Mark Ingram II - For the SEC, the playoffs start this weekend
College football enters a new era this season with the first-ever 12-team playoff, and on Tuesday night, the initial rankings were released.
"Everything is an elimination game in the SEC, unless you're Georgia," said former Alabama National Champion and Heisman-winning running back Mark Ingram II on "The Triple Option". SEC teams occupy the third, fifth, seventh, eleventh, fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth spots in the latest rankings. This puts several teams within striking distance of the top 12 but also sets up a challenging path for those currently in playoff contention.
The rankings are as follows: 1. Oregon 2. Ohio State 3. Georgia 4. Miami 5. Texas 6. Penn State 7. Tennessee 8. Indiana 9. BYU 10. Notre Dame 11. Alabama 12. Boise State with SMU and Texas A&M being the first two teams on the outside looking in.
"You have 24 potential teams with a chance at the playoff. It’s great for the game," added three-time National Championship-winning head coach Urban Meyer as he examined the latest rankings. Meyer, who coached during the BCS era and the four-team playoff system, believes the expanded format is a major shift in college football.
The SEC currently has four teams in the top 12, and Ingram believes that's likely to hold steady when the final rankings come out in December. "For five SEC teams to make it in, others would have to lay an egg. You’d need teams to lose three or four games," Ingram explained.
One player who wishes he had the opportunity to compete in a 12-team playoff is 2005 NFL No. 1 overall pick Alex Smith, who led the Utah Utes to a perfect season in 2004 but was shut out of the National Championship conversation. "We waxed everyone that year. We had dudes playing in the NFL. There was this idea that we couldn't compete with the big dogs, and that just wasn’t true," Smith said when asked if he thought his Utah team could have won it all under Coach Meyer.
---
New episodes of “The Triple Option” drop every Wednesday. Watch on YouTube, or listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get podcasts. Follow us @3XOptionShow on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and Facebook for bonus content.