Do college football teams want to play for conference championships?
We have now entered a new era of college football as conference championships are becoming more of a risk than a reward. Many programs would love to win a conference championship but for some teams it may be a disadvantage.
The new playoff format gives an automatic bid to teams that win their conference. This makes college football more competitive throughout the season as many different teams are fighting to reach the conference title game for a chance to make the playoffs. The ACC and Big 12 benefit the most in this system as their teams may not be ranked as high in the rankings due to competition. Theoretically, this system allows teams with multiple losses out of conference to still compete for a playoff berth.
Last year’s national championship consisted of teams (Ohio State vs Notre Dame) that didn’t play in a conference championship game. This may be a coincidence but, there are some downsides of playing for a conference title. In the Big 10 and the SEC, teams that don’t play for the title will still be able to make the playoffs as an at-large bid. Last season, four teams from the Big 10 and three teams for the SEC were able to make the playoffs. The conference champions were able to automatically advance past the first round to the quarterfinals. The Georgia Bulldogs were able to win the SEC but lost their starting quarterback due to injury in the process. The first round bye helped them implement a new starter but they still ended up losing in the quarterfinals. Bulldogs fans have to be wondering what could have been if they never played in the SEC championship. Other programs have complained about the amount of time off between games as the Oregon Ducks had 24 days off between the conference title game and the quarterfinals. The first round bye in the playoffs seems like a reward but, the teams that didn’t have a conference championship will still play the same amount of games and even have a chance to host a first round playoff game.
Why should teams want to play in the conference championship if they can go to the playoffs without it? Honestly I’m not sure, the conference championship seems like a high risk game with little reward when the ultimate goal is the national championship. The league title games are great for us fans, revenue, and maybe some program momentum. Serious programs only care about the national title and if the league title may put your team at risk why even play your starters. Either the format needs to change and give more of a reward to teams playing in conference championship games or teams will start to play backups in these games.
