SEC football doesn’t need more CFP bids. It needs wins | Opinion
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Oh and five.
That’s the number where this conversation should start.
Not 16.
Not 24.
Not whatever number of playoff teams the Big Ten will throw out there next.
The SEC’s playoff problem starts at 0-5.
Even as SEC coaches beg for more bids and for the playoff to grow to a size that’ll house their 9-3 teams, the real issue that must be addressed in the “Just Means More” conference isn’t playoff access. It’s playoff performance.
Oh and five.
The past three seasons, that’s the SEC’s record when its teams faced either Notre Dame or a Big Ten opponent in the playoff. Miami might like a word, too, after beating Texas A&M and Mississippi in the playoff.
Playoff access not the SEC’s problem. Playoff performance is.
Despite what you may have heard from Texas coach Steve Sarkisian, the playoff selection committee isn’t the problem for the SEC. In the first two years of the 12-team playoff, no conference racked up more bids than the SEC’s eight.
And, sorry, Kirby Smart, the problem isn’t that the SEC’s dregs are too good. That’s a feeble excuse, especially when the SEC’s dregs (Arkansas) got beat by 43 points by Notre Dame last season, and Florida lost to South Florida, and Auburn mustered three points against Kentucky.
The SEC’s chief playoff problem the past three years? The conference’s crème de la crème sours when the competition stiffens.
Nick Saban, prescient as ever, saw change on the horizon. He got out after Alabama lost to Michigan in the Rose Bowl at the end of the 2023 season. That’s when this SEC problem started, as the conference’s ability to horde talent eroded within the pay-for-play and free-transfer landscape.
The next year, Ohio State pasted Tennessee as easily as if the Vols were Purdue (or Arkansas, for that matter). Notre Dame beat Georgia, sans Carson Beck. Then, the Buckeyes toppled Texas in the CFP semifinals.
You with me so far? That’s 0-4.
Next came the Big Ten’s magnum opus: Indiana’s 38-3 shellacking of Alabama in a quarterfinal at the Rose Bowl, just four and a half months ago.
That’s 0-5.
Can Greg Sankey resist growing momentum for 24-team playoff?
Now, SEC coaches like Tennessee’s Josh Heupel say they’d like a 24-team playoff.
That’d be giving the Big Ten what it wants, but, hey, the Big Ten rules, and rulers get what they want.
Maybe, the SEC needs to address its problem — playoff performance — before heightening exposure of the issue within a bigger playoff.
SEC coaches are feeling particularly angsty about playing a ninth conference game while trying to grab a spot in the 12-team playoff. They should take it up with their bosses. Nobody forced the SEC to add another conference game. The SEC’s presidents and chancellors voted to add the extra conference game.
And, who knows, maybe the selection committee will take notice of the SEC adding more meat to its schedule.
If it were left to the coaches, they’d probably play 11 cupcakes, plus a nonconference “clash” with the meekest ACC school available.
SEC coaches also would be the first to point out the conference’s NFL Draft count, while touting conference superiority. Well, when there’s so much NFL talent on these SEC rosters, why can’t its teams beat the Big Ten in a playoff game? Any coaches want to try to answer that one?
Within some factions of the SEC, there’s a growing feeling that the playoff must expand, and if a deal on 16 teams can’t be reached, go to 24.
How does it make it better for the SEC if Tennessee loses to Illinois in a playoff game or Iowa beats Vanderbilt in the first round, instead of a bowl game?
Trust me, you’re not going to get a statue in the South for losing to the Illini in a mega-sized playoff. Keep that up, and a buyout check will be on the menu.
When SEC members voted for a ninth conference game, they thought an expanded playoff would be just around the corner. A 16-team playoff would’ve greased the wheels for the SEC’s 9-3 teams.
Think the Big Ten doesn’t realize that?
The Big Ten doesn’t want 16. It wants 24, and some constituents within the SEC (not commissioner Greg Sankey, so far) are walking toward that trap, a trap set up by Big Ten boss Tony Petitti and media partner Fox, which could stand to get a piece of the playoff pie, if the playoff hits the supersize button.
So, 16 or 24? The battle continues in the boardroom.
It’s window dressing, behind which the SEC’s postseason slippage hides.
Until the SEC closes the gap on the Big Ten, a bigger playoff would just mean more playoff fizzles.
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s senior national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: A 24-team College Football Playoff won’t fix bruised, bickering SEC
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