A Brand-New Game

By Jim Gazzolo

Welcome to the new world order when it comes to college football.

The landscape has shifted, the king is dead and the emperor has no clothes.

Use whichever metaphor you are comfortable with, but it all means the same.

The power of college football no longer resides in the Southeastern Conference.

And that is a good thing for the health of the game.

The SEC won’t have a dog in the big fight for the second straight year. Locked out of the national championship game once again, the league is left to lick its wounds.

The conference coaches and executives cried that the playoff committee had disrespected their league, almost demanding more than three teams be guaranteed into the postseason. 

They claimed a loss in their conference was worth much more than victories in others. Lane Kiffin, the head coach of Ole Miss, criticized Indiana in particular as a team not worth a playoff spot. 

In the end, the new 12-team playoff system exposed truths about at least this year’s clubs.

Both Notre Dame and Ohio State, of which likely would have missed the old four-team playoff from a year ago, will be in the championship game. And Indiana—well, the Hoosiers come out looking pretty good.

Their two losses were to the two final teams left standing. They only lost to Notre Dame by 10, while the SEC champ Georgia lost to the Irish by 13. 

Overall, the postseason has not been good for the once-dominating SEC. The league went 2-3 in the playoffs, with all three defeats by double digits and one of its wins coming in overtime.

In all bowl games, the conference finished at just 7-6. 

That doesn’t mean the SEC is no longer elite, but rather, the rest of the nation has caught up and even passed the conference. Thanks to NIL and the transfer portal, college football is now dominated by money. 

That has more than leveled the playing field. 

Why is that good? Because the game is now important in more than just one or two regions. Sure, the Midwest will get its second straight title no matter whether the Irish win or the Buckeyes.

The playoffs have also produced three or four good games and far more storylines that promote the sport. 

The first year of the 12-team tournament has not been perfect. All four seeded clubs with opening-week byes lost, meaning the committee may need to adjust who gets the automatic spots. 

That’s fine. Tinkering is a good thing as we move forward. 

And the playoffs have taken two weeks too long. Some of that is because the college football brass still wants to keep the big bowl games happy. That’s a small price to pay for all the positives.

The SEC will bounce back. It has only been two years since the league was at the top of its game.

Texas also got close, and by making a run to the semifinals, the Longhorns found out that winning is the best way to have the rest of the SEC love you…for a short time.

More than a few SEC clubs should be in the running for a national title once again next season. If they can get by their first game for the first time in four years, LSU is one of them.

The hard part for the league is there is no longer a belief that playing in that league is much tougher than others. It all comes down to a bit of luck and a promising playoff draw.

The SEC may still be the best, but its margin for error has shrunk considerably.

That makes the entire college football season much more enjoyable for everybody else.

Jim Gazzolo is a freelance writer who covers McNeese athletics. He is the host of Poke Nation on CBS-Lake Charles.