I believe the playoffs was a huge blow to the superiority of the SEC. Used to, you pretty much just had to win the SEC to play in the NC and all other conferences were fighting for the other spot. Now you can go to any Power 5 school and have just as good of a shot, if not better due to SEC schools being of higher talent, but still only getting 1 of the 4 spots. If I was an elite college football coach, I would not go to LSU, nor would I go to any SEC school.