Josh Pate reacts to Alabama not dropping in College Football Playoff's final rankings despite SEC Championship loss

There was some thought going into the weekend, and certainly so after how the game went yesterday, that Alabama could miss the College Football Playoff if they were to lose the SEC Championship. They didn’t, though, as Josh Pate reminded everyone why they were never at risk of missing the CFP.

On his show on Sunday afternoon, Pate reacted to the idea that the Crimson Tide, which got in today at No. 9, could miss the playoff after losing on Saturday. It’s a thought he dismissed already last week, and did so again as it was proven right after they didn’t move in the final rankings today from the CFP Selection Committee.

“We just were in Atlanta last night, and we saw Alabama get dump-trucked by Georgia. And that led to a lot of folks leaving Atlanta last night, flipping over to the Big Ten Championship, you know, Twitter fingers working – ‘Alabama has got to drop, right?’. Well, no, they don’t have to drop,” said Pate. “They weren’t going to drop. I was very confident in that. Like, I said that going into the game. They gave me the theoretical of, well, what if they lose by 50? Well, then they lose by 50, and they’re not a conference champ. They’re not dropping out. It was so basic.”

With ‘Bama on the edge of being in the field, some wondered what a loss in the SEC Championship, and certainly if it was a lopsided one, would mean for their hopes of being in the CFP. That scenario then played out, with Alabama losing 28-7 in a rematch against Georgia, who they already beat by three in Athens to open conference play at the end of September. But, this time, the Bulldogs got the best of them, with the Tide being shut down as they were held to season-lows in points and yardage, including posting negative rushing yardage, in the 21-point loss to UGA.

However, the defeat didn’t affect them in the end for the playoff, as Alabama remained right where they were before at No. 9. That was the right decision to Pate, as he knew that the CFP Selection Committee couldn’t set that kind of precedent about conference championships, with one of the league’s finalists missing the field after losing in the additional outing of their title game, namely in the ones for the SEC and Big Ten.

“You’ve got to understand something. Whether you like what I’m going to say or not? I’m not telling you how it should be. I’m telling you how it is,” said Pate. “The SEC Championship is worth a whole lot of money. The SEC, as a league, runs and dictates a lot of this sport. There’s not even anything wrong with that, because that’s how powerful they are. They have accumulated that power, not through false means. Like, they’re where most of the big brands are, and the Big Ten is where most of the big brands are. So, if the Big Ten Championship was in the same situation as the SEC’s yesterday, I’d say the same thing about the Big Ten Championship.”

“A lot of people looked at Alabama lose last night and they said, and I don’t agree with this line of thinking. But they said, well, if conference championship games are going to mean something, then there’s got to be risk. No, there doesn’t. It’s a fundamental misunderstanding of the concept of a conference championship game within the overarching structure of the playoff. The meaning of a conference championship game, if you’re already ranked inside the top-ten, let’s say, like Alabama was, is you only stand to benefit from it. Alabama could have won that game last night, and then gone on to take a first-round bye and so they would have benefited. Georgia did win the game, so they did solidify a first-round bye. Oh, by the way, they win the conference championship – in the words of Kirby Smart, if that still means anything to you. But, there was something to gain. What you’re not going to have is you’re not going to have several members of your conference, a la A&M, a la Ole Miss, a la Oklahoma, sit at home and watch the number one overall seed from that league risk a lack of playoff inclusion for playing in a reward game. That was just never going to happen.”

Also, back to that idea of a precedent being set, Pate thought, furthermore, that would be turning conference title games into pseudo-playoff games. That’s as a loss in the conference championship would start serving as the first of as many as five playoff games, which he also disagreed with.

“Here’s the other thing. If you think there’s no punishment for losing that conference championship game, understand, from the time the regular season ended, for Alabama for example, they needed to either win last night, or understand they’re one of the teams that’s going to have to play five games to win a national title,” Pate added. “Last night was the first one, and they lost. So now they’ve got to play an opening round game, and then, if they win that one, they’ve got to play another game, and then another game, and then another game. And, I know you’re listening saying, ha, Alabama is not going to win the national title. No, probably not, but the point is, if they were to do that, the punishment for losing the game last night is they will have had to play five postseason games.”

It didn’t end up happening, so it didn’t matter after all. Still, Pate thought too many people got themselves too into the idea that this scenario could actually play out for Alabama after the SEC Championship.

“The risk was never that you’re going to drop out for playing in a game that other people didn’t earn the right to play in,” said Pate. “That was never going to happen.”