With conversations of SEC bias at an all-time high, FOX Sports’ Joel Klatt took an interesting stance on the league’s position in the College Football Playoff.
Klatt declared the SEC’s reign at the top of college football over, noting that SEC superiority is officially dead.
“The narrative that the SEC is so clearly head and shoulders above everybody all the time is dead, and it needs to die based on the evidence in front of our eyes,” Klatt said. “Now, that doesn’t mean that they won’t have the most guys drafted in the NFL Draft. It doesn’t mean that they’re not a great conference. They are a great conference, and they’re probably the deepest conference this year. However, this idea of vast superiority needs to die based on the evidence, not narrative. Evidence. As we move forward, hopefully, that’s the case.”
He then focused on Arizona State and their incredible game against Texas in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl.
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“Arizona State, man, they had a chance to really win that game,” Klatt continued. “They had a chance right there. If the targeting goes their way, which, by rule, it should have, then they have a chance on 4th & 13. Credit Texas for the way they executed. Ewers executed, but Texas barely got into the national semifinal. And if you were sitting here 5-6 years ago and saying the SEC is barely going to get into the Final Four in the first year of a 12-team playoff, everyone would have thought you were crazy. That narrative is slowly dying.”
While Paul Finebaum and Kirk Herbstreit may lead the casual fan to believe otherwise, the SEC’s showing in the 2024 College Football Playoff was abysmal. Tennessee and Georgia were blown out, while Texas needed double overtime and a botched targeting call to outlast the Sun Devils.
