It’s about the playoffs in college football. Things are messy in the strongest conference, the SEC, as many teams have lined up next to each other with the same record (8-2). Two more week-game weeks and that record will likely improve to 10-2 for at least 4 of those teams. We have Alabama, Ole Miss, Georgia, and Tennessee—the teams likely to end up with that record. However, before these programs could head to the playoffs, there is an important game awaiting the conference. It’s the SEC Championship game, which can have repercussions for the losing team. Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin is known for never mincing his words, and we got a take.

“I’ve talked with other coaches,” Kiffin said. “I’ll give you the feeling from some other coaches that they don’t want to be in it. The reward to get a bye versus the risk to get knocked out completely. That’s a really big risk just to get 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.”

On the November 21st episode of Josh Pate’s College Football show, Josh revealed how many players and coaches came to him and raised the same concern as Kiffin. “Let me tell you something. I’ve had more than half a dozen—at the very least I’ve had half a dozen head coaches tell me that this year. Point blank; off the record, they’d never say it publicly. It’s not that they don’t want to win their conference. It’s they don’t think playing in the conference championship game is worth the risk, and it’s so pathetic.” 

Does Josh think that what Lane Kiffin and the coaches are saying is pathetic? Well, no. Pate largely agrees with not just Kiffin but at least a dozen head coaches who have come to him and said the same thing. The concern around having a loss on your record because you played in the conference championship game is legit. Other competitors would, on the one hand, get a well-needed rest and, on the other hand, may just get ahead of his in the race to make the playoffs. There lies the concern.

Of course, there has been a precedent where the team that did not win the conference championship game ended up winning the national title, which Pate deems the ‘end goal’ for every program. However, as Pate said, ‘It’s a new world’. The old order was left behind when the NCAA decided to ditch the 4-team playoff format. Hence, rather than putting it on Kiffin and other HCs with the same concern, the onus is squarely on the committee. What can they do? Well, for starters, don’t punish the team losing the conference championship game. All these doubts will go away in a second. Besides that, let’s learn what a former head coach has to say to Kiffin.

Urban Meyer answered Lane Kiffin’s question

Former Ohio State and Florida coach Urban Meyer, who holds two SEC championship titles and three Big Ten championships, isn’t buying the idea of skipping a conference title game. Even if it means doing too much for a safe space for a spot in a college football playoff. “I’ll be honest, I’m shutting you out because I can’t even think like that,” Meyer said, sending a message to Lane Kiffin and the squad. “What do you mean you hope you don’t go to the championship game? You get up in the morning, and as you drive to work, you say, ‘Boy, I hope we don’t win the SEC championship.’ That does not compute.”

Meyer took a jab at Lane Kiffin and others who eentertained the idea of skipping the game. Although he further admitted there’s a risk factor associated with it, losing a title game could risk their playoff spot as well. With that right now, the SEC standing is quite tight. Texas lands at 9-1, followed by the five teams we already discussed sitting at 8-2.

As of now, teams such as Texas, Bama, Ole Miss, and Georgia hold a strong chance in the playoff, which puts Tennessee out of it, edged out by the Big 12 champion. With the playoff expanding to 12 teams next year, more chaos and drama will be there. But Meyer judges the current system as being a headache without divisions and tiebreakers.