Time for the SEC championship game to go away

Florida in 2006 and LSU in 2007 probably don’t play for the national championship without the bump they got from winning the SEC title game. But since then,
mizuno mp 54, the SEC championship game has been largely an unnecessary risk.Every year from 2008 2012, the SEC entered championship weekend with at least one team ranked either No. 1 or No. 2 in the country (in 2008, 2009 and 2011 it had two). In all those years, the SEC championship game didn’t do much to help the league’s teams play for the sport’s ultimate prize.Auburn was No. 3 heading into last year’s SEC championship game, but would probably have played for the title anyway had there been no trip to Atlanta. Since second ranked Ohio State lost that same day in the Big Ten title game, the Tigers would have likely been in line to face Florida State in Pasadena.This is not to say all conference championship games should go away, just the SEC’s version of it. The SEC clearly doesn’t need the title game at this point,
scotty cameron putters, especially with the four team playoff field now in place.Is there really any reason to believe an SEC team that was good enough to be leading the conference at the end of the regular season wouldn’t be in a four team playoff? Based on the BCS standings, you’d have to go back to 2005 for that be the case (even in 2007, No. 2 West Virginia’s home loss on the final Saturday of the regular season would have cleared the way for No. 5 LSU to jump into the Top 4).Obviously,
mizuno mp 64, the SEC title game is a huge money maker for the conference,
odyssey putters, the city of Atlanta and the TV networks, with the game routinely selling out six months in advance and ratings among the best of the season. But from a strategic standpoint, it can be quite a gamble.You need to look no further than this weekend as to why that’s true. What if Alabama loses to Missouri?That would mean the SEC would be shut out of the four team playoff. It’s hard to conceive of a Missouri team that lost one home game by 34 points and another to a 4 8 Big Ten team earning a spot in the playoff field even if it was SEC champion, not without a string of upsets elsewhere on Saturday.Yes, the SEC title game means there is one outright league champion, rather than the messy two and sometimes three team "co championships" we saw in the 1970s and 80s. That’s one point in its favor, though the bad still outweighs the good.By taking up one less Saturday of the season,
scotty cameron putters, a title game free SEC would also pave the way for two changes that are probably coming one way or another: (1) a nine game conference schedule; and (2) an expansion of the playoff field to eight teams. The SEC championship game was a great idea at the time Roy Kramer conceived of it in 1992, but it appears to have outlived its usefulness.