10 things I’m absolutely overreacting to after Week 10 in the SEC

If you crave chaos, Saturday belonged to you.

If you pine for 3-team conference tiebreakers being broken by a commissioner’s choice (wink, wink), stay tuned.

And if you are a fan of a top-20 team that struggled or lost, no worries, because just about everybody else around you stunk, too.

Saturday was March Madness in November, a mere tease and reminder that yes, anybody can beat anybody. Well, except Oregon. Nobody’s beating Oregon.

Those are some of the 10 things I’m absolutely overreacting to after a wild Week 10 in and around the SEC.

10. Good luck sorting this out, Playoff selection committee

To quickly recap the wildest weekend of the 2024 college football season:

No. 1 Oregon absolutely looked the part.

No. 2 Georgia struggled mightily.

No. 3 Penn State played worse than that … and lost.

No. 4 Ohio State beat Penn State, but not impressively.

No. 5 Miami eventually woke up. Rinse, repeat.

No. 6 Texas is thankful it had the night off.

No. 7 Tennessee almost lost to Kentucky. At home.

No. 8 Notre Dame sat at home, knowing there is no way to keep the Irish out of the Playoff now.

No. 9 BYU watched the Big 12 implode.

No. 10 Texas A&M hopes you still remember the LSU win, not the humbling beatdown at South Carolina.

T-No. 11 Iowa State finally lost a nail-biter after surviving 2 others. They know they could be 5-3, but hope you don’t.

T-No. 11 Clemson lost for the 2nd time but still might be the 2nd-best team in a 1-bid league.

No. 13 Indiana dominated another bad B1G team and wondered why nobody cares.

No. 14 Alabama spent Nick Saban’s birthday weekend no doubt celebrating the fact that they’re back in it, baby. Until they lose at LSU next weekend, anyway.

No. 15 Boise State rolled, again, and is wondering when people will realize it is a top-10 team.

No. 16 LSU, when not preparing for Bama, had to be thinking how in the world did it lose to Texas A&M and USC?

No. 17 Kansas State lost to a Houston team that lost to Kansas by 28. In football.

No. 18 Pitt isn’t perfect, after all. But after trailing by 37 and losing by 23 to SMU, it’s fair to wonder whether the Panthers are any good at all?

No. 19 Ole Miss looked like No. 9 Ole Miss was supposed to look like.

No. 20 SMU pounded Pitt, took the inside track to a spot opposite Miami in the ACC title game.

The Playoff committee has 2 days and not enough bourbon in Texas to figure out a ranking that makes sense by Tuesday night’s initial reveal.

Cheers!

9. Still not impressed, B1G

Prepare yourself, SEC fans. The noise is coming.

The first Playoff selection show is Tuesday night — and the dominant theme will be why the B1G deserves 4 teams in the 12-team field.

Ohio State-Penn State proved it, Paaawwwllll! That was an instant classic! And virtually nothing separated those teams. Blah-blah-blah.

Never mind the fact Ohio State would have and should have won by 2 TDs if not for turnovers and generally offensive slop. …

Here’s the scary part:

As soft as the B1G schedules are among the Playoff contenders, only more monumental upsets can prevent least 4 teams from finishing 11-1 … or better.

No. 1 Oregon is 9-0 and closes with Maryland, Wisconsin and Washington. The Ducks will enter the B1G Championship Game 12-0 as surely as Gus Johnson will refer to Joel Klatt has “my quarterback …”

I told you last week Penn State was overrated, so I wasn’t surprised the Nittany Lions lost at home to Ohio State. But Penn State is 7-1 and closes with Washington, Purdue, Minnesota and Maryland. You might as well grab a Sharpie and scribble 11-1.

Ohio State also is 7-1. The Buckeyes have 2 cupcakes (Purdue and Northwestern), a date with Indiana and host brand-name/hated rival Michigan in the regular-season finale. Plan the B1G parade.

Indiana is undefeated,  9-0 actually — beating its 9th consecutive not-even-close-to-being-ranked team. The Hoosiers get Michigan next. At this point, Michigan is just trying to finish above .500 in the B1G. If you’re an SEC fan, you want Michigan and Ohio State to end the Hoosiers’ fanciful Playoff hopes because if IU splits those games, only Purdue could prevent the Hoosiers from finishing 11-1. In other words, if IU beats Michigan, IU is finishing 11-1.

I’ve repeatedly noted that the Hoosiers have the softest schedule among Playoff contenders. I don’t believe they deserve a bid if they finish 11-1. Or at least I didn’t until Saturday. Now? Anybody can beat anybody. Why not?

8. It’s time to talk about Carson Beck …

I rolled my eyes at the offseason chatter that Georgia quarterback Carson Beck deserved to be a Heisman frontrunner and in the mix to go No. 1 overall in the 2025 NFL Draft.

Making matters worse, Beck endorsed the chorus, in the process setting himself up for ridicule when the inevitable happened.

I’m not going to pile on, but I do think he’s the most overrated quarterback in the SEC. And, no, I don’t think Georgia can win a national title if doing so requires Beck to throw them out of trouble.

Beck essentially reinforced the scouting report Saturday, throwing 2 more costly interceptions, completing check downs and looking relatively limited in a listless first half that ended without a touchdown. He finished with 3 interceptions, giving him 11 this season. Sure, Georgia rallied late and produced a double-digit win that more impressive if you didn’t actually watch how it unfolded.

The problem is, Beck erratic play has become the expectation, not the outlier.

Beck is the first Georgia quarterback to throw 10+ interceptions in a season in the Kirby Smart era — and he got there in just 8 games. Until Saturday, the last Georgia QB to toss double-digit picks in any year was Aaron Murray, in 2012. In 14 games.

Georgia isn’t like Texas; the Dawgs don’t have another option.

It’s Beck or bust … but bust is winning when it matters most.

7. Florida, you deserved better …

I’m not going to say Florida would have beaten Georgia had DJ Lagway not gotten hurt.

But there was no way the Gators were going to win the Cocktail Party without him.

Florida led 10-3 — on the strength of Lagway’s 43-yard TD toss to Aidan Mizell — when Lagway injured his left hamstring trying to cut upfield with 5 minutes left in the first half.

The Gators scored 3 points on their next 8 drives without him until they tied the score with a TD midway through the 4th quarter. You saw what happened next. Georgia ripped off 14 consecutive points to beat Florida for the 4th consecutive time — all by double digits.

Lagway’s injury was a crushing blow, for Saturday and beyond, for all parties involved.

Yes, that includes Billy Napier, who clearly was building momentum toward returning for a 4th year, which is what a large percentage of decision-makers have always wanted. They want stability and ability.

Now? Everything is back to where we were 3 weeks ago, wondering when the clock would expire on the Napier era. Not so much because of Saturday’s result, but more so because of the impending doom if Lagway is out for any extended period of time.

6. A Playoff question I keep asking …

First, a refresher on the format: The 4 highest-ranked conference champions receive a first-round bye. The 5th highest-ranked conference champion and 7 other at-large programs play quarterfinal games, with the better seed hosting those games:

• No. 12 seed at No. 5 (winner gets No. 4 seed)
• No. 11 seed at No. 6 (winner gets No. 3 seed)
• No. 10 seed at No. 7 (winner gets No. 2 seed)
• No. 9 seed at No. 8 (winner gets No. 1 seed)

Hosting a quarterfinal is critical.

Picture this going into conference championship weekend:

No. 2 Georgia (11-1) meets No. 6 Texas (11-1) in the SEC Championship, while No. 8 Alabama and No. 11 Tennessee watch from afar.

Let’s say Georgia wins, securing an automatic bid and first-round bye.

Would Texas drop as far as No. 9 — and then be forced to play an opening-round Playoff game on the road, essentially punished for making the SEC Championship?

It’s possible. In fact, I’d say it’s likely that a highly-ranked loser of the SEC, Big Ten or Big 12 championship games will end up traveling for its first-round Playoff game.

Some might think that’s ridiculous.

I think it’s all the more incentive and reward for winning the conference championship.

What’s really going to light a fire under the Danny Kanell and Tim Brando-types, though, is when a No. 8- or No. 10-ranked team loses the conference title game — and falls out of the Playoff entirely.

Unless Miami runs the table en route to the ACC title game, that’s almost guaranteed to happen to the ACC runner-up this season — and the possibility that it could be replaced by an idle SEC or B1G team makes it all the more amusing.

5. Predicting the 5 automatic qualifiers (and seed)

• B1G: No. 1 Oregon
• ACC: No. 2 Miami
• SEC: No. 3 Georgia
• Big 12: No. 4 BYU
• Group of 5: No. 8 Boise State

Don’t be the guy who automatically pencils in the Group of 5 champion at No. 12 … simply because.

Boise State has the best running back in America in Ashton Jeanty, and he ran all over Oregon — 192 yards, 7.7 per carry, 3 rushing TDs. He, alone, ran for more yards against Oregon than Ohio State did. He outrushed 4 other Oregon opponents, too. Using our best Saban impression: Oregon could not stop the man, could not stop him. And I’m pretty sure Oregon’s defense has some future NFL guys on it, a’ight?

Not only that, the Ducks needed a game-winning field goal at the buzzer to escape 27-24 — at home.

Boise State is a legit top-10 team.

4. Predicting the SEC’s 4 Playoff teams

1. Georgia, 2. Texas, 3. Alabama, 4. Texas A&M

This list is fluid, and so, too, is the decision to reward the SEC with a 4th team. Ole Miss and LSU aren’t entirely out of it.

Look around the country and, based on what we saw in Week 10, the Playoff field is shaping up like this:

• SEC: 4
• B1G: 4
• ACC: 1
• Big 12: 1
• Group of 5: 1
• Notre Dame

3. Shane Beamer & South Carolina are the perfect marriage

Do you know how close the Gamecocks are to being 7-1 and ranked in the top 10?

LSU scored the go-ahead TD in the final minute to squeak out a 3-point win.

Alabama trailed in the 4th quarter before rallying for a 2-point win.

Saturday, LaNorris Sellers looked like the best dual-threat quarterback in the conference, toying with a Texas A&M defense still basking in the praise of hammering LSU a week prior.

Let’s face it: Shane Beamer isn’t goofy, per se, but he’s just quirky enough that most football purists don’t really take him seriously.

But he knocked off another top-10 team Saturday — his 3rd such win over the past 3 years.

That might not sound like much, but I bet James Franklin is impressed.

2. Is anybody doing retirement better than Nick Saban?

https://twitter.com/PennStateFball/status/1852722483301847353

Every Alabama player who endured The Process has to be asking: “Who in the world is this guy, and what did you do to my Coach?”

Not having to stress over Saturdays like this? No wonder he’s so happy.

1. Remember, regular-season games don’t matter anymore …

Sweet baby Jesus pic.twitter.com/nAHub21LuO

— The SEC Logo (@SEC_Logo) October 28, 2024

Come on in, expansion haters. The water is warm …

Chris Wright

Managing Editor

A 30-time APSE award-winning editor with previous stints at the Miami Herald, The Indianapolis Star and News & Observer, Executive Editor Chris Wright oversees editorial operations for Saturday Down South.