Last week, the SEC let the news leak out that it would be going to an 18-game basketball schedule next season. But the schedule could still grow from there in 2013-14 and beyond.
Seth Emerson of The Macon Telegraph learned two things from Georgia athletic director Greg McGarity last night:
1. A 19-game in-conference slate is “a serious possibility,” in Emerson’s words. Such a plan would allow the league to continue to use a divisional schedule without the actual return of divisions. A team in the SEC East in football, for example, would play its six division mates at both home and on the road in basketball. That same team would then play the seven teams from the West division once per season. (Unfairness Alert: Seven SEC teams would play nine homes games a year while the other seven would play just eight.)
2. Even with a division-style schedule, the league “is still unlikely to go back to using divisions,” again, those are Emerson’s words. McGarity said that the two-division standings hurt the “perception” of the league at NCAA tourney selection time. (“Perception,” being McGarity’s word.)
