re: Big 6+2 All-Time Records vs Each Other

Wow. Impressive that Texas has winning records against the Big 6 SEC members. Especially against Bama. Wow! That's kinda dominant against them!

So the question becomes “When does the Big 6 become the Big 8”?

First off, every SEC Football title since 1977 has been won by a Big 6 school and they all have at least 5 apiece.

16- Alabama
8- Georgia
8- Florida
7- Auburn
7- LSU
5- Tennessee

That’s pretty unbelievable considering no other program has even won one in this 48-year period.

Secondly, these 6 programs have all won national titles since 1998 and all have at least two national titles to their name in total. Up until conference expansion in 2012, they also accounted for 100% of the SEC’s all-time National Titles.

With Texas A&M, Oklahoma, and Texas coming into the league, the SEC has now picked up three new programs that have won national championships.

All-Time National Titles by SEC programs:

13- Alabama
7- Oklahoma
4- LSU
4- Texas
3- Georgia
3- Florida
2- Auburn
2- Tennessee
1- Texas A&M

Texas and Oklahoma are obviously accomplished enough programs that they should be in the “Big 6”, but without ever winning an SEC title, do they really deserve in the club yet?

Parameters for Big 6 Expansion, IMO

IMO, this is what it takes to be in the “Big 6, 7, 8, 9, etc”:

1. Must have an SEC Title, and has to average at least one every 20 seasons.

This is not a difficult benchmark. Currently 7 programs have met this criteria. Average number of years between SEC titles since initiation into the league:

3.1 Alabama
6.1 Georgia
7.1 Tennessee
7.7 LSU
11.5 Auburn
11.5 Florida
15.3 Ole Miss

Kentucky would need to win 3 more SEC titles. Mississippi State 4 more. Vandy 5 more… plus all would need to maintain adding one more every 20 years.

Arkansas and South Carolina would each need to win two SEC titles at this point. The four newest members just one for now.

The current Big 6 are all baked in for at least another 60 years in this category.

2. Must have a major polling outlet national title.

As discussed, nine SEC programs currently have one. Texas A&M even meets this criteria. Ole Miss falls short here.

And no, retroactive or small outlets don’t count. Nor do computers. Has to be the AP or Coaches Poll and now in modern times the CFB Playoff.

3. Has to maintain 40% winning percentage all-time against the Group.



This is where it starts getting selective.

Current Win% against the Big 6:

63.7%- Texas (only 51 games)
61.8%- Alabama
56.8%- Oklahoma (only 32 games)
50.6%- Georgia
47.8%- Auburn
47.7%- Florida
44.9%- Tennessee
43.9%- LSU
42.1%- Texas A&M (only 108 games)
————————————————
36.4%- Missouri
32.5%- Arkansas
31.3%- Ole Miss
28.7%- Miss St.
28.6%- Vanderbilt
24.9%- South Carolina
22.3%- Kentucky

This is where a program like Ole Miss has trouble. A hot streak of 10 years isn’t going to undo the past 50. The Rebs would need to win their next 54 games against the Big 6 just to hit the minimum threshold. Thats not possible. If they averaged a 65% winning % against the Big 6, they’d have to do that for 124 games to get their overall average up above 40%, so it would take them 20-30 years to do that.

Likewise, even though A&M has been formidable against the conferences’ heavy hitters since joining the league, their history against OU and TX is problematic.

OU and TX will inevitably join the group in due time. Once they do, A&M’s historical record against the “Big 8” falls down to 37.6%. It’s close, so they would need to win around 60% of their games against those 8 for about a 7-8 year period to make up the difference. Which is doable.

Conclusion

Oklahoma and Texas just need to keep doing what they are doing, plus win an SEC title in the next 19 years.

Texas A&M needs to win an SEC title in the next 7 seasons but then would probably need to win a second one quickly to keep up the pace. They also probably need to win about 60% of the their games against the Big 6+2 to over the next decade to get their win % up.

Those are the only programs with a realistic path.

Theoretically Missouri is next closest. Their path is similar to A&M’s but they would also have to win a national title plus win about 60% of their Big 6+2 games for the next couple decades. Unlikely.

Ole Miss meets the SEC title threshold with 6 under their belt. They’ll be fine in that category for another 28 seasons.

They do have to win a National Title.

And unfortunately for them, as discussed above, they would need to go on a tear and win 60% of their Big 6+2 games for probably a three decade period.

There is some precedence though for a program turning around to join the group. In 1990 Florida had zero SEC titles and zero National Titles. Within two decades they’d have 8 and 3, respectively. They did however have a 40% win% against the Big 5 as far back as sometime in the 1970s.

Playoffs over the next 20-50 years will probably be more important going forward.. not saying I like it..

Thanks!

quote:

---

Even Alabama struggled early on against the Commodores. Alabama fans like to pretend they were the first Southern football power, but that’s not true. It was Vandy. Vandy won 8 of the 10 first meetings against the Tide and Bama didn’t pull ahead in the head-to-head series until 1939.

---

Imagine if Bryant continued into the head coaching position at Vanderbilt.

Hitler killed Vanderbilt football too.

quote:

---

Worth noting that Vandy is actually 5-6 against Tennessee since 2014.

---

3-6. Tennessee's vacated wins against them in 2019 and 2020 don't count as Vanderbilt wins.

Now, if you say they're 5-6 against Tennessee since 2012, that would be true.

quote:

---

s Alabama: 8-2-1
vs Auburn: 5-3
vs Florida: 3-1
vs Georgia: 4-3
vs LSU: 9-8-1
vs Tennessee: 2-1

---

vs Vanderbilt: 4-8-1

quote:

---

There is some precedence though for a program turning around to join the group. In 1990 Florida had zero SEC title.

---

UF was best in SEC in '84, '85 and '90...UF should claim all 3.

quote:

---

This is where it starts getting selective.

Current Win% against the Big 6:

63.7%- Texas (only 51 games)
61.8%- Alabama
56.8%- Oklahoma (only 32 games)
50.6%- Georgia
47.8%- Auburn
47.7%- Florida
44.9%- Tennessee
43.9%- LSU
42.1%- Texas A&M (only 108 games)

---

I don't agree with your math, You're dividing wins by wins+loss total. Winning percentage should be wins/total games played, including ties. Your math is not including the tied games. Did OP do the same?
Using Texas only against the Big 6 excluding OU completely, Texas is 31-17-3, 32-17-3, if including 2024 RRS since both in SEC.
Thus winning % = (31/51)100=60.8% or including 2024 SEC OU game=61.5%

Including the ties will be an accurate winning percentage.

quote:

---

Including the ties will be an accurate winning percentage.

---

No. It’s a general rule to count a tie as a half of a win when calculating win%. This is the method used by the NCAA, SEC, and pretty much anyone.