Missouri’s Eli Drinkwitz Embarrasses Himself at SEC Media Days

SEC Media Days wrapped up late last week in what seemed like a month-long event. It was full of bias, lies, and everything in between. But that is not shocking with a man like Greg Sankey running the show.

I know some people in SEC country think that no football is played outside of the South, but they quickly forget that their conference hasn’t even played for a national title in the last two seasons.

Those people live in a bubble, and I think that even some coaches in the SEC believe they can get away with saying whatever they want without any backlash. However, today is not one of those days.

On the final day of SEC media days, Texas A&M, Missouri, Arkansas, and Kentucky took the stage. Out of that group, Texas A&M would be the school that would typically say a bunch of nonsense.

Shockingly, it wasn’t Texas A&M stealing the headlines. Instead, it was Missouri. I know a lot of you reading this may not be familiar with Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz, and if that’s the case, consider yourself lucky.

He’s been known to act foolish and talk out of his rear end. He’s probably better known for his actions off the field than his results on the field. And last week, he certainly lived up to that.

Drinkwitz started by joking about the sparse crowd that showed up to his presser with a corny joke. “I know there are a lot of burning questions in this room — all 14 of y’all who showed up,” he said, before clarifying he wouldn’t be fielding questions about the Epstein files, radiation belts, or the JFK assassination — just Mizzou football.

First off, the reason only 14 showed up is because Missouri football is something nobody appears to actually care about, even in SEC country. Nobody has taken them seriously as a contender since they joined that conference. So it’s fitting that Drinkwitz would try to act like Shane Gillis up at the podium. But unlike Shane Gillis, Eli isn’t funny and is more of a clown than a comedian.

To make matters worse, Drinkwitz gave one of the worst takes on the playoff I have ever heard.

“My math could be wrong here, but if we did the 12, you had four automatic qualifiers, everyone thinks it’s limiting. It’s not limiting if you take those four automatic qualifiers and divide them up into eight opportunities, or eight play-in games. Now you’re taking the SEC is playing in for eight, the BIG Ten is playing in for eight. Since we’ve expanded the bubble to 16, give three to the Big 12, three to the ACC, and 1-1. Now you have 30 teams. Thirty teams. Now we’re talking about an opportunity for 30 teams, 30 fan bases to be excited and engaged, giving revenue. Thirty teams with players who have access to compete for a championship. So, for me, I think that makes a lot more sense.”

“So when you think about whether it’s 12, 14, or 16, to me, if we decided to go into this expansion of Playoffs, we’re trying to follow an NFL model. The NFL takes 44% of its teams into the Playoffs to increase the passion or keep the fan base engaged. If we’re talking about 12, that’s 9%. If we’re talking about 14, that’s 11%. If we’re talking about 16, that’s 12%. That’s not really changing the math for the fan base. I don’t really understand what the big fight is about.”

Comparing college football to the NFL is absurd. This isn’t the 1940s anymore. The NFL can do whatever it wants and still crush anything standing in its way, and millions of people will watch.

30 teams in the postseason? This isn’t March Madness, this is college football, and letting 30 teams in the playoff is the stupidest idea I have ever heard. Also, this screams, “If we make it big enough, I can finally get in,” which would be very on brand for him and Missouri.

Maybe Drinkwitz so focus more about his team on the field and not so worried about getting handed an invite to the college football playoff. If he would have taken care of business in the SEC then he would have gotten in.

And sure, he has posted back to back ten win seasons there for the first time in forever but if you really look at the last two years, he has been handed a very favorable schedule. Last season his team went 9-3 and had one ranked win against a Boston College team that finished 7-5 in the ACC.

But against the other thee ranked teams he played, Missouri went 0-3 and were outscored 109 to 40. Now I know why he wants to expand the playoff.