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

 

[GopherGrit]

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

I believe the article is specifically talking about the week before rivalry week (usually Thanksgiving weekend).

This year Florida plays Vandy that week before playing FSU in rivalry week, and Arkansas plays Texas that week before playing LSU in rivalry week.

(Aside: Arkansas-Mizzou would seem like a better matchup for Ark that week, but alas Ark-LSU have played every year since Ark joined the SEC and they invented a trophy for it, sort've like Nebraska Iowa)

 

[GopherGrit]

No doubt there are plenty of cupcakes still appearing on (the early part of) schedules for the Power 2 conferences.

Minnesota is as guilty as anyone, with the shameful scheduling of Northwestern State and Eastern Illinois.

 

[99Gopher]

No doubt there are plenty of cupcakes still appearing on (the early part of) schedules for the Power 2 conferences.

Minnesota is as guilty as anyone, with the shameful scheduling of Northwestern State and Eastern Illinois.

Well, Minn will have a front row seat in the B1G vs SEC schedule argument in Week 2, as we know they will face Miss St. Looking at last year's results for the SEC, Minn would essentially be Tenn or Missouri based on records.

That said, we are going to have to hold up our end in this argument and not falter against a Conf cellar dwellar in Miss St., because we know the entire SEC fan base will be ready to pounce if we have a less than ideal result at home in Mpls. Not to mention every ESPN analyst who will have their talking points as to how the B1G's middle tier can't even stand up to the SEC's lower tier teams. However, lets hope we see an ARK kid who didn't have any SEC teams come callin until the very end, will help us walk away with a dominant victory.

Oops..... Almost forgot, the same weekend (9/12), we also have:

• Ohio State Buckeyes at Texas Longhorns
• Oklahoma Sooners at Michigan Wolverines

So, I guess we'll see what each conf is talking about in all their podcasts the following week? If we were to sweep (we can dream), it could be a dominant blow to the SEC fan base psyche.

 

[gophmeister]

Dolly Madison wouldn’t take their call.