Will 10 wins be the new standard in revamped SEC?
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Betting odds on win totals for the SEC released on Tuesday predicted what could be a change in the nation’s most competitive conference.
BetMGM set over/under win total lines for every team in the SEC with not a single team in the double digits. Past lines like this would typically have one frontrunner at 10.5 or even 11 wins, but the major change this season comes with a nine game SEC slate.
So could this signal a shift in expectations and reality in the SEC? With nine conference games, the likelihood of one team going 12-0 or even 11-1 seems much smaller, but fans will still most likely expect near perfection from their beloved teams.
Even with all the returning offensive talent for Ole Miss, Vegas oddsmakers are setting the season at either a 7-5 or 8-4 mark based on this latest news. I’d be the first to say either of us would be a let down after last season though when you consider the jump in strength of schedule it could be pretty damn likely.
But the national implications of the College Football Playoff could also be affected if less SEC teams are getting to the double digit plateau in football. Last season there were six SEC teams finishing with 10 wins or more leading to five of the 12 playoff teams coming from the conference. Only Vanderbilt at 10-2 was left out.
This nine game SEC schedule could very well threaten some of those spots as a 9-3 record even with the high level of competition may get passed over. If the SEC only received two or three of the playoff spots, the move to a longer conference schedule would seem to be a poor move. The Big Ten for example with its nine game conference schedule had only three playoff squads and the Big XII only two teams despite more conference games.
Because right now it is easy to say the SEC will have the toughest conference, and it will get the same number of teams in the playoff. But when the season ends, the dust settles and the talking heads do their thing, it won’t be shocking to hear “should a team with three losses really be in the playoff for a national championship?”
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