Timing is everything in life. Often times, things that are decided upon are motivated by prior decisions. And in the case of the SEC, they didn’t magically wake up on Thursday morning this week and decide to finally, after over 30 years, play nine conference games. No chance. That’s never how it works, especially when it comes to the SEC.
Instead, it’s about what happened the day before. And on Wednesday, the College Football Playoff (CFP) Selection Committee announced it would begin using an enhanced strength of schedule tool, including a new metric called “record strength”. This change places greater weight on how teams perform against their opponents, giving more credit for winning against strong teams and lessening the penalty for similar losses. The CFP says it is making this adjustment to better evaluate and compare teams more fairly.
SEC Football Wants It This Way
Do you think this is a coincidence? I certainly don’t. And neither should you. Instead, this is a carefully crafted decision for the SEC to try and rig the system first, and then elect to make tens of millions of dollars more to play the ninth conference game, while ideally not suffering any consequences on the field.
Related: SEC Schedule Change Helps Notre Dame Stay Independent
This new “record strength” metric will give extra credit for beating quality teams, while lessening the penalty for losses against tougher opponents. To the contrary, it will give less credit for beating lesser teams. Of course, how one determines who is a “quality” opponent and who is a “lesser” opponent is always where the devil lies in the details.
Remember how this has worked for a long time: If the SEC stacks things like the AP Poll, Coaches Poll, ESPN’s Strength of Schedule metrics, etc., than everything works in its favor. A loss is never really a “bad” one, and every win is treated like God’s gift to college football. It’s a tale as old as time.
The 2024 CFP Drama Revisited
And let’s not forget the main driver of this last season: The CFP debate between two-loss SMU, three-loss Alabama and three-loss South Carolina. Alabama had losses to Vanderbilt and Oklahoma that finished ranked ahead of two-loss Big 12 champ Arizona State. Georgia and Texas both finished 11-2, but still ranked ahead of one-loss Notre Dame, Indiana and Boise State. Two of the three SEC teams in the CFP failed to win a game last season.
Was the SEC really short-changed? And is this new data point by the CFP just another way to find a way for the SEC to jam more at-large teams into a growing Playoff? That’s certainly how this feels, and the SEC obviously agrees, or they would have never moved to a ninth conference game.
Now where I will give the SEC credit is for also announcing that each team needs to schedule a Power 4 game against the Big Ten, ACC or Big 12 each season. That’s admirable, and smart. Now it’s on the Big 12 to try and get as many SEC games as it can on its non-conference schedule.
But as long as we understand the game the SEC is playing, we’re being honest on why this happened, while also realizing what their ultimate goal is here, then we can fairly discuss what it means for college football and the Playoff moving forward.
