Drinkwitz Asks Why Conferences Matter as SEC Title Game Ends After 2026

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The SEC’s 35th championship game on Dec. 5 in Atlanta will be its last, and the ACC, Big Ten and Big 12 are also dropping their title games after this season, per ESPN.
Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz and Wake Forest coach Jake Dickert have both asked what conferences are for once title games disappear.
Starting next season, Power 4 conference champions will be decided by seasonlong standings, and Army-Navy moves into the old title game weekend.

Two Coaches Say Playoff Expansion Leaves Conferences Without a Purpose

Eli Drinkwitz, in his seventh season as Missouri’s head coach, ruled himself out at Florida State earlier this month. On Tuesday, one day after the SEC announced that this season’s title game in Atlanta will be its last, he asked what a conference is for.

“Times are changing, so you’ve got to adjust with the times,” Drinkwitz told reporters Tuesday. “But my question is why are we associated with conferences anymore if we’re not playing for a conference championship? If the point now is just to be playing into a sea of 24, are we just doing it for scheduling affiliation? If we’re just doing it for scheduling affiliation, is there a reason to be flying all the way across the country to play games from a national perspective?”

Why the Title Games Are Going Away

The trigger is the College Football Playoff, which expands to 24 teams beginning at the end of the 2027 season. The expanded format eliminates the Power 4 conference championship games. The SEC announced Monday that its 35th championship game, on Dec. 5 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, will be the final one. The ACC, Big Ten and Big 12 said they will play no conference title games beyond this season.

Army-Navy will take over the weekend that conference title games used to occupy, with a standalone window while the playoff teams rest.

Drinkwitz is not the only coach asking. Jake Dickert of Wake Forest spoke on Monday and said he was not sure how much conference affiliation would matter without title games. His Demon Deacons are in good position to play in the final ACC championship game on Dec. 5 at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina. Dickert acknowledged that a conference title game can become a playoff elimination game for a team like Wake Forest. Independent Notre Dame has no conference and does not have to play another game.

“It can benefit a team like us; it can hurt a team like us,” Dickert said. “So, there’s a lot of situations. You can play all sides of the coin. But to not say we’re going to have conference champions, why do we have conferences? I know there’s a lot of things that go into all that. Just feels odd.”

He was blunter about the format behind it. “The new playoff format, I think, forces everybody’s hands into this,” Dickert said. “I don’t know my feeling. I don’t like it, personally. Right now, you’re like, ‘Man, all of the championship games are going away.'”

Drinkwitz Says College Football Has Devalued What Made It Special

Drinkwitz’s concern runs wider than one weekend in December. He worries the sport is changing too rapidly with the expanded playoff, NIL, conference realignment and the transfer portal.

“[If] you look back into the decisions we’ve made in college football for the last six years, and we’ve made them to where we’re at now, I think you look back and now we’ve devalued some of the things that made college football so special,” Drinkwitz said.

“Bowl games are no longer valuable. Building a program and having a season to build for the next season, where your fans can be excited. ‘OK, man, next year this has got a chance.’ There’s none of that because you don’t know who’s going to be back. Every team is starting over each year. There’s no real regional rivalries anymore because there’s no more regional conferences, outside of ours, which is the best conference in college football.”

He also questioned whether the people making the decisions have the fans in mind. “We made a lot of decisions, and we’ve asked a lot of people their opinions, but have we cared about the fans?” Drinkwitz said. “I don’t know the answer to that question. Do I think the conference championship games were a good thing? Yes, I do. I think they were great.”

For Drinkwitz, the Loss Is Personal

When Drinkwitz took over the Missouri program in 2020, one of his goals was to lead the Tigers to an SEC title. Missouri has played in the SEC championship game twice, losing 59-42 to Auburn in 2013 and 42-13 to Alabama the next season. Drinkwitz said of the games:

“Do I think that they’re no longer important? Yeah, I agree with the assessment that there’s really no reason to play them moving forward. But it is disappointing to me because one of the goals that I had coming into this university was to try to get a conference championship and win that game in Atlanta.”

Another SEC coach, LSU’s Lane Kiffin, joked about the league’s kickoff time for his Alabama game last month. Drinkwitz is questioning the structure of the league itself. The expanded 24-team playoff begins at the end of the 2027 season, and from next season the Power 4 leagues will name their champions by the seasonlong standings.

WRITTEN BY

Jarrod

Jarrod Partridge is the Founder of Futbol Chronicle and an accredited journalist with over 30 years of experience following international football. A member of the AIPS International Sports Press Association, Jarrod has covered matches at stadiums around the world, bringing first-hand insight to every match report, player profile, and tactical analysis he writes.