The strong leader seeks the meek and the less fortunate, and in this context, the commissioner of the Supreme Education Council Greg Sankey Try to help Pac-12.
The once-great conference was so irrelevant that the Pac-12 produced two qualifiers for college football interlude In eight years of qualifying. Last season, both the ACC and the Big 12 joined the Pac-12 Conferences as the Power Five who weren’t strong enough to supply the qualifying playoffs.
Sankey joined forces with a handful of other collegiate sports leaders last year to put together a plan that would correct this, with more sites created for Sankey’s SEC: a 12-team playoff that features automatic displays of the conference’s top six champions, as well as six public displays.
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This structure could have created more access to the supplement while still maintaining the value of the regular season. But adjusting the four-team playoffs before their contract expires after the 2025 season required the full support of the conference commissioners. No unanimous expansion agreement reachedThe four-team playoff will therefore remain in place for at least the next four seasons.
Sankey this week rejoiced at the SEC’s dominance — Alabama, Georgia and Georgia have combined to produce five national championships of coordination, including the last three — but more importantly, he cautioned that despite This format works for his conference, it’s the hamstrings of the sport in general.
“We can stay at four. This conference will thrive at four,” Sankey told reporters on Monday in Birmingham. “It’s not healthy for the rest of FBS football. But we can stay at four.”
He continued, “We have areas that do not enter the qualifiers.”
A very large area actually. Like, it’s all west of Norman, Oklahoma.
Teams in mountainous or Pacific time zones have come together for two CFP shows — most recently, Washington did the playoff of the 2016 season.
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Meanwhile, Alabama and Georgia – campuses 270 miles apart – Teamed up in January to offer a SEC-only national championship For the second time in five years.
distance Oklahoma and Texas join the Securities and Exchange Commission, which will happen by 2025the conference shall annually obtain at least two bids in the form of four teams, however long it lasts.
Say it louder to the people in the back: The four-team format is a boon to the SEC, particularly the SEC’s elite programs, but it’s distasteful to the health of the sport.
College football is rooted in the spirit of the South. The same is true for places like Columbus, Ohio; Lincoln, Nebraska and Norman.
Elsewhere, the interest is more fleeting.
Contrary to what some coaches or administrators might say, the biggest threat to college football is not Athletes capitalize on their fame or boost funding groups that distribute name, image, and likeness deals.
The biggest threat to college football is the stale product.
On the whole, the four-team playoff was a boring project that was more fair but less compelling than its predecessor, the Bowl Championship Series.
The highest-rated national championship game for either BCS or CFP was the Rose Bowl between Southern Cal and Texas to culminate in the 2005 season. Televised by ABC, it drew 35.6 million viewers and scored a rating of 21.7, according to Data collected by Sports Media Watch.
The second highest-ranked TV title was the CFP’s first, Ohio State against Oregon, to culminate in the 2014 season.
Various factors influence TV ratings, and viewers today have more options than they did when USC and Texas collided. Who has not been tempted to broadcast”OzarkOn Netflix instead of watching sports?
However, it is no coincidence that both of the top-rated national leagues feature a West Coast team and no SEC teams.
College football and its national championship will always captivate the South. This year’s National Championship lags behind in the rankings, overall, but It enjoyed a strong viewership in markets like Atlanta; Birmingham, Alabama; Greenville, South Carolina.
Increased audience and popularity requires representation from other regions.
This made a perfect 12-team playoff. Such a format last season would have included teams from Pittsburgh to Utah.
unlike file Eight teams, preferred by somethe 12-team format preserves the value of the regular season by awarding playoffs in the first round to the top four teams.
Also, unlike the eight-team format, the big six 12-team positions will increase interest throughout the season, rather than confining the drama to conference tournaments and play-offs.
Sure, the SEC might get nearly half the points in a 12-team playoff, but it really does.
Sankey envisioned a scenario in a 12-team format where, coming November, at least 30 teams across FBS will remain in the midst of the playoffs.
“This creates excitement and hope for college football that looked so healthy,” Sankey said.
Alas, for the next four seasons, that won’t be the case – not for lack of trying.
Sanke led the meek congresses to the water but he couldn’t force them all to drink.
Blake Topmeyer SEC columnist for USA TODAY Network. Follow him on Twitter Tweet embed.
