Biting the hand that feeds you is never a good idea, but it’s a particularly bad idea if you’re part of an organization in flux. That’s exactly what the College Football Playoff committee just did with its final 2024 rankings and its first official bracket in the new 12-team format.
While the future of college football remains a question, the SEC is the source of probably half the revenue, directly or indirectly, related to the CFP. ESPN, which carries all the CFP games, has an exclusive deal with the conference. Commissioner Greg Sankey was instrumental in putting together this format.
Then there’s the simple fact that by every metric, it was once again the toughest league to play in this year, but the teams in it that played the toughest league schedules were punished. However, only three teams made the 12-team College Football Playoff. Four came from the Big Ten.
If you thought the SEC wanted to break off and form a super league before, it’s now gone into overdrive. Why would they sacrifice their own national presence with a 12-team field that has five auto bids if they aren’t going to have a certain amount of teams in that field, especially when they could generate similar revenue forming their own league.
Sankey doesn’t make the best decisions all the time, but he does have a lot of leverage here. If the SEC walks, the Big Ten is sure to follow, as both sides will know an alliance by just them will be more valuable than either league standing alone or staying in this current format. What just happened to the SEC emphasize that.
The Alabama Crimson Tide, South Carolina Gamecocks and Ole Miss Rebels, who all finished 9-3, were left out of the CFP. In their place were two 11-1 teams who had 0 quality wins on the year, the SMU Mustangs and Indiana Hoosiers. Sorry, but the former three all individually belong over the latter two.
Indiana’s three best wins were all easier games than Alabama’s three losses, and Alabama had four other top 30 wins. South Carolina beat the Clemson Tigers a week before Clemson beat SMU to win the ACC. Simply put, if schedule strength were to matter at all in the College Football Playoff, one of those teams would have been in.
Instead, all three of those teams are sitting at home.
Yes, Indiana is in the Big Ten, which would follow the SEC, but Tony Pettiti would follow only reluctantly. The SEC, however, could easily walk away, and given what just happened with this year’s College Football Playoff, it’s hard to see them not making that decision.
Only one more year remains on the CFP contract. After the 2025 season, anything can happen. Given how the committee just got caught overvaluing record, you can bet that this offseason, the SEC will already be discussing plans to break away. There is no incentive for them to remain in an organization that punishes them for how many elite teams they have.
