The College Football Playoff format changing to a 12-team format has changed many aspects of the football season, and in some ways that people might not have expected before the changes became official.
With the 12-team format coming alongside major realignment and conference adjustments, there are more paths than ever into the CFP field. That’s certainly good news for conferences like the Big 12 and ACC, and even the Group of Five teams, but it’s especially beneficial for a league like the SEC.
Being the third or fourth-best team in the SEC almost assuredly puts you in the field of 12 this year, as there’s no way that the committee is going to leave a 10-2 SEC team out.
In fact, as Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin suggests, it might be more beneficial to be sitting in third or fourth rather than being the runner-up in the SEC Championship Game.
“I’ve talked to other coaches, so I’ll just kind of give you the feeling from some other coaches that. They don’t want to be in it,” Kiffin said of the SEC. “You know, the reward to get a bye [in the CFP] versus the risk to get knocked out completely. I mean, that’s a that’s a pretty big — that’s a really big risk.
“I think it has ended up being a very unique situation of all postseason sports, the way that system is set up there. How you could go to [the SEC Championship] and get knocked out [of the CFP race], and if you don’t go [to the SEC Championship game], you’re in.”
The SEC has seven teams in the latest AP Top 25 poll, and five of them enter Week 13 with 8-2 records. That means teams like Ole Miss, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, or Texas A&M could end up being 10-2 at the end of the regular season. Without losing a third game in the SEC title game, those teams are likely in the hunt. It’s quite a unique situation for the league.
“There’s a cost and benefit to everything,” Kiffin continued. “There’s great benefits to this playoff system and so many people being excited and fans and programs and more games, and then there’s cost, too. The conference championships don’t mean as much.
“And it’s not just, do you potentially get knocked out by losing that? Do you [have] more injuries? So you’re going to go get more injuries, play another game to get a bye, but then the other people are having their bye while you’re playing [in the conference championship game.] So I think that’s why, and I’ll go on record saying it, why a lot of coaches — or some coaches I’ve talked to — don’t want to go to [the SEC].”
