Oklahoma and Texas in the SEC should mean Playoff expansion

With Oklahoma and Texas joining the SEC, the College Football Playoff committee will have a hard time limiting the SEC to just one representative. That pushes the playoff expansion timeline forward.

Fridays in July are supposed to be pretty mundane in the college football world. Maybe you’ll catch a head coach or star player saying something uncouth at media days, but by and large the world is gearing up for the season.

And then comes Oklahoma and Texas.

With any official announcement and the details of the mega-SEC yet to be made, this one should be very clear. There is almost no way the College Football Playoff can stay at four teams.

NCAA Football: SEC could dominate College Football Playoff discussion

Before the latest conference realignment, we were already having debates about the validity of including two teams from the same conference in the College Football Playoff. Last year, it was whether ACC guest Notre Dame deserved a shot (which, if we’re being honest, would happen if they were independent too). Every other year, it’s whether the SEC should have two teams in the Playoff.

And usually that discussion is fair. The SEC has at least one more elite team than any other conference, and often-times two more than the Pac-12. By adding Oklahoma and Texas, the SEC has won the race to lock in two teams. How can the committee leave out the second best team from a conference that could have three (Alabama, Oklahoma, and Georgia) Top 5 teams in the country?

Even if we go ahead and (justifiably) write-off the empty husk of the Big 8 Big 12, there is no team in the Pac-12 with the prestige of Clemson or Ohio State. Which leaves them in the unenviable position of needing a team to win out, and win out impressively, while hoping at least one team loses ahead of them. It’s hard to imagine a Power 5 conference sitting idly by while they continue to miss out on the Playoff and its $6 million per team payout.

So now what looked like a long-term possibility becomes a short-term inevitability. Especially without any further realignment. Supposing still that the Pac-12 picks at the Big 12 carcass in search of geographically compatible carrion, the best they could do is what, Iowa State? Oklahoma State? Neither of those will carry the weight of Clemson or Ohio State, and also ignores the possibility of other conferences growing.

No, what’s most likely is that the Pac-12 and Big 12 (with some AAC or Sunbelt newbies) lobby for expansion. And the NCAA will listen. Because the Pac-12 has California, and that matters. A lot.

So the CFP will expand. Unless it wants to get really crazy.

What a wild day.

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