Joe Tessitore calls out Big Ten depth, College Football Playoff committee for ‘punishing’ SEC

Entering Saturday, four out of the top five teams in the College Football Playoff rankings were members of the Big Ten. No. 3 Texas was the lone SEC team as the conference’s other members in CFP contention all had two losses. A few results have shaken things up on Saturday but future conversations will continue to compare the Big Ten and SEC.

For ESPN’s Joe Tessitore, he believes the CFP committee is “punishing” the SEC for having a deeper league than the Big Ten. Tessitore pointed toward what Florida did against Ole Miss and Kentucky‘s previous win against the Rebels.

Then you look over at the Big Ten, Tessitore does not see top-tier teams being challenged by the middle to lower-tier.

“There’s the assumption that all conferences are equal,” Tessitore said during the Kentucky-Texas broadcast. “They’re not. This one is different, very different. Yet, it’s not showing up when you look at those Playoff rankings. I’ll give you the perfect example — in the SEC, the middle, and even the middle to bottom, are still wars. There are still really good teams that you got to fight through every week.

“What about Florida? Kentucky beat Ole Miss. Florida beat Ole Miss… Those teams don’t exist in the Big Ten. Once you get past that top tier, the middle and bottom of the Big Ten is not threatening, at all. So, the SEC is being punished for its excellence from top to bottom by the committee.”

Four Big Ten teams are thought to be in the College Football Playoff discussion. Fair or not, Indiana will be a team of debate following the Ohio State loss due to strength of schedule. Outside of those, Illinois is the only other Big Ten team ranked.

As for the SEC, four teams were in the projected 12-team field based on the latest rankings. Tennessee was the first team out but could replace Ole Miss after the Rebels lost to Florida. Three other SEC teams find themselves in the top 25.

At the time of Tessitore’s comments, there are still a couple of results to be determined — Alabama at Oklahoma and Texas A&M at Auburn. Both teams are capable of pulling off upsets, potentially throwing even more fuel into the fire.

Tessitore certainly believes the SEC strength of schedule point is a valid one.

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