Looks like the SEC used its leverage and got its way on Wednesday, as the College Football Playoff announced it would be changing the way it uses strength of schedule when determining which schools should be ranked above others.
“An additional metric, record strength, has been added to the selection committee’s analysis to go beyond a team’s schedule strength to assess how a team performed against that schedule,” the CFP release stated.
You think it’s a coincidence that SEC coaches and commissioner Greg Sankey emphasized the strength of schedule so much over the offseason?
No.
Last year, the initial year of the 12-team playoff format, the SEC got its feathers ruffled when Ole Miss, Alabama and South Carolina were left out of the 12-team field.
The SEC said that those three schools were unfairly excluded from the playoffs because the format favors conference champions.
Also, the SEC believed more emphasis should be given to the strength of the SEC schedule.
Shocker: What the SEC wants, it gets.
The SEC wanted the CFP to place a much bigger emphasis on a team’s strength of schedule.
I get that.
If a team plays a formidable, ranked opponent, that should be given more weight with the selection committee.
Likewise, if a team loads the schedule with cupcakes, there should be minimal rewards.
This is a plus for those teams that schedule more challenging games and win. Teams that win against a less difficult opponent won’t vault up the rankings.
So, where’s the rub?
The current 12-team field includes the five highest-ranked conference champions earning automatic bids, with the following seven highest-ranked teams qualifying as at-large entries.
The SEC has 10 teams ranked in the initial 2025 AP Top 25.
SEC teams will automatically start the season with an inherent advantage that even the other super-power conference, the Big Ten, doesn’t have.
For the second year in a row, an SEC team was missing from the national championship game. Instead, the Big Ten’s Ohio State defeated FBS independent Notre Dame, 34-23.
So, the SEC decided that was a trend that was not going to last.
Stankey expressed a concern over why Indiana, which went 11-1 in the regular season in 2024, should have gotten in over Alabama or South Carolina, both finishing 9-3.
The Hoosiers solidified Stankey’s argument, losing to Notre Dame, 27-17, in the opening round of the playoffs.
The SEC advocated all offseason that their strength of schedule metrics far exceeded other conferences, such as the Big Ten and ACC.
The SEC weighed the option of moving to a nine-game conference schedule this season, but in March decided to remain with the current eight-game slate.
What was the holdup in moving to a nine-game conference slate?
The SEC was waiting on the CFP selection committee to adopt the strength of schedule metric, which they did on Wednesday.
You can bank on the SEC moving to a nine-game conference slate in 2026.
Schedule matters, but so do results.
The CFP selection committee just made the SEC even stronger.
Imagine that.
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