Greg McElroy, Booger McFarland debate threat conference championships pose for College Football Playoff hopes

When news broke of the looming College Football Playoff expansion, questions rose about the importance of conference championships. Those came up again after Lane Kiffin cited conversations with SEC coaches who wondered if it would be worth playing in the game.

Under the 12-team CFP format, the five highest-ranked conference champions make it into the bracket and the next seven highest-ranked teams round it out. For teams on the bubble, it could lead to a decision about possibly losing the game – and, therefore, falling out of the field. That was a topic of debate on SportsCenter when Greg McElroy and Booger McFarland appeared.

The duo pushed back on Kiffin’s statement about teams possibly avoiding the conference championship, noting the importance to the players and the program as a whole. But on the flip side, in the big picture, McFarland wondered about the risk of a blowout loss.

“Even though, as a player, I want to play, if you play in that game and you get housed, you get beat by 20-30 points,” McFarland said. “Then, I think it’s going to be to your detriment, to your point.”

Under the new College Football Playoff format, first-round games will be at campus sites. That’s why McElroy argued playing in conference championships could be even more important. By missing out on the league title game, he noted the risk of making it a road game instead.

“But maybe you go on the road, as opposed to making it at home,” McElroy said. “I still don’t think they’re going to keep a team out from looking bad in a conference championship, especially if they’re being measured against a Notre Dame that doesn’t have to play in one.”

Kiffin’s comments quickly made their way around the college football world as he noted the “risks and rewards” of playing in the SEC Championship. Some coaches worried about whether a team would fall out of the bracket as a result of the game, and the Ole Miss coach called it a “very unique situation.”

“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. “You know, the reward to get a bye [in the CFP] vs. 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.”