Big Ten-SEC partnership: Amid Big Ten-SEC partnership rumors, Greg Sankey releases data to justify intensity of league's regular season strength

With the Big Ten-SEC partnership rumors gaining steam, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey justified the difficulty for teams in the conference with a presentation on strength of schedule and strength of record.

College football insider Brett McMurphy posted on X this Thursday, a part of Sankey's presentation.

"SEC provided 7-page document to media showing the “regular season gauntlet” that SEC teams face in league play. Says SEC: “No other conference has a regular season as grueling as the SEC’s,”" Brett McMurphy wrote.

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Greg Sankey insisted that the SEC is facing a tougher regular season road than schools from other conferences. In particular, he pointed out the number of teams that finished outside the top 10 in the Massey rating over the last ten years.

According to the information presented, the commissioner highlighted that only two SEC schools are outside the top 50 during that period, or 13% of the conference. The other Power 4 conferences have finished with a higher percentage of teams outside the top 50.

The Big Ten has seven teams outside the top 50 (39%). The Big 12 has six teams (38%) while the ACC has 11 (65%). The stats could also be a shot directly at the latter conference, as the CFP committee gave the SMU Mustangs the last spot for last season's playoff, over three SEC squads (Alabama, Ole Miss and South Carolina).

With the Big Ten-SEC partnership seemingly gaining momentum amid discussions of the College Football Playoff format, this is the latest push by the SEC commissioner to gain leverage under the current CFP. SEC schools favor an automatic qualifier system, while other schools outside the two conferences prefer a system with five conference champion qualifiers and 11 at-large teams making the playoff.

Big Ten-SEC partnership on scheduling reportedly "dead in the water"

Part of the Big Ten-SEC partnership includes regular-season games between teams from each conference. However, ESPN's Heather Dinich quoted an SEC source saying the idea is "dead in the water" as far as the commissioners go.

While schools from each conference could make deals to play series among themselves, it is unlikely that there will be a general mandate by the conferences to make it happen.

According to reports, coaches are more open to the idea of having a scheduling Big Ten-SEC partnership, but if the conference executives don't approve, a mandate is just unlikely to happen.

About the author

Allan Wolburg Robles is a College Sports journalist at Sportskeeda with over 17 years of experience in the field writing for publications including Reforma, Yahoo! OddsShark and Apuesta. Allan studied Communications at Anáhuac University, where he learned what would become the basis of a trade that was already a dream of his before starting college.

His favorite team is Army West Point as when he was young, Allan lived in West Point for a couple of years, went to pretty much every home game, a couple of Army-Navy games and even got to meet some of the players.

Allan's favorite players of all time include Tommie Frazier, who was unbelievable during the Nebraska dynasty of the early 90's. Tim Tebow was also a favorite, mainly because of his leadership skills, although he was also awesome on the football field. As a fan of defensive football, (or what's left of it), Sean Taylor could take over a game for Miami.

Allan has always considered himself a student of the game more than a fan of it. So the historical part and evolution of the game, as well as the ins and outs of what happens on the field, and being able to put it into words for the audience, are his biggest strengths.

Besides sports, Allan enjoys reading books, watching movies and spending time with his dogs.

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Edited by Dipayan Moitra