Lane Kiffin Critiques SEC's Proposed 9-Game Schedule
Lane Kiffin criticizes the SEC's nine-game schedule, claiming it skews true strength assessments in college football. Teams need to play to know who's best.
Video Transcript
You know, usually on this program, you get Big Sell's bashing all over Lane Kiffin, and rightfully so for some of the things that he's said and he's done.
I couldn't stand the whole scenario a year ago where he ended up leaving his team high and dry, that Ole Miss team, as they were prepping for an opportunity to play for a national championship.
I would never play for a guy like this.
However, in this light, I may actually have to agree with Lane Kiffin.
He's at the Southeastern Conference meetings, and he made a comment, and he thinks the nine-game SEC schedule that has been proposed here by Greg Sankey, the commissioner, is a bad idea.
"My concern is that college football and the playoff selection process is not fixed until it's truly fixed to reward strength of schedule.
If we keep playing each other, we don't prove we're better than anyone else."
I happen to agree with this.
Believe it or not, he's right.
Listen, the Big Ten is without a doubt right now the number one conference in all of college sports.
Three straight national championships with three different teams in football.
You've got the men and the women in the college basketball that have won national titles.
My friends, the Big Ten is taking the lead here.
Lane's right.
How are you gonna find out how good you are if you're not playing Ohio State, if you're not playing Clemson?
This is a money grab by the Southeastern Conference.
The more they play themselves, the less they have to share with opposing programs.
Remember, when you pay for a team to come into your barn in Baton Rouge, you pay that team to come down and play LSU, and vice versa when LSU goes and plays at a non-conference place like Ohio State or goes into a place like Miami.
You pay each other for coming and playing in your own barn.
It's a home and away.
That's what it's called.
Well, the SEC believes the more we play one another, the money stays within the conference.
Dude, that's not gonna tell you who the best conference is and who the best team in the country is.
I was always a fan of strength of schedule, and I am a f-fan of strength of schedule.
That's why I believe one day you'll see a three-loss team play for the national championship, and you should.
Listen, going undefeated in today's college football, that doesn't necessarily mean you're the best team in the country.
Who do you play?
When do you play?
We see this in the National Football League.
The team traditionally with the best record in the NFL doesn't always win the Super Bowl.
We saw that play out one year with Tom Brady's football team when they ended up the regular season unbeaten.
They beat that New York Giants team in the final regular season game, and when they got that team in the Super Bowl, they ended up getting beaten, and it was the one loss on that schedule that would've stopped them from equaling what the Miami Dolphins did back in the early '70s.
They would've been undefeated.
You're not gonna see that.
Folks, strength of schedule matters.
And also, too, with the process, he's talking, I happen to agree with Lane.
The James Madisons and the Tulanes of the world, what are you doing in the playoff?
There's no reason to have those programs playing for a national championship and just to give the fans, "Well, guess what?
We have to open it up for everyone for it to be fair."
Dude, life is not fair, and so is playing in a sport like this.
There's haves and have-nots.
Tulane and James Madison have no right playing in that tournament unless they play strength of schedule.
How in God's name do you sit there and look at James Madison's schedule and then turn around and look at a schedule like Ohio State or LSU or Alabama or Georgia and say, "Hey, this is fair"?
You've got different metrics for this playoff system.
Look, I'm looking for the 12 best teams.
Hey, and as Lane said, too, here, I'm not for expanding.
I like the 12 teams.
I like that teams get left out.
I like that there's a debate.
You actually make the college football postseason now interesting.
Look, these bowl games, like going to the fruitloop.com bowl, nobody watches these games, and nobody cares about those games anymore.
The college football playoffs and the college football system right now at 12, I think it's fabulous because you have a debate at the end of the year, and you're talking what three teams got left out.
Last year, Texas, you're talking Notre Dame was two of the teams that ended up getting left out, and it made for great water cooler talk.
He's right.
This is a bad move by the Southeastern Conference.
I think places like Florida, LSU, Georgia, you've gotta play out of conference because when you play out of conference, you're showing your strength of schedule.
We'll go anywhere and play.
That's the mantra that many of the great programs have.
I don't care who you are.
We'll play you anywhere.
