The SEC's championship reign crumbles. Notre Dame can seize this moment to forge its own dynasty.
From 2010 to 2022, the national champion in college football was predominantly from the Southeastern Conference. In three straight seasons from 2010 to 2013, Alabama won twice and Auburn won once. The Crimson Tide went on to win in 2015, 2017 and 2020. LSU won the national title in 2019 with that historic offense while Georgia won back to back titles in 2021 and 2022. The only non-SEC teams to take home the trophy during that stretch was Florida State, Clemson twice and Ohio State.
The last three seasons from 2023 to 2025 have been a different story entirely. In the final year of the four team playoff era, Alabama was the only SEC team to make the playoffs and they lost to Michigan in the Rose Bowl 27-20. Michigan would go on to win the National Title over Washington 34-13. Once the expanded playoff went into effect in 2024, the narrative didn't get much better for the Southeastern Conference.
Last season, the Crimson Tide, who had been the SEC's flagship program for the better half of the last 15 years, didn't make the cut after accumulating some bad losses in the regular season. Still, three SEC teams made the 12-team field; Texas was the No. 5 seed, Tennessee was the No. 9 seed and Georgia was the No. 2 seed and received a first round bye. Texas beat Clemson at home in round one 38-24 and Arizona State in round two 39-31 but fell to Ohio State in the semi-finals 28-14.
Tennessee didn't make it out of the first round after getting annihilated on the road in Columbus 42-17. Georgia, who didn't play in round one, lost to Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl 23-10. All three SEC teams who made the College Football Playoffs in 2024 lost by double digits and the Longhorns were the only team to play multiple games in the playoffs. Unfortunately, their fortunes wouldn't get much better in this year's playoffs.
The Southeastern Conference was arguably the deepest league in the country out of the Power 4 leagues, but it was far from the best. Despite questionable out of conference performances and teams not living up to their preseason hype, they still managed to get five teams in the 12-team playoff field including an Alabama team that didn't belong in the first place. Alabama, Oklahoma, Ole Miss, Texas A&M and Georgia were the five teams to make the College Football Playoffs in 2025. For the third year in a row, there won't be an SEC team in the national title game.
Two of the SEC's bids were eliminated by other SEC teams, Oklahoma in round one was eliminated by Alabama and Georgia in the quarterfinals was eliminated by Ole Miss. The Crimson Tide's post season run ended emphatically in the Rose Bowl when they got dominated by Indiana 38-3. Ole Miss lost this past week to Miami in a thriller out west in the VRBO Fiesta Bowl.
There's a new reality in college football, the road to winning a National Championship no longer runs through the SEC. In the last three years, in games in the playoffs against non-SEC opponents, the Southeastern Conference is 3-8 in College Football Playoff games with their only wins coming against Arizona State, Clemson and Tulane. The Big Ten will have a team in the title game for the third year in a row with Indiana following in the foot steps of Michigan in 2023 and Ohio State in 2024.
Now is the time for teams like Notre Dame to capitalize on the rapid decline of the SEC. Last season, the Irish made the National Championship game against the Buckeyes and lost 34-23 after putting together a 13-game winning streak to get there. Could the SEC return to form? Of course. This isn't a death sentence by any means, but the playing field has been leveled, and the last three years have shown us that the Southeastern Conference has struggled to adjust.
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