Column: Irish smiling, but SEC eyes another title

Maybe the new four-team playoff will stir things up a bit. Surely, it can’t hurt, because the SEC clearly has this system all figured out.

“I knew the way the SEC works,” Georgia defensive back Sanders Commings said, savoring his team’s position in the locker room beneath Sanford Stadium. “I knew we could beat everybody else on our schedule. I was like, `Man, we’ve just got to win out.’”

There will be those who say the SEC is living on its reputation, that the league isn’t nearly as strong from top-to-bottom this season as it’s been in other years. That’s a pretty compelling argument, too. Neither Auburn nor Kentucky won an SEC game. Kentucky, Tennessee and Arkansas are looking for new coaches, and Auburn will surely be joining the list of schools with a vacancy.

But, for those at the top, there’s another chance to play for a national title.

For the rest of the nation, that playoff system can’t get here fast enough.

___

Paul Newberry is a national writer for The Associated Press. Write to him at pnewberry(at)ap.org and www.twitter.com/pnewberry1963

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.