How many times has the SEC been left out of the College Football Playoff national championship game?

It's been a while since the College Football Playoff national championship game didn't feature at least one SEC team.

Plenty of college football fans would argue the SEC is the sport’s most dominant conference, and sometimes, it’s hard to disagree when you remember that the conference has never been excluded from the four-team College Football Playoff.

Since the four-team format’s inaugural 2014-15 season, at least one SEC team has made the playoff each year. But the conference has been left out of the national championship game only twice.

Along with this season’s finale when No. 1 Michigan will face No. 2 Washington for the national title, the only other season an SEC team wasn’t playing for a College Football Playoff championship was in 2014-15 when the No. 4 Ohio State topped the No. 2 Oregon. Two Big Ten versus Pac-12 matchups.

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Of course, the playoff is expanding to 12 teams for the 2024-25 season, all but ensuring the SEC will never be excluded from the playoff. But with more teams in contention, it’s possible we’ll get more SEC-less national title games.