Bryson Bowen

February 1, 2019
Class 6
Mr. Williamson

 
why there should be eight teams 
instead of four in the college 
football playoffs. 
 
I believe that the college football playoffs are very unfair to many teams for many

reasons. The main reasons why I believe the playoff bracket should be expanded to more

teams is because any southeastern conference (SEC) teams are at a disadvantage because of

how much more challenging their schedules are compared to atlantic coast conference

(ACC) teams, pacific 12 conference (Pac-12) teams, and conference USA (C-USA), and

many other conferences. The SEC is the strongest division in my opinion and is at a greater

disadvantage chance getting into the college football playoffs than any other college football

division/program.

Out of the top 25 nationally ranked football teams, 8 teams are out of the

southeastern conference (SEC). There are 14 total teams in the southeastern conference and

8 finished nationally ranked in the top 25. Out of the other 6 teams, 2 teams were ranked at

some point of the season. Not all SEC teams are ranked throughout the year because of how

hard the SEC scheduling is and the amount of games they play in their division are most

likely ranked games. Alabama has been dominating for the past decade or so and any team

that has to play them in the regular season is already off to a bad start unless they somehow
win. At the end of the season, you either know your going to the college football playoffs or

not. SEC team do not know if they will make it because of such a tough schedule and the

maybe another added loss at the end of the season in the conference championship, like

Georgia who was snubbed out of the college football playoffs because they lost to Alabama

in the sec championship. Other conferences have a have a better shot at making it into the

final four and a chance to win the national championship is amazing, but when your last

game of the season is the southeastern conference championship where Georgia this year

had to play Alabama is so much more unfair then Notre Dame who doesn’t have to play in

any conference championship game at the end of the season to determine their season.

How hard are teams schedules throughout the entire season in different conferences?

I want to determine the strength of college football schedules. Clemson a very strong team in

the ACC are ranked number two in college football as we speak. They are 11-0 and play in

three nationally ranked games against Syracuse, Boston College, and N.C. State who are all

teams out of the atlantic coast conference (ACC). Clemson only plays one game against a

southeastern conference team, Auburn which was one of their closest game of their entire

season only winning 14-7. . Auburn which isn’t the strongest SEC team in college football,

gave Clemson the best ACC team in college football a fight. LSU Tiger’s played in 7

nationally ranked games out of 14 where Clemson only plays in 3 nationally ranked games.

Syracuse is the only team who stayed ranked throughout the entire year, as where out of

LSU’s 7 nationally ranked games, 5 teams finished in the top 25.

Any team that plays in the southeastern conference is at a disadvantage of making

the college football playoffs because their schedules are much more challenging then most
all college football teams. Any team that has to play University of Alabama (SEC) in the

regular season is most likely coming out with a loss, considering how strong their team is

and where other conferences might only play Alabama once at the end of the season because

they don't have to take on such a strong powerhouse during the regular seasons where their

rank would be lowered from a early game in the season. Alabama is the strongest team in the

southeastern conference which is the best conference in college football. Since 2006 to 2017,

the SEC has won 10 out of the last 12 national championship. Alabama has won 5 out of the

12 and is on track to win the national title again this year. This is arguably the best team

Alabama has ever had, being 2nd in points allowed per game which is 12.7 behind Clemson

only allowing 12.6 per game and 2nd in scored points per game all year. Alabama also plays

in the southeastern conference which is arguably the hardest conference in college football.

Louisiana State University (SEC) was the 3rd ranked team in the southeastern

college and was ranked 7th in college football. LSU played seven nationally ranked games

against Miami(5), Auburn Tigers(7), Florida Gators(13), Georgia Bulldogs(2), Mississippi

State(21), Alabama(1), Texas A&M (20). They have only two losses on the season. They have

been beaten by Florida Gators and Alabama. They will not be able to make the college

football playoffs this year unless highly ranked teams start losing. LSU has one of the

strongest schedules in college football. If LSU had played the same schedule as Clemson they

would most likely be undefeated and vise versa if Clemson had LSU schedule they would

have at least 2 losses and would not be ranked in the top 4 and would have no shot at

making the college football playoffs.

 Many people believe that University of Central Florida deserve to be in the college

football playoffs for the past two years because they have been undefeated the past couple

seasons. LSU played UCF in the Fiesta Bowl in January 1st. The final score was LSU - 40

UCF - 32. The Tigers were up most of the game although UCF had the advantage. The Tigers

had 9 starters who decided to sit the entire game because they were gonna focus on the NFL

combine and take no chance of injury on the last game of the season. UCF only had one

starter who did not play due to injury. LSU’s secondary mainly beat the so called “national

championship” team of last year just because they didn’t have a loss the entire two seasons

just because of how weak their schedule was.

Florida had 3 losses all season leading to their bowl game. All three loses were against

all southeastern conference games. Michigan had 2 losses all season leading up to the bowl

game against notre dame and ohio state. Michigan was ranked 4th in the nation throughout

most of the season. Michigan had a pretty challenging schedule and lost late in the season to

knock them off the playoff contention. Michigan and Florida played in the Peach Bowl on

December 29 and Florida won 41-15 a blown win against the favored Michigan team. This is

another reason shows why the southeastern conference primarily dominates college football.

Florida ranked 10th in the nation and not top three team in the SEC blew out Michigan the

number 7th team in the nation and one of the best teams in the Big Ten Conference.

College football needs to have eight teams in the college football playoffs instead of

four to give stronger teams a chance to come back up and win the national title who got

ranked lower due to a more challenging schedule early on in the season due to more losses.

The Southeastern conference is not only the strongest conference but also has the hardest
game scheduling in college football in my opinion. All (SEC) teams are at a disadvantage

compared to other college football conferences and have a lower chance at being highly

ranked at the end of the season.

Citations 

- Federico, Tom. “NCAA College Football Strength of Schedule Rankings & Ratings.” ​NFL

Football Stats - NFL Team Points per Game on TeamRankings.com​, 2019,

www.teamrankings.com/college-football/ranking/schedule-strength-by-other​.

- Sports, Turner. “FBS Football Championship History.” N

​ CAA.com​, NCAA.com, 7 Jan. 2019,

www.ncaa.com/history/football/fbs​.

- Chrapowicki, Stan. “Bowl Game Record for Every SEC Team in the Last Decade.” S
​ aturday

Down South​, ARKANSAS, 17 Dec. 2015,

www.saturdaydownsouth.com/sec-football/bowl-game-record-every-sec-team-last-decade/​.

- Fornelli, Tom. “SEC Strength of Schedule Rankings 2018: Georgia Has It Easy While

Alabama Faces Challenges.” C

​ BSSports.com​, CBS Sports, 24 May 2018,

www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/sec-strength-of-schedule-rankings-2018-georgia-has

-it-easy-while-alabama-faces-challenges/​.