Well, this is certainly interesting. Phil Steele, who is the author of incredibly popular preseason College Football Preview magazines, has an intriguing prediction for 2016's College Football Playoff. Steele, who had Ohio State, the winner of Alabama/Georgia, Stanford and USC for his Top 4 last year, has predicted two teams from the SEC West — Alabama and LSU — to both receive CFP bids come Selection Sunday.
"I went out of the box," Steele told The Opening Kickoff on WNSP-FM 105.5 via AL.com. "This is the third year of the playoffs. Everyone just assumes it will be one team per conference. But I think this year, Alabama and LSU are so loaded that the SEC can get two teams into the playoffs."
While on paper, this scenario seems likely before the season, given the notion that other conferences and divisions will beat themselves up, leaving a two or three-loss conference champion. That's exactly what Steele gives as his justification for having two SEC West teams make it.
"I think the Pac-12 might beat itself up. The Big Ten may beat itself up and create an opening there. LSU is the type of team that can step right in there."
I'm sure there will be some anti-SEC fans who will disagree with this Phil. Besides, as much as the other conference champions may not have as strong resumes as other SEC or even ACC teams, it would be hard to envision the selection committee, which places so much emphasis on conference champions, leaving out conference champions for teams that didn't even make it to their conference title game.
