Lane Kiffin actually has a point with latest criticism of the College Football Playoff

As we march down the homestretch of the college football season, we've reached a point where teams are doing everything in their power to earn a trip to the College Football Playoff. For some teams, that could include not making their conference championship game.

Wait, what?

You read that right — teams (especially SEC teams) are starting to think that making their conference championship (and losing) makes them more vulnerable to miss the CFP than not making their conference championship game in the first place would.

It sounds bizarre, but it might be true; a loss in a conference championship game is still a loss, and if it's a teams third loss, that could knock them out of the playoff field entirely. Is that fair? Maybe not — teams probably shouldn't be punished for making a conference championship game. But those same teams also have a sure path to a bye in the CFP if they do win the conference championship game, so it's not as if there's no reward for being a conference champion.

Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin sounded off regarding the CFP wrinkle, saying it's a "really big risk" to make a championship game and lose.

How will the Selection Committee judge conference championship losses?

Someone has to lose in the SEC Championship Game, and if that team ends up being anyone except for Texas, that team will finish the season with at least 3 losses. It's very hard to believe that a 3-loss SEC team that made the SEC Championship Game won't make the CFP, but it's a fair bit of criticism from Kiffin, and it's not crazy to think that we will see this happen in the future; a team that lost a conference championship getting bumped out of the field.

We also don't want to make it seem like we feel bad for the SEC because, well, it's the SEC — a conference already favored heavily by the Selection Committee over other conferences. Still, the argument from Kiffin that coaches don't want to risk an extra loss on their team's resume is a reasonable one. Maybe not one with a clear fix, but one that will be interesting to watch unfold when the CFP bracket actually rolls out in a few weeks.