It was an hour before kickoff of last year’s SEC Championship Game, and the atmosphere was already charged inside Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The stands were filling up, two of the nation’s marquee teams were getting ready to collide and ABC cameras were setting up to broadcast what is annually one of college football’s most-viewed games.
And you would give all this up, an official at an SEC school was asked?
“Its days are numbered,” replied the official, given anonymity to speak candidly.
Five months later, the athletic director at the school that lost that game, Alabama, gave voice to it. Greg Byrne told USA Today that not only could the venerable SEC Championship Game go away, but that it should: “The ship has sailed. It’s run its course.”
Not yet, of course. The game will be played on Dec. 6, no matter what, but its fate beyond 2026 will be debated until then, and probably afterward.
In an expanded College Football Playoff — currently at 12 teams, probably even more soon — being the conference champion is almost irrelevant. Georgia has won it both years since the Playoff expanded, and has been one-and-done in the postseason both times.
Whether it actually hurts to play the game is arguable: Texas and Alabama, the losers of the past two games, went on to win first-round CFP games, and a quarterfinal in Texas’ case. But with Ole Miss missing the game last year and still advancing to the CFP semifinals, it strengthened the argument that the SEC Championship Game is just for bragging rights now — and if the Playoff is what matters most, the game has run its course, as Byrne said.
But financially, it’s not that simple.
This goes for all conference championship games. But with the SEC being the granddaddy of them all, the brainchild of late commissioner Roy Kramer, let’s focus mainly on the league where the game just means more.
TV ratings
Georgia’s win over Alabama, despite being a blowout, drew 16.86 million viewers, per Nielsen, a slight increase over Georgia’s overtime win over Texas the previous year (16.63 million). Both years it was the highest-rated SEC game of the season — and the 2024 game was college football’s highest-rated non-CFP game.
The Big Ten actually did better last year, with the championship game between No. 1 Ohio State and No. 2 Indiana drawing 18.33 million viewers. The Big 12 also saw a ratings increase for its game, while the ACC — matching Duke and Virginia, and going against the Indiana-Ohio State game — saw a big decrease.
Still, people are watching these games. So there’s very little chance the SEC, and probably other conferences, would just ditch them if the Playoff stayed at 12.
But if it expanded, the ratings would easily be replaced by additional Playoff games, right? Well, that’s not quite clear. None of the first-round games, in the first two years of the 12-team Playoff, have come close to the SEC Championship Game ratings.
In 2025:
Alabama-Oklahoma: 14.9 million
Miami-Texas A&M: 14.8 million
Tulane-Ole Miss: 6.2 million
Oregon-James Madison: 4.4 million
In 2024:
Tennessee-Ohio State: 14.7 million
Indiana-Notre Dame: 13.4 million
Clemson-Texas: 8.9 million
SMU-Penn State: 6.6 million
The ratings do improve as the Playoff goes on, but the SEC Championship Game in 2024 still outdrew every quarterfinal game, and the 2025 game outdrew one quarterfinal and even one semifinal (Miami’s win over Ole Miss).
So just ditching a ratings bonanza like the SEC title game isn’t a layup. Especially for Disney, which holds the rights to the SEC Championship Game as part of its package with the SEC, and would not necessarily be guaranteed the additional games if the CFP expands. The Big Ten, which has been the driving force behind further Playoff expansion, does not have Disney as a partner.
And television is far from the only revenue tied to conference championship games.
Other revenue
The SEC pockets all the revenue from tickets sold, concessions, in-stadium advertising and sponsorships of the SEC Championship Game. As Matt Brown of the website “Extra Points” put it in his Friday newsletter: “If you replace those (conference championship) games with College Football Playoff games, well, all of that stuff is now controlled by the College Football Playoff, not the SEC or any specific school. And on the aggregate, I think that may mean less money for each school, even if the TV payout increases.”
The estimate, per sources, is that including television revenue, the SEC Championship Game brings about $50 million to the conference each year.
On one hand, that would be about only 5 percent of the SEC’s revenue as of the 2024-25 fiscal year. On the other hand, it’s 5 percent of your annual revenue for a single game. That’s hard to just voluntarily give up, never mind all the sentimental value of the game.
Where this is going
Normally, in a clash between competitive and financial reasons, the money always wins. But even SEC commissioner Greg Sankey has been telling people that finances aren’t the only reason to keep the game.
“From my perspective, I think there’s great meaning, which is different than value. I think there’s great meaning in an SEC championship … and provides a platform for the SEC and its football, and it actually can be a launching pad into (the Playoff),” Sankey told The Athletic last December. “But with all that said, I’m certain we’ll be continuing debate about future directions as the postseason format emerges.”
And that’s the key. The future of the CFP format is unresolved, as is the schedule.
One reason CFP first-round ratings have not been strong is that they sometimes go against NFL games. There were two Saturday NFL games the same weekend in both 2024 and 2025, and that weekend is the earliest the NFL is allowed to play on Saturday, according the Sports Broadcast Act. So if the CFP were moved up — either what is now conference championship weekend or the following week — those games would be unopposed.
“My point of view is that the sport should start on Week 0 and wrap by New Year’s,” said John Kosner, a media consultant and former CBS and ESPN executive. “Playing deep into NFL playoffs makes little sense to me, even if the Indiana-Miami rating was very high this year. So yes, moving the Playoff up makes sense to me.”
Failing that — or perhaps instead of that — is revisiting another idea: a championship play-in weekend. This was the Big Ten’s original idea, which included guaranteed bids: four for the SEC and Big Ten, two apiece for the Big 12 and ACC, one for the Group of 6 and an at-large. The SEC and Big Ten’s four bids would be determined by play-in games on championship weekend. The top two teams would receive guaranteed bids but play in a title game to determine a CFP bye, while each league’s two other CFP entrants would be determined by matchups of 3 vs. 6, and 4 vs. 5.
So the championship game is saved, and the benefit of not playing in it is removed. But SEC athletic directors and presidents, after considering it, turned away.
“Adding another layer of games in the SEC … really didn’t resonate with our leadership,” Sankey said last December.
But could the idea be revived, as part of either a 16- or even 24-team CFP format? The SEC and other conferences would have to get over their opposition to guaranteed bids.
There’s a long way until December, which is the next deadline for deciding on a format. The fate of the SEC Championship Game, and other games, seems intertwined with it. The game’s days may be numbered — but it’s not a settled issue yet.
