Why Ole Miss, Mississippi State football coaches support 4-team College Football Playoff

The first College Football Playoff rankings of the 2019 season came out Tuesday night. As per usual, all eyes were on the top four teams. 

1. Ohio State (8-0, 5-0 Big 10)
2. LSU (8-0, 4-0 SEC)
3. Alabama (8-0, 5-0 SEC)
4. Penn State (8-0, 5-0 Big 10)

Notice anything? Clemson (9-0, 6-0 ACC), a team that has not lost a game this season, would not have the chance to defend its national title if the playoff started today. 

Now, the likelihood of the Tigers getting in come December if they take care of business and win out is exceptionally high. According to FiveThirtyEight.com, Clemson has the highest probability of making the playoff at 82%. 

The fact that Clemson is currently on the outside looking in despite having not slipped up at all this year is interesting, though. Most of the coaches around the country seem to agree.

ESPN released an article before the poll came out Tuesday that detailed whether Power 5 coaches support the current playoff format or if they'd rather expand it to include eight or more teams. Of the 62 coaches polled, 30 were in favor of expansion, 23 supported the current format and nine were indifferent. 

'If it ain't broke, don't fix it' 

Percentage-wise, the SEC had the highest number of coaches support the four-team format. Nine of the conference's 14 coaches would like to keep things the way they are. Mississippi State's Joe Moorhead and Ole Miss' Matt Luke were two of them. 

Their initial reasons were straight-forward. 

"I guess in my simplistic view, if it ain't broke, don't fix it," Moorhead told The Clarion Ledger. 

"It's the format that we're given, so you have to be able to work with it," Luke added.

Then they took into account that the SEC has had at least one team make the playoff in all five years of its existence. The 2017 season saw two SEC teams go head-to-head for the national title when Alabama beat Georgia. 

"Our conference and our school are in alignment in our belief that the SEC Championship game is something that's positive and the four-team playoff is something that is working well," Moorhead said. 

"Obviously for the Southeastern Conference, we've been represented every year," Luke said. "In some instances, we've had more than one team. I think for us, the system has been working." 

More:Comparing contracts of Matt Luke, Joe Moorhead

'At some point they need to catch their breath' 

Luke had another quarrel with expansion. 

"I think they have to figure out how many games, realistically, these young men can play," Luke said. 

Before the playoff started, no national champion had ever played 15 games in a season. The champion has played 15 games in every season but one during the playoff era. Alabama in 2017 was the one exception. The Crimson Tide made the playoff and won it all despite not winning the SEC West, which kept the team out of the conference title game. 

Oregon head coach Mario Cristobal has an anecdote about the rigors of being a collegiate athlete, especially a football player. Cristobal was an assistant head coach at Alabama when the Tide won the 2015 national title. 

"I'll never forget this; this hit me like a ton of bricks," Cristobal told ESPN. "We win the national championship at Alabama, we get on the plane, and we're on our way back, it's a happy moment, and as soon as we get off the plane, the academic coordinator hands out class schedules for that next day. Congratulations, you have to be up at 6 in the morning.

"They understand their responsibilities, they get it, but at some point they need to catch their breath. I think it would have to be a true analysis of the entire calendar and where is the relief, where is the reprieve when you put together something like that?"

Kansas State head coach Chris Klieman said 15 games is "the most that kids could probably handle." 

Expanding the College Football Playoff is a hot button issue in the sport, but coaches across the country – especially those in the Magnolia State and across the rest of the SEC – are clearly in favor of keeping it the way it is. 

Contact Tyler Horka at thorka@gannett.com. Follow @tbhorka on Twitter. To read more of Tyler's work, subscribe to the Clarion Ledger today!