AUSTIN — The Texas Longhorns will have to go through the SEC gauntlet if they want to make it to a second straight College Football Playoff next season, but even a loss or two won’t hurt their chances too drastically in the inaugural year of the 12-team playoff.
But could the Longhorns soon not have to worry about the CFP at all?
Though it’s all speculation, former college quarterback and current ESPN analyst Greg McElroy thinks the creation of the new-look SEC and Big Ten as mega conferences could cause a separate playoff to be created altogether that would only include teams from those two leagues. College football insider Paul Finebaum agreed, making interesting points about why something like that could realistically happen.
“How fast could this pull away? What’s stopping the SEC and the Big Ten from saying, ‘Yeah, we’re just going to start our own Playoff?’ McElroy said on his podcast. “And you guys can battle for that CFP trophy all you want, we’re going to start our own and then we’re going to crown a champion from the 34 member institutions that are under our umbrella. And if you’re out, so be it.”
Finebaum backed this idea, bringing up the argument that the ACC's elite teams could be stuck with little choice but to leave the conference and join either the Big Ten or SEC to remain competitive.
“Why can’t they pick and choose a few more schools to make it even more legitimate than it already is,” Finebaum said. “That’s where I think the ACC has to be shivering right now on this cold February day, because they’re in court right now with Florida State. You have to believe that Clemson and North Carolina and others are going, ‘Hey, do we really want to get stuck in this boat, or do we want to get out?’ And I think the answer is fairly obvious.”
Again, this is all just speculation from two major voices in the college football media world, but the concept is both interesting and potentially realistic based on how the next handful of years will pan out for the revamped Big Ten and SEC.
Fans will get their first preview of this mega playoff when Texas visits defending-champion Michigan on Saturday, Sept. 7.
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