SEC Takes Another Hit With Oklahoma Loss To Navy
The past few weeks of national discussion in college football has centered on debate over the first round of the newly expanded playoff. Well, one conference has centered the discussion on that, anyway.
SEC fans went ballistic during the first round as Indiana and SMU lost their matchups in non-competitive games. Then went confusingly silent as Tennessee suffered the biggest blowout loss of the first round at Ohio State. Still, there remains a committed group of SEC fans and ESPN/SEC commentators who believe Alabama should have been included in the playoff. Even after a three-loss season.
That group suffered another blow to SEC supremacy on Friday afternoon thanks to the Oklahoma Sooners.
Oklahoma finished the regular season 6-6, despite a dominant 24-3 win over the same Alabama team that the collective hive mind of SEC/ESPN believed should have been in the expanded playoff. Their postseason reward was a matchup with Navy in the Armed Forces Bowl. And then after jumping out to a 14-0 lead, the Sooners gave up 21 straight points and lost on a failed two-point conversion 21-20.
Ouch.

Navy Midshipmen quarterback Blake Horvath (11) runs past Oklahoma Sooners defensive lineman Adepoju Adebawore (34) for a 95-yard touchdown run during the Armed Forces Bowl football game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) and the Navy Midshipmen at Amon G. Carter Stadium in Fort Worth, Texas, Friday, Dec. 27, 2024. Navy won 21-20.
Oklahoma Puts Another Dagger In The Alabama Case
The chief argument from Kirk Herbstreit and the SEC collective is that Alabama's losses were better because they were in the SEC. And of course, the mediocre teams in the SEC are actually great, compared to the mediocre teams in other conferences.
But Oklahoma is now a 6-7 team, and Alabama scored a grand total of three points against the Sooners, with a woeful 4.1 yards per play. That's the team that the entire conference lost its collective mind over?
Yes, Alabama has a high upside thanks to its elite talent on both sides of the ball. But its actual performance, on the field, not in hypothetical situations, did not warrant inclusion in the playoff. It's one thing if all of Alabama's losses were to teams at the top end of the sport. That's not what happened. Vanderbilt and Oklahoma were not good teams in 2024.
Had Alabama played to its potential in the games that happened, there wouldn't have been a debate. But the Tide didn't. They lost. To bad teams. At some point, they'll have to get over their entitlement and beat bad teams if they want to go 9-3 and get rewarded. Maybe next year.
In the meantime, enjoy the postgame interview from Navy's quarterback. The same Navy that beat the SEC team that beat Alabama 24-3.