Where Might the Florida Gators Stand in a Hypothetical SEC-Only Tournament?
College Football Playoff Expansion Won't Happen Soon
There won't be an expansion of the College Football Playoff.
That much was made clear last week as 10 FBS commissioners and Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick met via videoconference and came to the conclusion that they were not going to be unanimous in a vote to expand to an eight, 10 or 12-team playoff format.
Instead, the CFP will remain the same. A four-team race, at least for the next four seasons - the length of the current contract that expires following the 2025 season.
"The Board of Managers has accepted a recommendation from the Management Committee to continue the current four-team playoff for the next four years, as called for in the CFP's original 12-year plan, Executive Director of the College Football Playoff Bill Hancock said in a statement on Friday.
"At the same time, the Board expects the Management Committee to continue its discussions of a new format that would go into effect for the 2026-27 season.
"Even though the outcome did not lead to a recommendation for an early expansion before the end of the current 12-year contract, the discussions have been helpful and informative. I am sure they will serve as a useful guide for the Board of Managers and for the Management Committee as we determine what the Playoff will look like beginning in the 2026-2027 season."
The three conferences that chose to not join in on the fun were the Big Ten, Pac-12 and the ACC. It's no surprise that those three conferences remained in lock-step - they formed an alliance last year which essentially dictated that would happen.
The ACC also might have wanted to wait on any expansion to ensure that Notre Dame wouldn't automatically qualify as an independent institution. That's at least been long speculated.
There was no reason for the other seven conferences to vote no, especially the SEC which has dominated the CFP for years now, winning five out of the eight years of the "tournament."
Due to the three grinches of college football, however, it appears there won't be an expansion, and college football will remain in the status quo until at least 2026. Or will it?
A fun experiment brought to light following the vote has been an alternative to the expansion, perhaps the individual conferences themselves can hold a tournament. And many - including The Athletic's Andy Staples - have proposed the SEC begins its own tournament, especially considering how dominant the conference has been of late.
In Staples' proposition, the SEC would begin - presumably when Oklahoma and Texas ultimately officially join the conference - a 16-team race to make a six-to-eight-team tournament, becoming perhaps the most highly-anticipated "playoff" in college football.
Where the Florida Gators Stand in an SEC Tournament
But, where would the Florida Gators stand in that setup?
Hypothetically, in Staples' proposal, the SEC divisions would essentially end, making the race to the big game all that more compelling.
The Gators wouldn't have to only face off against the Georgia, Kentucky and Missouri's of the world, to name a few, year-in-and-year-out. They'd be able to face off against the west teams as well, fighting through battles with Ole Miss, Alabama, Texas A&M, among others on a rotation.
In an eight-man tournament that doesn't account for divisions, Florida would have made the tournament in five of the last seven years. Of course, that doesn't account for the opponents Florida has to face in a seemingly lesser-talented eastern division.
Still, that would lend to Florida's hand as one of the top teams in the SEC, at least according to standings over the last eight years. Having the ability to join in on the fun on a year-in-and-year-out basis instead of playing for whatever bowl game that's left for SEC teams would be a good thing in Gainesville.
The money wouldn't be half bad, either. As Staples points out, the SEC would be looking to make a boatload via Disney or otherwise. The NCAA as a whole unofficially turned down an estimated $450 million in new money, giving the SEC even more reason to lick their chops and secure a lot of that lost revenue.
For Florida, the program would obviously be a part of the split, making a fair share and allowing for more positive changes to happen at the football level. With a new sports complex set to go up in the spring or early summer, there's plenty of reason to want more in terms of revenue there.
Though the Gators only reached the SEC title game one time in Dan Mullen's four years with the program, the goal has never changed, and it won't under Billy Napier.
"We're going to build the best football team in the SEC conference. We're going to build the best football program in the SEC conference. We must have a championship approach in everything that we do to accomplish this goal," Napier said at his introductory press conference.
"Every choice, every decision, every habit that we build along the way, we're going to begin with the ending in mind, and that is to be a champion."
Why then, would it be any different for the program and institution as a whole for athletic director Scott Stricklin? It wouldn't and ultimately it would mean Florida would welcome a tournament among college football's elite - the Southeastern Conference.
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