Saban: Drop FCS opponents, play nine SEC games

[uscgmck]

Looked but did not see this, if I missed it mods pls remove.

http://www.ajc.com/weblogs/jeff-schu...ine-sec-games/

[Tim Taylor]

I like the first point, but to hell with that second one.

[crowcutta]

i have no problem going to 9 games as long as everyone within a division is playing the same away/home format outside of the cocktail twins. i dont want teams within the same division getting more home games. regardless if it benefits us in a given year or not.

[Gyle41386]

Originally Posted by Tim Taylor

I like the first point, but to hell with that second one.

This.

[Wiz Khalifa]

if this goes through....uga is crying somewhere knowing they cant fall into the SEC Championship like the last 2 years...

[sc455]

Originally Posted by crowcutta

i have no problem going to 9 games as long as everyone within a division is playing the same away/home format outside of the cocktail twins. i dont want teams within the same division getting more home games. regardless if it benefits us in a given year or not.

Cocktail twins..hmm..

[Gamecock Rob]

Originally Posted by crowcutta

i have no problem going to 9 games as long as everyone within a division is playing the same away/home format outside of the cocktail twins. i dont want teams within the same division getting more home games. regardless if it benefits us in a given year or not.

So basically you're saying all the East teams play their permanents at home in year A and all the West teams play their permanent in year B, right? I am fine with that. I actually just looked up the schedules and USC, UF, Kentucky and Vandy all played their ACC (or future ACC) rival away last year. If we could get Georgia to flip it's series to match up with the other 4 east schools with a permanent OOC rival, that would help negate the issue of potentially less games. Make it so the year we have 4, all the SEC opponents are home for rivalry week.

So hypothetically how that would work for us is.

Year A.
3 home games vs East teams
3 away games vs East teams
2 home games vs West teams
1 away game vs a West team
Away game vs Clemson
2 games to be scheduled how we like (probably 2 home vs small schools or the home half of a home and home series with a
BCS school)

Year B
3 home games vs East teams
3 away games vs East teams
2 away games vs West teams
1 home game vs a West team
Home game vs Clemson
2 games to be scheduled how we like (probably 1 home and 1 neutral site or the away half of a home and home)

I think that that is a logical way to approach things.

[crowcutta]

i didnt think it out to that extent, but absolutely. the pac-12 format last year and this year has teams within the same division playing a different amount of home conference games. which doesnt make sense to me. id rather as a division everyone be on a level playing field as far as home/away conference games.

[Gamecock Rob]

Originally Posted by crowcutta

i didnt think it out to that extent, but absolutely. the pac-12 format last year and this year has teams within the same division playing a different amount of home conference games. which doesnt make sense to me. id rather as a division everyone be on a level playing field as far as home/away conference games.

Exactly, what I wrote up had us getting 7 one year and 6 the next, which would kinda suck every other year, but that would be the year we get Clemson. This would also be the case for UGA/UF/UK/Vandy and if Kansas ever stops being all whiny about Mizzou leaving that would make 6. Tennessee always likes to play a west coast team each year, basically giving them a home and home series. This would also allow Texas A&M to pick Texas back up whenever Deloss Dodd gets over his hissy fit.

One thing that would need to be addressed by the conference would be how the west teams would be able to play 7 home games each year since none of them have a current home and home with an OOC. It would be interesting if Slive would come out and say everyone has to go 7 one year and 6 the next. That would be interesting to see what would happen there.

[bigdawg77]

9 is fine as long as we play 4-4-1 everyyear

[Gamecock Rob]

Originally Posted by bigdawg77

9 is fine as long as we play 4-4-1 everyyear

Georgia or everybody?

[bigdawg77]

Originally Posted by Gamecock Rob

Georgia or everybody?

Georgia/Florida

[crowcutta]

the west schools could create sort of an imbalance, but its not that much different than it is now so i wouldnt have a problem with them potentially getting 8 home games. as long as there is the balance within the division conference schedule.

since you brought up the ooc opponents it made me wonder if the nd/sc matchup is why southern cal and ucla dont share the same home/away format. id want the conference to look out for the schools in setting up the ooc slate, but not at the expense of the division schedule.

i dont think slive would put any added pressure on the west teams. they could potentially have 8 home games every year now and not all of them choose to go that route. id be surprised if we dropped scheduling fcs opponents unless every other major conference went that route.

[Gamecock Rob]

Originally Posted by bigdawg77

Georgia/Florida

Ok, trying to figure out if there is a way to do that under what I wrote up earlier. On its own tho, what is your opinion on West has the home permanent games 1 year and the East has the home permanent games the next year? Just as its own issue.

[wthforever]

Haven't looked at the details but in a general sense it seems that playing an additional SEC school would increase the liklihood of each SEC team getting another loss and increase the chance of the SEC not having any, or as many, undefeated or 1 loss teams. Not saying we couldn't still have undefeated and 1-loss teams but just looking at it, statistically speaking, seems it would increase schedule toughness for all SEC teams and lower chances of getting more teams in the playoffs? That would be liked by all the other conferences who are sick of the SEC dominating in football, but just don't want to see the ACC and other weaker conference's teams getting in because they have better records. Somebody that has looked at this more please enlighten me.

[Gamecock Rob]

Originally Posted by wthforever

Haven't looked at the details but in a general sense it seems that playing an additional SEC school would increase the liklihood of each SEC team getting another loss and increase the chance of the SEC not having any, or as many, undefeated or 1 loss teams. Not saying we couldn't still have undefeated and 1-loss teams but just looking at it, statistically speaking, seems it would increase schedule toughness for all SEC teams and lower chances of getting more teams in the playoffs? That would be liked by all the other conferences who are sick of the SEC dominating in football, but just don't want to see the ACC and other weaker conference's teams getting in because they have better records. Somebody that has looked at this more please enlighten me.

The SEC will basically have an automatic bid to the playoff.

[FanofCarolina1]

I say don't change a damn thing, whether it's Saban or anyone else mentioning it.

[Acockolypse Now]

Go home Nick Saban, you are drunk.

[crowcutta]

based on the scribbling i just did, you'd have to have one team out of georgia florida going 4/4/1 every year while the other is 5/3/1 then 3/5/1 the next. you could reset the schedule after every two year stretch so that every 4 years each of them would have a 4/4/1 for two years, but that would require the whole east schedule to reset so you'd end up with some teams having georgia or florida at home 2 straights years or at those schools two straight years. that doesnt seem reasonable for the other schools.

basically i think you'd have to have one school out of florida/georgia bite the bullet and say we're fine with one of us being 3/5/1 5/3/1 while the other is 4/4/1. its not all that different from the current format for them because their division schedule would be 3/2/1 for one and 2/3/1 for the other exactly like the current format.

[bigdawg77]

Originally Posted by Gamecock Rob

Ok, trying to figure out if there is a way to do that under what I wrote up earlier. On its own tho, what is your opinion on West has the home permanent games 1 year and the East has the home permanent games the next year? Just as its own issue.

I think it should go East home 1 West home 2 then East home 2 West home 1