Josh Pate dubs doubts over Conference Championship as "poison", recalls Lane Kiffin's public statements

Josh Pate shared his thoughts on the impact of public statements made by coaches about conference championships last year. The CFB analyst discussed how such comments could affect the sport's reputation and the interests of major stakeholders. Pate expressed his frustration about the state of college football over the past year, calling it an "abomination."

"This past year you had head coaches like Lane Kiffin in the SEC just outright publicly saying, 'do I even want to play for my conference Championship?' Pate said. "You had people in the Big 10 saying should Oregon have been better suited to lose their conference championship game." (01:12)

The CFB analyst criticized this mindset, calling it "poison," as it goes gainst the competitive nature of the sport. Pate also touched upon recent developments in college football with reports indicating that a move towards expanding the playoff to 14 or 16 teams was on the cards.

What did Lane Kiffin say about SEC Championship?

In the 2024 season, there was intense competition to qualify for the conference championship games, but some coaches expressed that they may not want their teams to compete in the conference championship game.

Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin claimed that the playoff structure in 2024 made it less appealing to compete in a conference championship game. If a team had entered the game without winning and lost, it could have been their downfall.

“I’ve talked to other coaches, so I’ll just kind of give you the feeling from some other coaches that. They don’t want to be in it,” Kiffin said in November 2024. “You know, the reward to get a bye (in the CFP) versus the risk to get knocked out completely. I mean, that’s a pretty big — that’s a really big risk.”

“I think it has ended up being a very unique situation of all postseason sports, the way that system is set up there," the analyst said. "How you could go to (the SEC Championship) and get knocked out (of the CFP race)? And if you don’t go (to the SEC Championship game), you’re in."

Kiffin’s concerns about the SEC Championship started a debate over the structure and fairness of the new College Football Playoff system.