SEC football coaches instantly begin whining at media days in Tampa

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SEC football media days are off and running in Tampa. The four-day event feels like the start of college football season for many fans, if only because the SEC is the most compelling conference. It's the league other college football fans love to hate. For better or worse, it drives the discussion in the sport. College football fans love to argue, and no conference gets that argument-fueled blood pumping quite like the SEC.

It didn't take very long for SEC football coaches to make news at the 2026 edition of SEC media days. The conference looks weaker as a result.

Eli Drinkwitz gets the whining party started

National college football reporter Brandon Marcello noted that on Monday morning at SEC media days, Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz expressed regret over the SEC's new nine-game conference schedule. Part of the problem, according to Drinkwitz, is that the Big Ten doesn't have to play an A4 (another label for the Power Four conferences) nonconference game.

Where do we begin?

Truly: Where do we begin to describe how weaksauce Eli Drinkwitz, Lane Kiffin, and other SEC football coaches are? No one forced all y'all to move to a nine-game schedule. You voted for it. You own it. Be men about this instead of instantly complaining.

Big Ten, Pac-12 and Big 12

The Big Ten, Pac-12 (before USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington left), and Big 12 have been playing nine games for a very long time. They were constantly operating on an uneven playing field, with the SEC and ACC playing only eight conference games. What the SEC has done is actually fair and long overdue, but SEC coaches are wasting no time (or rather, wasting everyone's time) bellyaching about joining the other power conferences. Pathetic.

SEC Cupcake Saturday

The SEC will no longer have its infamous "Cupcake Saturday," the Saturday before rivalry weekend and the end of the 12-game regular season schedule. No more Citadel games before the Iron Bowl. It seems hard to think the SEC coaches' whine-fest isn't also connected to the removal of other "comfort pillows" they have gotten used to but will no longer have.

The reality of expansion

College sports broadly and college football specifically have not adjusted well to the reality of conference expansion. When leagues have 16 or 18 teams instead of 14 or 12, that's going to have a domino effect on many different parts of the industry. When the SEC expanded to 16 teams, moving to nine league games from eight — to satisfy ESPN's desire for more television inventory — felt inevitable. Coaches knew this and should just accept it.

'That's what the money is for!'

Don Draper's memorable line from Mad Men is applicable here. Coaches' salaries continue to grow because of the higher value of television and media rights packages, among other things. This is the tradeoff for those higher salaries. Do coaches want a slightly tougher schedule every year, or markedly less money? We thought so. Stop whining.

Big Ten reality

The Big Ten has won the last three national championships. SEC coaches need to do their jobs better. The complaining is such a bad look. It makes the SEC seem weaker, not stronger. Will anyone at SEC media days be willing to see this and say so?

SEC has fallen well short

Keep in mind that not only has the SEC failed to win any of the last three national titles; no SEC team has even played in the title game the past three years. The whining from coaches is absolutely embarrassing. See you in September when the games begin. Try being better instead of sulking from the sidelines.

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This article originally appeared on College Sports Wire: SEC football coaches instantly begin whining at media days in Tampa

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