Kirk Herbstreit went on ESPN’s Get Up on Friday morning and broke down what exactly he believes is at stake on Saturday night when a pair of desperate, suddenly 1-loss teams clash at Death Valley.
It’ll be 10th-ranked LSU hosting 23rd-ranked Texas A&M in a 7:30 p.m. ET kickoff on ABC, a primetime showdown that could’ve easily been a Week 4 matchup of unbeatens. But 2 teams got in the way of that in Week 3, with Ole Miss taking down Lane Kiffin in his return to Oxford and Kentucky shocking the Aggies in College Station.
The pair of brutal losses in their respective SEC openers have left LSU (2-1) and Texas A&M (2-1) searching for answers as they hook up in a battle of teams who will be hell-bent on not losing 2 in a row, in September no less.
How’s that for pressure on 2 supposed SEC title contenders on the final college football Saturday night in September?
Herbstreit knows the deal, and he revealed those things he thinks are at stake as 2 ranked teams try to stay relevant so early in the season.
“This is the challenge people talk about with the SEC and this new era of NIL and transfer portals,” Herbstreit said. “Whoever loses this game is gonna have a team that is gonna start having their agent talking about where I’m going to go. The SEC, I think, way more than any other conference, when their players are out of the quote unquote Playoff, they lose interest quickly and they start thinking about their next season. So, there is a lot at stake in this game. All chips in the middle of the table, I think, for this game.”
The Tigers and Aggies both can’t afford a 2nd straight SEC loss when they hook up in the Week 4 primetime showdown. Here is what the Kalshi market is currently saying about which team has the edge going into the matchup at Death Valley:
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
