The inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff field is down to four. The College Football Playoff semifinals are set. No. 6 Penn State will take on No. 7 Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl on Thursday night.

Some of it may be overboard, dancing on the grave of a not-dead patient by SEC haters who finally see their chance. Some of it is a chance to vent back at the loud pro-SEC voices, at ESPN and elsewhere. And a lot of this may be premature. New arrival Texas could still bring the SEC its sixth national title in eight years.

We heard it for more than twostraight weeks, from the day that the College Football Playoff field was set, through the first round of games, and all through thi