SEC’s ‘cupcake weekend’ is no more

[MisterGopher]

https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/sec-cupcake-weekend-no-more-145459937.html

The final week of the regular season, or as SEC commissioner Greg Sankey called it — cupcake weekend — will be ending following this season. The SEC athletic directors voted to play conference games during that week instead while gathering in Destin for the annual SEC spring meetings.

“Our ADs voted that our schools will play a conference game in that next-to-last weekend (of the regular season) beginning in 2027,” Sankey told reporters Tuesday at the SEC spring meetings. “That’s the end of cupcake weekend in late November. We never got that one sponsored.”

Cupcake weekend, dubbed the SoCon invitational by some in the media, became an annual tradition for the league ahead of rivalry week. In 2025, Texas A&M hosted Samford. Auburn hosted Mercer. Alabama hosted Eastern Illinois. Charlotte, Coastal Carolina and Western Kentucky were a few more of the non-conference opponents in the conference.

The week 13 slate ended up being so bad that ESPN designated 3-7 Florida hosting 7-3 Tennessee as the primetime ABC game of the week. The network undoubtedly wasn’t a fan of that and very likely had some pull to make this change this week.

 

[Schnauzer]

The league that has "cupcake week" has Coaches like Kiffen trying to tell media with a straight face that the B1G has been winning national championships because the league isn't as strong at the bottom and the top teams aren't getting worn out like the mighty SEC schools. The mighty SEC schools with CUPCAKE WEEK! Sure, they should fix their crappy scheduling but apparently they need to run more gassers so they don't get so worn out by by Arkansas and Missouri.

 

[Some guy]

It’s still cupcake week with Florida and Arkansas on the schedule

 

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

That’s good. Right when the season gets hot you get this weekend when the SEC sits on its butt….. not fun tv.

 

[fmlizard]

Finally. There's no world in which Minnesota should be playing Penn State or Iowa while Alabama or Georgia play Chattanooga and Furman on the season's penultimate week.

 

[MNfootballfan]

Finally. There's no world in which Minnesota should be playing Penn State or Iowa while Alabama or Georgia play Chattanooga and Furman on the season's penultimate week.

100% because it has been proven in nearly every college football season that losses late in the year usually impact you more than losses at the beginning of the year.

Lets say Penn State and Alabama are both 8-2. Penn State is ranked 10 and Alabama is ranked 11.
Penn State is playing 6-4 Minnesota and Alabama is playing Furman is 5-5.
Minnesota pulls off the upset and wins 27-24. Alabama beats the breaks off Furman.

Who is ranked higher in the next poll?

This becomes a much bigger deal when the SEC is constantly overrated and they have the 13th ranked team playing Samford the same week and wins 56-3. Suddenly Penn State's loss bounces them from the playoffs...

 

[Some guy]

100% because it has been proven in nearly every college football season that losses late in the year usually impact you more than losses at the beginning of the year.

Lets say Penn State and Alabama are both 8-2. Penn State is ranked 10 and Alabama is ranked 11.
Penn State is playing 6-4 Minnesota and Alabama is playing Furman is 5-5.
Minnesota pulls off the upset and wins 27-24. Alabama beats the breaks off Furman.

Who is ranked higher in the next poll?

This becomes a much bigger deal when the SEC is constantly overrated and they have the 13th ranked team playing Samford the same week and wins 56-3. Suddenly Penn State's loss bounces them from the playoffs...

This is kind of true but not a good example. Because 9-2 Alabama should be ranked higher than 8-3 Penn state 98% of the time. Regardless of when the losses come.

The better example is when 8-2 bama beats Samford and 8-1 Penn state loses to Ohio state and has two losses to Ohio state and Indiana. Yet 8-2 bama jumps them anyways. (Bama’s best win is 7-5 LSU)

 

[fmlizard]

100% because it has been proven in nearly every college football season that losses late in the year usually impact you more than losses at the beginning of the year.

Lets say Penn State and Alabama are both 8-2. Penn State is ranked 10 and Alabama is ranked 11.
Penn State is playing 6-4 Minnesota and Alabama is playing Furman is 5-5.
Minnesota pulls off the upset and wins 27-24. Alabama beats the breaks off Furman.

Who is ranked higher in the next poll?

This becomes a much bigger deal when the SEC is constantly overrated and they have the 13th ranked team playing Samford the same week and wins 56-3. Suddenly Penn State's loss bounces them from the playoffs...

I hadn't thought of the late-in-season part of it, but you are right. Another reason to not like it.

I'm mostly against it because it's an objectively softer schedule. SEC teams aren't moving their cupcake from September to November. They have a 4th non-conference game that's typically a FCS or Sun Belt school instead of a 9th conference game like the Big Ten and other majors.

 

[Ope3]

I hadn't thought of the late-in-season part of it, but you are right. Another reason to not like it.

I'm mostly against it because it's an objectively softer schedule. SEC teams aren't moving their cupcake from September to November. They have a 4th non-conference game that's typically a FCS or Sun Belt school instead of a 9th conference game like the Big Ten and other majors.

Starting in this 2026 season, SEC has gone to 9 Conference Games and 3 Non-conference.

SEC Will Play Nine Conference Games for First Time in 2026

Fans of Southeastern Conference football will get to see more of it beginning in the 2026 season. The SEC will play nine conference games for the first time nex

www.si.com