SEC Football: Why More Should Join Mike Slive in Favoring 4-Team Playoff

Mike Slive lobbied for a four-team playoff in 2008, and now he seems to be getting his wish.

The SEC commissioner and de facto leader of college football came out in favor of a four-team playoff again over the weekend, while speaking to reporters at the SEC baseball tournament in Hoover, Ala.

Unsolicited advice to other FBS leaders (Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott in particular): Join him.

I know, I know: Slive, Scott and pretty much everybody else have come out in favor of the four-team playoff in some way, shape or form.

Slive's stance hasn't changed. In fact, he and the ACC pushed for a four-team playoff back in 2008 when the SEC's BCS championship streak was still in its infancy stages.

Scott, on the other hand, has been playing politics.

The commissioner of the Pac-12 said last week in the Wall Street Journal that the new SEC vs. Big 12 bowl game puts a true "plus-one" back on the table.

False.

It does nothing of the sort. Scott's argument is that the alliance between conferences brings us back to the good ol' days of mandatory conference bowl tie-ins.

You know, like the tie-ins that the Pac-12 and Big Ten have with the Rose Bowl?

Don't make this harder than it needs to be.

Put your bargaining chips away and work towards a solution that benefits college football as a whole, not one that serves one particular conference. In the end, the sport as a whole will be better off, which should be the goal.

That solution should include a four-team playoff without automatic bids for conference champions. Anything less will be as flawed as—and perhaps even more flawed than—the current BCS.

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