- Alabama is basically Illinois now. That’s Alabama’s unpleasant reality. That’ll go over well in Tuscaloosa.
- Kalen DeBoer sees ‘fine line’ between Alabama and Indiana. Come again?
- SEC force fed humble pie in CFP and bowl games.
Alabama is Illinois now.
That’s Alabama’s unpleasant reality. I’m sure that’ll go over well in T-Town.
Seriously, show me the difference between Illinois and Alabama the past two seasons. One wears orange. There’s your differentiation. That’s about it.
Remember how Indiana decked the Illini when the teams met during the regular season? Well, the Rose Bowl became something of a sequel. The Hoosiers boot-stomped Alabama. The key difference? The encore happened in a College Football Playoff quarterfinal instead of an intraconference rout.
Around the time Indiana increased its lead to 38-3 on once-fearsome Alabama, you were forced to accept there’s just not much difference between the Tide and a 9-4 Big Ten team anymore.
Alabama used to be the team that could beat a ranked opponent by 35. Now, it’s the team that can lose by five touchdowns. That’ll make for a spicy offseason for Kalen DeBoer.
Alabama and Illinois each beat Tennessee, for whatever that’s worth. Each team had its moments, and each produced a few clunkers, too. Each lost four times.
Not bad teams. Not great teams, either. Put them on the field against one another, and I’d expect we’d see a fair fight and a good game. A much better game than the one in Pasadena.
I’m not suggesting Illinois should have been in the playoff. No way. The Music City Bowl became a fitting destination for the Illini, who beat an SEC team in a bowl game for the second straight season.
I am saying it’s time to stop defaulting to giving the SEC the benefit of the doubt. It’s not earning that benefit anymore.
SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey once quoted Sesame Street and claimed his conference is not like the others. That used to be true. Now, it’s more like the others, or at least one other — the other with the B1G jersey patch.
The next time the playoff committee considers bending over backward to ensure a playoff spot for the SEC’s three-loss runner-up, it needs to remember Alabama is Illinois now.
SEC, Alabama supremacy a thing of the past
The committee defaulted toward giving the SEC the benefit of the doubt when it reserved a spot for conference runner-up Alabama, even after our eyes made us question throughout November and again on conference championship weekend whether the Tide looked the part of a playoff team.
The committee briefly earned some vindication when Alabama won a first-round playoff game. Maybe, it only won a playoff game because it faced another SEC team. What might Miami or Oregon have done to Alabama in Round 1?
The SEC’s relentless supremacy, along with Alabama’s galactic overlord status, ended after NIL and transfer free agency came along.
If the committee wasn’t prepared to acknowledge that before — it awarded the SEC five bids in this playoff — maybe it will be more ready to accept that reality after the SEC’s postseason flop.
Not so long ago, the SEC ruled the block as college football’s ruthless bully. Only those suffering from a bad case of Big Ten bias would deny it.
Now, the SEC is more of a paper tiger, or at the very least an overrated elephant, propped up by propaganda, effective branding and our collective slowness to accept college football norms changed more in these past five seasons than it did in the 25 years that preceded it.
Only one of the SEC’s five playoff qualifiers reached the semifinals. That comes after SEC newcomer Texas was its lone semifinalist last season. The SEC’s bowl performance has been pitiful, too. At least Texas saved some face for the conference by beating turmoil-stricken Michigan.
Tennessee and Missouri, two SEC teams that went 8-5, finished the season without a single victory against an FBS opponent that finished above-.500.
If Alabama is Illinois now, then Tennessee and Missouri were Minnesota.
And yet Tennessee and Missouri spent multiple weeks ranked in the CFP. Minnesota was never ranked.
Big Ten gets a laugh at the SEC’s expense
Rivalries being what they are, some scattered throughout Big Ten land will take the SEC’s postseason performance as a referendum that the conference down south stinks. That battle cry will gain more steam if Mississippi loses to Miami in the CFP semifinals. The SEC hasn’t sent a team to the national championship game since the 2022 season.
The SEC doesn’t stink. It’s just not lapping the field anymore.
Blue bloods had their day. Heck, they had their century. Now, parity exists unlike ever before, so that you can say Alabama is Illinois, and it’s more real than hyperbole.
That doesn’t mean the CFP committee must start rejecting 10-win SEC teams, any more than it should snub a 10-win Big Ten team.
It does mean the committee should stop defaulting to giving the SEC the benefit of the doubt in bubble debates.
Perhaps, the SEC should have lost the benefit of the doubt after Alabama got bullied by Florida State, which later proved unimpressive.
If not then, then it lost the benefit of doubt after Indiana inserted its backup quarterback into a Rose Bowl blowout. Continuing to play the starter became unnecessary against an overmatched opponent.
Indiana’s backup quarterback got to play against Illinois, too.
After Alabama absorbed the beatdown in Pasadena, DeBoer claimed “a fine line” exists between four-loss Alabama and undefeated Indiana. That’s his story, anyway.
I detect a finer line between Alabama and Illinois.
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s senior national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.
