Lane Kiffin reveals some coaches don't want to play in SEC Championship due to College Football Playoff

If the College Football Playoff began today, no conference would have more teams in the field of 12 than the Southeastern Conference.

The race to play in the SEC Championship game is as close as ever heading into Week 13 — and some coaches aren’t going to want their programs to play in the title game. According to Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin, it’s not as attractive in 2024 thanks to the current playoff format. Making the SEC Championship could be a team’s downfall if they don’t leave Atlanta victorious.

“I’ve talked to other coaches, so I’ll just kind of give you the feeling from some other coaches that. They don’t want to be in it,” Kiffin said of the SEC. “You know, the reward to get a bye [ in the CFP] versus the risk to get knocked out completely. I mean, that’s a that’s a pretty big — that’s a really big risk.”

“I think it has ended up being a very unique situation of all postseason sports, the way that system is set up there. How you could go to [the SEC Championship] and get knocked out [of the CFP race]? And if you don’t go [to the SEC Championship game], you’re in.”

If Ole Miss were to find itself in the SEC Championship game against either Texas or Texas A&M, teams like Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama won’t be given the opportunity to lose a third game like the Rebels, or whichever two-loss team makes the title game, would.

“Very different from a lot of these other conferences,” he said.

Kiffin agreed that it’s no secret that the current conference championship model is diluting the meaning of wanting to play for an SEC title.

“There’s a cost and benefit to everything,” Kiffin continued. “There’s great benefits to this playoff system and so many people being excited and fans and programs and more games, and then there’s cost, too. The conference championships don’t mean as much.

And it’s not just, do you potentially get knocked out by losing that? Do you [have] more injuries? So you’re going to go get more injuries, play another game to get a bye, but then the other people are having their bye while you’re playing [in the conference championship game.] So I think that’s why, and I’ll go on record saying it, why a lot of coaches — or some coaches I’ve talked to — don’t want to go to [the SEC].”

Six SEC teams — Ole Miss, Texas, Texas A&M, Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee — all have a legitimate path to make the College Football Playoff. One of those teams will make the SEC Championship game and also might not make the College Football Playoff while the five others very well could.

It might be better for teams to steer clear of Atlanta this season given the circumstances.