Does the CFP Committee have a Bias towards the SEC?

For the second time in college football playoff history, Georgia and Alabama were selected to be in the playoff and they are the only conference ever to have two teams selected. So does the College football playoff committee have a bias towards the SEC?

This past Sunday, the final four teams for the college football playoff were selected and two teams from the SEC made the cut. This is the second time that two teams from the same conference have made the playoff in the same season with the last time being in 2017 when both Alabama and Georgia were selected. 

The SEC is the only conference in playoff history to have two teams from the same conference make the playoff which has created the theory that the playoff committee has a bias towards the SEC. 

So do they?

The common selection of SEC teams into the playoff probably has more to do with the amount of success the conference has had compared to any other conference in the sport. For starters, 11 of the last 15 national championships have been won by an SEC school, with the other four titles dispersed among Florida State (ACC), Clemson (ACC), and Ohio State (Big 10). On top of that, four out of the seven playoff championships have been won by an SEC school as well. 

While a lot of that has to do with Nick Saban creating one of the greatest dynasties in the history of college football he isn't doing it all by himself. Of the 11 championships won over the last 15 years, four different SEC teams have won a national championship during that run. The next highest is the ACC with three championships from two different teams over the last 15 seasons. Needless to say, the SEC is dominating the rest of college football when it comes to winning championships. 

Another reason why the SEC has verified claims over college football for years now is becuase of the annual additions of the best talent on the recruiting trail as well. The SEC has had the most players selected in the NFL draft each year for 15 years straight now. In the 2021 draft, the SEC had 65 players selected and the next highest was 44 from the Big Ten. The SEC also had the most players selected in the first round of the 2021 draft with 12 selected. That means last year, SEC players took up 25% of the picks in the draft as well as 38% of first-round picks. 

Another stat is that over the last five years, the SEC has averaged having 21 players drafted. The next highest is 14. Safe to say that when it comes to producing talent to the next level, the SEC is the best in the business. It is also why those teams find themselves in the college football playoff so often because they produce the best talent every single year. 

Many had an issue when Alabama made the playoff in 2017 simply due to the fact that they did not even play in their conference champion, but they also ended up winning the national championship that year, so obviously, they were one of the four best teams that season. While the committee selecting multiple SEC teams to play in the college football playoff may come across as bias, in reality, it's because those teams play against the majority of the best talent in the country while also playing in a conference that has dominated the college football landscape in general. 

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