The College Football Playoff is heading for more changes in the years ahead, but the 2026-27 setup is already locked in. For now, the race is simple: survive the regular season, get through conference championship weekend, and wait for the selection committee to sort out the field.
Brad Crawford of CBS Sports took a swing at that future with 10 guarantees for the next College Football Playoff, and one of them came with a clear dig at the SEC. His point was blunt: when the bracket is set in December, expect the conference to make plenty of noise if the numbers don’t break its way.
“Expect a handful of top-20 teams from the SEC to politick when the selection committee meets for the final time during conference championship weekend,” Crawford wrote.
He also pointed back to last season’s frustrations for the league.
“Vanderbilt (10-2) and Texas (9-3) drew the short straw last season. Alabama became the first three-loss, non-conference champion to appear in the playoff. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey may have to change his mind on CFP expansion if the SEC fails to lead the country in playoff participants.”
The Sankey mention ties directly to his reluctance to back a 24-team playoff. And it fits the larger SEC posture that has become familiar in these debates: the league wants more of its teams in, and it usually says so loudly. ESPN’s Paul Finebaum has often been the most visible voice carrying that message.
There’s no question the SEC still sits among the top two conferences in college football. But the results haven’t always matched the self-image, especially when the postseason arrives. That’s true in the playoff and in bowl games, where the league has taken its share of hits.
Those bowl results do come with plenty of asterisks. NFL Draft decisions, transfer portal exits and opt-outs can reshape those matchups in a hurry. Even with those caveats, the idea that the SEC automatically deserves the benefit of the doubt doesn’t fully hold up.
The recent championship record tells the bigger story. The Big Ten has won the last three College Football Playoff national titles, while the SEC’s most dominant stretch came from 2019 through 2022, when it claimed four straight. The names that powered that run are no longer in college football.
Still, if a few SEC teams get left out when the final field is announced, don’t expect silence. And if Notre Dame misses again, the Fighting Irish may end up making just as much noise.
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