The SEC will make its schedule more difficult in 2026. Won’t that make it tougher to qualify for a 12-team playoff?
A 9-3 team has not earned selection to 12-team playoff. That seems relevant to the SEC.
SEC wanted 16-team playoff, but Big Ten said no thanks.
When the SEC’s membership voted to add a ninth conference game, you must wonder whether they thought a 16-team playoff would be in place by the time the expanded conference schedule went into effect.
You also must wonder whether those SEC members still would’ve voted to expand the conference schedule, if they’d known the 12-team playoff would endure for the 2026 season.
On this edition of “SEC Football Unfiltered,” a podcast from the USA TODAY Network, hosts Blake Toppmeyer and John Adams unpack the SEC’s inability to strike a compromise with the Big Ten to reach on playoff expansion — and why the nine-game conference schedule might work to the SEC’s detriment in 2026.
They also debate whether the SEC should have gotten on board with the Big Ten’s plan for a 24-team playoff.
Will SEC regret adding a ninth conference game in 2026?
Adams: I’ve long advocated for the SEC expanding its conference schedule to create a better product. However, I’m skeptical that the extra conference game will help the SEC’s playoff pursuits in 2026. You must ask: How much will the selection committee reward strength of schedule? Answer: Probably not as much as the SEC desires.
A nine-game SEC schedule would have paired neatly with a 16-team playoff. SEC teams that finished 9-3 would’ve been prime candidates for at-large selection, in a 16-team field.
The selection committee still places a lot of value win-loss record, and an extra conference game will make it more difficult for SEC teams to reach 10-2.
Toppmeyer: The SEC needed a 16-team bracket for its nine-game conference schedule to pay off. The playoff committee has never selected a 9-3 team for a spot in the 12-team playoff, consistently rejecting SEC teams that pair nine wins with a lofty strength of schedule. Will the committee suddenly start admitting 9-3 SEC teams just because the conference added another league game? I’m skeptical of that.
Kudos to the Big Ten’s maneuvering. It argued for the SEC to add a ninth conference game, then threw up a roadblock toward expanding to a 5+11 playoff bracket that the SEC, Big 12 and ACC favored.
Without Big Ten support, the 5+11 playoff idea could not get approved. So, the SEC strengthened its schedule without successfully creating any more playoff bids. A 12-team playoff that’s worked well for the Big Ten persists.
Unlike the SEC, the Big Ten does not require its members to play either a Power Four opponent or Notre Dame in the non-conference schedule, although many do.
Overall, the Big Ten played the SEC like a fiddle.
Should the SEC have embraced a 24-team playoff?
Adams: No. This combination of a nine-game SEC schedule with a 12-team playoff might not work to the SEC’s benefit, but that’s not enough reason to get lured into a 24-team playoff. A playoff of such size would turn the sport on its head and devalue the regular season.
When we’re talking about almost the entire US LBM Coaches Poll Top 25 making the playoff, it’s gotten too big.
Toppmeyer: No. If the SEC wants 16, then continue negotiating to try to bring that into effect in subsequent years.
Committing to 24, when three of the four power conferences want 16, just wouldn’t make sense. College football’s regular season is its greatest attribute. I’m skeptical of any playoff format that would dilute the regular season. The Big Team’s 24-team proposal would do that.
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Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s national college football columnist. John Adams is the senior sports columnist for the Knoxville News Sentinel. Subscribe to the SEC Football Unfiltered podcast, and check out the SEC Unfiltered newsletter, delivered straight to your inbox.