The SEC Championship Game has outlived its usefulness within the context of the College Football Playoff featuring a 12-team field. And the 2025 title game between the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Georgia Bulldogs, a 28-7 UGA win, was the nail in the coffin.
In pitching the University of Texas AD Chris Conte as the sport's commissioner, USA Today's Blake Toppmeyer noted that the 57-year-old is right on the money about conference title games needing to go away.
As Toppmeyer pointed out, the December matchup between Alabama and Georgia at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta didn't even have an effect on the CFP's seeding.
"Del Conte didn’t elaborate on his desire to dump the SEC championship game. No need to elaborate. Consider last season. Georgia routed Alabama for the SEC title, and neither team moved even one spot in the ensuing rankings," Toppmeyer wrote
“'Why have a conference championship game?' Del Conte mused at his town hall. Why, indeed? Once revolutionary, conference championship games outlived their utility."
Alabama and Georgia ruin everything again
Wouldn't you know it, the Tide and the Dawgs have ruined things for the rest of the bunch. A game that could've been used to get a bubble team to definitively punch their way into the field may go away because the two teams that sport is out to protect, because they, like the Longhorns, the Ohio State Buckeyes, the Michigan Wolverines, and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, reel in a majority of the revenue in the sport.
Alabama wasn't moved down despite being embarrassed on a big stage, snagging a CFP spot it did not deserve. Then, Georgia wasn't moved up in the rankings, despite destroying the Tide, and was handed a more favorable road against the No. 6 Ole Miss Rebels than Ohio State got with the No. 10 Miami Hurricanes.
Those outcomes may take away a revenue opportunity for the city of Atlanta and a last-chance opportunity for SEC schools to improve their standing in the CFP picture.
No wonder the College Football world was so happy to see Alabama and UGA eliminated early from the CFP. After they dominated in what will eventually be known as the "under-the-table NIL era," the rules were changed, and now the state of Texas and the Big Ten's donor money could keep traditional SEC legacy brands out of the title picture more often than not in the future in the NIL/rev-share era.