Indiana's Curt Cignetti roasts the SEC as ESPN starts their promotional campaign already: 'we don't whine'

The 2026 college football season hasn't even started, and the war of words and messaging is already ramping up.

The SEC this year moves to nine conference games, a large shift that will necessarily impact win-loss records and takes away one of their biggest advantages over the Big Ten or other nine-game conferences. As a result, at SEC media days recently, several coaches and even conference commissioner Greg Sankey started their promotional and excuse campaign for the College Football Playoff.

Despite not reaching the National Championship game for three straight seasons and going 2-7 in the playoff against other Power 4 conference teams, the SEC has started their campaign by saying that they deserve more teams in the tournament. Why? Because of their depth and strength of schedule.

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Sure, depth and strength of schedule matters, but winning your games matters too. And that's where the SEC coaches and Sankey are going through a bit of a contradictory crisis.

SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey speaks to the press during SEC Football Kickoff Media Day at the Tampa Marriott in Tampa, Fla., on July 20, 2026. (Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images)

When the SEC was dominant, winning title after title, the narrative went that the depth meant that their teams were battle hardened by playoff time. Other conferences didn't progress through the regular season gauntlet of SEC teams, making them less prepared at the end of the year.

Now that the SEC has fallen behind the Big Ten and are moving to nine conference games, the narrative-building has changed. Just listen to ESPN's Laura Rutledge make excuses for a season and schedule that hasn't happened yet.

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"So, I think one of the reasons why the SEC may not have advanced as far in the playoffs as some SEC fans would like to see," Rutledge told Pat McAfee recently. "It's because the competition within the league is so difficult that nine games of craziness week in and week out are little different than other parts of other conferences. I'm not dissing on the Big 10.

"By the time they get to the end, there are not many left. For one, they eliminate each other, but furthermore, they're gassed. They're injured. They have issues. I'm not making excuses. I'm just pointing out facts because you were pointing out facts," she continued.

"I'm not making excuses," then makes excuses. Because ESPN is heavily invested in promoting the SEC, as their biggest media partners.

ESPN announcer Paul Finebaum before the 2024 SEC Championship game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Dec. 7, 2024. (Brett Davis/Imagn Images)

First, we have yet to see what a nine-game schedule does to the SEC. Second, implying that the previous eight-game schedule was just too much for these teams to handle is actually an argument against the strength of the conference. Third, what happened to the SEC being so battle hardened they could handle the rigors of a playoff run? Now they're just too tired.

Let's look at the 2024 Ohio State National Championship team as a counterpoint, shall we? The Buckeyes in 2024 had road games at Oregon, ranked No. 3 in the country at the time, and Penn State, which was also then ranked No. 3. It hosted No. 5 Indiana and finished with an always tough, physical, rivalry game against a solid Michigan team. It played three playoff teams in the regular season, including the No. 1 overall seed, Oregon, and another physical opponent in Iowa. All within seven weeks. Sounds pretty tough!

They then blew out a vaunted SEC team, Tennessee, 42-17, easily handled another top SEC team, Texas, and beat a very good Notre Dame team in the championship game. That's what good teams do. Indiana in 2025 played Ohio State to finish the season, then blew out Alabama, Oregon, and handled Miami to win a title. That's what good teams do.

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Stop making excuses and win important games.

Speaking of excuses and Indiana, if there's one head coach who hates them more than anyone, it's Curt Cignetti. The defending champ took a very pointed shot at the SEC and the excuses culture they've created.

Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti speaks during news conference ahead of the College Football Playoff national championship game between Miami and Indiana, Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026, in Miami. The game will be played on Monday. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

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"I mean we don’t run a hype machine up here in the Midwest," Cignetti said on Thursday at Big Ten media days. "We believe everything’s earned, not given. And when we fall short, we say, ‘We fell short.’ We don’t cry a river, whine and complain. All right? And that’s why we’re the best."

Ouch.

Though, to be fair to the SEC, Notre Dame's in the Midwest and boy oh boy did they cry a river, whine, and complain after getting left out of the playoff last season.

He has a point though, about the current strategy around the SEC. For some reason, instead of saying, "hey, we believe we're the best, we'll go through whatever gauntlet we have in front of us, and beat people up in the playoff, because we're the best," they're saying "woe is us, it's just too tough to win games."

Maybe that's the reason the SEC has fallen behind, because they're consumed with talking about the difficult of playing road games at Mississippi State instead of Nebraska. Or Kentucky instead of Wisconsin. Maybe focus on winning, it's a guarantee the rest will take care of itself.