SMU, Indiana head coaches take shots at SEC scheduling during media days

A week after SEC Media Days, the Big 10 and the ACC are holding their own media days in Las Vegas and Charlotte, respectively.

The topic of SEC scheduling has been brought up at both locations, ironically by two teams that made the College Football Playoff over Alabama last season.

SMU lost to three-loss Clemson in the 2024 ACC Championship game and got the final playoff spot, which generated a lot of heat from SEC fans, coaches and administrators because Alabama, South Carolina and Ole Miss had better strength of schedules than SMU but missed the playoff.

At ACC Media Days, SMU head coach Rhett Lashlee took a shot at the SEC in defense of the strength of the ACC, questioning the depth of the SEC.

“The SEC has had the same six schools win the championship since 1964,” Lawson said. “Not a single one has been different since 1964. That’s top-heavy to me. That’s not depth.”

Why Lashlee is taking a shot at the SEC is understandable but odd at the same time, considering he got his start in the SEC playing quarterback at Arkansas from 2002-04 before becoming a graduate assistant there. Then, Lashlee spent a few seasons under Guz Malzahn at Auburn, but he has spent the last six seasons in the ACC, four as the head coach of the Mustangs.

Another head coach had some heated comments about the SEC’s scheduling. At Big 10 Media Days, Indiana’s Curt Cignetti was asked about canceling a home-and-home series with Virginia, and he used that opportunity to take a massive shot at the SEC.

“We figured we’d just adopt [an] SEC scheduling philosophy,” Cignetti said. “Some people don’t like it. I’m more focused in on those nine conference games.”

Last season, Indiana played one team in the regular season that finished in the top 25, and that was Ohio State who beat the Hoosiers 38-15.

For the next five years, Indiana does not have a power-4 team on its non-conference schedules. Meanwhile, the SEC has been and still is playing some massive non-conference games to start the season.

In 2025, week one features Alabama traveling to Tallahassee to play Florida State, which is one of the top environments in college football because of the War Chant. Then, LSU will play in a different Death Valley, the one that’s home to the defending ACC champions the Clemson Tigers. Also, Texas will play on the road against the Ohio State Buckeyes, the defending national champions, and the Auburn Tigers play at Baylor. Tennesse plays Syracuse in Atlanta, and South Carolina will play Virginia Tech in Atlanta the next day.

All of that is just week one of the college football season. Indiana opens with Old Dominion.

At least Lashlee’s comments do not necessarily have factual errors, but Cignetti’s comments seem like bait to stir up SEC fanbases, coaches and administrators while trying to make a case for his team to make the playoff each season despite playing a weak non-conference schedule and only playing one or two ranked teams a year.

It is also notable that every SEC team has a higher strength of schedule ranking than Indiana in ESPN’s SP+ rankings.