Twenty years ago, the Auburn Tigers finished a 13-0 football season that didn’t contain the opportunity to play for the national championship.
This isn’t the college football of 2004.
After a 10-year run with a four-team playoff, the sport for the first time is implementing a 12-team playoff — or tournament, really — to determine its national champion. The four-team playoff came about after the 16-year run of the Bowl Championship Series, in which the top two teams were paired to compete for the championship.
Auburn’s 2004 team won the Southeastern Conference but was left out of the BCS championship contest when undefeated Pac-12 champion Southern California faced undefeated Big 12 champion Oklahoma. Moving forward, SEC teams will be able to go 10-2 or even 9-3 and still be invited to the party with a national crown at stake.
“You want to be the highest seed you can be, so every game is still very important,” new Alabama football coach Kalen DeBoer said Tuesday as the SEC’s spring meetings kicked off in Destin, Florida. “I don’t like to think that you have a little wiggle room because more teams are in the playoff. I don’t want us thinking that way.
“I want us thinking about every game, the significance of it and how important it is to us landing in a good spot and getting a potential first-round bye in the playoff. That’s what we will be attacking and working for.”
DeBoer led Washington to last season’s national championship game, with his Huskies falling short against Michigan, and he is already taking early steps to prepare for a potentially longer year. In this new landscape, a team that plays for its conference championship and then reaches the title game of the 12-team field will have either played 16 or 17 games.
A 17-game season would entail playing for a conference title and being seeded fifth or lower in the playoff before advancing to the championship contest.
“We’re moving to being a morning practice team,” DeBoer said. “Over the course of months, you’re conscious about the amount of sleep guys are getting, and that’s not even getting to the amount of contacts and hits. You want to be playing your best ball at the end of the year, and you want to be fresh, both mentally and physically.
“There is such a fine line, because you have to be prepared for games throughout the season.”
Bill Hancock, the executive director of the College Football Playoff, said in March that the new six-year contract set to start in 2026 allows for further expansion to 14 teams, which would mirror the format currently used by the NFL. The new contract is being driven by a television rights deal with ESPN that will be reportedly worth $1.3 billion annually.
Georgia coach Kirby Smart has been tied to college football since signing with the Bulldogs as a defensive back in 1994, with his one exception being the safeties coach of the 2006 Miami Dolphins. Smart believes the impact of a 12-team field will be monstrous.
“I coached in the NFL for a year, and I watch the NFL every year,” he said. “At the end of the day, a 9-7 year is playoff worthy. I’m not saying that we’re headed to where 9-7 teams are in the playoffs, but we’re headed in a direction where you don’t have to worry about losing your entire roster when you lose one or two games because they think it’s over.”
Smart guided Georgia to national championships in 2021 and 2022, but last year’s Bulldogs dropped from No. 1 in the playoff rankings to No. 6 after losing to Alabama 27-24 in the SEC title game.
“There have probably been three times where I thought we were one of the four best teams, but we didn’t earn it on the field,” Smart said. “The same opportunity is going to present itself. It’s just that those teams will be 13, 14 and 15.
“You guys will debate about it, and I’m going to try and make my team better so they’re not 13, 14 or 15.”
Saban’s absence
For the first time since 2006, Nick Saban is not representing Alabama at the SEC meetings.
His absence alone was a topic Tuesday.
“He had sat in more of these meetings than anybody when you add the LSU and Alabama time together,” Smart said. “People relied on him for experience and knowledge, because he is very thoughtful in terms of what he comes up with and his ideas to make football better.
“I also respected the fact, whether I was an assistant for him or a head coach alongside him in there, that it was never about what was best for his team. It was about what was best for the game of football, and sometimes people lose sight of that for self-preservation.”
‘It’s all happening’
The 2024 SEC spring meetings are the first containing 16 coaches in football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball, with Oklahoma and Texas joining the league in a matter of weeks.
Longhorns football coach Steve Sarkisian said Big 12 logos no longer accompany Darrell K Royal Memorial Stadium.
“It’s pretty exciting,” Sarkisian said. “We’ve been out and about all May, and I had a chance to stop in the office Sunday before I came out here, and the SEC logo is getting put down in DKR right now. It’s all happening, and it’s all becoming a reality.
“This conference is amazing. I had some great years here when I was an assistant at Alabama.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.