FAYETTEVILLE — The SEC has a shot at winning the first 12-team College Football Playoff and its 14th national title in 19 years.
First-year SEC expansion team Texas is the league’s last remaining hope, while the Big Ten has two semifinalists in Ohio State and Penn State. Notre Dame, an independent, is the other entrant.
However, the betting odds have swung to Ohio State, the team many analysts believe has the deepest roster in the country. If the Buckeyes prevail over the Longhorns in the Cotton Bowl on Friday then beat the Orange Bowl winner in the championship game on Jan. 20 in Atlanta, they will add the first 12-team playoff champ to their stake as the first CFP champion in 2014 after the Bowl Championship Series was retired.
The SEC doesn’t claim Texas’ title in 2005 (at least not yet), but if it did the conference would add a year to what is likely to go down as the longest championship run by any league in the history of college football. The SEC won seven straight football crowns between 2006 (Florida) and 2012 (Alabama), with four teams involved. The Gators claimed two (also 2008) and Alabama nabbed three (also 2009, 2011), while LSU (2007) and Auburn (2010) won one apiece.
The SEC will have a winning record this postseason, whether the Longhorns can seize their first championship since the Vince Young year of 2005 or not, as it is 8-6 in the bowl season. Texas has two of those wins: 38-24 over ACC champion Clemson in a first-round CFP game and 39-31 in double overtime against Big 12 champion Arizona State in the Peach Bowl on Jan. 1.
But the conference has not distinguished itself overall, particularly after the results of New Year’s Eve, when Alabama fell 19-13 to Michigan in the ReliaQuest (formerly Outback) Bowl and South Carolina dropped a 21-17 decision to Illinois in the Citrus Bowl.
Of note, both of those losses were against teams from the Big Ten, which is 9-5 in the postseason and riding with the best odds of snaring back-to-back titles for the first time since Michigan State in 1965-66.
The SEC has done that 11 times since 1966, including the run of LSU, Alabama and consecutive Georgia crowns between 2019-2022. Also, individual programs have won parts of back-to-back national championships eight times since then.
Those claiming Alabama, led by first-year coach Kalen DeBoer, was robbed of a spot in the playoff by ACC runner-up SMU have piped down since the Crimson Tide’s lackluster showing in Tampa, Fla., against the defending champion Wolverines. Michigan finished the season 8-5 with closing victories over blue bloods Ohio State and Alabama.
But the argument that the ACC was gifted a second spot in the playoff in what was a down year for the league still rages.
The ACC put 13 teams into bowls and is done with a lowly 2-11 record, a winning percentage (.154) that is worse than the Mountain West’s 1-4 mark (.200).
The only ACC teams to bring home hardware were Syracuse, a 52-35 winner over Washington State in the Holiday Bowl, and Louisville, which outlasted Washington 35-34 in the Sun Bowl.
The conference bowl winner is the American Athletic Conference, which is finished at 6-2 with three wins over Power Four teams (Memphis over West Virginia; Navy over Oklahoma; East Carolina over North Carolina State).
With conference bowl standings out of the way, let’s look at the best and worst of the SEC postseason.
Best win: Ole Miss 52, Duke 20
Sure the Blue Devils were depleted and sure Jaxson Dart was throwing touchdown passes with 1:27 remaining in the Gator Bowl, but Lane Kiffin teams do that kind of stuff. No matter the circumstances, that’s still a thumping victory and kudos to Dart, who had already declared for the NFL Draft, for playing.
Second-best win: Arkansas 39, Texas Tech 26
Arkansas’ roster was massively depleted for the Liberty Bowl but they still ransacked an explosive Texas Tech team missing starting quarterback Behren Morton and tailback Tahj Brooks. The Red Raiders had beaten both Big 12 Championship Game participants — Arizona State and Iowa State — so this was a significant win for fifth-year coach Sam Pittman and the SEC.
Worst loss: Michigan 19, Alabama 13
The Crimson Tide out-gained the Wolverings 260-190 in total offense and held them to a paltry 2.9 yards per play in the ReliaQuest Bowl, but lost the turnover battle 3-1. Alabama was also 0 for 3 on fourth downs, including at the Michigan 15 on its last series.
Bret v. Beamer
Illinois coach Bret Bielema, who coached at Arkansas from 2013-17, got back into SEC action by getting under the skin of South Carolina coach Shane Beamer at the Citrus Bowl.
After checking on an injured Illinois player on the Gamecocks sideline, Bielema made a “both arms extended” gesture, which is used by return men to signal they don’t intend to advance a kick. A South Carolina player had used the signal before throwing a long lateral on a kickoff return to try to surprise the Illini.
Beamer went ballistic, hollering and gesturing at Bielema while being held back by team personnel.
While the movement is legal and does not mean “fair catch,” Bielema pointed out the player safety and gentleman’s rules aspects of the gesture. Beamer said the gadget play had been cleared in advance through the game officials.
The Illini upset the heavily favored Gamecocks 21-17. Bielema led Illinois to a 10-3 record, its first 10-win season since 2001 and fifth ever.
It’s ‘Peach’y
Texas’ win over plucky Arizona State in the Peach Bowl continued a string of dominance by the SEC in the game. The Longhorns extended the SEC’s streak to six consecutive wins in the Atlanta-based bowl dating to Florida’s 41-15 rout of Michigan after the 2018 season.
The last SEC team to lose in the Peach Bowl was Auburn, which fell 34-27 to undefeated Central Florida after the 2017 season. UCF coach Scott Frost would go on to flop at Nebraska while Auburn coach Gus Malzahn would go on to coach at UCF. Malzahn, a former high school coach in Arkansas who served as an assistant at Arkansas and head coach at Arkansas State in 2012, resigned after a 4-8 record at UCF this season and joined Florida State as offensive coordinator.
Texas is 1-1 in Atlanta this season, having also lost to Georgia 22-19 in overtime in the SEC Championship Game. The Longhorns can return to Mercedes-Benz Stadium for a third time in six weeks if it reaches the CFP title game.
SEC teams are now 25-17 in the Peach Bowl. Arkansas and Missouri are the only current SEC teams to have never played in the Peach Bowl.
Liberty love
The SEC has a dominant 22-11 record in the Liberty Bowl following the Arkansas Razorbacks’ 39-26 win over Texas Tech on Dec. 27. Arkansas has chalked up four consecutive wins for the league in the Memphis-based bowl. The Razorbacks also beat East Carolina 20-17 in overtime (2009 season), Kansas State 45-23 (2015), Kansas 55-53 in triple overtime (2022).
The Razorbacks had three prior losses in the Liberty Bowl against SEC opponents Tennessee, Auburn and Georgia prior to joining the conference.
Per SEC records, the conference also has impressive histories in the Gator (29-19), Cotton (25-16), Independence (13-4), ReliaQuest (21-14) and Orange (20-15) bowls. The league has losing marks in the Sugar (32-35), Music City (10-15), Texas (4-6), Las Vegas (0-3), Armed Forces (1-2) and Gasparilla (1-2) bowls.
Playoff stats
SEC teams are now 16-8 in the College Football Playoff format instituted in 2014, with a pair of wins by Texas and losses by Georgia and Tennessee this season.
The SEC dominated with a 9-1 mark in the old BCS National Championship Game. Tennessee took the first title 23-16 over Florida State after the 1998 season and the league was 9-0 until Auburn’s 2013 team led by the first-year Coach Gus Malzahn fell 34-31 to Florida State.