ESPN debates the importance of Week 2 matchups for the SEC’s perception

The SEC did not have the greatest opening weekend to the football season last week. Besides Tennessee’s 36-point win over Virginia, the conference dropped their other three major non-conference games in a trio of different fashions with Utah defeating Florida, North Carolina sacking South Carolina, and Florida State knocking off LSU.

Now, with six more quality non-conference games this weekend, five against the Power Five and one against a Group of Five, Rece Davis and Pete Thamel see this as a big weekend for the SEC. As Davis said on the ‘College GameDay Podcast’ this week, it’s as important as it is because either that league will plant its flag again or, if not, some other conferences are going to get their shots in.

“I tweeted last night, ‘It’s a big weekend for the SEC and for the people who love to hate the SEC’. Or love to root against them,” said Davis. “All of those games, you let them wind up .500? Or I guess 2-3 or 3-2? Then people will poke holes. You let them go 1-4 or, somehow, lose them all, which is unlikely, but, if they did? I mean there would be a celebration outside of that group. There would probably be a few SEC apologists running to say, ‘Well, Texas is coming to the SEC next year!’ and try to claim that victory.

“It’s a really big weekend, I think, for the SEC, for those against it. And, really, for how we should evaluate schedules. Because that’s what conference strength is about,” Davis continued. “The bragging right stuff is fun on social media. But what it’s about, to me, is, when you’re determining who the best teams are, evaluating the schedule. This idea that playing an SEC schedule is just inherently tougher, most of the time over the last 15 years or so, has been true. But maybe that’s not the case this year. That will go a long way toward determining that – what happens this week in those non-conference games.”

Vanderbilt will start things off at Wake Forest in a game where they’re currently a double-digit underdog. After that, a pair of Top-25 teams from the SEC will also hit the road. No. 20 Ole Miss will go to No. 24 Tulane while No. 23 Texas A&M will play at Miami.

College GameDay will then be on hand for No. 11 Texas at No. 3 Alabama. Finally, Mississippi State will host Arizona later on while Auburn will also be away as they’ll play at California.

To go back, though, Thamel believes much of this discussion around the SEC is centered around Texas at Alabama. If the Longhorns can go into Tuscaloosa and prove that the Crimson Tide aren’t at the peak of their powers, it’ll go a long way toward shifting the season’s storyline and evening things out in the sport.

“I think that there is just a little hint, more so maybe than any time in the last decade, of vulnerability at ‘Bama. There is the thought that Texas has the talent to go in there and win,” Thamel said. “Now, again, there’s so many variables that go into a game like that – night game atmosphere, pressure. There’s a ton of opportunity for Texas. And if ‘Bama loses that game? It really, I think, sets the SEC dominance narrative back for this season some.

“It would kind of be cool to have the world be a little bit flatter and the conferences to be even and jockeying, and not just chasing, like they really have been with the SEC.”

There’s a world where the SEC could sweep or nearly sweep those six matchups. In years past, that might have been the expectation. However, after last weekend and how some of those games are setting up on Saturday, the Southeastern Conference might be in a spot that they haven’t often found themselves in by the end of the weekend.