ESPN Showing the Big 12 Love?

The highly anticipated 12-team College Football Playoff made its debut over the weekend, and what a joyous occasion it was! 

Just kidding—it was actually 48 straight hours of college football fans screaming at each other about who deserved to be in and pundits beating the selection committee like a pinata over its appalling decision to…declare an 11-1 Big Ten team one of the twelve best in the country. 

“I don’t want to hear about wins” – Kirk Herbstreit. 

Print the WINS DON’T MATTER t-shirts now. 

I have much more to say about the SEC mafia’s tireless crusade to turn the playoff into the SEC Invitational later on, but let’s start with a much more interesting spiel that came from an ESPN booth during a playoff game. 

For that, we turn to ESPN play-by-play broadcaster Sean McDonough. Give this a listen. 

While I disagree with him criticizing Indiana’s inclusion in the playoff, it warms my heart to hear him point out that we should assume that the Big Ten is head and shoulders above the Big 12 and ACC every single year. 

There is data to back up McDonough’s claim. Sagarin’s conference rankings show that the Big Ten is just barely stronger than the Big 12, and it is closer to the Big 12 and ACC than it is the SEC. 

There’s no denying the Big 12 and ACC can’t match the star power of Oregon and Ohio State at the top, but outside of those two, there’s not a whole lot of difference. And with a bloated 18-team conference, there will be some dud schedules produced that multiple Big 12 teams could romp through like Indiana did this year. 

The funniest part of McDonough’s comments was the reaction from Big Ten fans who accused him of purposely propping up leagues that ESPN has contracts with. 

Yes, Big Ten fans, we all know that ESPN has famously stood up for the sanctity of the Big 12 at every turn. They would never try to break up the conference or mock a marquee Big 12 conference game live on College Gameday. 

Just ask Desmond Howard. 

If that was actually McDonough’s motive, it would be the first time anybody at ESPN ever made a calculated move to push Big 12 propaganda. It would also mean that Yormark really got to those guys. 

In a way, it was nice that the Big 12 wasn’t at the center of the smear campaigns taking place over the weekend. But that will change fast if Arizona State can’t at least give Texas a competitive game in the Peach Bowl.

What You Need to Know

• On3’s Ari Wasserman wrote a great piece about how the position that Paul Finebaum, Kirk Herbstreit, and others are taking about the SEC and the College Football Playoff is an existential threat to the sport. It’s a must-read.

• Josh Pate has a great explanation of why those arguing for Ole Miss and Alabama in the playoff are actually arguing for college football to be a Netflix TV show instead of a competitive sport. 

• Heartland College Sports has a great recap of the Big 12 transfer portal winners and losers so far. It’s a great way to get a general feel for what has happened if you aren’t able to keep up with it on a daily basis (a nearly impossible task). Spoiler: Texas Tech is doing well. 

• Arizona State has the worst odds of winning the College Football Playoff of the eight teams left. Their odds are actually significantly worse than Boise State’s, which is likely based more on their upcoming opponent(s) than anything else.

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The SEC v. Everybody

It was hilarious to watch the tone shift on social media from SEC fans destroying Indiana and SMU after their losses to everybody else pushing back with full force after Tennessee was less competitive than anybody all weekend Saturday night at Ohio State. 

Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin blasted the committee on Friday night and Saturday afternoon but was conspicuously quiet while Ohio State was playing its third-string quarterback in garbage time of a 32-point game late Saturday night. 

ESPN’s Paul Finebaum and Kirk Herbstreit provided plenty of fodder for that same SEC echo chamber. 

They think that because SMU and Indiana got blown out, those teams shouldn’t have been included in the playoff. They want to excuse Alabama’s losses to 6-6 Vanderbilt and Oklahoma and Ole Miss’ loss to 4-8 Kentucky and put them in simply because they rank higher in the 247 Talent Composite. 

It’s a ridiculous idea. 

The playoff did exactly what it was supposed to. It gave more teams a shot to compete for a national title. It rewarded teams that earned their way in more than Bama, Ole Miss, or South Carolina. 

Those who whine about putting the 12 “best” teams in the field every year don’t realize what they’re actually arguing. That is a very slippery slope. 

Where does it stop? Is 8-4 enough for Ole Miss to get in just because they had the top-ranked portal class and more NFL talent than ten teams in front of them? What about 7-5?

If we set that type of precedent, how much will regular season games matter for SEC teams like Ole Miss? If they know they have the leeway to lose three or four games, nobody will care nearly as much about what actually makes the sport great—the regular season. 

As a matter of fact, why don’t we just create the playoff field in February when recruiting classes are wrapped? Just take the top 12 teams and automatically put them in. You can call it the On3 SEC Extravaganza, presented by 247 Sports. Play it in the Rivals Superdome. 

Look, if they’re really that worried about Indiana’s soft schedule, the SEC mafia only has itself to blame. The reason we have teams getting cushy conference schedules is because conference realignment created massive conferences that are impossible to balance. 

SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey started the most recent realignment wave that got us here by swiping Texas and Oklahoma from the Big 12. Well, well, well, if it isn’t the consequences of my own actions. 

A lot of these arguments are contradictory and in bad faith. In 2017, the same Kirk Herbstreit who just told you wins don’t matter and bad losses shouldn’t exclude you from the playoff argued that bad losses matter more than anything in an effort to, you guessed it, get Alabama into the playoff.

The sad part is the SEC mafia has all the leverage. They’re going to get major changes to the playoff. That could be four automatic bids for their league, a Big Ten-SEC-only playoff, or even a Super League. 

For now, all you can do is fight the good fight and laugh at the league squirming in 2024 because it didn’t get over-the-top preferential treatment for the first time in 20 years. 

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