SEC leaders argue 9-3 record is good enough for expanded College Football Playoff; Do they have a point?

DESTIN, Fla. — A few years ago, a united, forward-thinking group of powerful Sports directors had a unique idea to update their schedules. Texas, Georgia, Florida, Texas A&M, Alabama – among others – participated.

If they didn’t explain their reasoning, they were certainly thinking it this way: By anticipating an extension of the college football playoffs, they would make it nearly impossible for the CFP Selection Committee to ignore them.

The plan was more brilliant than conspiracy.

“[We added] Ohio State, Michigan, Georgia, Florida, right away on schedule,” Texas AD Chris Del Conte said Wednesday at the SEC spring meetings. “We went Big Ten, Big Ten, SEC, SEC just based on trying to add value to the house ticket without having any idea that was happening.”

He was not alone. Each of the next two seasons, Florida will have some of the toughest times in the game’s history. Each year features what can be conservatively projected as eight ranked opponents.

Alabama has long scheduled quality non-conference games under Nick Saban. As of 2025, Bama has faced two Power Four opponents in non-con for 10 consecutive years. Georgia isn’t exactly avoiding anyone.

With the expanded playoff quickly approaching, they are suddenly saying out loud the hard part to the SEC’s CFP selection committee: reward us for strength of schedule. Specifically, give us playoff spots at 9-3. This, of course, has never been done before.

Not even close, actually. In the BCS era (since 1998), only one team with two losses has played for a championship. LSU won it all in 2007.

“If you played a tough schedule, you better consider a 9-3 team,” Alabama AD Greg Byrne said. “I heard we’re pretty good at football in the Southeastern Conference.”

“If they all [selection committee] What you see is a brilliant win-loss record at the expense of teams that played good schedules, so people stop playing good non-conference games,” said Florida AD Scott Stricklin, a member of the 2018 selection committee. 20.

“There’s a new burden on the committee… I want to see how the committee processes this,” said SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey.

This 13-person selection committee has rarely been under such scrutiny before the start of the season. Starting this year, the top five ranked conference champions automatically enter. It will be these seven open spots that will cause problems inside and outside the Gaylord Texan Resort in Grapevine, Texas, where the committee meets.

The inherent conflict looming on the horizon is obvious.

“The interesting thing is the team [from another conference] that doesn’t play a regular 11-1 or 12-0 schedule and how that compares to a 9-3 team that plays eight top 25 teams,” Stricklin said.

This happened in miniature last season. Florida State became the first undefeated power conference team to sit out the BCS/CFP since 2004. Instead, one-loss Alabama was allowed in despite losing by double digits at home to Texas . To compound the issue, then… No. 1 Georgia sat out after suffering its only three-point loss to Alabama in the SEC Championship Game.

The State of Florida Attorney General Launched Antitrust Investigation into PCP. It was later revealed that the selection committee members were assigned security after threats from FSU fans.

“‘We have an undefeated team, so they’re in’ is not the standard,” Sankey said Wednesday. “It was never the standard. Obviously, it was controversial last year.”

Most of the playoff considerations going forward will revolve around the 34 teams in the Big Ten and SEC. They are the best and brightest brands. Realignment was consolidation and vice versa. The point is, when these teams play each other, someone has to lose.

“It’s breaking a seal if you’re four [teams in the playoff],” Del Conte said of 9-3 teams. “But you’re at 12. You’re going to come back and say, ‘Time out. See who they played, how they played, where they played. I don’t think this is breaking a seal.

“We can play against a lot of teams, they don’t have meat down to the bone. You play against a school that has meat on its bones and you have one or two losses – that’s what the committee is about [in deciding].”

In a sense, this groupthink is another indicator of the SEC’s obvious superiority. Last year’s Texas-Alabama matchup is now a conference game. LSU begins the season against USC. Florida plays Miami, Florida State and UCF outside of the conference. Texas and Georgia await in the league.

But on another level, do they have to shove it in our faces? Three times since 2011, the SEC has secured a national championship before the title game was played (2011, 2017, 2021).

A three-loss team in the playoffs was inevitable. But 9-3 seems so… mediocre. It doesn’t matter if a team like that goes on a run and wins a national championship.

Perhaps the best conclusion is to just get used to it. Going back to 1998 and adding the 12-team bracket, a total of 28 teams with at least three defeats would have entered the field in those 26 years. All 28 would be from the current Power Four. A combined sixteen came from teams currently in the Big Ten and SEC. In just seven years there would be no teams with three losses.

Here’s the breakdown:

• SEC (nine)
• 12 big (eight)
• Big Ten (seven)
• ACC (four)

Still hanging in the air is the structure and format of the playoffs that begin in 2026. When the Big Ten and SEC floated four automatic qualifiers each earlier this year, the message was clear. They wanted these closed points without any subjectivity.

“What [those conferences are] basically saying is, ‘We don’t trust the selection committee. So we basically want to take away their power,’” a person familiar with the discussions told CBS Sports.

Perhaps with good reason. The CFP has never publicly revealed how it decides the Football Four each season. The NCAA basketball selection committee reveals at least its top 16 in February. Voters from AP (media) and football coaches polls reveal the top 25 at different points in the season.

“They are an opinion poll that does not evaluate the actual placement of teams in the playoffs,” Sankey said of the human polls. “They show the result of your work. They explain. Now, whether that’s the depth you want, there may be a disagreement.”

In fact, the AP poll was taken into account in the BCS rankings. Citing a conflict of interest, the Associated Press asked the BCS to remove it as a ratings tool in 2004.

“One of the things that’s wrong with college athletics is that all this postseason stuff is done subjectively,” Stricklin said. “It’s one of the great things that professional sports has. You don’t wake up the day after the regular season ends and wait for someone to tell you [who’s in] …

“The only thing you can do is give conferences automatic proposals and take more decisions out of the hands of the committee and decide things on the field,” he added. “I understand the resistance… I’m not advocating that. I’m just saying it’s a way to make the committee less important.”

Sankey emphasized: “We trust [the selection committee], period. They have a difficult role. I think they’ve performed well over time.”

The seals will continue to be broken. After Alabama took the field last season, Byrne said the easiest thing to do was replace Texas with a beatable Group of Five opponent.

“There would have been no debate, we are in,” he said.

The difficult part was risking everything against Texas and losing.

“There was a lot of emotion in the country that week. You want good matchups like that,” Byrne said. “I certainly hope that those last few spots as far as playoff qualification are concerned are recognized. Otherwise, why play the games?”

Especially when 9-3 will put you in.