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NCAAF
The SEC Championship Recreation usually attracts extra viewers than first-round video games within the Faculty Soccer Playoff. Todd Kirkland \/ Getty Pictures<\/span>
It was an hour earlier than kickoff of final yr\u2019s SEC Championship Recreation, and the environment was already charged inside Atlanta\u2019s Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The stands have been filling up, two of the nation\u2019s 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\u2019s most-viewed video games.
And you’d give all this up, an official at an SEC college was requested?
\u201cIts days are numbered,\u201d 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<\/a> not solely that the venerable SEC Championship Recreation may go away, however that it ought to: \u201cThe ship has sailed. It\u2019s run its course.\u201d
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 \u2014 presently at 12 groups, in all probability much more quickly \u2014 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\u2019 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 \u2014 and if the Playoff is what issues most, the sport has run its course, as Byrne stated.
However financially, it\u2019s 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\u2019s focus primarily on the league the place the sport simply means extra.
Georgia\u2019s win over Alabama, regardless of being a blowout, earned 16.86 million viewers, per Nielsen, a slight improve over Georgia\u2019s additional time win over Texas the earlier yr (16.63 million). Each years it was the highest-rated SEC sport of the season \u2014 and the 2024 sport was faculty soccer\u2019s 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 \u2014 matching Duke and Virginia, and going towards the Indiana-Ohio State sport \u2014 noticed a giant lower.
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Nonetheless, persons are watching these video games. So there\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019s win over Ole Miss).
So simply ditching a rankings bonanza like that isn\u2019t 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 \u201cAdditional Factors\u201d put it in his Friday publication: \u201cShould 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.\u201d
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\u2019s income as of the 2024-25 fiscal yr. However, it\u2019s 5 p.c of your annual income for a single<\/em> sport<\/em>. That\u2019s 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\u2019t the one cause to maintain the sport.
\u201cFrom my perspective, I believe there\u2019s nice which means, which is completely different than worth. I believe there\u2019s nice which means in an SEC championship \u2026 and supplies a platform for the SEC and its soccer, and it really generally is a launching pad into (the Playoff),\u201d Sankey advised The Athletic<\/em> final December. \u201cHowever with all that stated, I\u2019m sure we\u2019ll be persevering with debate about future instructions because the postseason format emerges.\u201d
And that\u2019s 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 \u2014 both what’s now convention championship weekend or the next week \u2014 these video games can be unopposed.
\u201cMy perspective is that the game ought to begin on Week 0 and wrap by New Yr\u2019s,\u201d stated John Kosner, a media advisor and former CBS and ESPN government. \u201cEnjoying 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.\u201d
Failing that \u2014 or maybe as a substitute of that \u2014 is revisiting one other thought: a championship play-in weekend. This was the Massive Ten\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019s 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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\u201cIncluding one other layer of video games within the SEC \u2026 actually didn\u2019t resonate with our management,\u201d 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\u2019s 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\u2019s days could also be numbered \u2014 but it surely\u2019s not a settled situation but.
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Seth Emerson<\/a><\/strong> 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.<\/span> <\/p>\n