Former SEC Commissioner, Roy Kramer, discovered a loophole that allowed the SEC to play a conference championship game after the SEC expanded to 12 teams in 1990. Creating divisions, as a prelude to conference championship games, became the rage.
Fast forward to 2022. Conference championships have retained popularity and may survive the expansion of the playoffs from 4 to 12 teams. But division alignments have fallen out of favor. In May, the Pac 12 scrapped this approach. The two Pac 12 teams with the highest winning percentage will play. If this approach had been employed from inception, the teams playing in the championship tilt would have differed in 5 of the previous 11 years.
Conference USA has also scrapped divisions in 2022. With possible pod systems in both the SEC and the Big 10 as the two powers grow to 16 teams, 2 more conferences might be prepared to torpedo divisions.
Sadly, there is one conference, saddled with divisions in 2022, where the imbalance between the divisions is stunning: The Fun Belt. (Congrats to the Sun Belt for being the first Group of 5 conference to beat 2 top 10 teams on the same day in almost two decades. A 3rd Sun Belt stunner, Georgia State beating Nebraska, was the final nail in Scott Frost’s coffin. Gravy was the $4.1 million that these 3 victors received).
The Odyssey wrote an August article commenting on how much stronger the East is. Phil Steele’s publication picked Georgia Southern in the East cellar. No knock on Southern as the East is that loaded. Old Dominion upset Virginia Tech in its opener. FBS newbie, James Madison, has absolutely demolished two opponents. Coastal Carolina has beat a tough Army squad.
With all due respect to Louisiana and the rest of the Sun Belt West, the championship game for the East champion may not prove nearly as tough as the gauntlet to get there.
ESPN has tossed the Sun Belt a Boone bone this week. On Saturday, Gameday will be in the USA town with the highest elevation East of the Mississippi. The App State crazies will be out in force!!