A funny thing happened in college football between the years 2006 and '12: the same conference won the national championship seven years in a row.
Florida, LSU, Alabama and Auburn took turns passing around the BCS's crystal football, and in doing so changed the look of the game. Not since Harvard, Princeton and Yale ruled the roost in the 19th century had one region of the country reigned so supreme. In a relatively high-parity era by college football standards, the SEC always seemed one step ahead—and that set the conference up to remain dominant in the low-parity era that followed.
Times are changing, however. Here's an overview of how the SEC has performed in bowl games this year, and what it means for a league in an odd yet highly enviable position.
What is the SEC's record in bowl games this year?
With No. 4 Texas's loss to No. 6 Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl Friday in the books, the SEC posted a final record of 8–7 in postseason play in 2024.
What are the results of the SEC's bowl games this year?
Here is the SEC's crop of postseason games, depicted in table form.
DATE
BOWL
LOCATION
RESULT
Dec. 20
Gasparilla
Tampa
Florida 33, Tulane 8
Dec. 21
CFP first round
Austin
No. 4 Texas 38, No. 13 Clemson 24
Dec. 21
CFP first round
Columbus
No. 6 Ohio State 42, No. 7 Tennessee 17
Dec. 27
Armed Forces
Fort Worth, Texas
Navy 21, Oklahoma 20
Dec. 27
Birmingham
Birmingham
Vanderbilt 35, Georgia Tech 27
Dec. 27
Liberty
Memphis
Arkansas 39, Texas Tech 26
Dec. 27
Las Vegas
Las Vegas
USC 35, Texas A&M 31
Dec. 30
Music City
Nashville
No. 23 Missouri 27, Iowa 24
Dec. 31
ReliaQuest
Tampa
Michigan 19, No. 11 Alabama 13
Dec. 31
Citrus
Orlando
No. 21 Illinois 21, No. 14 South Carolina 17
Dec. 31
Texas
Houston
LSU 44, Baylor 31
Jan. 1
Peach
Atlanta
No. 4 Texas 39, No. 10 Arizona State 31 (2OT)
Jan. 2
Sugar
New Orleans
No. 3 Notre Dame 23, No. 2 Georgia 10
Jan. 2
Gator
Jacksonville
No. 16 Ole Miss 52, Duke 20
Jan. 10
Cotton
Arlington, Texas
No. 6 Ohio State 28, No. 4 Texas 14
How has the SEC fared in bowl games over the past 10 years?
And now, let's look back at the SEC's postseason records in the last decade, year by year.
YEAR
RECORD
WINNING PERCENTAGE
2015
9–2
.818
2016
6–7
.462
2017
5–6
.455
2018
6–6
.500
2019
8–2
.800
2020
7–2
.778
2021
6–8
.429
2022
7–5
.583
2023
5–4
.556
2024
8–7
.533
Where does 2024 rank among the worst SEC postseasons of the 21st century?
As you just read, 2024 is far from the worst SEC bowl performance of the last decade. However, such is the strength of the league that a .533 winning percentage does crack the list of its 10 worst postseasons of the 21st century.
YEAR
RECORD
WINNING PERCENTAGE
2002
3–4
.429
2021
6–8
.429
2000
4–5
.444
2017
5–6
.455
2016
6–7
.462
2004
3–3
.500
2005
3–3
.500
2010
5–5
.500
2018
6–6
.500
2024
8–7
.533
The worst SEC bowl performances of all time in years in which the conference played a minimum of two postseason games, for those curious, came in 1935 (0–2), 1944 (0–3) and 1949 (0–2). The worst SEC bowl performance of the last 50 years was a 2–5 (.286) showing in 1982.
What does the SEC's 2024 bowl performance mean?
By the standards of any other conference, an 8–7 record in bowl games would be cause for jubilation.
This, however, is the SEC.
Against the Big Ten—the league's most frequent modern foil—the league went a paltry 1–5 this postseason, with Missouri being the only victor. In fact, the Big Ten delivered the SEC five of its seven bowl losses—with Navy and Notre Dame dealing the others to Oklahoma and Georgia, respectively.
The Big Ten version of this piece strove to pinpoint why a changing of the guard in college football could be imminent. Reasons provided included natural, random up-and-down cycles in business; improved recruiting in that league over a long timescale; and the northern part of the country's built-in advantage in any raw resource-off.
The question now: what can the SEC do to fight back? In what might constitute the most pro-southern cultural climate since the 1970s—check the charts—why is the SEC losing a bit of its luster in the one sphere it has traditionally dominated, regardless of what America thinks is cool?
A possible answer: maybe the league isn't losing any of its luster. Maybe it's just diversifying its portfolio. The SEC is far and away the nation's best men's basketball league. It might be the nation's best women's basketball league, too. The defending baseball, softball and women's gymnastics national champions are all league members.
That basketball note is important, and could point the way forward for the SEC. In addition to the Big Ten, the league is outmuscling the ACC and Big 12 in that sport—two leagues consciously constructed with basketball in mind. It might be detrimental to college basketball's health at large, but prolonged SEC dominance in that sport could provide monies crucial to compete in football's arms race.
The usual disclaimer that conference affiliations don't mean much in the grand scheme of things applies, and there's an even a contrarian argument to be made that the Big Ten may be doing the SEC—which has made pointedly anticompetitive gestures in recent years—a backhanded favor by starring on football's biggest stage.
One thing's for certain: just as the ACC's miserable 2–14 showing in its basketball challenge against the SEC wouldn't have occurred a decade ago, there's no way the Bulldogs would've looked so outmatched against the Fighting Irish on the gridiron. Time will tell whether SEC malaise is a feature or a bug of football in the 2020s.
