© Dale Zanine/Imagn
“It just means more.”
At least, that’s what the SEC has been telling us for years about its athletics. However, it appears that’s no longer the case, at least according to the Alabama Crimson Tide.
The Tide went 11-4 in 2025, including a 10-2 regular season that saw it reach the SEC Championship Game, where it was blown out by the Georgia Bulldogs, 28-7.
Now, Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne says it might be time for the conference to get rid of its championship game altogether.
Alabama AD Suggests SEC Ditch Conference Championship Game Moving Forward
Speaking in an interview with USA Today, Byrne advocated for eliminating the league’s conference championship game now that the College Football Playoff has expanded to 12 teams, and looks likely to continue to grow in the future.
“I think the ship has sailed. It’s run its course,” Byrne said. “It’s a great event. I don’t like the idea of it going away, but I think it’s reality, with an expanded playoff.”
If Byrne doesn’t like the idea of it going away, he could simply advocate for it to stay rather than the complete opposite! Then again, Alabama’s blowout loss to the Bulldogs last year in Atlanta very nearly saw the Crimson Tide slip out of the playoff field altogether.
Perhaps that is a motivator for his sentiment? Again, a simple fix to that would be to not lose by 20-plus points in a conference championship game.
Byrne isn’t the first advocate for eliminating the game. Lane Kiffin did the same in 2024. Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte asked why is existed in Feburary.
The answer, of course, is money. But also, because SEC football is held up as some mythical competition that is above all else, and if that’s the case, winning the SEC Championship game should mean a lot to these programs.
I guess it just means less these days.
Instead, Byrne would rather have additional playoff games.
“If you’re going to a 16-team playoff, you’re adding more games,” he said. “I would imagine it would be pretty good content.”
There’s that word again, “content.”
Because that’s what college football is about these days, content for television and streaming providers.
So if you find yourself looking back in 10 years or so and yearning for the days when it did just mean more, remember that the same people who sold you that idea were the ones who did everything in their power to ensure that all of that meaning went away.