Between conference realignment, the expanded College Football Playoff, NIL, new transfer portal rules and now scheduling adjustments, the landscape of college football has changed significantly over the last five years. Among the ramifications of these changes, Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin believes, is that the SEC will no longer have dynasties.
The most recent change taking place in the SEC are the league's new scheduling rules that mandate teams in the SEC have to play nine conference opponents every year, starting in 2026. Each school will play three teams annually as well as six other rotating opponents from the SEC. In addition, every program must play Notre Dame or another Power 4 opponent each year.
"In my opinion, the dynasties are over," Kiffin told ESPN. "Alabama with Coach Saban and then Kirby [Smart] at Georgia, where they had those rosters year in, year out and there would be a bunch of wins by 30 points in the conference, those days are done.
"You're going to have really good teams going 8–4 because we're going to play nine conference teams, including five on the road," Kiffin said. "The conference has never been this balanced, and it never used to have Texas and Oklahoma, two top-10 teams and two of the hardest places in the country to play."
Due to these changes, Kiffin also believes that it's important for the CFP committee to put more emphasis on a team's strength of schedule when deciding the 12-team playoff. Kiffin was notably critical last season when SMU and Indiana were selected for the CFP over multiple SEC teams, including his Rebels.
"The records in college football are so burned into our heads that 11–1 is so much better than 10–2 and so much better than 9–3, but it's so different because you're in these different conferences," Kiffin said to ESPN.
"It can't be these people deciding who gets in the playoff," he added. "We've got to get back to analytics and computers. Baseball and basketball have the RPI where they take into account margin of victory, who you play, where you play and all of that."
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Lane Kiffin Declared Dynasties Dead in SEC Football As League Changes Schedule.
