We continue our look at how the college football fix has been in for the SEC since the mid-2000s with our detailed examination of the College Football Playoff years. In the prior era, we saw a period of 8 seasons from 2006 to 2013 where the BCS committee broke, changed, dodged, or altogether eliminated prior “rules” to pick SEC teams 7 times. We already tackled that BCS bullshit; now it’s time for the playoff putrefaction.

On with the corrupt show, as we look at the last 10 seasons of corruption, lies, and power-mongering:

  • 2014: This was a year where the first rendition of the CFP committee tried to futz with the playoff seedings to make it easier for Alabama to win it all. Defending champion and undefeated Florida State got dropped to No. 3 in the playoff seeding, while one-loss Crimson Tide received the top seed—even though Big XII co-champion TCU had a higher sabermetric rating than Alabama did prior to the bowl games. And by laughably giving Alabama the top seed when perhaps the team didn’t even belong in the playoff, the committee thought it was doing the SEC a favor in playing No. 4 Ohio State with its third-string quarterback after two season-ending injuries at the position. It also placed that game in Louisiana, basically a home game for the Crimson Tide. But it backfired when the Buckeyes beat Alabama and went on to win the first CFP crown. Poor TCU really got the shaft, therefore.
  • 2015: This was a funny year, because after dropping an undefeated ACC champ to the No. 3 seed the year before, the CFP committee this time elevated undefeated Clemson to No. 1 overall, even though Alabama had the better sabermetric ratings. By dropping the Tide to No. 2, it got a more favorable matchup against the No. 3 seed Michigan State, with an injured QB who couldn’t throw the ball downfield very well at the time. Big XII Oklahoma also had a higher sabermetric mark than the Spartans, but the committee put the Sooners at No. 4 in the playoff. Once again, no consistency whatsoever to the committee’s choices, and this time it worked out great for Alabama, as the Tigers had a tougher go against Oklahoma, and then the Tide edged out Clemson in the championship game.
  • 2017: This was a season where three of the top four teams in the sabermetric rankings were from the B1G … and the CFP committee chose none of them to be in the playoff. Instead, it snuck Alabama in to the No. 4 seed for no discernible reasons. The Crimson Tide, once again, did not even win its division in the SEC, but it was chosen over sabermetrically superior B1G champion Ohio State. This was outright fraud, again. And if the committee was going to pick a non-champion, the Wisconsin Badgers were No. 1 in the sabermetrics despite losing to Ohio State in the B1G title game—they should have been chosen well before Alabama. And we will remind the cretins one more time that the end does not justify the means, as two SEC teams were in the playoff, which increased the chances of one of those teams winning it all, of course—especially when the two were seeded so they didn’t have to face each other in the semifinals. Once more, oh so convenient for the SEC. Corruption at its worst, really … yet again.
  • 2019: We already covered this ridiculousness elsewhere, but once again, with the title game in New Orleans, the SEC conveniently produced LSU as its champion, and the CFP conveniently put the sabermetric No. 3 Tigers into the No. 1 seed, so that two superior teams—Clemson and Ohio State—would have to fight it out in the semifinals, while LSU cruised into the final … which is eventually won, basically on its home field. The Buckeyes still finished well clear of the field atop the sabermetric ratings, but they were hosed in the semifinal loss to Clemson by very questionable officiating. See what we mean here? You’d have to be a complete moron to not see the pattern of corruption here, not to mention the very odd circumstances of almost every dynamic of this season’s key determinants.
  • 2020: The Covid season was a mess from the start, but basically with the uneven start to the season based on political stances of respective states, the playing field was always going to be imbalanced—in favor of schools and conferences with complete disregard for public and student safety. With the SEC just plowing ahead, damn the consequences, Alabama ended up playing 13 games, while its opponent in the “title” game had played just 8 times. Seven schools won at least 10 games, and they all either played in the South or were private colleges in Republican-controlled states. Enough said. What’s the worst is that the CFP just enabled it by going forward with the schedule as planned, which all but handed another “title” to the SEC. Damned the safety of the student athletes, you know. Who cares?
  • 2021: Another season where the CFP let two SEC teams into the playoffs, the committee also decided to throw a bone to a small-conference school finally … instead of inviting two B1G teams as well. The top four schools sabermetrically were Georgia, Michigan, Alabama, and Ohio State, but the CFP gave the Crimson Tide the top seed and invited the University of Cincinnati to participate, for some reason. Yes, the Bearcats were undefeated, but if the CFP was fine inviting one-loss, non-champ Georgia to the playoff, it should have done the same for one-loss, non-champ Ohio State. But it did not. This set up yet another all-SEC final, conveniently, thanks to the seeding contrivances. It all rings so familiar.
  • 2023: No need to recap this one, because it’s so fresh, but the CFP excluded an undefeated power-conference champion from the playoff for the first time ever in favor of a one-loss SEC champion (Alabama). With undefeated teams from Washington and Michigan getting invited, it seems odd that the committee would skip over Florida State. But guess what? The Seminoles have a QB-health issue, which didn’t stop the committee from inviting Ohio State in 2014 or Michigan State in 2015, for example. But the biggest factor here was one-loss Texas winning the Big XII, and the Longhorns beat the Crimson Tide earlier in the season. So, the committee had to make up some new reasons for doing something else new in order to once again justify a way of getting the SEC into the mix when it didn’t deserve to be there. By the way, Alabama is ninth in the sabermetric rankings heading into bowl season. Ninth. Let that sink in for a bit. Ninth. Once again, the B1G had three of the top four sabermetric teams in the nation—and only got one team invited to the CFP. Don’t let anyone tell you this is normal.

There you have it: in 9 seasons now of the College Football Playoff, there have been 7 circumstances of varying fishiness that benefitted the SEC overtly and unduly. Good criminal law professors always tell their students that once is an anomaly, twice is a coincidence, and three times is a pattern. What does that make this, the SEC influence over the BCS and the CFP in the last 18 college football seasons? A fucking pattern.

It’s fact, people—accept it, and don’t try to deny it, please. You’re only belittling yourself and insulting anyone dumb enough to pay attention to you still.