“We’ve scheduled tough,” Swinney said. “All you can do is play the schedule that you have. It is what it is. We basically have an SEC-Big Ten invitational; that’s basically what we’ve got in college football. So you’ve just got to focus on what you’ve got.”

For that, the conference can thank the 12-team College Football Playoff. Without it, this would be a much different season for the league. Were the four-team CFP still in effect this year, the SEC would likely be one Texas loss from missing the Playoff for the first time in the event’s 11-year history.

Miami and Boise State round out the current top-12 teams across the sport, and Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney had thoughts about the current standing of the playoffs. He made the case for the ACC, and Clemson in particular, to have more representation as a top program.