For the past few months, the SEC has been in the spotlight amid growing debates about the future of the Championship Game. The discussion gained momentum after Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne suggested that the championship game may have “run its course,” pushing instead for an expanded College Football Playoff format.

And Byrne wasn’t alone. Even the head coach of the SEC championship holders, the Georgia Bulldogs, Kirby Smart, seconded this motion. But while several voices around the conference leaned toward change, Steve Sarkisian, who’s banking a reported $10.8 million paycheck in Texas, emerged as one of the strongest opponents to the proposal, making his feelings clear.

Sarkisian isn’t an SEC coach. He’s coaching Texas, a program that joined the SEC’s rival landscape only in 2024. While Alabama and Georgia fight to protect their players from a season stretching too thin, Sarkisian sees something else. He’s watched his own Longhorns chase “playoff or bust” and fall short. To him, losing the SEC Championship game means losing a chance for teams like Texas to prove they belong on football’s biggest stage.

“I love the SEC championship game. I think it’s a special game. It’s a special moment for the two teams that have the opportunity to play in that game. Clearly, the fans love it. The viewership is incredible for that ball game,” Sarkisian stated, as reported by Evan Vieth.

Sarkisian does have a point. The SEC Championship has been in the college football culture since 1992, carrying decades of history and rivalries. For fans, the race to see if their teams earn a spot in the conference title game remains one of the most exciting parts of the season.

What Byrne believes is that in the current 12-team playoff format, a heavy loss in the conference championship game can seriously hurt a team’s ranking and even push a three-loss team out of the playoff race. Kalen DeBoer’s Alabama was one of the rare exceptions, still making the 2025 CFP despite having three losses.

Alabama’s AD Byrne and Georgia head coach Kirby Smart aren’t asking the SEC to cancel its championship game out of hate for tradition. They’re asking because they’ve felt the sting of it. DeBoer’s Alabama lost the 2025 SEC Championship to Georgia 28-7, dropped to three losses, and still scraped into the playoffs.

Smart’s Georgia won that same game, but he knows the clock on the season is running too late for players to prepare for the transfer portal or spring training. Both coaches told SEC athletic directors in meetings this spring that if the playoff grows to 16 teams, the championship game might have to move earlier or shrink. They’re not enemies of the game. They’re fathers and coaches worried their players get shortchanged when the season stretches too thin.

The proposed 5+11 model, supported by the ACC, Big 12, and SEC, does not officially remove conference title games. The format mainly focuses on granting automatic playoff bids to the five highest-ranked conference champions, with the remaining 11 spots going to at-large teams. So the title game just adds extra pressure on the team.

While the Longhorns’ head coach has yet to bag a conference title, Sarkisian added to his previous comment, saying part of the problem in college athletics right now is that everyone is “chasing one goal and losing sight of the small victories along the way.”

“We live in an era right now of college football where it’s playoff or bust,” Sarkisian said, “and I feel for people because there’s only 12 teams that get in … and so the disappointment for the majority of these fan bases, because they all live with a playoff-or-bust mentality. … We’re minimizing the value of an SEC championship, all with the hopes of just winning a national championship, and one team gets one of those.”

When Lauren Beasley posed a question on X, “Would most South Carolina fans trade three women’s basketball national championships for one football national title?” The fans had a rather simple reply: “I think most Gamecocks fans would trade the 3 women’s basketball championships plus the 2 baseball championships for a football title. That’s just the way it is in the South; football is king,” replied one fan.

Even though the debate around College Football Playoff expansion has split opinions among fans, one thing remains clear: college football means more in the South. More importantly, SEC football culture is unlike anything else in sports.

Moreover, fans stay fiercely loyal to their schools and would gladly trade success in every other sport just to experience even a small taste of football glory. So, taking away their conference championship might not be a great idea, and even head coaches are now standing up against this proposal.

Other coaches who are in favour of the preservation of the SEC Championship

Kirby Smart’s main worry isn’t about the game itself, but rather, it’s about money. After Georgia won the 2025 SEC Championship, the Bulldogs’ head coach started thinking about what would happen if that game disappeared. Athletic departments need that revenue to pay coaches, staff, and facilities. Without it, Smart asked himself: Can we still run our program the right way?

“I don’t think it’s great for the transfer portal to be ending the season that late, and if that championship game is in the way of that, or gets put on the back burner because of that, I think you’d have to accept it,” Smart said. “But I’m really more worried about the financial burden that we’re under right now of paying for the athletic department. And when you take that revenue stream [from the SEC championship game] out, can we make it work, and is it sustainable to do without it? [It] would be my biggest concern.”

Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz also voiced his support for the SEC Championship Game, making it clear that he still believes the event remains a vital part of college football and the conference’s tradition.

“It’s one of the best games that the SEC puts on every single year, and I don’t know why you would get rid of that, just because you know you want to get to the next thing,” Drinkwitz said. “We’re constantly looking for the next thing, the next thing, the next thing, like that’s the answer. Like, man, sometimes you guys just got to slow down and enjoy what you have, and what we have is really good product.”

Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea, who is still chasing his first conference title as a head coach, clearly does not want to lose out on that opportunity.

“I want to win one of those,” Lea said. “Especially playing in a league like the SEC, the idea that you can leave a field with a trophy that says SEC champion, that is really meaningful to me.”