College Football continues to change every year as the decision makers continue to guide the sport in different directions. Just two years ago, we moved from a 4 team College Football Playoff format to a format with 12 teams in the Playoff. While the format change has been incredibly exciting, there are some flaws which have been addressed such as moving to straight seeding.
Despite the fact that this new model has only been in place for 2 seasons, College Football Playoff expansion is inevitable. The conference commissioners continue to haggle over what the format should be, and who should benefit over the changes. What the commissioners are failing to realize is the tradeoff may not be worth it.
SEC leaders hint at the extinction of conference championships
On Thursday, the SEC put everyone on high alert with their stances on the future of conference championship games. In an interview with USA Today, Alabama Athletic Director Greg Byrne discussed the SEC Championship declaring that he thinks it's run it's course with College Football Playoff expansion adding even more games to the schedule.
"I think the ship has sailed. It's run its course, it’s a great event. I don’t like the idea of it going away, but I think it’s reality, with an expanded playoff."Greg Byrne
When Greg Byrne's quote first took over social media, many looked at it as Alabama crying foul. The Crimson Tide just suffered a beatdown at the hands of Georgia this season, and many claimed that it was a sign of the times for Alabama.
Then the man responsible for handing Alabama the loss spoke up as Georgia head coach Kirby Smart uttered a similar sentiment in an interview with On3's Chris Low.
"Where we are right now with 12 teams, I don’t necessarily agree that it needs to quit being played. But if it gets to 16 or 24 and we’ve got to move the end of the season up and we’ve got to get everything done by the second week of January, then I’d say it probably has to go."Kirby Smart
Considering that we may see the Playoff expand in the next few years, the end of conference championship games is seemingly on the horizon. The SEC schools are already pointing to that as the change, and it's likely that schools in the other leagues feel the same way.
The conference commissioners need to ask themselves and each other if this trade off is really worth it. Adding an extra round of Playoff games where we'll likely see massive blowouts doesn't seem that appealing, especially if we'll lose classics like we saw between Indiana and Ohio State this season. The Playoff may still expand down the line, but for now conference championship games should be preserved not just for tradition, but for the fact that the games are better than most playoff matchups.