Can't Wait For Saturday Is SEC willing to give up lucrative title game?

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Apr. 3—

I make fun of the SEC all the time. Suggest that the league thinks it runs college football and that it is better than all the other conferences.

But I will never question the SEC's business savvy. So, when I read the excellent story by Ralph Russo of The Athletic that the Alabama athletic director is talking about moving away from the SEC title game, it got my attention.

Alabama AD Greg Byrne told USA Today that the "ship has sailed on" on the big money SEC title game.

Hard to imagine a conference or AD giving up the kind of guaranteed payoff the SEC receives from its title game.

Unless the league is thinking bigger picture. The SEC has apparently been reluctant to consider the Big Ten-favored expansion to a 24-team College Football Playoff.

That kind of move would certainly put an end to league title games. So Byrne might just be getting out in front of the idea.

Because of conference expansion, the league title games won't always pair the two most worthy teams. Interestingly, Alabama got run over by Georgia in last year's SEC title game. Might be a bit of sour grapes from the Crimson Tide.

The SEC plays great football, obviously. But the league title game is not always riveting football.

Winning last year didn't help Georgia in the CFP. It dropped its quarterfinal game against Mississippi.

Before dropping all the conference championships, I think the leagues need to consider getting rid of the byes in the CFP. Those have been a problem for the top seeds, who struggle playing well against teams who had just won a game.

The exception in 2025 was Indiana, which blew out Alabama in the quarterfinal round and rolled to the title.

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