Why college football conference title games must go

Nine college football conference champions will be crowned by the end of the weekend. There are plenty of questions to be answered, including: Who will earn automatic byes in the College Football Playoff and who will be left out?

But perhaps the biggest question of all is this: Are these games necessary?

The allure of the conference championship weekend is a day and a half of football between some of the best teams. Most of the games, including the SEC title game between No. 2 Texas and No. 5 Georgia in Atlanta, will be played in front of packed houses at NFL stadiums. Most of the games have playoff implications.

That sounds nice, but with this year’s expanded, 12-team playoff, it’s time to admit the truth: Conference championship games aren’t needed. For example, take SMU (11-1), whom the CFP committee on Tuesday ranked three spots ahead of No. 11 Alabama (9-3). 

SMU’s only loss is an 18-15 defeat Sept. 6 against BYU — a team that was highly ranked and looking at a first-round bye a few weeks ago. SMU has beaten a pair of ranked teams since then (No. 22 Louisville and No. 18 Pitt).

Alabama has ridden a rollercoaster this season, beating ranked Georgia, Missouri and LSU but losing big at unranked Oklahoma as well as at unranked Vanderbilt and at Tennessee, then ranked seventh.

Alabama will be watching games on television this weekend. On Saturday at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, N.C., SMU will play No. 17 Clemson (9-3)  in the ACC Championship Game. CFP chair Warde Manuel said Tuesday that an SMU loss could be detrimental to its playoff hopes.

“Potentially, yes. And they can move above teams, as well. Again, it just depends on the outcome of the game,” he said when asked if SMU could drop below Alabama should it lose the ACC Championship game.

Conference championships can help a team get into the playoffs or improve its seeding. But the fact that it could hurt a team if it loses makes an already muddy picture even more unclear. 

Why should SMU play Saturday? It’s ranked eighth and with a loss, the Mustangs could fall out of the playoff while teams behind them sit at home. That stinks.

No. 10 Boise State (11-1) could make a similar argument. The Broncos defeated No. 20 UNLV (10-2) on Oct. 25, but they must beat the Rebels again Friday night to cement their CFP bid. Meanwhile, No. 6 Ohio State (10-2), No. 7 Tennessee (10-2) and teams with outside CFP shots won’t have to play this week and therefore potentially suffer the consequences of a loss.

The solution is simple: There’s no need for conference championships. Automatic byes should go to the regular-season champions of the Power Four conferences (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC). Teams can then be judged fairly across the standard 12 games. The committee’s job is easier when all teams are on a level playing field in terms of games played.

Instead, some schools could end up losing out because they had to take the field while others didn’t. That’s no way to make a championship game seem attractive.