Is the SEC Championship Recreation in peril? ‘Its days are numbered’ – The New York Instances

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The SEC Championship Recreation usually attracts extra viewers than first-round video games within the Faculty Soccer Playoff. Todd Kirkland / Getty Pictures
It was an hour earlier than kickoff of final yr’s SEC Championship Recreation, and the environment was already charged inside Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The stands have been filling up, two of the nation’s marquee groups have been on the brink of collide and ABC cameras have been setting as much as broadcast what’s yearly one among faculty soccer’s most-viewed video games.
And you’d give all this up, an official at an SEC college was requested?
“Its days are numbered,” replied the official, given anonymity to talk candidly.
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5 months later, the athletic director on the college that misplaced that sport, Alabama, gave voice to it. Greg Byrne told USA Today not solely that the venerable SEC Championship Recreation may go away, however that it ought to: “The ship has sailed. It’s run its course.”
Not but, in fact. The sport will probably be performed on Dec. 6, it doesn’t matter what, however its destiny past 2026 will probably be debated till then, and possibly afterward.
In an expanded Faculty Soccer Playoff — presently at 12 groups, in all probability much more quickly — being the convention champion is nearly irrelevant. Georgia has gained it each years because the Playoff expanded, and has been one-and-done within the postseason each instances.
Whether or not it really hurts to play the sport is debatable: Texas and Alabama, the losers of the previous two video games, went on to win first-round CFP video games, and a quarterfinal in Texas’ case. However with Ole Miss lacking the sport final yr and nonetheless advancing to the CFP semifinals, it strengthened the argument that the SEC Championship Recreation is only for bragging rights now — and if the Playoff is what issues most, the sport has run its course, as Byrne stated.
However financially, it’s not that easy.
This goes for all convention championship video games. However with the SEC being the grand-daddy of all of them, the brainchild of late commissioner Roy Kramer, let’s focus primarily on the league the place the sport simply means extra.
Georgia’s win over Alabama, regardless of being a blowout, earned 16.86 million viewers, per Nielsen, a slight improve over Georgia’s additional time win over Texas the earlier yr (16.63 million). Each years it was the highest-rated SEC sport of the season — and the 2024 sport was faculty soccer’s highest-rated non-CFP sport.
The Massive Ten really did higher final yr, with the championship sport between No. 1 Ohio State and No. 2 Indiana drawing 18.33 million viewers. The Massive 12 additionally noticed a rankings improve for its sport, whereas the ACC — matching Duke and Virginia, and going towards the Indiana-Ohio State sport — noticed a giant lower.
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Nonetheless, persons are watching these video games. So there’s little or no likelihood the SEC, and possibly different conferences, would simply ditch them if the Playoff stayed at 12.
But when it expanded, the rankings would simply get replaced by further Playoff video games, proper? Properly, that’s not fairly clear. Not one of the first-round video games, within the first two years of the 12-team Playoff, have come near the SEC Championship Recreation rankings.
In 2025:
In 2024:
The rankings do enhance because the Playoff goes on, however the SEC Championship Recreation in 2024 nonetheless outdrew each quarterfinal sport, and the 2025 sport outdrew one quarterfinal and even one semifinal (Miami’s win over Ole Miss).
So simply ditching a rankings bonanza like that isn’t a layup. Particularly for Disney, which holds the rights to the SEC Championship Recreation as a part of its package deal with the SEC, and wouldn’t essentially be assured the extra video games if the CFP expands. The Massive Ten, which has been the driving drive to develop even additional, doesn’t have Disney as a accomplice.
And tv is way from the one income tied to convention championship video games.
The SEC pockets all of the income from tickets bought, concessions, in-stadium promoting and sponsorships. As Matt Brown of the web site “Additional Factors” put it in his Friday publication: “Should you exchange these (convention championship) video games with Faculty Soccer Playoff video games, nicely, all of that stuff is now managed by the Faculty Soccer Playoff, not the SEC or any particular college. And on the mixture, I believe that will imply much less cash for every college, even when the TV payout will increase.”
The estimate, per sources, is that together with tv income, the SEC Championship Recreation brings about $50 million to the convention annually.
On one hand, that will be about solely 5 p.c of the SEC’s income as of the 2024-25 fiscal yr. However,  it’s 5 p.c of your annual income for a single sport. That’s onerous to simply voluntarily quit, by no means thoughts all of the sentimental worth of the sport.
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Usually, in a conflict between aggressive and monetary causes, the cash at all times wins. However even SEC commissioner Greg Sankey has been telling people who funds aren’t the one cause to maintain the sport.
“From my perspective, I believe there’s nice which means, which is completely different than worth. I believe there’s nice which means in an SEC championship … and supplies a platform for the SEC and its soccer, and it really generally is a launching pad into (the Playoff),” Sankey advised The Athletic final December. “However with all that stated, I’m sure we’ll be persevering with debate about future instructions because the postseason format emerges.”
And that’s the important thing. The way forward for the CFP format is unresolved, as is the schedule.
One cause CFP first-round rankings have been sturdy is that they generally go towards NFL video games. There have been two Saturday NFL video games the identical weekend in each 2024 and 2025, and that weekend is the earliest the NFL is allowed to play on Saturday, in accordance the Sports activities Broadcast Act. So if the CFP have been moved up — both what’s now convention championship weekend or the next week — these video games can be unopposed.
“My perspective is that the game ought to begin on Week 0 and wrap by New Yr’s,” stated John Kosner, a media advisor and former CBS and ESPN government. “Enjoying deep into NFL playoffs makes little sense to me, even when the Indiana-Miami score was very excessive this yr.  So sure, transferring the Playoff up is sensible to me.”
Failing that — or maybe as a substitute of that — is revisiting one other thought: a championship play-in weekend. This was the Massive Ten’s authentic thought, which included assured bids: 4 for the SEC and Massive Ten, two apiece for the Massive 12 and ACC, one for the Group of 6 and an at-large. The SEC and Massive Ten’s 4 bids can be decided by play-in video games on championship weekend. The highest two groups would obtain assured bids however play in a title sport to find out a CFP bye, whereas every league’s two different CFP entrants can be decided by matchups of three vs. 6, and 4 vs. 5.
So the championship sport is saved, and the advantage of not taking part in in it’s eliminated. However SEC athletic administrators and presidents, after contemplating it, turned away.
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“Including one other layer of video games within the SEC … actually didn’t resonate with our management,” Sankey stated final December.
However may the concept be revived, as a part of both a 16- and even 24-team CFP format? The SEC and different conferences must recover from their opposition to assured bids.
There’s a good distance till December, which is the following deadline for deciding on a format. The destiny of the SEC Championship Recreation, and different video games, appears intertwined with it. The sport’s days could also be numbered — but it surely’s not a settled situation but.
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Seth Emerson is a senior author overlaying faculty soccer for The Athletic. He has been overlaying the SEC since 2002, together with stints because the Georgia beat author for The Macon Telegraph and Atlanta Journal-Structure, and the South Carolina beat author for The State. He has labored for The Athletic since 2018.

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