Greg McElroy expects the SEC to pack the College Football Playoff after Week 3
After three fulls weeks of this season, Greg McElroy thinks the College Football Playoff could once again be filled with its share of teams from the Southeastern Conference.
McElroy listed that as one of his main takeaways to this point of the year during ‘Always College Football’ on Monday.
“The SEC is going to pack the College Football Playoff and people are not going to like it,” said McElroy.
That thought actually came to McElroy after a take that he heard from another network’s show on Saturday. He then considered it more since then and realized that it might not actually be that far off.
“It was funny. I was watching Big Noon Kickoff on Saturday,” said McElroy. “It’s pretty seldom that you hear a lot of positive promotion coming from that show. Here I am watching the show and I’m sitting there and I’m watching. I hear Urban Meyer say that as many as seven teams from the SEC could make the College Football Playoff. I thought Rob Stone was going to fall out of his chair. Like, you know what I mean?” McElroy said. “Brady Quinn and Leinart – they’re kind of like, alright, hang on a second, you know, maybe five, maybe six. I’m like, well, that’s still a lot! I mean you’re saying possibly half the field? This is coming from FOX’s pregame show on the field in Camp Randall. Maybe five or six? Ingram’s like I don’t know. It was just funny to me.
“I’m sitting there and I started to think to myself. I’m like, okay, hang on, seven? There’s no way seven gets in. If that’s what Urban Meyer thinks? Maybe I ‘ought to look a little deeper into this,” said McElroy. “I still, and I said in the preseason, think there’s going to be five but I think there is a possibility that there’s more.”
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With that, McElroy started naming the teams that would be in contention for the dozen-team field. That began with the two teams in the league who are now No. 1 and No. 2 in the latest AP Poll.
“Georgia? People are still wondering about Georgia after last weekend’s performance. I’m not going to press the panic button as it relates to the Georgia Bulldogs. I think they’re still an elite team. They’re a little banged up right now and the bye week is coming at the perfect time,” said McElroy. “I look at Texas? Texas was completely dominant against Michigan. I think that is who Texas is. I’m not at all concerned about them. We’re going to learn all we need to know.”
McElroy then listed the next group of teams with six total that are in position to make the expanded playoff.
“You have ‘Bama, who had a really impressive performance in their first test of the year. You’ve got Missouri, who, against a ranked Boston College team, fought all the way back and it looks like things are going to be pretty good for them on the defensive side,” said McElroy. “What about Ole Miss? They haven’t played anybody. I don’t know what to make of Ole Miss. If you can draw conclusions of the 40-6 win against Wake Forest then great, please, let me know because I want to know what conclusions you’re drawing.
“What about Tennessee? Tennessee has scored 191 points this year. That is 23 more than anybody else in the entire country. They’ve outscored their opponents by 178 points,” McElroy continued. “Oklahoma? I still think, even though they’ve struggled on the offensive line and been really inconsistent, they’re a team with a lot of talent on defense…I didn’t list LSU. What if LSU figures it out and gets things going?”
There is a very real factor here in the SEC, though, where each of these programs could knock one another out throughout conference play over the next two months. With that said, that also works as an advantage for them as McElroy isn’t sure how the committee will hold certain losses against some of these teams considering their competition.
“There might be some carnage because of the matchups that you’ll see in the SEC as we move forward. But is there going to be enough carnage if playoff teams are beating other playoff teams?” asked McElroy. “How much do you penalize the playoff team that lost? That’s kind of what I’m wondering.”
Securing over half of the spots that are available to them in the debut of this new model would be an incredible success for the SEC. There’d also be plenty of irritation about it from the rest of the conferences and their fans nationwide.
Still, while there’s a lot of season left, McElroy thinks that’s what we could be looking at as of now in the Southeastern Conference
“It’s just fascinating to me looking at the SEC,” said McElroy. “I just listed eight teams.
“Will these teams ultimately beat each other up? Sure. But how much are you going to penalize a good team for losing to a good team? I don’t know,” McElroy added. “That’s why I’m looking at Urban Meyer’s comments and think, man, seven? That ain’t happening but it wouldn’t shock me if it’s five or more. It really wouldn’t – not with what we’ve seen through the first three or four weeks of the college football season.”