It’s possible no sport serves as better fodder for debate shows than college football. Between the split conferences, ever-changing talent pool, and the importance of weekly rankings, college football was simply made to provide content for three hours of First Take every morning.
The first Friday of 2026 was no different, as Auburn alum Cam Newton took to the ESPN airwaves to fire off a take that sent one of his co-panelists into hysterical smiles and another into a deep sigh of depression.
After Indiana’s 38–3 shellacking of Alabama in the Rose Bowl on Thursday, the First Take crew was debating whether the SEC’s run as the core of college football had come to an end. Given the Hoosiers are currently 14–0 and looking like they might be en route to finishing one of the most dominant seasons in the history of the sport in just the second year of coach Curt Cignetti’s tenure with the school, it felt like a pretty fair question.
But Newton was not having any of it.
“Somebody has to speak reason to the beautiful people of America,” Newton began his soliloquy. “And my American people, I will have you know, that the SEC is not and has not went anywhere. Why? Because every team in the SEC does more numbers than every team in the Big Ten. Than every team in the ACC.”
As Paul Finebaum smiled it delighted agreement and Ryan Clark looked away in disbelief, Newton continued:
“At the end of the day, everybody knows, that if you want to go and get put on, you still go to the SEC. And however great Coach Cignetti is, you still know, I’m not about to go watch Indiana football. I prefer to go watch LSU, Ole Miss, the great Auburn, Alabama, UGA, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi State wayyyyy before I watch a Penn State. Wayyy before I watch a Michigan State, Iowa State. Come on now. Is the dominance over? Yes. Why? It’s because the ability to pay players now. But they still don’t do the numbers that the SEC does, and the mantra of the SEC might I remind you, ‘It’s just different.’ You and I both know that.”
Cam Newton says that TV ratings show that SEC is still college football's top conference: "However great Coach Cignetti is, you still know, I'm not about to go watch Indiana football. I prefer to go watch LSU, Ole Miss, the great Auburn, Alabama, UGA, Tennessee, Arkansas,… pic.twitter.com/Fin02wyu83
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) January 2, 2026
Newton’s point is perfect for the debate show format. He gets to lean on a “numbers never lie” argument without citing numbers and reframes the question so that the quality of the actual football being played is irrelevant because the collective mental image of SEC football still looms large. This is veteran levels of take-age.
When presented with such a case, there’s really only two ways you can react: maniacally smile with delight at the point your colleague just made, or lean back in your chair and wonder what happened in your life to put you in this position, in this moment, on television.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Cam Newton Nearly Broke Ryan Clark With His Take on SEC Dominance.
