Auburn University AD John Cohen spoke to AL.com this week, and one of the more controversial statements he made surrounded the College Football Playoff, and more specifically, the SEC's representation in it.
Cohen shared his belief that the SEC Championship Game doesn't make sense unless the CFP field expands beyond 12 teams. Within his explanation for that thought, he claimed the SEC is actually underrepresented.
“The expectation of every athletic director in the SEC was that at some level, the 9-game schedule was going to be combined with at least a 16-team CFP field,” Cohen said. “I think that those two should be intertwined for a variety of reasons, more SEC games, there’s going to be more losses for our league.
“When you consider just a year ago, there’s 14 teams in the SEC in the NCAA tournament... A ton of our women’s programs got in the NCAA tournament, but a very low percentage for our football, and football is obviously one of our best, if not our leading sport in the Southeastern Conference. Why is football so underrepresented in terms of tournament play?
“Comparatively speaking, there’s a lot of reasons for that, but I do think it’s time to modernize, and I think it’s time to expand, and in doing so, I think your question about the future of the SEC championship game will probably answer itself based on movement with the CFP.”
Overrepresented? The SEC? In the CFP? Does Cohen not know that five SEC teams made the 2025/2026 CFP? And does he know that AU's blood rival was one of them and had no business making it?
Maybe that should've factored into Cohen's mindset before making those comments.
John Cohen missed opportunity to dunk on Alabama
Cohen may think the SEC is a monolith of fanbases that want to see other southern schools win, but it's not. Auburn fans don't care about practically any SEC school winning anything if it means the Tigers didn't win.
Towing the company line, since it does benefit Auburn in the long run, is fine. Straight up lying and saying the SEC is underrepresented in the CFP is not. Especially when he passed on a perfect chance to dunk on the Alabama Crimson Tide, who shouldn't have made the CFP over the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, and show that what Cohen is talking about doesn't have legs, since a brutal 28-7 SEC title game loss to the Georgia Bulldogs didn't knock UAT out of the postseason.
Too many of Cohen's programs haven't been winning the Iron Bowl of late. It'd be nice if hating the Tide was a cultural edict that came from the top down. It's notable that Alex Golesh has had to reinvigorate the Alabama hate in Lee County, AL, through unconventional means.