The Alabama Crimson Tide were left out of the College Football Playoff, and those wounds have now been reopened.
Ever since the 12-team College Football Playoff was revealed, we've seen nothing but endless complaints from the likes of SEC fans — Alabama, Ole Miss, and South Carolina, in particular — who believed that their three-loss teams should get in over a two-loss SMU and a one-loss Indiana.
On Friday and Saturday, those voices grew even louder. Neither Indiana nor SMU put up a fight in their respective games, getting blown out by No. 7-seeded Notre Dame and No. 6-seeded Penn State in road games.
It didn't take long for strong SEC voices like Paul Finebaum and Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin to also take their shots and we'd expect that there will plenty more over the coming days and the next week, especially as the fallout of the College Football Playoff continues.
However, as we sit here today, there's a lot of anger being directed at the College Football Playoff committee and not near enough anger directed at the true sources of the problem: Their own conference.
Say what you will, but Alabama missed the College Football Playoff this year because of the loss to Oklahoma, a team that Alabama voted to allow into its own conference. Greg Sankey can push the narrative if he so desires, but you can't have it both ways.
You can't make all these business decisions with money at the forefront and then turn around and be mad when they blow up in your face. The SEC voted to expand and take Texas and Oklahoma from the Big 12. That expansion made the conference bigger and changed how scheduling and divisions would be conducted. Then, Alabama lost to Oklahoma and the third loss of the season was the final straw.
Maybe if the SEC had respected other conferences — like the Big 12 — to begin with, the conference wouldn't be hurting right now with its teams that were left out of the big dance. The SEC has been pushing for expansion, but never thought its decisions would come back to hurt it. Well, now it has, and yet, it's somehow the College Football Playoff committee's fault.
The SEC — and Big Ten, for that matter — have been at the forefront of all the changes in college football. They've poached schools from other conferences — the Big Ten even made the Pac-12 essentially go under — and they've been relentless in racking up TV revenue and pushing for more ways to make money. However, their decision to expand cost them at least for 2024, and it's one that no one else seems to be talking about.
They can continue to be mad at the CFP committee if they want to. But, if you're an SEC coach, or administrator, and you have a problem with how things are currently set up, you should probably take a long look in the mirror.
That's where you'll likely find the problem.