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By Ellis Williams
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The Southeastern Conference is ending its football championship game, closing a postseason tradition that has helped shape college football for more than three decades.
The Dec. 5 matchup at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta will be the event’s 35th and final edition. The SEC announced the decision Monday as the College Football Playoff prepares to double its field to 24 teams.
The change begins with the 2027-28 playoff. This season’s national championship tournament will still have 12 teams, and the SEC will stage one more title game before the new format arrives.
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SEC commissioner Greg Sankey credited former commissioner Roy Kramer with creating an event that changed the sport. Sankey said the conference would use the final edition to celebrate that history and recognize Atlanta, its stadium and the partners who helped build the game.
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Alabama beat Florida 28-21 in the inaugural championship on Dec. 5, 1992, at Legion Field in Birmingham. The venue hosted the first two editions before the game moved to Atlanta’s Georgia Dome in 1994. Mercedes-Benz Stadium took over in 2017.
The SEC has not announced how it will determine its champion once the championship game is gone.
That designation will still matter under the expanded playoff format. The SEC, ACC, Big Ten and Big 12 champions will each receive an automatic berth, with each conference responsible for determining its champion.
The highest-ranked team from the other six FBS conferences will receive the fifth automatic spot. The remaining 19 places will be filled through the CFP rankings. The top eight seeds will get first-round byes, and the first two rounds will be played on campus.
“We will make the 24-team Playoff spectacular for the fans, student-athletes, their institutions and all our stakeholders,” CFP executive director Rich Clark said. “That is our commitment.”
The CFP has left decisions about conference championship games to the individual leagues. The SEC has now chosen to end its game rather than carry it into the expanded playoff era.
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