The SEC Media Days are underway in Atlanta, and while we wait for the Florida Gators to take the stage, some of the other big names in the SEC have already made their rounds with the media.
SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey, per usual, took to the stage first, and one of his big pushes as it relates to the playoffs might be a major talking point for the Gators come December.
Florida is hoping to be rewarded for its strength of schedule
The Gators are entering 2025 with playoff aspirations but also one of the most difficult schedules in the country. In addition to a brutal SEC slate, especially compared to a team like Missouri, Florida also had Miami and FSU scheduled in addition to a feisty USF squad.
Last year, Florida was nowhere near the playoffs, but if things go well in 2025, they could be. The standard the playoff committee set last year was that a 10-2 record from the Big Ten or SEC is good enough to get you in the playoffs.
But there were plenty of Alabama fans miffed that SMU at 11-2 got in ahead of the Crimson Tide at 9-3, claiming that SMU got to play cupcakes while Alabama had Georgia, Tennessee, and LSU.
Never mind losing to Vanderbilt and Oklahoma, the argument is that SMU would have gone 8-4 or worse if it had Alabama's schedule.
This is where Sankey is trying to make a push that the strength of schedule and strength of record need to be factored in, and the committee needs to look beyond just a team's record:
"There's also a belief that the process for selecting teams to participate in the College Football Playoff can be updated and improved itself.
That's where my earlier reference to our discussion at the June management committee meeting of the College Football Playoff was encouraging because we talked about selection committee protocol.
We talked about the analysis of strength of schedule and a possible new metric under the label of strength of record. Each of those is consistent with our observations out of our spring meetings."
Could Florida get in the 2025 playoffs?
Florida seems positioned to be one of the few teams in America that could go 9-3 and still have a legit case to make the playoffs.
Let's just pretend for argument's sake that Florida loses to a top-five Georgia and Texas squad and a top-ten LSU squad on the road, but beats everyone else.
It would mean Florida has road wins at Miami and Texas A&M, in addition to wins against Tennessee, FSU, and USF (who might wind up as the AAC champions).
Sure, 11-1 SMU is a nice story, but outside of Clemson and Miami, there is no one on their 2025 schedule that Florida could beat that would have the Gators feeling like it accomplished something.
Likewise, the third hardest game Indiana has in 2025 is Illinois at home.
One thing we can say for Sankey is that when it comes to the national level, he is always going to advocate for the SEC, and hopefully that pays dividends for the Gators in 2025.