Warde Manuel addresses Lane Kiffin’s comment on dodging conference championship, value of playing extra game

Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin raised more than a few eyebrows when he claimed this week that there are more than a few SEC coaches who don’t want to make the conference championship game because of what it could mean for the College Football Playoff rankings.

Kiffin noted some teams would probably prefer to avoid the game — which comes with a significant risk of losing — in order to preserve positioning in the CFP rankings.

The chair of the CFP selection committee, Michigan athletics director Warde Manuel, chimed in on that notion from Lane Kiffin on Tuesday night.

“We have a lot of value – we’re not going to speculate on what will happen – but we have a lot of value in the teams that make the championship game,” Manuel said. “That says a lot, playing 12 games in the regular season, making the championship game is a really valuable data point.”

Still, Lane Kiffin raised a valid point.

The upside is relatively capped in a scenario where you’re in the playoffs if you don’t play in the title game. You can improve seeding a bit, but the risk is also tremendous… for some teams, a loss in a conference title game could be a death knell to playoff hopes.

“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,” Lane 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.”

Manuel didn’t provide a whole lot beyond stressing that championship games would be valued by the committee. As with many things College Football Playoff, the specifics are often lacking.

“We’re going to evaluate the games and how teams play, and the performance on the field,” Manuel said. “That’s what the commissioners ask us to do. They didn’t ask us to stop right before the championship game. They asked us to rank teams through the championship games.”

That leaves open the possibility that there is more upside to not playing in your conference title game.

Just a realistic outcome of the current setup.

“There’s a cost and benefit to everything,” Lane 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].”