Okay. We agree that the SEC dominates the current 4-team playoff.
Let’s say the playoff expands. Given that there is literally only one conference with a winning record under the CFP, wouldn’t it make sense that an expansion of the playoffs would disproportionately add teams from that dominating conference? Why add teams from the ACC or Big 10 when playoff contenders from those conferences can’t even win more than half of their playoff games?
Because teams below the top two don’t demonstrably play better than those teams from the other conferences. We have seen that Alabama and Georgia being fantastic do not make Ole Miss fantastic, or Auburn before them.
Okay. So you want me to exclude the top two SEC teams (Alabama & Georgia). The SEC still has another team that won a national championship – LSU.
If you exclude the top two SEC teams, then you should at least consider excluding the top teams from the other conferences: Ohio State (Big 10), Clemson (ACC), and Oregon (Pac 12). If you do that, the combined record of those conferences is a whopping 0-5. And that’s not even considering that Oklahoma is 0-4 in the playoffs.
If you don’t look at the SEC for additional teams, where will you look?
I think most sane folks would agree SEC is the best football conference at present…BUT…that SEC arrogance and greed could also kill the goose that laid the golden egg.
SEC arrogance and greed could also kill the goose that laid the golden egg.
That is the “perception” about the SEC. Not that the SEC doesn’t deserve multiple playoff spots. Every SEC team that has made the playoffs has a winning record in the playoffs. There is literally one other team with a winning playoff record (Clemson). Adding lower-tier ACC, B1G, PAC, or XII teams doesn’t make sense because they won’t be able to win. Beyond Clemson, they can’t consistently win as it is.
Exhibit #1 on SEC arrogance.
Right now SEC-SEC-SEC is the King of the Roost…why would you shoot The Golden Goose by making it basically an SEC Tournament ? Once the rest of the country, besides SEC Country, tunes out how long will that massive media $$$ keep flowing in.
Exhibit #1 on SEC arrogance.
I’m beginning to think the complaint about the SEC is rooted in jealousy. Evaluation of football performance has no place in the anti-SEC conversation.
How about looking at it this way:
Big 10 teams not named “Ohio State” have lost every playoff game they’ve played by an average of 31 points.
ACC teams not named “Clemson” have lost every playoff game they’ve played by an average of 28 points.
By all means, add more Big 10 and ACC teams even though every single SEC team to make the playoffs has a winning record.
I can fully understand the SEC getting more teams in.
Hell, I’m a B1G grad school alum (Illinois), and I concede that the SEC is better from top to bottom, and easily the nation’s best football conference.
But by the same token, I’d give every “power” conference champ a bid to a 12 team playoff. The at large teams could be decided by some sort of computer “power” index. Of course, that might put more SEC teams in than teams from other conferences.
It’s just like in basketball. There are tons of nobody teams from crappy conferences that get automatic bids. Most end up doing nothing, but they still deserve a chance to compete, and once in awhile…they pull off an upset!!!
I only need to exclude the top two teams if I am asking “Is the SEC better or the Big 12 better?” (The SEC is, obviously.) But if we’re talking about who gets the 8th playoff spot, then we are more likely picking between Big 12 #1 and SEC #4. So that’s what we should compare.
It can both be true that (a) the SEC is a better conference than the Big 12 and (b) The fourth best team in the SEC is not better than the top team in the Big 12. A common SEC perception is that the SEC #4 is in fact better than the Big 12 #1, while others disagree. That’s a comparison between Baylor (Big 12 #1) and Kentucky (SEC #4). The next spot may be a question between SEC #5 (Auburn) and Big 12 #2 (Oklahoma State), then SEC #6 (Tennessee) and Pac-12 #1 (Utah).
The answers to those questions are not best determined by Alabama’s playoff performance. It’s best determined by comparing the teams in question.
TV has few viewers more loyal than wrestling fans. Even they get tired of the same rivalries, which is why the WWE and AEW expand the rosters while putting some wrestlers on ice for a few months. Only Paul Finebaum wants to see the SEC 24/7/365.
The CFP ratings haven’t appreciably increased in 20 years.
This doesn’t include last year, where viewership was 22.6m, roughly 20th out of the 23 years since the start of the BCS.
If there has been viewership growth, it involves the rest of college football. Division-contraction may be good for the SEC and B1G, but maybe not for ESPN and Fox.
What’s wrong with the P5 Champs as AQ, top rated G5 and rest as Wild Cards be it a 8 or more field for the CFP is all I am saying. No sane football fan would say in most years there wouldn’t be 2-3 SEC teams in top 8 but 3/4 of the field SEC…c’mon maaaannnnnnnnnnnn
They usually get about 3 in the NY6 bowls, right? Maybe a 4th thanks to their new additions and a weaker Pac-12 and Big 12. Take out autobids that’s maybe another. Seems like not the hill to die on.
Here’s what they looked like last year:
#1 Alabama (playoff)
#2 Georgia (playoff)
#3 Ole Miss (NY6)
#4 Kentucky 10-3
#5 Arkansas 9-4
#6 A&M 8-4
#7 Tennessee 7-6
#8 Mississippi State 7-6
Below that Auburn, LSU, and Florida
(Some of my earlier ones must have been pulled from the wrong year. Sorry.)
THAT Top 4 SEC in a 12 team playoff? no problem… Everyone else, who have at least 4 losses? THUMBS down…P5 champs? Thats 5…SEC #2,3, 4? Thats 3 more. Notre Dame? Thats 9. Last 3 can be wildcards so top teams from where ever can get in…Time to be reasonable here…
Kentucky and Arkansas both came in ranked in the 20’s do send unlikely they get invited in any model. Though OU probably gets in so still 4 underr either model.
The more I look the more I think this is posturing for the bye week. SEC fans were pretty upset that Georgia wouldn’t have gotten a bye. So that will be the proposed compromise.
UPDATE: Looking at the history, I can find a couple of seasons where it might have made a difference. In 2019 “top 12” could have gotten Auburn (9-3) or Alabama (10-2) in. In 2015 we “took” Ole Miss’s (9-3) spot. Those are the only years it made a difference for the SEC (plus Oklahoma and Texas). It’s all hypothetical but generally speaking the P5 conference champions are ranked in the top 12. So it’s mostly a G5 issue, if one at all. There were a couple times in the BCS era it would have been a problem due to weak division champions winning the conference championship game but that is no longer an issue.
IMO needs to stay at max of 8…No 3 or 4 loss team should be crowned National Champions
That actually may be another thing that he wants. You can’t have eight with autobids, so if he wants eight he has to go after autobids.
For what it’s worth 3-loss teams getting into a 12-team system would be atypical. It would be interesting to impose a 10-win requirement, though the SEC would never agree to that (even in an 8-team system).
I favor 12 because it’s the only way to get autobids and almost any G5/6 participation.
IMHO, a twelve team playoff will be mostly about $$$$$ and less about winning a championship - so the SEC will want to suck most the oxygen out of the room.
LOL, beat me to it
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