re: Beyond Money, Why Will There Still Be a SEC Championship Game?

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Conference champ gets the top 4 bye ..key

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Yes, but that doesn’t mean the champion needs to be crowned from a championship game.

To the OP’s point, the champion could be chosen from the regular season results, skip the championship game and still get the bye.

No way the SEC gets 5 as the 5th place team will be 8-4 with the bloodbath schedules now.

It will suck for the SECCG loser having to play an extra game in the CFP. If its a 3rd loss I do wonder how far down the loser goes in rankings for the CFP too. Would be an absolute kick in the nuts if the loser does get left out of the CFP all together

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2. Just making the SEC title game in no way guarantees a CFP spot.

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With the new way of taking the top 2 conference records, it likely will be true that both teams in the SECCG will be in the playoff win or lose.

You aren't going to get a situation where a 3 loss team makes it from one division where a 1 loss team misses it from the other division. Most of the time both teams will be 11-1 or better. Worst case one might be 10-2... and most of the time a 10-3 SEC team with a loss in the SECCG will still finish in the top 10 and thus make the playoff.

It will be VERY unlikely for a SEC team in the SECCG to not make the playoff going forward.

End it. Move to 10 conference games.

A year ago I wouldn't have ever believed I would say that.

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with the bloodbath schedules now.

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unless I missed the memo, they’re still playing 8 conference games. The schedules are maybe marginally more difficult than they’ve always been, and in some situations easier

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It will suck for the SECCG loser having to play an extra game in the CFP. If its a 3rd loss I do wonder how far down the loser goes in rankings for the CFP too.

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The only time in the playoff era that a SEC team lost the SECCG and ended up at 10-3 and missed the top 10 (and a lock at a playoff spot) was in 2014 where Mizzou finished 10-3 and 16th place.

But there were 10-2 and in 16th place the week before, so the game really wouldn't have cost them a spot.

Their problem was that UGA had beaten Mizzou 34-0 in the regular season in Columbia. Mizzou also had lost to a 4-8 Indiana team at home.

Meanwhile a 9-3 Ole Miss would have made the playoff.

Nothing was going to get Mizzou into the playoff with both a blowout home loss and an embarassing OOC loss to a bad team at home. They would have been lucky to have gotten a chance to claim an automatic spot.

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You aren't going to get a situation where a 3 loss team makes it from one division where a 1 loss team misses it from the other division. Most of the time both teams will be 11-1 or better. Worst case one might be 10-2... and most of the time a 10-3 SEC team with a loss in the SECCG will still finish in the top 10 and thus make the playoff.

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That would have been true last year, 2023.

But in 2022 you had Georgia at 8-0 , and then three teams at 6-2 (Alabama, LSU, and Tennessee). If we had not had divisions that year, either LSU or Tennessee would have played Georgia. I don’t know what the tie breaker is, but Alabama would not have made it because their two losses were to LSU and Tennessee. Yet Alabama would have been a lock for the playoffs.

LSU also had the out of conference loss to FSU. If LSU had not made it to the championship game, they would have at least still been in the conversation to make the playoffs even with three losses. But if they did, they would have had four losses. And their four losses would have knocked them out for sure.

What if Tennessee had made it and lost? Would they have made the playoffs? Probably, but not for certain. Depending on what teams in other leagues did, they might have been left out. Late season losses hurt. Even if they are in a meaningless championship game.

In 2022, the second place SEC team would have paid a steep price for losing in the championship game. All while Alabama got to sit at home resting easy knowing they were in the playoffs.

An even bigger kick in the nuts would have been if 10-2 Alabama AND 9-3 LSU made it, but 9-3 Tennessee got left out.

I think most years the two teams will have one or less conference losses. But history has shown not every year. It has happened before. It will happen again.

Baseball and basketball play home and away and every other team in the league…

We have had conference champions much longer than we have had conference championship games. The SEC championship game was created when the SEC went to divisions. Before that, the conference champion was based on regular season results. We no longer have divisions. So we should not have a conference championship game. They have done a good job marketing it, some here obviously believe you can’t crown a conference champion if you don’t have a conference championship game. Even though conferences were doing it for 100 ears before the first conference championship game in 1992.

The SEC was responsible for the proliferation of conference championship games. Now with the 12 team playoff format, it is time for the SEC to be responsible for the death of them.

If a team plays in the SEC championship game and loses, but still makes the playoffs, they could potentially play 17 games in a season. That is too many for the players. That is too many for the fans. But there will never be enough to satisfy the bankers.