Power play

 OK, O-kay, Greg Sankey. So it was a damn shame -- an almighty travesty of justice, not to put too fine a point on it -- that the College Football Playoff bouncers didn't let a three-loss Alabama team into the show last season.

Happy now?

Because, listen, all this chatter about an expanded 16-team CFP format tracks right back to that, and don't let Sankey, the commissioner of the SEC, smooth-talk you into thinking otherwise. This is about the big dogs, the SEC and Big Ten, rigging the system in their favor. It's about ensuring an Alabama -- even a three-loss Alabama -- will never again be excluded for the likes of, say, Boise State or any similar poor relation.

Set aside for a moment the obvious question here, which is why the CFP suits didn't just start out with a 16-team playoff if it was going to dump the 12-team setup so quickly. Right now we're looking at 2026 for the prospective rollout, which means the 12-team format will be gone after two seasons. Mayflies have a longer life span.

But back to the SEC and Big Ten, and their power play.

At the moment, see, the most favored proposed format is a 5-11 plan, meaning the champions of the top five conferences would get automatic bids and 11 at-large bids would fill out the field. The SEC and Big Ten each want four of those at-large bids for themselves. Which means every year eight of the 11 at-larges would be either SEC or Big Ten teams.

Move over and let the big dogs eat, in other words.

In the SEC's case, the deal-maker (or deal-breaker) is a nine-game conference schedule. The SEC teams currently play eight conference games. Given the conference's traditional strength, adding a ninth game would automatically make everyone's schedule tougher. Fewer cupcakes; more 'Bamas or Georgias or LSUs or Tennessees.

Does the SEC want this? No, the SEC does not.

Several of the conference's ADs, in fact, have said they would only favor a nine-game schedule if the SEC was guaranteed those four playoff spots. That's their asking price.

In other words: Look, if we have to drop Furman to pick up, say, Ole Miss or Auburn, we want some assurances that if we wind up 9-3 or something, we'll still get in. And too bad for those 12-0 or 11-1 hoboes from Utah or Boise.

Some people would say that suggests the SEC is a tad on the lily-livered side. I mean, not me, necessarily, but some people.

Me, I'm just wondering how the SEC is still getting away with playing an eight-game  slate when the conference now encompasses, like, eleventy-gazillion schools. The SEC stretches all the way from Austin, Texas, to Columbia, South Carolina, these days, and, if not eleventy-gazillion schools, it does include 16. That big a crowd should be playing at least nine conference games, if not more.

Of course, that big a crowd gets to make the rules for everyone else. Or so the 16-team SEC and the 18-team Big Ten seem to think.

Might makes right, or some such thing. Distasteful as it is.