ATHENS — SEC families and friends will gather this Thanksgiving, at some point reckoning how there is no place like home.

Certainly, that saying applies like no other time in recent SEC history this college football season.

The Top 25 teams from the SEC — inarguably the sport’s deepest and most-talented conference — are just 14-15 in true road games this season.

Consider, dating back to the 2018 season, when the NCAA portal first opened, there has been no other season with such a disparity between the road and home records of the SEC’s Top 25 teams.

It’s a number that will surprise even Kirby Smart, an SEC long tooth who has spent the past 18 years in the league, the past nine as Georgia’s head coach after his stint as Nick Saban’s top assistant at Alabama (2007-15).

“First question I would ask is, what was the record last year on the road for ranked teams?” Smart said, asked about the difficulty of road games in the SEC this season.

“I don’t think it’s changed. It’s hard. It’s always been hard to play on the road in the SEC.”

The numbers show this season is different, though, something the CFP selection committee has seemingly yet to adjust for in its rankings.

SEC teams ranked in final CFP Top 25 records in true road games dating back to the 2018 season…

2024 14-15 (.483)

2023 15-8 (.652)

2022 14-10 (.583)

2021 12-10 (.545)

2020 16-3 (.842)*

2019 15-4 (.789)

2018 18-13 (.581)

It’s worth noting that 2020 season was the COVID year, when the SEC limited home attendance to just 20 percent of stadium capacity.

Today’s SEC is different, to the extent that even Saban, now the star attraction on ESPN’s College GameDay, didn’t project just how tough SEC home environments would be this season.

It was Saban who said in the preseason that, “the only place that’s not hard to play in the SEC is Vanderbilt.”

That perception changed when the Commodores, who had lost 23 straight to Alabama dating back to 1984, scored a 40-35 upset a then-No. 1-ranked Crimson Tide team the first week of October.

This, in a season helmet-radio communications debuted, enabling quarterbacks and a designated defensive player to have sideline communication with coaches in a way that could mitigate road environment distractions.

Tennessee coach Josh Heupel, who will be taking his team into Vanderbilt Stadium on Saturday with a playoff spot on the line, will not underestimate the Nashville setting No. 3 Texas barely escaped earlier this season with a 27-24 win.

“When you go play road games in this league, they’re real venues, real road games,” said Heupel, a former star quarterback at Oklahoma during the Sooners’ Big 12 days.

“You’re going to get electric atmospheres. It makes it as difficult as it can be on the road, let alone the opponent that you’re playing.”

Texas A&M coach Mike Elko, whose Aggies have tumbled from the top of the SEC standings to the brink of playoff elimination with back-to-back road losses at South Carolina (44-20) and Auburn (43-41, 4OT), does attest.

“How you communicate in bad environments, presents certain challenges,” said Elko, who led Duke to a 16-9 record his two seasons as head coach there before replacing Jimbo Fisher in College Station.

“I think one of the things that makes this conference so unique is you are going into a hostile environment no matter who, no matter where, no matter when. It’s always something that presents challenges.”

Other Power 4 conferences’ CFP Top 25 teams have not seen the same sort of disparity between home and true road games as the SEC this season. Here is how each of the Power 4 conference’s teams ranked in the current CFP Top 25 have fared on the road this season:

• Big Ten 16-4 (.800)

• Big 12 13-7 (.650)

• ACC 10-1 (.909)

• SEC 14-15 (.483)

Lane Kiffin, whose Rebels were knocked outside playoff projections last Saturday by their 24-17 loss at Florida, said he recently pointed out the difference to a coaching friend.

“I sent a text and said to one of these other coaches, ‘try going to 100 Sanford Drive (Georgia’s home field) and see if you still say that,” said Kiffin, referencing the Bulldogs’ current 30-game home win streak.

“It ain’t rocket science when you watch football … the SEC is different. Playing in the SEC is different than a lot of places those (other conference) guys play.”

Georgia will play host to ACC rival Georgia Tech at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, looking to cash in on its home-field advantage even as students are out and the crowd doesn’t figure to be quite so rowdy.

Here’s a look at how this season’s SEC teams currently ranked in the CFP’s Top 25 have fared in true road games:

Texas 2-0

• Beat Vanderbilt 27-24

• Beat Arkansas 20-10

Georgia 2-2

• Beat Kentucky 13-12

• Lost to Alabama 41-34

• Beat Texas 30-15

• Lost to Ole Miss 28-10

Tennessee 1-2

• Beat Oklahoma 25-15

• Lost to Arkansas 19-14

• Lost to Georgia 31-17

Alabama 1-3

• Lost to Vanderbilt 40-35

• Lost to Tennessee 24-17

• Beat LSU 42-13

• Lost to Oklahoma 24-3

Ole Miss 2-2

• Beat South Carolina 27-3

• Lost to LSU 29-26 (OT)

• Beat Arkansas 63-31

• Lost to Florida 24-17

South Carolina 3-1

• Beat Kentucky 31-6

• Lost to Alabama 27-25

• Beat Oklahoma 35-9

• Beat Vanderbilt 28-7

Texas A&M 2-2

• Beat Florida 33-20

• Beat Mississippi State 34-24

• Lost to South Carolina 44-20

• Lost to Auburn 43-41 (4OT)

Missouri 1-3

• Lost to Texas A&M 41-10

• Lost to Alabama 34-0

• Lost to South Carolina 34-30

• Beat Mississippi State 39-20