs won back-to-back national titles with a former walk-on (Stetson Bennett) playing quarterback for a real, live, offensive coordinator (Todd Monken). They’ve been out-coached for two seasons with Bobo and blue-chip quarterbacks (Carson Beck, Gunner Stockton), winning on talent alone until it mattered most.
The Georgia quarterback room is full of youth and uncertainty, and the offensive coordinator isn’t going anywhere. Now what?
Alabama bottomed out this season in a bowl loss to one-dimensional Michigan, a season of confounding losses calling into question the guy running the show. Now it begins again with former five-star quarterback recruit Ty Simpson stepping into the void, and the program hasn’t looked this vulnerable since the Mike Shula years.
The Mike Shula years.
The collective shudder from Tuscaloosa is reverberating throughout the SEC. Now what?
LSU hired Brian Kelly away from Notre Dame three years ago, has lost every season opener since and hasn’t sniffed the playoffs. It bottomed out this season, with eight regular season wins — a year after Kelly wasted a generational performance from quarterback Jayden Daniels because his defense couldn’t stop anyone.
The Tigers didn’t hit big in the transfer portal while Kelly got his southern high school recruiting sea legs, and talented quarterback Garrett Nussmeier still makes unthinkably bad decisions. Now what?
The other SEC contenders
Tennessee finally arrived in the playoff, and promptly lost by 25 at Ohio State to underscore the dirty little secret of the selection committee: the earlier you lost in the SEC, the safer you were.
The Vols won 10 games, and their marquee win in October was beating Alabama at home ― which almost everyone did. Tennessee then had to beat Texas-El Paso and Vanderbilt to finish the season, while everyone else got dinged in the November demolition derby.
If you think Tennessee was a playoff-worthy team, I’ve got a wildly overrated team from Bloomington, Indiana, to sell you. The Vols haven’t been a legitimate threat without talented quarterback Hendon Hooker running the show. Now what?
Ole Miss spent millions in the transfer portal and lost twice as a double-digit favorite, and missed the CFP. The Rebels, despite coach Lane Kiffin setting school records, are still capable of beating Georgia and losing to Kentucky.
Texas A&M paid off a $90 million dollar gamble on Jimbo Fisher, and a year later, is Texas 8&5 again under Mike Elko.
Oklahoma – you remember the Sooners, don’t you? – hasn’t been the same since Lincoln Riley skulked out of town three years ago with the roster in decline. And took the best player (Caleb Williams) with him.
Florida hasn’t been the same since a player threw a shoe and cost the Gators a critical November game in the middle of the playoff race, and four years and two coaches later, the most unstable blue blood in the conference has the most non-Texas momentum heading into 2025.
Because no matter how bad it looks next week in the loss to Ohio State, Texas has recruited well enough and has the experience and talent to be a legitimate national title contender in 2025. All it will take is another Manning (Arch) putting together another elite season in the SEC.
Then again, Peyton and Eli never won a national title.
Georgia was outsmarted by Notre Dame
Not long after the loss to Notre Dame, Smart was asked in the post-game press conference about the biggest play of the most important game of the season. A play where the best coach in college football was outsmarted by Irish coach Marcus Freeman.
Notre Dame was in punt formation on fourth-and-1 early in the fourth quarter, trying to run clock and protect a two-score lead. The Irish then ran the offense on the field and the punt team off, forcing Georgia to do the same.
Georgia jumped offside prior to the snap, and the Irish extended the possession and ran more precious clock. Smart’s response to the pivotal moment said it all.
“I’ve been told by our head officials in the SEC you can’t do that,” Smart said.
Imagine that, the big, bad SEC is complaining that the mean man isn’t fair.
The boogeyman is dead, everyone.
Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB.