The SEC still has a pulse in the college football playoff:
Alabama and Ole Miss now prepare for their quarterfinal game:
Flash Thoughts:
Through the first part of this year's college football playoff, the Southeastern Conference can say they still have a pulse in trying to make a deep run into this 12 team format.
Alabama's comeback victory at Oklahoma and Ole Miss very much superior in eliminating Tulane deserves a lot of attention for the fact the SEC is the target in which the conference can either succeed or fail.
Texas A&M is a program that still has a lot to learn on being a sound team at the right time of the season.
There is for certain a lot of questioning after the first four games that the committee was not correct on the participants.
If Tulane and James Madison are part of the acclaimed 12 best squads for the playoff, neither displayed it in getting drubbed by Ole Miss and Oregon on Saturday afternoon and evening.
Notre Dame will be the first to claim inaccuracy.
In reality, the college football playoff is for the superior from the SEC, Big Ten, Big XII and ACC.
Teams out of the American Athletic Conference (AAC) and Sun Belt in many are on the outside looking in.
Looking ahead:
The quarterfinals are set with one game to be on December 31 and the other three a part of the New Year's Day schedule.
Alabama now starts to prepare for Indiana in the Rose Bowl game.
Ole Miss is given a chance for a rematch with Georgia from the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans.
The committee has selected the Cotton Bowl on the 31st, Ohio State vs. Miami.
Texas Tech and Oregon will kickoff the January 1 tripleheader against one another in the Orange Bowl.
Yours truly sees this theory as the CFB committee doing the SEC a favor with 5 getting invited in 2025 to only three the previous year.
But they have also made it clear that the conference is going to cancel out one another.
Oklahoma is still not an elite in the SEC for the history the Sooners have of playing years ago in the Big 8 and then the Big XII.
What makes it fun for Georgia and Ole Miss is they are located in the Superdome, the long time home for the SEC in bowl season play.
Tickets will be very much a challenge to purchase on the magnitude of an SEC school will go on to the semifinal round and the other will go home.
Indiana getting sent to the Rose Bowl is part of the agenda of the Big Ten being in this game in Pasadena ever since I started following this sport in 1970.
Oregon will have to adjust of coming from out West to be in the Sunshine State and now the Orange Bowl is a game at lunch time in the Eastern time zone, not under the lights like the game has been for many years.
For the fact that Ohio State lost in the Big Ten title game to upstart Indiana with the playoff committee seeding the Buckeyes 2nd and now a win by OSU over Miami, they see the SEC in front of them in the semifinal round.
Alabama is on a path of everything to gain and nothing to lose in the Rose Bowl vs. Indiana.
Nothing is ever perfect no matter who much is applied into situations.
Fans and certain media folks can use the first weekend of the playoff to vent.
How many really felt that two games in the setup would be claimed by the road team?
The games are decided by the outcome from on the field.
Now we look ahead to the next phase as it will bring in 2026 and say goodbye to 2025.
Photo of Tulane coach Jon Sumrall (left) and Pete Golding of Ole Miss prior to the CFB playoff game between the two December 20 at Oxford, Mississippi.
Photo courtesy of the Vicksburg News.
