It’s Monday. The market is open. And after a crazy Week 10, there is panic in the market from several sellers. Here’s your weekly SEC Stock Report.
Stock Up: SEC Heisman invites
Only one player from the SEC has even been invited to New York for the Heisman in the last two seasons. It just so happened to be one of the least likable and universally hated players in the last decade of the conference (Diego Pavia). The cannibalizing within the conference this season hasn’t just been reflected in the rankings. It’s definitely impacted the Heisman odds as well. The preseason favorite, Arch Manning, is almost a non-factor with the 13th best odds, and Trinidad Chambliss has seen his odds plummet down to 10th.
There currently isn’t a player in the top five in the odds from the conference, but don’t expect that to be the case when they send out the invites. A trio of quarterbacks on three of the most exciting teams in the league, and maybe the country, is currently sitting at No. 6 through No. 8 on the board. Keelon Russell, Gunner Stockton and LaNorris Sellers may not win the award, but don’t count them out just yet, especially Sellers. His current odds are +4500, but if he continues to play in his final three games the way he has since the start of October, watch out. A 9-3 Heisman winner isn’t unheard of, especially if it’s the most exciting player in the sport, which Sellers certainly has an argument to be.
Stock Down: Sideline basketball goals
All the glitz and glamour of Lane Kiffin’s circus are starting to lose their luster. I’m not sure that necessarily means you stop being you because that’s all part of the experience of having a coach like that. When it works, and believe me, it will be working at a very high level at some point, it won’t matter because winning masks inefficiencies and cures all.
In the meantime, however, it’s probably time to make some sideline renovations and decor changes. That starts with the basketball hoop. Dilin Jones dunking on a basketball goal during the lone offensive touchdown in what was effectively a playoff elimination game seems pretty silly in hindsight. It seems especially silly when the immediate follow-up is allowing 21 points in the final 17 minutes.
All of this is low-hanging fruit and easy ammunition for fans and media outside of the Baton Rouge bubble. Kiffin has made himself an easy target, and the basketball hoop is collateral damage.
Stock Down: SEC officiating
I’m not one to pitch conspiracy theories or wear a tinfoil hat. My hair is far too great to get messed up under there. But the narrative of conferences protecting their biggest brands and playoff hopefuls certainly didn’t appear to be that far-fetched this weekend in the Texas-Missouri game. It wasn’t one or two questionable calls. It was every possible call that came into question going to one team, and this will shock you, but it was the team that has been catered to more than anyone over the last 20 years outside of Notre Dame.
That may sound harsh or like sour grapes, and maybe it is, to be honest. However, it also feels very valid and accurate. The same program that demanded to have its own television network just so it could show highlights of the 2005 Rose Bowl win with the same consistency as reruns of Ridiculousness on MTV in the 2010s also was awarded a 13-yard fumble recovery on 3rd-and-10 on what appeared to be an incomplete pass.
They scored the go-ahead touchdown on the next play. I was shocked. And yes, that was sarcastic.
