This is an opinion column.

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Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin is turning into a full-blown conspiracy theorist.

His Rebel Land Shark Black Bears defeated Duke 52-20 on Thursday night in the Gator Bowl. Afterwards, Kiffin used his post-game press conference to once again question the College Football Playoff corruption committee.

Only this time Coach Kiffin was armed with a list of names and a tin-foil hat.

The SEC is “just different,” Kiffin said, before launching into a ball-knowing manifesto.

“It’s just totally different,” Kiffin said. “And these comparisons of other conferences and the ACC and Big 12, it’s just, like, we might as well be in different leagues. Not different conferences. Different leagues.

“Like, here’s the NFL,” Kiffin said, motioning to different levels with his hand. “Here’s the SEC. Here’s those few Big Ten teams and then here’s everybody else. So, you’re going to see it in the draft. It’s going to be different, just like it always is with the SEC — the amount of kids drafted out of here and there.

“And really, so, it’s just a bad system,” Kiffin said, referring to the College Football Playoff.

“It’s a bad system, and you got people in there … they gave me the list of coaches today. Maybe those coaches have never been down here to the Deep South in these stadiums and played in these games.

“And so how do they even know? How do they even know what it’s like to have to go win in these places in these stadiums on the road with these teams?”

Kiffin is blessed with a little bit of the mad-genius gene, and I love that for him. He’s good for the game because he’s entertaining. Do I agree with everything he says, though? Let’s just say that sometimes he makes it tough.

Like when he ignores the truth.

Is the College Football Playoff corruption committee problematic? Yes, it needs more oversight and more journalists in the room. (I nominate colleague Michael Casagrande to be next year’s committee chair.)

Is the SEC “just different,” though?

Turns out that this year the league where “it just means more” didn’t exactly live up to the hype created for it by ESPN and sports donks like me.

Alabama started the season ranked No.5 by the Associated Press, but was exposed by middling teams like Vanderbilt, Oklahoma and, finally, Michigan.

Preseason No.1 Georgia lost on the road to Alabama and Ole Miss during the regular season, but won the SEC thanks to a pair of victories against Texas. In the College Football Playoff, however, the Bulldogs were punched in the face by Notre Dame, a team that has struggled against the SEC for years. No longer. The Fighting Irish was clearly the tougher team in the Sugar Bowl, knocking Georgia out of the playoffs with a decisive 23-10 victory.

Let’s do Tennessee.

The Volunteers finished the season ranked No.7 before being completely destroyed by Ohio State in the first round of the CFP. Final score from Columbus, Ohio: Buckeyes 42, Vols 17.

Texas is the SEC’s lone representative remaining in the College Football Playoff, but this is the Longhorns’ first year in the league. Does anyone really consider Texas a true member of the SEC? Team Interloper is just about as Southern as Elon Musk is American.

If Oklahoma could do it all over again, then the Sooners would probably stay in the Big 12 and be perfectly happy with the Longhorns whistling Dixie.

Here’s a question for the offseason. Did Alabama coach Nick Saban prop up the entire SEC? With Saban gone, the league that Kiffin considers so special is beginning to lose its shine. The top teams this season were all coached by former Saban assistants, and Alabama looked like a cheap counterfeit by its bowl game.

Money has changed the game and evened the playing field. Is this just a down year for the SEC or is it a trend?

Saturdays down South will always be a little different. Kiffin is right about that. As for the football on the field, there are SEC conspiracy theories and then there’s reality. Notre Dame manhandled Georgia, Michigan embarrassed Alabama and the best team in the country, Ohio State, purchased the SEC’s top two players.

BE HEARD

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Joseph Goodman is the lead sports columnist for the Alabama Media Group, and author of the book “We Want Bama: A Season of Hope and the Making of Nick Saban’s Ultimate Team.”