The Big Ten may have won the last two National Championships - and the top two teams may reside in college football's silver medal conference - but it's still the SEC's world, whether you like it or not. The depth of the league remains unmatched, something that the College Football Playoff committee certainly believes based on their initial rankings, which were released on Tuesday night.
Four of the top six teams in the committee's rankings are SEC teams. Ohio State and Indiana are No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, but the next four spots are occupied by SEC heavyweights Texas A&M, Alabama, Georgia, and Ole Miss.
Two more SEC teams are in the Top 12, with Texas at No. 11 and Oklahoma at No. 12, giving the league half of the Top 12. Unfortunately for the Longhorns and the Sooners, due to the five highest-rated conference champions earning automatic bids to the playoff, they are both on the outside looking in as the first two teams out. They are replaced by Virginia (No. 14) and Memphis (unranked). Virginia is the highest-ranked ACC team and Memphis is the highest-ranked Group-of-Five team at this point.
Three more SEC teams were included in the Top 25 - Vanderbilt (No. 16), Missouri (No. 22), and Tennessee (No. 25). That's nine of the league's 16 teams making up the Top 25.
These facts are undoubtedly irritating to everyone outside of the footprint, no one more so than the Big Ten. They will scream about SEC bias until they are blue in the face, ignoring that the committee got it unequivocally correct.
The SEC is in good position to get four or more teams in the playoff
It was a major controversy last year when three three-loss SEC teams - Alabama, Ole Miss, and South Carolina - were all left out of the College Football Playoff. The SEC "only" got three teams in the first 12-team playoff field, with Georgia, Texas, and Tennessee making it. That was exasperated by the Big Ten landing four teams in the field.
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey was furious about it. He's probably got a pretty big smile on his face tonight after seeing how well positioned the league is to send four - or perhaps more - teams to the playoff.
A&M, Alabama, Georgia, and Ole Miss are all comfortably in the playoff field right now. None of them are locks, though the Aggies are pretty close. Oklahoma and Texas are right on the cusp, and Vanderbilt is certainly far from eliminated from contention itself.
It seems like a lock that the SEC will get at least four teams in. It may get five. If that happens, you can expect wailing and gnashing of teeth from around the country as everyone rallies together to angrily shout about the perceived SEC bias.