When Alabama football was left out of the College Football Playoff last season by the committee in favor of SMU from the ACC, it was only a matter of time before there was widespread ramifications and changes coming to the format.
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey was not going to stand idly by and watch as the SEC only got three teams into the playoff while the Big Ten got four and the ACC even two. That decision cost the conference money, and the SEC has been the top dog in college football for over two decades now. With the addition of Texas and Oklahoma, its pedigree is higher than ever before. It was an atrocity to Sankey and the conference to only get three teams in the first 12-team playoff.
He could've, of course, blamed member institutions like Alabama and Ole Miss, both of which lost games it had no business losing. Alabama had inexplicable losses to Vanderbilt and Oklahoma; Ole Miss dropped a home game to a four-win Kentucky. Flip any one of those three results the other way and the SEC would have had four teams in the playoff.
He, too, could have blamed his own officials, who inexplicably cost South Carolina what should have been a win over LSU. Flipping that result would have put the Gamecocks at 10-2 and they, too, would have been in the playoff.
It was only a matter of time before the SEC and Big Ten ensured they would have more seats at the table than the other, perceived lesser conferences. Alabama being left out of last year's playoff only accelerated the timeline.
According to Yahoo's Ross Dellenger, the SEC and Big Ten have serious momentum toward expanding the playoff to 14 or 16 teams and four guaranteed bids to the playoff every year with the two power leagues getting a guaranteed four bids each.
The SEC and Big Ten threw their weight around last Spring and threatened the rest of the college football conferences with creating its own postseason system. The rest of the leagues, including Notre Dame, bent the knee and signed a memorandum of understanding, effectively handing over control over the future of the College Football Playoff to the SEC and Big Ten.
The two new proposed formats would take place starting in 2026 with either 14 or 16 teams. The 14-team format would give byes to the top two teams. There would be no byes in the 16-team format. Whether 14 or 16 teams, eight of the bids to either format would be spoken for by the SEC and Big Ten getting four bids each. The proposal would guarantee two bids each for the ACC and Big 12, a bid to the highest-ranked Group-of-Five champion, and either one or three automatic bids, one guaranteed to Notre Dame if they are ranked in the Top 14 or 16, depending on the format.
A nine game SEC schedule could be the result of the new playoff format
Sankey and the SEC's Athletic Directors have been apprehensive to move to a nine-game league scheduling format for fear of an extra, more difficult game being added to the schedule for each program opening the door to an extra loss potentially costing a playoff bid to a member institution.
The playoff committee's decision to choose SMU - and even Indiana - over Alabama last season signaled to the SEC that strength of schedule was not a major factor in deliberations. It removed any incentive to add a ninth game to the SEC schedule.
But the guaranteed playoff berths changes that. Of course, the power brokers in the SEC would love an extra SEC game every year. That's extra money brought in from TV ratings. That extra money just didn't outweigh the money that comes from bids to the playoff. With the guarantees potentially in place, we could see the SEC move to a nine-game league schedule starting in 2026.
Regardless of whether it's going to be a 14 or 16-team playoff, the guaranteed access for the SEC is good news for Alabama and the rest of the programs in the league. Just maybe not for the rest of college football.