How important was it for the SEC to avoid a three-year hiatus?
By Andrew Olson
Published:
When the Crimson Tide hoisted the national championship trophy, how important was it for the rest of the conference?
Between the playoff’s selection, recent coaching hires and the modern-day media cycle, there are three reasons for the rest of the conference to be chanting S-E-C alongside Alabama.
THE ODD MAN OUT PROBLEM
As long as the College Football Playoff consists of four teams, one Power 5 conference champion is going to be left out – that’s math even a journalist can understand.
During the conference’s incredible run of seven consecutive national championships (2006-2012), it seemed virtually guaranteed that the SEC champion would always play for a national championship. After the ACC (Florida State) and Big 10 (Ohio State) won the championship in 2013 and 2014, there started to be some media chatter that the SEC wasn’t so mighty anymore.
Would a third year of a non-SEC team winning the championship have led to the exclusion of the conference’s best team in next year’s final four? Possibly, but for now we won’t know thanks to Alabama’s victory over Clemson.
COMMITMENT TO SABAN STYLE
The SEC East likely breathed a collective sigh of relief when the zeros on the game clock confirmed Alabama’s championship. In 2016, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina will all be coached by former assistant of Alabama coach Nick Saban.
If Alabama’s season had ended for a second time after playing a team with a spread offense (Ohio State, Clemson), those other SEC teams might have worried they had hitched themselves to the wrong wagon.
LESS AMMO FOR THE HATERS
Let’s face it, the SEC has its share of haters. Pundits (Danny Kanell, Colin Cowherd) and coaches (Bob Stoops, Jim Harbaugh) alike use their platforms to lob zingers the SEC’s way in hopes of weakening the conference’s brand.
Does politicking – both through the media and by the media – influence the CFP committee’s opinion? We really don’t have a way of knowing.
The use of one committee’s poll instead of an average of multiple polls to select the four teams has left some fans and experts missing the method used by the BCS. College football writer Matt Hayes called out the committee’s numerous contradictions in an article last fall.
OK, SO HOW IMPORTANT?
This topic was posed purely for the purpose of offseason entertainment.
There’s obviously no exact way to quantify what a Michigan State or Clemson win over Alabama would have done to the outside perception of SEC, but the conference as a whole should be thankful that the media does not have a narrative of “the mighty SEC has fallen” to push from now until December.
Alabama is seen as the current standard bearer for the SEC’s top tier. If the Crimson Tide falls out of favor, so does winning the SEC West or an SEC Championship. When it comes time to make its case for a spot in the playoff, the 2016 SEC Champion can put any rivalries aside and confidently point to the scores of 38-0 and 45-40.
Let’s leave the politicking to the other conferences.
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
