Next Monday's CFP title game between Georgia and Alabama is "college football heaven" for the SEC and many of its fans, but for the "rest of college football, it's perhaps more proof of a broken system, or at least one that needs tweaking," according to Joseph Goodman of the BIRMINGHAM NEWS. The SEC is the "first conference since the inception" of the CFP to have "two teams play for a national championship." It is like Alabama-LSU in '11 "all over again -- only better, perhaps -- and it only took four years of the new postseason system to get here." Alabama LB Jamey Mosley said, "That's the whole reason they got rid of the BCS was to eliminate the all-SEC championship, but again the SEC prevails." Goodman notes Alabama fans at the Sugar Bowl last night "chanted 'SEC! SEC! SEC!'" after Georgia's victory over Oklahoma was announced inside the dome, and chanted "again with 1:43 left" in UA's win over Clemson. More "SEC" chants "broke out after the post-game awards ceremony." Goodman writes there is "no denying the domination of the SEC," as conference teams have "played for the college football national championship in 12 of the last 15 years." With this "latest all-SEC championship, a conference member will celebrate a national championship for the 10th time during that run." The last time two SEC teams met in the championship game -- Alabama-LSU in '11 -- college football "decided to form a playoff." Goodman: "What's next? For now, just more gnashing of the teeth from the Big Ten" (BIRMINGHAM NEWS, 1/2). SI.com's Chris Johnson writes Georgia-Alabama will "serve as a handy reference point for SEC partisans in the conference supremacy debates that seem to crop up every offseason, particularly in light of the Big Ten’s 7-1 showing this bowl season" (SI.com, 1/2).
HERE WE GO AGAIN: ESPN.com's Chris Low writes the "collective groan heard around the rest of the college football world late Monday was reminiscent of the one heard at the end of the 2011 season" (ESPN.com, 1/2). In Louisville, Gentry Estes writes, "Get ready for the grumbles as another college football season ends with the SEC atop the sport" (COURIER-JOURNAL.com, 1/2). In Atlanta, Mark Bradley writes the "rest of the nation may hate it," but Georgia-Alabama playing for the national championship "does seem preordained" (ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION, 1/2).
SOUTHERN GLORY: In N.Y., Zach Braziller writes the "powerhouse conference, which many felt had taken a step back in recent years, is back." Those who claimed the SEC "didn’t deserve two teams" in the CFP "looked foolish" yesterday (N.Y. POST, 1/2). In St. Louis, Jeff Gordon writes there was "plenty of chit-chat about Southeastern Conference slippage this season," but now the "dust has settled and the SEC has Georgia and Alabama playing for the national title next Monday." Gordon: "The rest of the college football industry can only watch and wince" (STLTODAY.com, 1/2). YAHOO SPORTS' Pat Forde writes, "Deal with it, non-Southern America." When "playoff prove-it time arrived" yesterday, the SEC "stepped up." The conference "will have the final stage to itself again." Forde: "If you’re among the haters, look on the bright side: An expanded playoff might now be closer to reality" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 1/2).
