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We are getting close to the end of the season, and now coaches are addressing one of the top “what if” scenarios that has popped up in the chase for the College Football Playoff. Would the selection committee leave out a loser of a conference championship game?

Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin brought this up during a press conference this week.

“I’ve talked with other coaches. I’ll give you the feeling from some other coaches that they don’t want to be in it,” Kiffin said (via: 247Sports). “The reward to get a bye versus the risk to get knocked out completely. That’s a really big risk just to get a bye. It’s ended up being a very unique situation of all postseason sports, the way that system is set up. You can go to that and get knocked out and if you don’t go, you’re in.”

There is a massive concern in Kiffin’s conference specifically, since there are six SEC teams with either one or two conference losses. When you compound that with the presence of four Big Ten teams in the top five, and the SEC might have a serious problem.

New Era In College Football But Problems Remain

I have a hard time believing that the College Football Playoff selection committee will allow the biggest fears of Kiffin and others to come true. I know, I know. Georgia got knocked out last season after losing the SEC Championship Game to Alabama despite heading into that game unblemished. 

That was then. This is now.

The new system was instituted along with a new era in the sport that includes the absence of divisions in all four Power Four conferences. Those two things coming to fruition together makes this a much different conversation than last season. 

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I hate comparing college football’s postseason to college basketball’s because the landscape of their respective regular seasons is entirely different. I’ll divert from that for the purposes of this discussion. It’s far more likely for the committee – or any of us – to have this discussion like the one we have during conference tournaments in hoops. Underdogs can play their way up the seed lines in the NCAA Tournament. However, superpowers that make the conference semifinals or finals rarely drop down a seed line in March Madness.

In log-jammed conferences with more postseason spots to play with, it’d be crazy to punish a team for playing its way into the opportunity to win a ring. CFP selection committee chair Warde Manuel has dodged this question during the post-show teleconferences because he doesn’t want to address hypothetical situations. But you can bet your bottom, top and middle dollars that it has been discussed within the walls of that conference room in suburban Dallas.

Other Issues With Conference Championships

Kiffin addressed other potential issues with playing in a conference championship game as well.

“There’s a cost and benefit to everything,” he said. “There’s benefits to this playoff system with so many people being excited… then there’s costs too. The conference championships don’t mean as much. It’s not just do you potentially get knocked out by losing it, do you go get more injuries? Playing another game to get a bye, but the other people that have a bye while you’re playing.”

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He’s 100% right about potential injuries and the loser of a conference title game. The loser won’t get a bye while teams that aren’t good enough to get to Championship Saturday will get the luxury to sit at home. That sucks, but there’s not much that can be done about it.

The loser of a conference championship game – especially in the SEC and Big Ten – will get into the 12-team College Football Playoff barring a massive shock. It’d be totally ridiculous if it doesn’t.