What if there was a championship and it didn’t really matter? Or in fact, if there was a championship and competing for it hurt a team’s actual chances in the national championship? As the 12-team College Football Playoff gets tweaked and shifted and tuned up, one thing can’t change: playing in a conference championship game hurts.
The issue seems most profound in the SEC, because the league has enough gravitas to fit five teams into a 12-team field. Which means that three-fifths of those teams in the College Football Playoff didn’t play for the SEC championship. And the one team still standing in the semifinals? Just as it was a year ago, NOT the SEC champion.
After seeing SEC champion Georgia fold in the CFP quarterfinals for the second time in two seasons and SEC title game participant Alabama get absolutely crushed by Indiana 38-3, it’s clear that the truth shines through: the better path is to stay entirely away from the SEC Championship.
The SEC has a fundamental issue.
It’s better to finish third in the league and host a home playoff game rather than play in the conference championship game.
That should be the SEC’s top offseason priority.
— Dayne Young (@dayneyoung) January 2, 2026
Of course, the fundamental issue here doesn’t belong entirely to the SEC. Conference champions are now 1-9 in a 12-team College Football Playoff. And there’s other leagues that might be noticing the same phenomenon.
The Big Ten was the other league capable of putting enough teams into the CFP to make their league title game irrelevant. And while Indiana chugs on, it’s worth noting that Oregon, like Ole Miss being lucky enough to finish out of the top two, blew past Texas Tech to reach the semifinals. League title game participant Ohio State, on the other hand, fell to Miami.
A season ago, the first teams to reach the end of a 12-team Playoff were an Ohio State team that missed the Big Ten title game and a Notre Dame team that has the benefit of never playing a league title game. This year, at least one of the two finalists (either Ole Miss or Miami) missed their conference championship.
SEC champion Georgia saw its second straight CFP end on a down note after winning the SEC title game. Trends suggest that might not be a coincidence. | Ayrton Breckenridge/Clarion Ledger / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
What is interesting is that the benefit of not playing a conference title game is demonstrable, but playing an extra CFP game doesn’t seem to be a significant issue. A season ago, No. 7 Notre Dame and No. 8 Ohio State each had to win three games to reach the title game. This year, Indiana is the only top four seed that hasn’t already had to win two games, while either No. 6 or No. 10 will play for the title. For whatever reason, playing an extra Playoff game seems to not weigh as heavily as playing for (and certainly winning) a conference title.
There has been some substantial speculation that a move to 16 teams in the Playoff could signal the end of conference title games. As Indiana seeks a 16-0 season, the difficulty of expecting players to compete in so many games is apparent. But a world in which a team might cruise into the postseason in third place in its league to avoid a superflous extra game? It might be sooner than anyone would have expected.
