SEC Blood Week: How Billy Napier and Hugh Freeze turned the conference upside down

This week taught us all why the College Football Playoff committee favors the SEC so much. They get passes because it’s one of the hardest conferences to win in. Every team is good enough to run through just about every other team outside their conference. 

And overlooking any opponent can cause a hiccup in the season and an unwarranted loss. Ask Ole Miss and Texas A&M. Because they were favorites to land in the College Football Playoff if they won out. 

Instead Billy Napier and Hugh Freeze, who could melt an igloo with how hot their seats were earlier this season, showed why the SEC is truly one of a kind. I don’t agree with the SEC favoritism, but this week more than any, we were all witnesses as to why it exists. 

Billy Napier, Hugh Freeze flip College Football Playoff rankings, SEC standings upside down

It was always going to be tough for Ole Miss to come into The Swamp and steal a win. They hadn’t looked overly impressive this season to begin with and as they showed Georgia, road SEC games aren’t easy. 

Jaxson Dart did everything he could to throw the game away in the final minute and helped Florida complete the comeback. More than a moral victory and bowl eligibility, Napier is once again proving everyone that hated on him – me included – why he deserves to lead this team next year. 

It was the second straight upset win over a ranked team for the Gators. It was also the second straight week they knocked a conference foe out of CFP contention. And as good as his team has played, you have to give credit to Napier for making his team believe. 

For the better part of the season, it looked like he had completely lost the locker room. Fans were frustrated, embarrassing losses were piling up and it seemed like Napier was the cause of all of it. 

Yet, he pulled off the improbable. And no sooner did Florida knock off Ole Miss, that Auburn handed Texas A&M its second road conference loss to an unranked opponent. 

Freeze probably had one of the hottest seats in college football entering Week 13. In his second season the Tigers haven’t competed at the level fans had hoped for, and it looked like another frustrating season was on the horizon. 

And while there hasn’t been much to cheer about at Auburn, Freeze getting his team to beat Texas A&M in one of the last games of the season is storybook stuff. 

No one gave the Tigers a chance and yet another SEC team was eliminated from an at-large bid. 

While Texas A&M can create a whole lot of chaos with a win over Texas next week, it becomes increasingly harder for them to get in the CFP without a conference title. 

And that’s the one thing we all have to appreciate about the SEC. Even the teams that are struggling can cause chaos. No other conference has that luxury. 

It’s what makes college football special.