A College Football Playoff with SEC play-in games would kill the Iron Bowl

I hope Greg Byrne stood up and John Cohen spoke up. I hope Kalen DeBoer shook a fist and Hugh Freeze pounded a table. I hope everyone affiliated with Alabama and Auburn that attended the SEC spring meetings made enough noise to make Greg Sankey's ears ring.

Because of all the possible College Football Playoff formats under discussion at the Sandestin Beach Hilton, there's one that should have brought the Tide and Tiger contingents together to talk it down, shoot it down and kill it with fire.

It's the infamous 4-4-2-2-1-3 model, which would guarantee the SEC and the Big Ten four spots each, with two apiece reserved for the ACC and Big 12, one for the highest-ranked Group of Five/Six champion and the other three being at-large selections.

The anti-competitive nature of that format should've let the air out of that trial balloon before it left the ground. As if its fundamental flaw weren't bad enough, based on the buzz from the beach, that model almost certainly will lead to play-in games before the playoff games.

That terrible, horrible, no-good idea would kill the Iron Bowl as we know it.

Think about it. The more play-in and playoff teams you include, the more you water down the regular season. The more you water down the regular season, the more you risk selling the games that made SEC football great down the river.

Exhibit A: Alabama vs. Auburn. ...

Read Kevin's full column in The Birmingham News.