A common argument made by Alabama football fans is that conference championships should not get CFB Playoff automatic bids. The response from three of the other Power Five conferences is just the opposite, and it became a tipping point in an expanded Playoff format attempt that failed.
Those ‘other’ conference championships, particularly from the Pac 12 and the ACC are not equal to an SEC Championship because of the disparity in the strength of conference opponents. How that dispute will be resolved – if it is resolved, is not known.
A problem exists in choosing Playoff teams and it is that outside the SEC and the Big Ten, there are few teams ever worthy of Playoff consideration.
Though not directly related, a recent tweet showing the success rate of SEC teams against teams with winning records is interesting.
That Bama record is honestly mind blowing 🤯 pic.twitter.com/rLg3C6JEMZ
— SEC Football Vids (@SECFootballVids) May 3, 2022
Alabama football fans can crow about the stats shown in the tweet. Fans of other teams will no doubt complain that going back ten seasons is a too long span and their team is much better based on its last couple of seasons. It would be interesting to see the same comparison over the last five seasons and over just the last three seasons. We’ll try to pull that data together for a later post.
Getting back to the Playoffs and who deserves to qualify, a team’s recent record against Top 10 opponents might be a worthwhile comparison. At the least, it is an interesting one.
Alabama Football and other Playoff teams against Top 10 opponents
Using the same data source as was used in the tweet, the programs from the last five CFB Playoffs are compared. A Top 10 win or loss comes from how opponents were ranked when the games were played.
2017-2021 Records against Top 10 Teams
- Ohio State Buckeyes – 14-4; 77.8%
- Alabama Crimson Tide – 11-4; 73.3%
- LSU Bengal Tigers – 13-5; 72.2%
- Oklahoma Sooners – 7-4; 63.6%
- Georgia Bulldogs – 12-7; 63.1%
- Clemson Tigers – 6-5; 54.5%
- Cincinnati Bearcats – 1-3; 25%
- Notre Dame Fighting Irish – 2-7; 22.2%
- Michigan Wolverines – 1-10; 9%
On behalf of Alabama football fans, allow me to say – Cincinnati, Notre Dame and Michigan are not Playoff worthy programs.
Another SEC team is added for comparison, since supposedly over the last season, they have become National Championship contenders.
- Texas A&M Aggies – 3-9; 25%
In fairness to the Pac 12, Oregon (the best Pac 12 team over the last five seasons) was 3-1 (75%) against Top 10 teams. But like Cincinnati, four games do not present much of a sample.
Expanding the Playoffs needs to happen. Because of the financial return, it will happen at some point. Or possibly the SEC and the Big Ten will jointly stage their own National Championship Playoff.