With the second College Football Playoff rankings set to come out on Tuesday night, the ESPN propaganda machine is in full swing, advocating for as many SEC teams as possible to make the Playoff.
On Tuesday, during The Pat McAfee Show, ESPN’s Heather Dinich joined McAfee and began laying the foundation for squeezing in a three-loss SEC team into the 12-team Playoff.
Dinich said, “As much as people keep throwing out the word elimination games every week, I would really hesitate to eliminate a three-loss SEC team. And that includes if Georgia loses to Tennessee… in the first 10 years of the College Football Playoff, there have been 13 three-loss teams ranked in the selection committee’s Top 10 on selection day. If history repeats itself, then you could potentially see a three-loss SEC team in. But they’re not all created equal.”
Here we go.
Now her note on three-loss teams in the Top 10 rankings is a little disingenuous, because now with automatic bids, it’s not a simple as a “Top 10” or “Top 12”, because five spots are taken by the Power 4 Champions and one Group of 5. We’re really talking about seven at-large bids.
Let’s not forget, this is another reason the SEC has absolutely zero interest in going to nine conference games like the Big 12 and Big Ten. Why bother? You can play eight SEC games, at least two cup cakes, maybe one tough non-conference, and then let the media do your bidding on how amazing the SEC is and justify “good losses”. It doesn’t matter who you beat, as long as your losses appear to be “quality” losses.
Don’t get me wrong, the SEC is the best conference in college football, with a lot of quality at the very top. But there’s a lot of mediocre to just bad at the bottom of the league, and that’s always been the case.
Related: Who are the Top 5 Big 12 College Football Teams in Week 12?
Super Conference Plans
However, as speculation grows around the Big Ten and SEC trying to create a super conference that favors these two leagues in a big way compared to the Big 12 and ACC, the first step is to use their media partners and their platforms to continue to promote those brands, get four, or even five, teams into the Playoff, increase the odds of a heavily-SEC semifinal, and keep pumping the honey from there.
ESPN owns the entire SEC football package, so if you think there isn’t going to be a bias towards that conference from their biggest college football voices, then I have beachfront property in Salina, Kansas to sell you.
It won’t matter what happens on Tuesday night with the newest ranking, but much of this is about laying the foundation for Selection Sunday in December.
If BYU loses a Big 12 Championship Game to Colorado and has one loss, will the committee go ahead with a 3-loss SEC team over a 1-loss BYU? It’s speculation right now, but just be prepared for that potential decision to be closer than it needs to be.
The stage is being set.
