At Trojans Wire, we cover USC and the Big Ten (and we used to cover the Pac-12 until it disappeared), but we also cover national interests in the college football world from time to time — after all, USC is part of that world, and fans need to know how the sport is playing out at a national level, not just at USC.
College football has had one simple reform in the 12-team playoff era, born out of the realization that certain aspects of the sport just aren't the same, or don't have the same meaning, under the 12-team playoff structure.
We wrote this at the beginning of 2024:
The Alabama-Georgia game won't determine who advances and who stays home, it will just determine the standings. The SEC could use the television property of the SEC title game as an opportunity to put the third and fourth-placed teams on the field instead of the usual SEC Championship Game format. Think LSU vs. Ole Miss last season. The winner of that game could have had a chance to play in the 12-team playoff. Alabama and Georgia share the SEC championship title, but the television property of the SEC title game could help a third SEC team make the playoff. Every conference should do this.
Conference championship games do not typically determine which teams make or miss the playoffs. Maybe sometimes they do, but not most years. Conference title games are only relevant for seeding and bracket purposes, not inclusion or exclusion. Reforming the conference championship games is an obvious change college football could make in the 12-team playoff era.
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This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire
