On Tuesday morning we highlighted five players that are impossible to not cheer for in the SEC. Now it’s time to talk about some of the players, coaches, and people that many feel are impossible to actually cheer for. Here are the five biggest villains facing the SEC in the 2026 season.
The NCAA
This isn’t a ranking, but if it were, the NCAA may be No. 1 through 5. The organization whose sole mission statement is to help create an environment for the betterment of student-athletes seems to do anything but that. This offseason, their most notable achievement was suspending Tennessee linebacker Arion Carter for two games because of a flight he took in January during the pre-draft process. The flight cost $427 and was actually paid back by Carter. That didn’t stop the organization from declaring the Dean’s list honor student, who spent the offseason raising money and awareness for his girlfriend with cancer, ineligible for the first two games of the season. Great job.
Illinois HC Bret Bielema
Even Curt Cignetti isn’t this lacking in self-awareness. The modern day, mustacheless Mark Mangino was at it again this offseason. Bielema took to the podium at Big Ten media days and said that the SEC still wanted to pretend like it’s 2005. Bielema has seemingly spent as much time eating as he has slandering the league he used to coach in. His Twitter trolls about bowl wins over Tennessee and South Carolina have become a battle cry for mid-tier Big Ten fans with an SEC inferiority complex. Remember that Bielema has been successful at not one, but two Big Ten programs during his time as a head coach. In his one stint in the SEC, he finished last in the division three times in five years, finished with an 11-29 record in conference play and was fired on the field.
Tim Brando
Boomer Danny Kanell has really leaned into his villain era this offseason. Whether it’s incorrectly claiming that Kalen DeBoer was taking the Michigan job or yelling at Texas social media personalities about how to do their jobs better, Tim Brando has grown to love not just being loud but loud and wrong. What a fun combination.
LSU HC Lane Kiffin
There is no more polarizing figure in college football this year than Lane Kiffin. It took nearly a decade for him to rebuild his image like he did at Ole Miss. Between the yoga, powder blue uniforms and dog, he went from most hated to most beloved during his time in Oxford. That all came to a screeching halt this offseason when he took the LSU job. That hasn’t cooled down during the offseason for a number of reasons.
You can hate Kiffin for his trolling. You can hate Kiffin for how he handled leaving OIe Miss. But, one thing that still rings true is one of my all-time favorite quotes that perfectly describes the current sentiment for Kiffin and how he’s perceived.
“People will forgive you for a lot of things, but success isn’t one of them.”
Texas Tech
No one has the SEC on their brain more than these idiots in Lubbock. The new money billionaires that are desperately trying to fit in and demand a seat at the adult table have spent a lot of the offseason doing the impossible – uniting college football fans. Not only did they do the worst job of vetting an “employee” (see: quarterback) in the transfer portal ever, they also had an all-time overreaction to Steve Sarkisian’s comments about schedule strength. What made it truly hilarious was that Sarkisian never even mentioned the Red Raiders. They were just so triggered by their own assumption that it turned into a month-long argument about their supposed attempts at scheduling SEC teams in the future.
