HOUSTON -- It is a very strange color palette in Houston for the college football championship.
There is no red or black. There is no crimson or white. There are purples and golds, but not in recognizable shades.
Instead, apparently there are colors known as blue and maize, and darker shades of purple and gold.
This is what happens to the spectrums of our lives, televisions and streaming devices when the SEC, with a winner of six of the past eight national thrones, isn’t represented by Georgia, Alabama or LSU in the title game.
Instead, it will be the Big Ten’s Michigan with its true blue and shade of yellow, versus the Pac-12′s (for now) Washington with its darker purple and truer gold competing to be No. 1 on Monday at NRG Stadium.
It seems that championship-level football, in fact, is played outside the South. Who knew?
“Growing up as a Georgia fan, and family always being a Georgia fan, and my friends being Alabama fans, I never really watched Big 10 football until I came up here,” said Sharpsburg native and Michigan defensive back Bryce Wilcox. “I was like, ‘Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. There’s football in the North.’ ”
Wilcox’s view was shared by a few of his teammates, Myles Hinton and Zach Peterson, who grew up in the Atlanta area hearing “Go Dawgs” or “Roll Tide”, and by a Washington player Dillon Johnson who grew up in SEC territory in Mississippi and played for Mississippi State before transferring to the Huskies.
Before matriculating, they had suppositions about the quality of football in the Big 10 and Pac-12 compared to the SEC.
“I wouldn’t sit here and lie to you; I absolutely did,” said Johnson, who rushed for 1,198 yards in three years with the Bulldogs, and 1,162 in one season with the Huskies. “They didn’t play real football. And then they were just soft, but they these guys have definitely changed my mind about that, man. They’re, they’re different. They’re a different breed.”
It can be interesting how geography when coupled with results can turn a bragging point into something more than a theory.
From the first games of the BCS for the 1998-99 season, through to the College Football Playoffs, SEC teams have won 15 national titles and finished runner-up six times. SEC teams had the most wins in BCS bowls (17) and the most championships (9).
The Big Ten, led by Ohio State (10), had the most appearances in the BCS (28). That’s a stat to brag about, but all those appearances resulted in just one championship, Ohio State in the 2002 season with a win against Miami. The Buckeyes finished as runners-up in 2006 and ‘07 seasons with losses to Florida and LSU, both from the SEC. Ohio State followed with another championship in the 2014 season in the CFP era. It finished runner-up to Alabama in the 2020 season.
Pac-12 teams made 21 appearances in the BCS. It also had the lone championship, USC’s in the 2004 season, to show for it. The Trojans finished as runners-up to Texas the next season. Oregon finished runner-up in 2010 to Auburn and in the 2014 season to Ohio State in the CFP era.
The ACC, sometimes unfairly considered the least of the Power 5 in football, won two titles, both by FSU, in the BCS era and two more, both by Clemson, in the CFP era in the 2016 and ‘18 seasons. The Seminoles finished as runners-up in the 1998 and 2000 seasons. The Tigers also finished as runners-up in the 2019 season to LSU and in the 2015 season to Alabama.
ln a results-oriented business, teams from the SEC have dominated their counterparts.
So, what changed this season? Why is the SEC out and Michigan, which beat Alabama, and Washington, which beat Texas, in?
Michigan wide receiver Zach Peterson, a native of Roswell, has a few theories. He grew up a Georgia fan. His dad played there. They went to games. He was indoctrinated in the “just means more” and he recognized the faith/family/football aspect. He said that is something that the Wolverines have used this year.
And there’s money....
“I think the NIL landscape has changed college football,” he said. “It’s brought talent to more places than just the SEC. And on top of that, you can say I think it matters more about the team, and who the character of the individuals are on that team, about how well that team is going to actually end up playing, right?
“And so we love each other, we’re here to play for each other. That’s what we’ve done all season, we’ve overcome adversity. And that’s why we’re here. Someone who’s ready to go out and win a national championship. And no SEC, if the SEC was still in it wouldn’t matter to us.”
This year’s change has been a sweet relief to supporters.
Though Michigan has won more games (1,003) than any other program, it hasn’t won a national championship since the 1997 season when it split the crown with Nebraska.
Michigan hasn’t played for a title during the BCS/CFP era. Neither has Washington.
The Wolverines reached the CFP semifinals but were beaten by Georgia in 2021 and TCU in 2022. The Huskies were beaten by Alabama in the Peach Bowl in the 2016 season.
It’s been a long time.
Lani Preis and her husband Spencer are Michigan alums who moved to Atlanta 23 years ago. They have lived in SEC country and watched Tennessee, Florida, Auburn, LSU, Alabama and Georgia do something the Wolverines have yet to do during the BCS/CFP era.
She, like Wilcox and Peterson, said it did feel really good to beat Alabama, though. Preis and her husband are scheduled to arrive in Houston on Sunday and attend Monday’s game.
She said she doesn’t feel relief or vindication that the SEC is out of this year’s championship. Instead, she said she’s amused by it.
“I feel like the SEC walks around on ego, right?” she said.
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