SEC Schedule Info Starting To Leak, Which Allows For Further Speculation

December 1st, 2011 11:10 AM║ Posted By: John Pennington ║ Permalink ║ Schools: Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vanderbilt
Tags: Georgia, Ole Miss, SEC, South Carolina

Information is starting to leak out regarding the SEC’s 2012 football schedule. Reports out of Missouri and Tennessee provide a glimpse of what’s on the docket for both the Tigers and the Vols next season.

What we already knew:

* The SEC will go with an eight-game league schedule next year (though we still firmly believe the league will adopt a nine-game schedule at some point).

* Each team will play the six teams in its own division, one permanent opponent from the other division and one rotating opponent from the other division.

* Missouri (in the SEC East) will have Texas A&M (in the SEC West) as its permanent cross-divisional foe.

And here’s what’s being reported today:

Missouri

Gabe DeArmond of PowerMizzou.com — the Rivals site covering Missouri — tweeted yesterday that he’d heard Missouri’s league docket would feature home games with Georgia, Kentucky, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt with road games at Florida, Tennessee, Ole Miss and South Carolina.

If that’s correct, then A&M will — as noted above — be the Tigers’ permanent rival from the West and Ole Miss will be Mizzou’s first rotating West opponent.

Ole Miss

If DeArmond is correct, then Ole Miss will not face Florida or Georgia as would have been the case pre-expansion.

Tennessee

Multiple reports from Knoxville claim that the Volunteers’ league schedule will feature home games against Alabama, Florida, Kentucky and Missouri. Tennessee is expected to travel to Georgia, Mississippi State, South Carolina and Vanderbilt.

Arkansas

The Razorbacks were scheduled to make a return trip to Knoxville in 2012, but that’s off the table if the above reports are correct. Their other originally scheduled rotating opponent was expected to be Kentucky.

Mississippi State

The Bulldogs were scheduled to face East Division rotators South Carolina and Tennessee next season. If the reports from East Tennessee are correct, it looks like Carolina is off the docket.

For the sake of pure speculation, try to follow this (which is based up the MU and UT reports being correct):

* If Missouri faces Ole Miss as its rotating opponent, then the Rebels would not be available for Florida or Georgia as scheduled.

* Florida’s other scheduled rotating West foe was expected to be Auburn.

* Georgia’s other scheduled rotating West foe was expected to be Alabama.

* Assigning Alabama-Georgia and Auburn-Florida, would remove Auburn and Alabama from Vanderbilt’s schedule. Both were expected to be the rotating foes for the Commodores in 2012.

* If Vandy has no other rotating foes left, then it’s possible they will be paired with Texas A&M in 2012.

* If Alabama-Georgia, Auburn-Florida, Texas A&M-Vandy, Tennessee-MSU and Missouri-Ole Miss are paired up, then that leaves Arkansas, LSU, Kentucky and South Carolina unmatched.

* Arkansas was scheduled to play both Tennessee and Kentucky next year, but with Tennessee off the table, that would likely leave Arkansas paired with UK.

* That would leave LSU and South Carolina paired up. And those two teams were indeed scheduled to meet via rotation in 2012. (Carolina also had a game with MSU — now paired with UT — and LSU had both Carolina and Kentucky on its schedule.)

If — and this is a huge if — the SEC takes the easy way out and totally breaks just two teams’ previously scheduled rotations (Ole Miss and Vanderbilt), then the league schedule will likely look this next season:

School	Own Division	Permanent Cross-Division	Rotating Cross-Division
Alabama	6 vs West	Tennessee	Georgia
Arkansas	6 vs West	South Carolina	Kentucky
Auburn	6 vs West	Georgia	Florida
Florida	6 vs East	LSU	Auburn
Georgia	6 vs East	Auburn	Alabama
Kentucky	6 vs East	Miss. State	Arkansas
LSU	6 vs West	Florida	S. Carolina
Miss. State	6 vs West	Kentucky	Tennessee
Missouri	6 vs East	Texas A&M	Ole Miss
Ole Miss	6 vs West	Vanderbilt	Missouri
S. Carolina	6 vs East	Arkansas	LSU
Tennessee	6 vs East	Alabama	Miss. State
Texas A&M	6 vs West	Missouri	Vanderbilt
Vanderbilt	6 vs East	Ole Miss	Texas A&M

Now, again, that’s if the SEC tries to keep its schedule as close as possible to what was already planned out pre-expansion… and if the other reports are correct.

It’s possible, however, that the league will tweak more rotating opponents in an effort to “balance” the schedule a bit more.

If we were calling the shots, we would not go down that road. Teams rise and fall unexpectedly and it may well wind up that the league office creates a tougher schedule for School X while actually attempting to ease its schedule.

All that said, we expect the league to announce its schedule officially once Missouri and Texas A&M have finished up their exit negotiations from the Big 12.

UPDATE — Scratch that last part. SEC spokesperson Charles Bloom told us today that it would be unusual for the league to release its schedule — officially — before the spring.

For the sake of ticket sales, it’s likely schools around the conference will release their schedules sooner than that. (Texas A&M AD Bill Byrne has said schools should know their schedules by Christmas.) But if you’re wanting one big announcement from Birmingham, it doesn’t look like one’s going to be coming anytime soon.

Stay tuned.

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64 comments

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Georgia Sports Blog

if (and it's a big if) UGA gets Missouri on the road, we would have to get Bama at home. We can't swap a home game with Ole Miss for a road game with Missouri while keeping the Bama game in Ttown. Maybe we could do something like that if the UF game was moved from "home" in even # years to road. But that has implications UF's opponents, too.

The easy answer would be for the rotations that started last year giving Western teams home games just get moved to the Eastern home school. That would require the least amount of tweaking.

UGA Fan

HogFanInTN, I've read that too. But I've also seen that Mizz./TA&M were going to be paired up to keep things simple so that only the H/A part of schedules were to be worked out.

HogFanInTN

I had originally read that the permanent cross division games would be...
Alabama - Tennessee
Auburn - Georgia
Arkansas - Missouri
LSU - South Carolina
Ole Miss - Vanderbilt
Miss. State - Kentucky
Texas A&M - Florida

Per Pat Dooley at the Gainesville Times.

BigDawg

That schedule will not work for Georgia unless the Bama game is being moved to Athens. Georgia only has three scheduled home games next year as we are the home team in Jacksonville. If you take out Ole Miss and replace them with a game @ Mizzou, the Dawgs only have Tennessee and Vandy at home. We would be playing UK, Carolina, Auburn, Mizzou and Bama on the road. So this leak is clearly not right.

Austin Ed

Of the 25 teams ranked in the current BCS standings, only five are also presently ranked in the Basketball Top 25 (Baylor, Wisconsin, Michigan, Alabama and Missouri). Of those five, only two are also ranked in NCAA wrestling (Michigan & Missouri). Missouri football is 19-8-1 against the SEC all time and 4-1 since 2000. I don't see how fans of Vandy, Ol' Miss, MSU, etc. can look down their noses at Missouri's athletics programs. BTW, I am a SEC grad who grew up in Missouri.

UGA Fan

The problem with the 8 game schedule is HOW are they going to rotate through the "other side of the fence" being that you only have 1 team that (may) change each year.

Okay, here's an example:
UGA - 6 games (Florida, Kentucky, Mizz., SC, Tenn., Vandy)
1 cross division rival (Auburn)
1 rotating western opponent (Alabama, Arkansas, LSU, Miss., MSU, TA&M)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8 game conf. schedule

If the rotating teams are supposed to be H/A, it's going to take 12 years to complete. & do you play the same team back to back before moving on?

This format will take until the 2024 season which, hopefully, we'll be up to 16 teams. Upon that event comes the big discussion of how to break down the conference for sporting events.

UGA Fan

For those of you who are talking about teams not going to your stadium next season, this is a copy of the 1st round of the 5 year rotation which was scheduled for 2002/2007/2012.

Florida - Mississippi (A) / Auburn (H)
Georgia - Alabama (A) / Mississippi (H)
Kentucky - Arkansas (A) / LSU (H)
South Carolina - LSU (A) / Mississippi State (H)
Tennessee - Mississippi State (A) / Arkansas (H)
Vanderbilt - Auburn (A) / Alabama (H)
Alabama - Vanderbilt (A) / Georgia (H)
Arkansas - Tennessee (A) / Kentucky (H)
Auburn - Florida (A) / Vanderbilt (H)
LSU - Kentucky (A) / South Carolina (H)
Mississippi - Georgia (A) / Florida (H)
Mississippi State - South Carolina (A) / Tennessee (H)

MU24

I thought that we were not going to have to go to both SC and Florida in the same year; that we'd have one at home and one away due to the distance. Playing a good SC team at home is not something I look forward to at all. However, from a scheduling standpoint, there's only 1 thing from MU's schedule that we really learned and that's who our West opponent would be. We all already figured on TAMU being our rival and the rest of the schedule is playing teams within our home conference. And personally, I'd LOVE to go to the Grove and check out some Southern Belle's in sun dresses. So I kinda dig the schedule, in other words. :)

Rob

All SEC road games are very difficult. I should have said especially difficult.

bham dawg

The Georgia thing can't be right. We would have a total of two home SEC games (back to back at that).

Alpha

I thought there were no easy games in the SEC, now that Mizzou has joined, it's a cakewalk all of a sudden?

MissouriGuy

Mizzou is going to go 5-3 in the SEC next year

Rob

I could see Missouri doing that and possibly even better. The toughest game I see is Georgia at home, although all those road games will be difficult because they're new.

MizTiger

Great site!! Don't you think the SEC will champion a 13 game regular season when they finally decide to move to a 9 game Conference schedule, which would allow for 4 non-conference games each season? Seems to make alot of sense to me.

michaelbamafan

it should be 9 conference and 3 non conference. I hate it when bama playes teams like Western Kentucky and Western Carolina.

FCDore

John, one thing the SEC could do this weekend without making Bloom a liar is to release the new rotations for the next few years, without releasing an actual schedule w/dates. So much like the NFL does in advance, fans would know their home and away league opponents but not the actual dates.

guestoladola

LSU is due for a return visit to Kentucky next year, just as Arkansas is due to pick up Kentucky. Not sure why that means Arkansas gets Kentucky and not LSU.

johnmrsec

guestoladola...

If Arkansas doesn't get Kentucky, it will have to get someone completely new from the East. As stated in the above post, Tennessee was on Arkansas' schedule, but they are reportedly getting Mississippi State instead.

So, if the SEC wants to do the least amount of shuffling, Arkansas would get Kentucky as planned and LSU would get South Carolina as planned.

Thought we laid that out pretty clearly in the section just above the chart.

Thanks for reading,
John

MIZ_SEC

John, do you think the SEC could agree to go with a nine game conference schedule the same year as the Big Ten (target is 2017 last I heard)?

johnmrsec

MIZ_SEC...

No clue when it might happen, but I can't imagine the league deciding that it's okay for Mizzou and Arkansas to play once every decade. Same for other matchups.

Eventually, the coaches will be over-ruled and nine games it will be. No telling when, but we bet soon.

John

Rob

If we do go to 9, I hope 2 will be rotating opponents, as it is now. If we stick with 8, I hope we don't play home and away games in consecutive years.

I would really like to see Missouri and Arkansas play every year, but I can't stand the idea of only playing some teams once every decade (that's not a conference game). Do that and you'll end up playing someone while they're good, only for them to be terrible for the next decade, or vice versa.

StevenBrew

Any idea how the rotation works for the cross division match-ups?

johnmrsec

StevenBrew...

This is speculation to begin with. So far we have nothing to suggest how the rotation will work.

Sorry.

Thanks for reading,
John

McG

Originally I heard the permanent cross-overs with the new schools were looking to be: Missouri - Arkansas and TxAM - South Carolina. Has that been thrown out now?

johnmrsec

McG...

That was never the case. Missouri officials and Arkansas officials and South Carolina officials have all referred to Mizzou-A&M and the continuation of Ark-USC.

Thanks for reading... love your movies,
John

MissouriGuy

no doubt Missouri has the easiest schedule in the SEC

anon

Vanderbilt has the exact same schedule, so maybe there is some doubt ;)

Rob

Don't let the naysayers fool you. There is no such thing as an easy SEC schedule.

If that is Missouri's schedule, it's not that different then the one Georgia had this year. It would be an easy SEC schedule, but we all have our easy and hard schedules.

Stan

And next year someone else will...

MKrip

Vandy has the exact same SEC schedule next season and a much easier permanent cross divisional opponent.

Medloh

I love Mizzou being in the the SEC, and would happily play any schedule. But very sad about Mizzou not getting to play the Hogs every year. No Kansas and now no arKansas, I guess karma is a b@$@h sometimes for bailing on your old conference.

tradeassociation

Dude, how is not playing Arkansas every year sad? You guys almost never played Arkansas before (seriously, look at your scheduling history, you've played Arkansas like 5 times in 60 years, and most of those were bowl games) so why is not playing Arkansas a big deal now? Of all the negatives associated with being stuck in the SEC West instead of the SEC East (which again is only temporary until 2016 when the next realignment wave comes) not playing Arkansas every year is not one of them.

Medloh

It's sad because they are so close together, and opposing fans could easily go see away games. There are a lot of fans around Springfield and Joplin that root for each side, it would be a fun week. The campuses are only about 350 miles apart. We already hate the hogs a little for stealing Broyles a long time ago, and CMA last year, and snagging a couple of our recruits this year. And we like to rub the Cotton Bowl beatdown in their face whenever we get the chance. We also had a nice BBall rivalry going back in the 90s for a few years.

Rob

As an Arkansas fan, and Missouri native, I agree with you. When they began that basketball series, I remember thinking it's about time we played each other.

In fact, Missouri might have more potential as a rival for Arkansas then anyone. I guess the Oklahoma schools are closer, but they've never seemed like a rival, for some reason. I would like to play Okie State, however, just because they're so close (we have played Okie State quite a few times, but they usually were not very good.) Oklahoma always had Texas, Tennessee and LSU are on the wrong sides of their states, Ole Miss is too far away from Fayetteville and our rivalry with Texas ended after we left the SWC. There's a lot of commonality between Southern Missouri and Northern Arkansas which would make for a great rivalry.

russ

I agree.... How can AK and Mizzou NOT be cross division rivals. It makes no sense.

Granted I am not sure TAMU wants to play SC, but still it is a win/win for AK and MU

Walter

Actually most Aggies we're kind of hoping that the switch would be made, despite sharing a conference with Mizzou we've never developed any strong feelings about them one way or the other. I don't think we'd have had any issue with getting USC, to allow them to develop a natural rivalry with Arkansas.

But as mentioned I suspect that the MU football staff probably pushed hard for keeping their tie with us to get a game every other year in Texas for recruiting purposes.

Rob

Missouri and Alaska? Seriously, I know you meant AR for Arkansas (not sure why everyone always thinks we're AK, but they do) and I agree with you. From listening to John, I think it's because Missouri wants to play Texas A&M for recruiting purposes. Personally, I think it's a mistake by MU, but that's what they want.

MKrip

Other than being a border state with Arkansas, there is no current or previous connection between the two programs. At least Missouri has shared a conference affiliation with Texas A&M.

MIZ_SEC

Arkansas would be a lot of fun but A&M is much better for recruiting. It would be impossible to maintain a presence in Texas recruiting without playing a game there every other year.

JoP

Seems like the least the SEC could do is start Mizzou off with TAMU and Arkansas from the west. Then, if things change in a few years (like moving Mizzou west or adding an SEC game), Arkansas and Mizzou have already started a new rivalry.

sfprman

With two more teams, don;t you think the SEC will add another bowl tie-in? If so, do you think that additional tie-in will be a another bowl game in Texas? Perhaps Alamo (San Antonio) or Meineke Car Care (Houston). I'm still surprised the Alamo Bowl hooked up with the Pac12 (as few Pac12 fans will attend). Right now, the only SEC bowl in texas, and the only BigXII vs. SEC tie-in is the Cotton Bowl in Arlington. Of course, there's the Sun Bowl in El Paso, too, where the SEC could replace the ACC and play Pac12. And there's the existing tie-in with the Independence Bowl is in Shreveport, which is almost Texas. As a Mizzou fan, I like playing Texas A&M....especially in College Station where we seem to have our way. :)

Rob

That would be great if the SEC replaced the ACC in the Sun Bowl. I know a lot of people would like to see a SEC vs Pac-12 bowl tie-in.

I completely understand why Missouri wants to play Texas A&M every year, but I'm not sure it's worth passing on a potentially great rival in Arkansas. I think Missouri will find it more difficult to recruit in Texas in the future, anyway, because now there's only one Texas team in their conference and 12 other, very good, non-Texas teams competing for recruits there with Missouri. A yearly game on CBS with Arkansas might do more for Missouri then retaining Texas A&M on their schedule, imo.

FCDore

One potential pattern that may emerge in this "reset" is that all permanent opponent games will be played at the Eastern school and the rotating opponent game would be played at the Western school. In Tennessee's case, they are foregoing a return trip from Arkansas to start their next scheduled series at Mississippi State. The one quirk this could cause would be for the permanent opponent games played at the Eastern school in 2011 (such as Georgia-Auburn) to be played in the Eastern school's stadium for a second consecutive year. This has happened before, as we (Vanderbilt) had to play at Ole Miss in consecutive years (2001 and 2002) the last time the conference had a major schedule shift. So in the case of Georgia, the Dogs may get to go to Alabama but will compensate by hosting Auburn again.

GeoffDawg

The thought around Georgia was that if potentially we dropped Bama and kept Ole Miss next year, then we might have a favorable schedule setting us up for possible national title run with all the players we’ll have back. Oh well, you get what you get. At least Richardson will be gone.

tradeassociation

Dude, if you can't beat 'Bama in the regular season, you aren't going to win the national title anyway. What do you think ... outside of the SEC the rest of college football is a bunch of ACC and Sun Belt teams? Florida, LSU, Auburn and Alabama had to fight VERY HARD to beat EXTREMELY TALENTED Oklahoma, Texas, Oregon, and Ohio State (well Ohio State not so much!) teams. No one has ever scheduled themselves to a title. To be the best, you have to beat the best.

GeoffDawg

Dude, there's this little thing called the SEC championship game. Maybe you've heard of it? If we're making a potential MNC run, then odds are we'd be facing Bama or a Bama equivalent there anyway.

AllTideUp

Why don't we just have a rematch? It seems to be in style these days.

dwayne

So you want the dawgs to get a favorable scedual.not that this season scedual is not being that the dawgs didnt play arky.bama,or lsu.

GeoffDawg

What's a scedual?

papadoc19

It is even worse...we are losing a home game because instead of Ole Miss coming to us we are going to Columbia.

JoP

Which is why I'm not so sure about these all this. Georgia would have three home games and five away games. UT and Vandy at home with UF being a "home" game next year. Auburn, USC, UK, Mizzou and Alabama would all be on the road. So really, only two SEC schools would travel to Athens next year. That seems unlikely.

FCDore

Here's my guess. To even things out and to ensure that all teams play 3 intra-division games at home and 3 on the road, the league will say that all permanent opponent games in 2012 will be played at the Eastern school and all rotating-opponent games will be played at the Western school. The catch is that some of those permanent opponent matchups will be held at the Eastern school for a second consecutive year so that the league can balance it out. So, in that case, you'd host Auburn again next year. (This would fit because all the new rotating games, such as Georgia-Alabama and UT-Mississippi State, were already scheduled to be at the Western site in 2012.)

Trackbacks

2012 Schedule discussion - Page 10 - VolNation says:

December 1, 2011 at 3:01 pm

[...] going to bama instead of ole miss and us dropping ark and picking up missish!tti st would be huge. Alabama | MrSEC.com Seems fair to me considering their cake walk of a schedule this [...]

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2012 Schedule Rumor: UGA vs. Bama in Athens | | apaja.tk says:

December 7, 2011 at 1:30 pm

[...] that Texas A&M’s SEC East opponents will be Missouri (permanent) and Florida. Mr. SEC is reporting that Tennessee’s SEC West opponents will be Bama (permanent) and Mississippi State next year. [...]

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2012 Schedule Rumor: UGA vs. Bama in Athens « Sports « android tab says:

December 7, 2011 at 1:31 pm

[...] that Texas A&M’s SEC East opponents will be Missouri (permanent) and Florida. Mr. SEC is reporting that Tennessee’s SEC West opponents will be Bama (permanent) and Mississippi State next year. [...]

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Article on ESPN.com - Page 3 - VolNation says:

December 10, 2011 at 2:46 am

[...] Originally Posted by UGA insider 09/01/12 Buffalo 09/08/12 at South Carolina 09/15/12 Florida Atlantic 09/22/12 Vanderbilt 09/29/12 Tennessee 10/06/12 at Alabama 10/13/12 at Kentucky 10/27/12 Florida 11/03/12 Ole Miss 11/10/12 at Auburn 11/17/12 Georgia Southern 11/24/12 Georgia Tech There may be some minor changes due to expansion. The schedule sets up really nice for us next year. I think I saw where someone was projecting who would play whom in the 14 team schedule. I think they projected UGA would keep Auburn and Bama, and drop the Ole Miss game adding Missouri. That would give UGA one of the tougher SEC East schedules. Again these are just projections. Alabama | MrSEC.com [...]

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