The SEC narrative for cramming teams into the CFP comes crashing down
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey has been politicking for several weeks now that his conference deserves more bids in the 12-team playoff.
While he'll continue that narrative, it came crashing down on Saturday when three of his top-five ranked teams lost games, all to unranked opponents.
- Alabama got blasted 24-3 by Oklahoma
- Ole Miss got beaten 24-17 by Florida
- Texas A&M lost 43-41 to Auburn
All three of these teams were considered legitimate contenders for the College Football Playoff. Now, they each have three losses and their path to the playoff seems limited moving forward. For teams like Alabama and Ole Miss, who are out of the SEC Championship picture, their playoff hopes should be over.
After suffering so much carnage, many fans and analysts are beginning to take notice. The message was clear: You can't lose to mediocre-to-average teams and still be considered a playoff team. That makes two bad losses for Alabama. That makes three unranked losses for Ole Miss.
This is definitely not the year to argue that the SEC is SO GOOD that it must take all the CFP spots. Not with so many poor performances against average teams.
— Chris Vannini (@ChrisVannini) November 24, 2024
On3's Ari Wasserman harped on the fact that the SEC has bias built into its schedule. Though the conference has high "strength of schedule" metrics, much of this is due to the fact that teams start out the year ranked highly in the preseason, despite their results. Then, ranked wins — and losses — are racked up based on inflated belief to begin with.
And you may think I'm being an irrational hater, but all the evidence we've gotten from the results points to this being a reality. @JoshPateCFB.
— Ari Wasserman (@AriWasserman) November 23, 2024
The SEC is a bad conference
— Scarlet & Game (@ScarletAndGame) November 24, 2024
The SEC is much better at propaganda than they are at football
— Vishnu Parasuraman (@vrp2003) November 24, 2024
Indiana made a loud statement today that they don’t belong in the playoff and the SEC spent the next eight hours saying “wanna bet?”
— Brandon Walker (@BFW) November 24, 2024
Sources: After Ole Miss loss & with Alabama trailing Oklahoma 17-3, SEC petitioning to expand @CFBPlayoff to 24 teams, effective next month
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) November 24, 2024
It is objectively funny that the SEC spent the week puffing out its chest and proceeded at have an all-timer of a pants soiling weekend.
— Ben Jones (@Ben_Jones88) November 24, 2024
If you want to cram a bunch of teams from your conference into the College Football Playoff, how about show up and take care of business? The SEC spent this entire week talking about how great of a conference it was. Then, they fell flat on their face.
At this point in time, the SEC only has three teams deserving of a spot in the playoff: Texas, Georgia, and Tennessee. Any team that has three losses — especially when they have bad losses like Alabama and Ole Miss — should not be considered, no matter what the patch on their jersey says.
If the SEC only gets three teams into the playoff and the Big Ten still gets four — Oregon, Ohio State, Penn State, and Indiana — that will leave five total spots. After the ACC, Big 12, and Group of 5, there will be two at-large bids remaining.
Right now, Notre Dame would have one of those, and the other likely should go to a second team in the ACC, depending on how the remainder of the season plays out.
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