I'm still convinced that the committee partially just didn't want to deal with the media repercussions of leaving out an SEC team. Greg Sankey would have been on Finebaum on Monday calling it a joke, the next 6 weeks would be nothing but SEC leaders, coaches, and fan bases calling this a fake playoff, which I doubt the Jeff Hafley is going to do. Also, very real people are on the committee, and I doubt that Kelly Whiteside wants to spend the next several months hearing on Twitter from some rando with a Commodores Avatar about how she knows nothing about football along with some nasty words that I'd rather not use.
I agree with you. I believe there's at least a chance the outcome changes were it not the last year of the current 4-team playoff. Unlike prior years, the committee could do what they wanted and not worry about precedent.
This hasn’t always been the case. Does anyone remember the talks in 2006 about an Ohio State-Michigan rematch for the BCS title? Following that year, when Florida beat the living hell out of Ohio State, the SEC essentially went on a 10 year marketing campaign. Don’t rat out other programs (even when they pay big money to induce recruits pre-NIL), don’t make your path to a title harder than it has to be (8 game conference schedule), and ALWAYS be the center of attention. This conference willingly took less money to be on a major broadcast network (CBS) at the same time every week with their biggest game. What they did was truly genius, and now that they’re in a position of power, the hope is to stomp on the throats of everyone else.
While I agree with the general sentiment as to why ESPN doesn’t have to stump for the SEC $$-wise, it’s hard not to question if the cabal of TV executors were worried that an entire conference of rabid footballs, the SEC, would not watch the playoffs nearly as much if one of their teams wasn’t in.
But who knows. Facebook gave me a memory on an old status yesterday from December 6th, 2014; in which I posted about seeding in the first 4-team playoff where FSU ended up being ranked third. Third behind Bama and Oregon as 1-loss teams. As the undefeated national champions with their returning Heisman-winning QB. Third. Feels like the bias was baked in 9 years ago at the onset.
I'm still convinced that the committee partially just didn't want to deal with the media repercussions of leaving out an SEC team. Greg Sankey would have been on Finebaum on Monday calling it a joke, the next 6 weeks would be nothing but SEC leaders, coaches, and fan bases calling this a fake playoff, which I doubt the Jeff Hafley is going to do. Also, very real people are on the committee, and I doubt that Kelly Whiteside wants to spend the next several months hearing on Twitter from some rando with a Commodores Avatar about how she knows nothing about football along with some nasty words that I'd rather not use.
I agree with you. I believe there's at least a chance the outcome changes were it not the last year of the current 4-team playoff. Unlike prior years, the committee could do what they wanted and not worry about precedent.
This hasn’t always been the case. Does anyone remember the talks in 2006 about an Ohio State-Michigan rematch for the BCS title? Following that year, when Florida beat the living hell out of Ohio State, the SEC essentially went on a 10 year marketing campaign. Don’t rat out other programs (even when they pay big money to induce recruits pre-NIL), don’t make your path to a title harder than it has to be (8 game conference schedule), and ALWAYS be the center of attention. This conference willingly took less money to be on a major broadcast network (CBS) at the same time every week with their biggest game. What they did was truly genius, and now that they’re in a position of power, the hope is to stomp on the throats of everyone else.
While I agree with the general sentiment as to why ESPN doesn’t have to stump for the SEC $$-wise, it’s hard not to question if the cabal of TV executors were worried that an entire conference of rabid footballs, the SEC, would not watch the playoffs nearly as much if one of their teams wasn’t in.
But who knows. Facebook gave me a memory on an old status yesterday from December 6th, 2014; in which I posted about seeding in the first 4-team playoff where FSU ended up being ranked third. Third behind Bama and Oregon as 1-loss teams. As the undefeated national champions with their returning Heisman-winning QB. Third. Feels like the bias was baked in 9 years ago at the onset.