No they aren’t. What conference championship game is currently not hosting the two best teams? Big ten is fine, SEC is fine, Big12 is fine, ACC is fine, where is this even coming from? I haven’t heard this argument anywhere else
I agree, hard to argue the CCG teams this season from a conference record perspective, but:
- My guess is Ohio State fans would point to their being the ONLY Big10 team that played 4 of the top 6 Big10 teams this season. Otherwise the most is 2 games: Oregon(2), PSU(2), Indiana(1), Illinois(2) & Iowa(1). But without divisions, with 16 & 18 team conferences there will be unbalanced SOS within conferences.
- Hurricane fans could point to their much higher ranking than Clemson (12 vs. 17). But give Clemson credit for a tough non-conference schedule with Georgia and South Carolina. Whereas Miami played Florida and 2 G5 and an FCS team.
The bigger argument might be the value of having CCG's in a 12 team playoff set-up. Sure the top 4 CCG winners get a Playoff bye. But Ohio State, Indiana, Tennessee and Bama are getting a bye weekend to get healthy while the Big10 & SEC CCG loser gets no rest.
And in the case of SMU, their fans are upset they will drop out of the CFP if they lose their 13th game, while SEC & Big10 teams watching on TV can't hurt their standing with only 12 games.