It may mean more in the SEC, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s more better*. And, most certainly, the conference has had better weekends than what Week 1 wrought.
Somewhere in the neighborhood of 17-point favorites entering Saturday’s opener against Wyoming, Missouri looked every bit the part as they jumped out to a 14-0 lead on the home-standing Cowboys after one quarter of play. A 27-point offensive explosion in the second quarter, though gave the Mountain West Conference school a 27-17 lead heading into halftime; that lead was stretched to 34-17 at one point before the Cowboys held on for a 37-31 upset win over the Tigers.
Regardless of how you spin it, the Mizzou loss was a continuation of what has been a rough opening weekend for the SEC, especially the East Division of the league. How rough? Let us count the ways:
- First and foremost, Tennessee suffered arguably the worst loss in program history as they fell to 26-point underdog Georgia State in the school’s first home-opening defeat since 1983 and first loss to a Group of Five school since 2008 against... Wyoming, of all teams.
- South Carolina lost to a North Carolina team that won two games in 2018.
- Ole Miss lost to Memphis, although at least that loss came against a quality Group of Five foe.
- Again, Mizzou.
- Mississippi State needed a very late field goal to put away what was a 10-point win over a Louisiana team that entered the game as a 20-point underdog.
- TENNESSEE LOST TO A 26-POINT UNDERDOG AT HOME.
Yes, there was Alabama steamrolling Duke as expected... and Auburn outlasting Oregon in the only ranked-on-ranked matchup of Week 1... and LSU, unlike Tennessee, easily handling its business against a Georgia Group of Five school... but still, damn, that was a harsh weekend for The Best Damn Football Conference in the Land.
While we’re here talking about conferences, how about that Mountain West? In addition to the SEC courtesy of Wyoming, that league has collected Power Five pelts from the ACC (Boise State over Florida State), the Big Ten (Nevada over Purdue) and the Pac-12 (Hawaii over Arizona) in Weeks 0 and 1.
(*Yes, grammar dolts, I know. I’ll take literary license whenever I damn well please.)