Former Alabama QB rips the way College Football Playoff committee considers schedule strength

Jan 21, 2025; Atlanta, GA, USA; The College Football Playoff National Championship trophy at press conference at The Westin Peachtree Plaza, Savannah Ballroom. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

The 12-team College Football Playoff format looks as if it will not be here for long as new formats are being discussed to replace it.

In the midst of an intriguing discussion of creating a 16-team playoff, ESPN is nudging the SEC to go to a nine-game conference schedule and is willing to pay anywhere from $50 million to $80 million, per reports. 

On this week’s episode of The Dynasty: A Podcast on the Alabama Crimson Tide, former Alabama QB AJ McCarron suggested the SEC should be cautious of playing nine conference games or agreeing to a set number of automatic playoff bids due to the playoff committee’s lack of respect for strength of schedule.

“You want us to add a ninth game? You want us to only get a certain amount of automatic bids in here? How about you help us out, and the metric on your system for seeding teams should be strength of schedule,” McCarron said. “Last year, you proved as a committee that you didn’t give one crap about strength of schedule. You allowed SMU, who was 75th in strength of schedule, to bump over Alabama, that was 18th strength of schedule. And then on top of that, you also showed you had to clue what you were doing when Clemson beat SMU in the ACC Championship, and then you proceeded to still put them ahead of Clemson when it came to the rankings.”

The concern is that adding a ninth conference game will result in SEC teams knocking each other out of playoff contention because people within the SEC believe the committee undervalues the quality of wins a team had or the team’s strength of schedule and is fixated on the loss column. 

Perhaps the person concerned about this issue more than McCarron is SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey. He went on The Dan Patrick Show and said the College Football Playoff selection process is threatening the regular season.

“The first issue that needs to be addressed is the selection criteria incentivizing playing these highly competitive, highly desired games whether that’s conference or non-conference,” Sankey said.

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