As newcomers Oklahoma, Texas headline a marquee weekend, the SEC's expansion investment is paying off

Not many Saturdays get bigger than this one in the SEC.

Then again, in this league, the next monster Saturday is always right around the corner.

When Oklahoma and Texas joined the conference in 2024, the hope was that the blue bloods from the Big 12 would provide more marquee games with championship implications, adding to an already packed schedule. On Saturday, that dream is realized as both programs hit the road for potential playoff-elimination showdowns against the league's most dominant teams of the last decade: No. 4 Alabama and No. 5 Georgia.

Top-15 matchups don't happen often in college football -- unless you're in the SEC, where half of the College Football Playoff's top 14 teams reside.

"They all feel huge," longtime Oklahoma athletics director Joe Castiglione told CBS Sports. "I know you think I'm exaggerating, but I was just speaking to somebody about this a week or so ago. Regardless of the game, it has huge implications. That's just the way it is in a league as competitive as the SEC."

Consider this: No. 10 Texas hasn't beaten three top-10 teams in a single regular season since 1983, but it could accomplish that feat this week at Georgia despite already carrying two losses with two games remaining. Nationally, no FBS team has done it since 2019. And, of course, the last to do it was an SEC heavyweight: LSU.

Accept it: the SEC is the strongest conference in the country.

"Literally anybody in our conference, it doesn't matter who they are, can beat anybody else on any given Saturday, and I think that's what makes our conference so difficult," Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said. "It's not about getting up for one or two games a year. It's not getting up for three top-10 matchups. You've got to get up for them every week because every team is capable of beating anybody else. There's a physical toll that this league takes on your team, but also a mental toll, and that's where toughness is so critical in the SEC."

That type of résumé is why many believe Texas could split a pair of top-five games in the final weeks -- against Georgia and rival Texas A&M -- and become the first three-loss team to reach the playoffs.

Meanwhile, No. 11 Oklahoma faces a harsher reality: beat Alabama or watch the playoff dream vanish.

The two-loss Sooners already own a head-to-head loss to Texas, and their best wins are against then-No. 14 Tennessee and No. 15 Michigan. A victory at Alabama -- which they upset 24-3 last season in Norman -- would be their first against a top-10 team and a much-needed resume booster. Oklahoma already has three wins against AP-ranked teams, tying for the second-most nationally behind Alabama. A strong nonconference schedule, including a matchup against Michigan, helps, but top-10 wins are crucial in the playoff race.

"You've seen several schools completely water down their nonconference schedule, thinking it doesn't matter," Castiglione said. "Well, we're going to see whether it matters. That's an important data point for the future of college football. We're getting great conference matchups, but the expanded College Football Playoff was supposed to incentivize additional marquee games -- to make the regular season more relevant."

Indeed, marquee games are more common in the SEC than in other power conferences. Eight of the nine most-watched televised games this season involved at least one SEC team, four of them SEC vs. SEC. Three of the 10 highest-rated games featured one of the conference's newcomers, Oklahoma or Texas.

"Just wait and see the numbers from this Saturday night," Sarkisian said. "How many people watch this game."

Texas and Georgia faced off twice last season, with the Bulldogs winning both matchups, including the SEC Championship Game. Those games were the two most-watched of the 2024 regular season, according to Nielsen data.

Seven of the eight toughest schedules in the country belong to SEC teams, according to ESPN's Football Power Index, though only one (Alabama) is ranked in the top 10. The wear and tear is real: four SEC schools fired head coaches before November.

"There's not a more challenging slate conference-wise than the SEC," Oklahoma coach Brent Venables said.

"It's only going to get harder if we move to nine conference games," Sarkisian added. "It's like, 'Holy cow, here we go.'"

The SEC will expand from eight to nine conference games in 2026, a move mirrored by the ACC this fall, ensuring all power conferences play nine league games.

Last spring, the SEC requested adjustments to CFP metrics, emphasizing strength of schedule. The other conferences agreed, giving more leeway for teams to absorb a loss against a highly ranked opponent. It appears to be paying off: the SEC has three of the four highest-ranked two-loss teams in the CFP entering Week 12.

That's why Texas sits in the best position among three-loss teams, as long as one of its wins is against a top-five opponent. Opening the season at now-No. 1 Ohio State has paid dividends.

Tough schedules should be rewarded by the committee, the SEC argues, and even Texas' biggest rival agrees.

"If that team is determined to be one of the top 12 using all metrics and data points, what's wrong with that?" Castiglione said. "That's what we should be looking toward."

Thanks to the additions of Oklahoma and Texas, the SEC's argument carries more weight than ever.