Comments on: Some LSU Fans Wanting Out Of The SEC? We Thought They Were The Tigers, Not The Chickens

By: scout2013

scout2013 — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 23:26:15 +0000

Here is a thought. Give Bama UF and Uga and give Lsu UT and UK. Lsu played 2 or the top 3 east teams while Bama got 2 of the bottom 3 teams. Nothing chicken about that. Just facts. Lsu, A & M, and Bama all were 5-1 in the west, except Lsu and A&M had a tougher East schedule. And do we really want to go into the past with Peterson int that the Sec blew and several others that seem to happen to fall in Bama’s advantage. Anyway, these championship, including the SEC Championship aren’t real anyway. None of them count.

By: GeauxState

GeauxState — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 05:09:40 +0000

@ Buddha this is all for readership. RabaIais likes to make people mad sometimes

By: GeauxState

GeauxState — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 05:06:30 +0000

@ Budda….yes at the end of the day this is just for readership. Just make upsets me when local writers write columns like theses.

By: JRsec

JRsec — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 02:52:05 +0000

@buddha22 @JRsec Sporadic posting over about 11 months. I laid off for about three months after May while I brought in my garden.

By: buddha22

buddha22 — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 02:25:41 +0000

@GeauxState Don’t imagine anyone thought you were. Maybe I missed something, but this is just a writer trying to drum up readership…not an LSU spokesman, right?

By: buddha22

buddha22 — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 02:23:20 +0000

@JRsec How long did it take you to accumulate 1066 points?

By: buddha22

buddha22 — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 02:22:22 +0000

@alamoaggie08 Aggie, please! Methinks you doth protest too much! However, you may need to check yourself for that hissy fit? All I was pointing out was that the aggies didn’t have the toughest row to hoe as has been borne out, indeed, given the way it went I doubt the aggies would’ve lost in Columbia, but just for fun, lets get a special scheduling “quirk” where they play in Columbia (let’s say MO) the next 3 years? Then it will all be square! Gig’em?

By: JRsec

JRsec — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 02:17:12 +0000

@buddha22 @Big Touche!

By: buddha22

buddha22 — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 02:11:45 +0000

@Big Bob Marley You are entitled to your opinion, but it doesn’t mean it is right. MU wouldn’t accept a junior membership (as the nubs did) and I believe MU and their fans have demonstrated exactly how interested they were/are in the SEC and how happy they are to be here! Lucky? Damn straight. If Delaney hadn’t tried to mastermind the fall of the B12 and blame Scott/P10 he may have landed MU…but I think Mr. Slive may have shown his aces before MU made any serious move to the B10…we’ll never know.
However, West Virginia (as well as others in BE) have “gritty/glossy records” because it was the BE, not a power conference. Please see how wheels came off after their typical roaring non-con start this year.

By: GeauxState

GeauxState — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 23:48:28 +0000

WE ARE NOT GOING ANYWHERE! JUST PLAY THE SCHEDULE AND WIN! THIS IS NUTS! NEVER BEEN SO ASHAMED TO BE AN ALUM AND SUPPORTER OF LSU AFTER READING THE REASON TO LEAVE THE BEST CONFERENCE IN COLLEGE ATHLETICS BECAUSE OF SCHEDULING AND AFRIAD OF BAMA. WE PRIDE OURSELVES ON BEING THE BEST(SEC!!!!) AND COMPETING WITH THE BEST..NOT RUN FROM IT AND JOIN SOME CONFERENCE WHERE WE WIN ALL THE TIME BECAUSE WE’RE PLAYING LESSER OPPONENTS.

By: Big Bob Marley

Big Bob Marley — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 10:27:21 +0000

Texas A&M’s move to the SEC was a brilliant move by them, they are now in the best conference in the country (I live in Los Angeles and was basically raised here though I was born in Houston, Texas.) and a decade from now could become the premiere school for recruits since the SEC is where the exposure is. It doesn’t mean you’ll end up in the NFL as surprisingly, lower-tier schools produce a lot of talent for the NFL. Though, the great thing is the kids will get a great education as A&M is a great academic school and they’ll get the most eye-balls on them if they are trying to pursue a professional athlete career. Johnny “Football” is already a household name now because of the SEC and the dude probably will never sniff the field when an NFL team drafts him 5th to 7th round in the draft or possibly has to sign as an undrafted free agent. But A&M did themselves well and Mizzou was lucky they got an offer to a conference they really had no interest in. I still say the SEC should’ve went with West Virginia, cable-houses be damned because they usually produce a competitive and gritty team each year even though this one wasn’t that good for them.

By: FrankKendrick

FrankKendrick — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 23:16:00 +0000

@AllTideUp @FrankKendrick Like you I wonder why I argue with fans about this type of thing. Technically, I guess you are correct…..I can only base my views on things I see and read as well as what facts I know and then come to my conclusion. Concerning facts, it’s my guess that you know about the same as I do concerning the inter-play of all the decision makers (which isn’t much). If the fact that Alabama had an easier schedule than LSU this year and will next can’t be justified with known facts that I can present to you (don’t have knowledge of context of discussions that lead to this decision….as I assume you don’t), I guess I have to just theorize why. If you don’t know the facts, I guess your view is as good as mine. Why would temporary schedules continue to favor a couple of teams? What facts I do know are: the SEC office is in Alabama (don’t know reason why…assume it was centrally located within SEC territory at the time); some of the SEC staff had an affiliation with Alabama in some form as well as some key SEC officiating officals; I know for a fact the Bear had great influence around where I lived (at the time in Pensacola); I know for a fact that Alabama has for many, many years had more favorable SEC schedules than their biggest rivals at the time (Why?….Maybe it was just the Bear being a smart SOB?…or it may have been by chance); I have read article(s) that Bear over signed to keep players from his rivals; I have heard stories of his/Alabama’s recruiting tactics…to be fair they all cheated ((just told about/know a few (Ala, Auburn, Florida, LSU, Texas A&M)….so many years ago)). Based on what I’ve seen, read, and know, my opinion is the Bear had great influence and Alabama has been the fair haired child of this conference. I also think the Bear and SEC office has played a big part in it being like it is. As for the topic of the temporary schedules just so happening to work out for Alabama, riddle me this Batman….why the first year and then the second as well favoring them? Being on the far west side of the conference, perhaps you know better the reason why?

I don’t believe Dodd pushed the return because he knew of the Mississippi issue and his pride. My opinion of him during that time was he as an honorable man and didn’t like what he was seeing. Sure Dodd had influence as well. If they wanted to play the game along with Alabama they could have gotten in if a majority or 3/4 vote was what was needed. Don’t know if it had to be 100% to get in.

Let’s be honest here….Your opinion of the SEC world as seen though Crimson and White eyes is different than the world I now see through Purple and Gold eyes. I agree that I am believing what I want to believe. I also believe you are believing what you want to believe. Whose right? The truth is probably somewhere in the middle. Hell…I thought Tiger Woods was a very good husband. My guess is you view the Bear as a Saint. I have learned the media paints pictures of events and people that are not always true. No one but the person involved knows the truth (what they are thinking) and even others that see the event see if though different eyes.

We will just disagree about what is happening.

By: AllTideUp

AllTideUp — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 21:27:05 +0000

@FrankKendrick I’m not talking down to you at all. I’m just noting the ridiculousness of what you’re saying.

First off, you haven’t done anything other than repeat a mantra. All of this time you’ve been saying Bama gets special treatment and pretty much runs the show in the SEC. I’ve asked for reasoning on that and you’ve given me nothing, just repeated the same statements. Sorry, but on merit that is a theory not a statement of fact.

Second, you are now contradicting yourself. First you imply that Bama is some sort of all-powerful institution. Now, you’re saying Bama had to form some sort of consensus behind closed doors to get what it wants and had to offer some sort of quid pro quo. Well, by definition(assuming any of that even happened) that would not be special treatment. That would be a trade and would be indicative of relatively equal power across the membership. I’m well aware that some schools can have more influence that others. That’s the nature of any conference. What you said, however, was essentially that Bama ran the show. Obviously that’s not the case and never has been. The article you gave me even shows that assuming it’s all accurate.

Here’s the excerpt from the article:

“However, in 1975, there appeared to be a making up of sorts between Coach Bryant and Coach Dodd. Bryant told Dodd that Alabama would personally sponsor Georgia Tech getting back into the SEC. While Dodd was grateful, he stated that the Mississippi schools would never allow Tech back into the SEC.”

So Bear Bryant was an all-powerful figure that wielded so much influence that he couldn’t get the other 7 SEC schools to vote down what the 2 Mississippi schools wanted? The math doesn’t add up my friend.

And it wasn’t unusual for football coaches to speak for their schools in matters of athletics in those times. College football and sports in general were not the money makers they are today. From that article, Dodd obviously carried the same type of influence at GT that Bryant did at Bama. In that day, there was really never a reason a football coach should be vetoed by his school in matters of athletics. If he was competent and successful then he would be given the benefit of the doubt. Kind of like the Dean of the Business school would be given the benefit of the doubt in matters pertaining to his college. It’s not some weird conspiracy playing out behind closed doors.

I don’t know why I spent this much time arguing about this. Like I said, you are believing what you want to believe and it should be obvious to everyone else by now if not before.

By: FrankKendrick

FrankKendrick — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 16:10:09 +0000

@AllTideUp @FrankKendrick First off not theories…please don’t talk down to me like that.

If for one second you believe all meetings held don’t have people pushing their agendas you are not living in the real world. The Bear yielded great influence during his day. You, as an Alabama fan, can even see Alabama and Saban’s in today’s times. I also have stated that Alabama is a mini-Texas. The only reason is because they have been kept in check when it comes to everyone’s dollars (doesn’t hurt that the conference was started with equal shares…thus Alabama would play hell getting those dollars from others like Texas has.) Am I privy to what has been said behind closed doors prior to and during meetings?….of course not. I can only go on what I see and read ((keeping in mind all I read is not necessarily accurate (First hand knowledge to that fact.)). To answer your question about, “…then how did they (Alabama) pull it off?” They obviously had their discussions with others to get a consensus before the meeting. There was probably some give and take on others topics that were important to others….a kind of you do this and I’ll do that. This happens all the time….nothing new.

Here is a link to why Georgia Tech left (taken from Musing with Cecil Buffington). When you read it, please note what was stated that the Bear told Dodd about coming back to the SEC. (He would push for it.) Now if he didn’t have ANY influence then what would it really matter for just little old Alabama (him representing them) to give their okay? cecilbuffington.com/catalog_40.html

By: aggiebama

aggiebama — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 12:25:01 +0000

Truth is, some people are going to complain that their water is wetter than everyone else’s, and their gold is just too heavy. But if your goal is to play for a national championship, ask yourself this question…would you rather be the one-loss champion of the BigXii (KS State) or the one-loss champion of the SEC (Alabama)? Which one is warming up in Miami? Perhaps if LSU had beaten A&M more convincingly (and not by less than the points given up by A&M on missed field goals and extra points) there wouldn’t have been a tossup for the Cotton. Bowls pick teams to generate money, not fairness. Do you believe more people in Dallas and in TX would tune in to see TAMU or LSU? Also remember that A&M was supposed to be a gimme road game when the season started. Good luck in a conference with Texas…A&M beat them 15 out of 30 and they got a TV network from ESPN. A&M had a $20M payout in the Big XII and a softer schedule, so why do you think we moved to an $18M payout to play the winners of the last 6 national championships? Texas had been in the Big XII for 1 year before the headquarters of the Big XII moved to Dallas…wouldn’t count on having much say in the Big XII. TAMU has 4 times as much money as LSU, a bigger TV market, a larger student body, etc. and nobody could see us when Texas was in the room.

By: SouthernBoiSB

SouthernBoiSB — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 17:30:16 +0000

@buddha22 @JRsec @Charity

http://www.mrsec.com/2011/10/sec-realignment-and-schedule-options-part-two/

Take a look @ the list & tell me WHY anybody would want to throw away games that have been played 61-114 times.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southeastern_Conference

116 Auburn-Georgia
93 Alabama-Tennessee
86 Ole Miss-Vanderbilt
58 LSU-Florida
39 Mississippi State-Kentucky
20 Arkansas-South Carolina

By: It’s not fair because we say so. | Get The Picture

It’s not fair because we say so. | Get The Picture — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 12:50:08 +0000

[...] about LSU’s continued whining about cross-division scheduling, it’s worth pointing out this is what’s got Joe Alleva’s knickers in a [...]

By: alamoaggie08

alamoaggie08 — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 06:28:40 +0000

@buddha22 @alamoaggie08
no actually they weren’t complaining because they had won there comfortably the previous two years, plus they were considered (and cockishly titled themselves) contenders while a&m was expected to be mediocre at best. of course they would have been happier playing the game at missouri, but in hind sight (and even before that game took place) do you really think that would have made much of a difference considering they were spiraling down, injured and a&m was undefeated on the road? think about it before you go blathering off again.

now that we’ve got all that cleared up…what the heck is your problem? you are throwing an absolute hissy fit over nothing. forgive me for using the team i happen to know the most about as an example. apparently it has offended you a great deal and must be keeping you up at night. if you want to make an example of missouri or anyone else who feel they got “slighted” in some way (which is basically everyone), then go right ahead. i’m not going to stop you, and neither is anyone else.

By: JRsec

JRsec — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 05:11:06 +0000

@buddha22 @JRsec @Charity You can have both and when the new scheduling is out rivalries will be preserved and everyone will play everyone else every three years. The issue with rivalries is that those are the games that the alumni donate extra money for just sot the athletic department sends them tickets, or gets them better seats. No A.D. in the SEC wants to give up the games that tease the loot.

By: buddha22

buddha22 — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 04:55:05 +0000

@JRsec @Charity Pie LSU is right about one thing, time for those “permanent” rivalries to go unless they want to be in the same division. It’s a new ballgame and seeing a school in your conference once every 10 years just doesn’t cut it so ‘Bama can have homecoming every year vs Tenn..

By: buddha22

buddha22 — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 04:52:45 +0000

@alamoaggie08 I noticed no one in aggieville was bemoaning that MU had to come to Faurot South newly renamed Kyle Fied this year for the unprecedented 3rd year in a row, either, or did I just miss it???

By: AllTideUp

AllTideUp — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 03:46:52 +0000

@I4Bama @FrankKendrick I also remember many years where Tennessee had the week off before playing Bama. Even today it’s rare for Bama to have a week off before playing UT despite that being one of our 2 most important games. Strange that Bama has not used its dictatorial influence to rectify that, no?

By: AllTideUp

AllTideUp — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 03:43:22 +0000

@FrankKendrick Any theories as to why every other school in the SEC has allowed this sort of thing to happen, for decades no less? If Alabama doesn’t have the power of Texas then how did they pull all this off?

I think you are believing what you want to believe.

By: JRsec

JRsec — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 02:52:09 +0000

@AllTideUp @SouthernBoiSB It’s much more balanced with 20.

By: AllTideUp

AllTideUp — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 02:24:13 +0000

@JRsec @SouthernBoiSB That would be a reasonable way to do it, especially when it comes to the rivalries. I’m not sure of the balance though. The West is stacked in that setup especially if Mizzou proves to be the program with potential that I think it is. The South has 2 traditionally weaker teams in it and history has shown that often times both Ole Miss and State are in the bottom 4 of the league. It’s very hard to draw up a plan that accounts for everything that is important so I’m not sure there is better way to do it. I’m confident a 16-team setup creates better alternatives in any event over a 14-team setup however.

By: AllTideUp

AllTideUp — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 02:14:55 +0000

@SouthernBoiSB @JRsec In this alignment, the permanent rivals are across from each other as indicated by the dotted lines. Each team has a designated rival from each of the other Pods so it was necessary to have 3 “pairings” in order to show them all.

As far as the rotating games on a year-to-year basis go, I didn’t put any formula out there for that. It would just be necessary to “pair” Pods together every so often to keep everything in order.

By: FrankKendrick

FrankKendrick — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 02:14:16 +0000

@AgLove98 @FrankKendrick @saginaw @JRsec Are you kidding me….Texas A$M is too tough for LSU. There’s not a team in the universe too tough for them. The point was playing a tough schedule like that was not the same as Alabama’s schedule. It has nothing to do with fear of the opponents!!!! Shaking head…some of you guys are just unbelievable.

By: JRsec

JRsec — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 21:29:11 +0000

@SouthernBoiSB It will be about on par with the North Pod and the East and West pod will have three contenders each in most years so they will be about the same strength as well. If Ole Miss builds back up it will help the South Pod strength wise. But the schools were selected to maximize rivalries without sacrificing too much strength.

By: AgLove98

AgLove98 — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 20:58:31 +0000

@FrankKendrick @saginaw @JRsec Oh, so the A&M game is too tough for the little bayou kitties now? What happened to “Strap it up” and “They’re going to really not enjoy their welcoming to this conference”?

By: SouthernBoiSB

SouthernBoiSB — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 17:17:56 +0000

@JRsec
Are you sure about Missouri?

Also, with that setup, I’ld say the South pod will be 75% Alabama, 20% Tennessee, 5% Mississippi/Mississippi State.
The rest look about even.

By: alamoaggie08

alamoaggie08 — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 17:04:22 +0000

first of all everyone needs to remember that this is temporary scheduling done on the fly due to rapid changes in the conference. second, it’s not the league’s fault that several teams didn’t perform as expected. florida, A&M, ole miss and vanderbilt were all better than expected while auburn, tennessee, missouri and arkansas were much worse. obviously that flipped some strengths-of-schedule around.

A&M was expected to have the most brutal stretch of them all with 5 of 6 on the road, the lone home game being LSU and three straight road games at auburn, miss state and alabama. at this point it doesn’t seem that bad since they won all five of those road games and auburn (and miss st to an extent) were duds, but it seemed to spell doom when the schedule was initially released. no one was crying foul then, just accepting all the “welcome to the sec where every game is tough” hoopla from everyone else.

everyone has their ups and downs, some years’ shedules are better than others, but like john said it happens to everyone. it’s pretty ironic that LSU is complaining during a very successful stretch of its program history. if LSU truly felt it was one of the top programs in the nation, it wouldn’t be complaining.

the funniest part was this idiot writer thinks the big 12 would be a more fair league. yeah right. they play a round robin schedule (for now)…that’s about it. you think the SEC sucks up? enjoy life with texas. about the only answer he gave in his “on second thought” article was LSU should stay in the SEC not because it’s the best place for them, but because there’s nowhere better go. (a little counter-intuitive, huh?) smooth operating, dude. you got yourself in a controversial bind and had to find a way out without permantly damaging your pride and reputation. Grade: F

By: FrankKendrick

FrankKendrick — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 15:42:22 +0000

@saginaw @JRsec Oh they did them a favor alright….let’s see: at Florida, then South Carolina, then at Texas A$M , then open date, then Alabama, and then Miss State. Notice any difference in schedules between Alabama and LSU? The open date thing has only been in the last about 3 years. Usually it was Alabama I believe that had the open date. Don’t you think for one second that Alabama hasn’t played the open date game since I can remember.

By: JRsec

JRsec — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 15:33:30 +0000

@SouthernBoiSB
North: Kentucky, North Carolina school, South Carolina, Virginia school
East: Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Vanderbilt
South: Alabama, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Tennessee
West: Arkansas, Louisiana State, Missouri, Texas A&M

Permanent rivals: Auburn/Alabama, Tennessee/Vanderbilt, Ole Miss/L.S.U.
Not all of the weaker teams are always weak but of the four weakest one is in each 1/2 division. (Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Ole Miss, Missouri)
Not all teams are strong every year but the 4 traditional powers are separated as well. (L.S.U., Alabama, Florida, VaTech or S.Carolina)
The only rivalry not accounted for is Kentucky/Tennessee. If 9 conference games are played and AllTideUp’s idea of having 1 permanent rival from each 1/2 division is utilized then that is taken care of as well.

By: FrankKendrick

FrankKendrick — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 15:23:35 +0000

@Flagg707 @FrankKendrick @mddo5 Ga Tech didn’t leave just because of scheduling…never said that. Scheduling; influence in decisions made (like Texas); academic issues; numbers of players recruited; etc. were issues for Tech (forgotten the issue that broke the camel’s back). Alabama has had a big hand in many of the league’s issues. Bear had a LOT of influence in his day.

Alabama is NOT Texas…NO ONE is like Texas….they are a cancer. I’ve watched Texas do it’s thing over the years….they need to be like another school I just love (big joke) Notre Dame.

Never said they didn’t make the same amounts…..that is a big reason Alabama is NOT Texas. If you don’t think Alabama would try what Texas pulled off if they could, you are living in a dream world. It’s all about control.

How about the years when Alabama had a week off before the BIG game while the other team had played two or three BIG games in a row before that game (with no open date).

As for the complaining about playing Florida. It has nothing to do with them being hard and we are afraid to play them. (Shaking Head at Alabama fans thinking). Look at who LSU has played over the years and the crazy schedules they have had to play….no LSU will kick your A$$…they aren’t afraid to play YOU (LOL). It has to do with fairness of the schedule. Yes Tennessee is down …not your fault. But ask USCe or Florida or LSU if the temporary schedules have been fair (as well as other schedules over the years). Alabama isn’t playing 4 or 5 teams in a row that are very good. Hell…this year they couldn’t play 2 games in a row (LSU then Tx A&M.). There’s a reason teams lose after playing very hard physical games the week before…ask FSU when they were #1 and got 9-11 players hurt in the LSU game only to lose the next week to an average team because they were beaten up. It’s fairnes of schedule not how tough it is.

By: JRsec

JRsec — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 15:22:35 +0000

@AllTideUp @SouthernBoiSB I really like the idea of playing one permanent from each pod. The pods are fairly well balanced, I don’t think anyone can do too much in the way of balancing the Norther pod without putting Georgia or Florida in it which kind of defeats the purpose. I put South Carolina in with what is your Pod C and placed Tennessee in Pod A. Also Mizzou’s only request when they entered the SEC was to be able to play A&M. Auburn folks will balk at playing all West teams in Pod B. Since 1992 they have wanted to play their traditional longstanding rivals in the East. Put them in Pod D in the place of South Carolina and it will work.

By: JRsec

JRsec — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 15:13:49 +0000

@Charity Pie I like it. The only problem is getting those annual rivalries taken care of without losing the balance within and among the pods.

By: JRsec

JRsec — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 15:11:52 +0000

@AllTideUp @I4Bama If we move to a 4 or 3 super conference setup with 16 to 20 teams per conference the whole bowl issue will have to be revamped and hopefully the national championship playoffs will be extraneous to all of them. Therefore the existing bowl ties will be severed. As the bowls payouts go so should the rankings of the remaining teams. A 3rd place SEC vs a 3rd place Big 10 with only one position variance at most all the way down to the last eligible teams. The payouts therefore will be reflective of their seasons and you won’t have the cruddy match-ups we have now.

By: Flagg707

Flagg707 — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 14:48:09 +0000

@FrankKendrick @mddo5 “They are a mini version of Texas…” I’m a Missouri fan, so let me weigh in here. Better a mini version of Texas than the full-blown metastatic version. You have no idea what it is like to live under the heel of those sociopaths in Austin. Every conference that has too many members to play a round-robin has its conspiracy theories on scheduling. This article from the Advocate has to be trolling to draw eye-balls to boost his year-end numbers. LSU can’t be seriously considering the Big 12.

By: SouthernBoiSB

SouthernBoiSB — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 12:43:00 +0000

@JRsec
It’s a “Catch 22″ almost.

On 1 hand, the SEC boasts about being easily recognized because it’s based off geography (East/West) & not some other factor. Also, schools within the same state are pretty much going to play each other each year.

On the other hand, you might have to “break up” the conference geography to get better balanced pods.

But then, how do you do schedules without destroying long-standing yearly rivalries?

By: SouthernBoiSB

SouthernBoiSB — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 12:37:56 +0000

@AllTideUp @JRsec @SouthernBoiSB
But who is paired with whom?
As I’ve stated before on here, you’ve got a “chain” of yearly games that have long histories:

Miss. St. – Alabama – Auburn – UGA – Florida.
Also, Tennessee/Alabama has a long standing as well.

The drawback I see about “multiple perm. rivals” is (no offense) Miss. State, Miss., Vandy, & Kentucky aren’t exactly going to boost your strength of schedule (if that’s going to be a factor for the future).

By: Charity Pie

Charity Pie — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 08:36:56 +0000

4 pods of 4
Play the 3 in your pod every year (3 conf. games)
Play 2 each from each other pod (6 conf. games)
= You play everyone home and away in 4 years time.

By: AllTideUp

AllTideUp — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 07:32:16 +0000

@I4Bama I think a lot of teams are getting hosed in this current bowl setup. Georgia definitely got hosed falling out of the BCS(not saying Florida doesn’t deserve a BCS slot).

Things will be better when they remove the 2 team limit per conference under the new bowl setup. At least, that has been rumored to be the setup. For 6 high profile bowls(playoff included), there could conceivably be 4 or maybe more SEC teams among those 12 slots every year.

By: AllTideUp

AllTideUp — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 07:06:46 +0000

On the Pod C/Pod D pairing, it might be better to switch it around so South Carolina and NC State could play every year. Being that they are border states, that would probably be better.

By: AllTideUp

AllTideUp — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 07:03:27 +0000

@JRsec @SouthernBoiSB I’ve always been a fan of playing everyone twice every 4 years although that would be difficult under any setup. 16 teams would make a lot of scheduling issues more fair and more equitable.

I also agree with the idea of spreading more conference games over the course of the season rather than waiting 2-3 weeks for everyone to start. The league slate is more difficult simply because there are no real breaks in between, especially for teams that play OOC rivals.

By: AllTideUp

AllTideUp — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 06:57:19 +0000

@JRsec  @SouthernBoiSB I drew up a pod arrangement for 16 that included VT and NC St. It’s based partly on geography, but the groupings are rivalry based more than anything. I’ve always envisioned 9 games in a 16-team league. 3 games against permanent Pod members.   A permanent rival from each of the 3 other pods. And finally 3 games against the remaining teams from a designated “paired” Pod in any given year. You could play every school at least 2 times in 6 years or once every 3 years if the Pod pairings were rotated every season instead of every 2 years. The below is a diagram of what permanent rivals each school might be paired with from each of the 3 other Pods.

Pairing & permanent rival #1

Pod A                       Pod B
Alaama————–Auburn
Texas A&M              LSU
Miss State              Ole Miss
Arkansas                Mizzou

Pod C                       Pod D
VT———————-South Carolina
Tennessee             Vandy
NC St                       Georgia
Kentucky                 Florida

Pairing & permanent rival # 2

Pod A                        Pod C
Alabama————-Tennessee
Texas A&M               VT
Miss St                     Kentucky
Arkansas                 NC St

Pod B                        Pod D
Auburn—————-Georgia
LSU                           Florida
Ole Miss                   Vandy
Mizzou                      South Carolina

Pairing & permanent rival #3

Pod A                         Pod D
Alabama————– Georgia
Texas A&M                 Florida
Miss St                       South Carolina
Arkansas                   Vandy

Pod B                         Pod C
Auburn—————–Tennessee
LSU                            VT
Ole Miss                    NC St
Mizzou                        Kentucky

All the most important rivalries are preserved. A few annual secondary rivalries are lost here, but a few old ones are renewed so that’s an interesting balance. Add to that some new geographical match-ups and the fact that it’s easy to play everyone regularly and I think this might be an optimal 16 team setup.

By: JRsec

JRsec — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 06:31:20 +0000

@AllTideUp @SouthernBoiSB It was also Saban who said that any player on any SEC team should be able to play all of the conference teams during his four years. The only problem we are having is the temporary schedule. When we expand again we can move to an easier scheduling format.

By: AllTideUp

AllTideUp — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 06:26:56 +0000

@SouthernBoiSB And I believe it was Nick Saban that publicly advocated for 9 games so we could play these schools more often. If the SEC responds at the beckon call of Bama(or any program for that matter) to make things easier on them then why would the Bama administration want to make it harder for themselves?

By: AllTideUp

AllTideUp — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 06:18:29 +0000

@FrankKendrick Georgia Tech left because Alabama was getting an unfair advantage in the scheduling? John is on the money with his analysis…if one member of a 10-team or 12-team or 14-team conference is getting some sort of unfair advantage then that means everyone must be in on it. How else could you explain ONE single school getting so much special treatment year in and year out…for decades apparently? This isn’t the Big 12 and Bama has never had any sort of de facto or legal dominance over this league. The SEC was never set up to work like that.

By: JRsec

JRsec — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 06:16:47 +0000

@SouthernBoiSB I doubt we see a 3×5 model but with a 4 x 4, or a 4 x 5 model we would have no problem splitting the two schools from Alabama, Tennessee, or Mississippi. In a 16 team conference there would be 7 divisional games and 1 permanent rival. In a 20 team conference there would be 9 divisional games and 1 permanent rival. By grouping most rivals (including splitting up Alabama & Auburn, Tennessee & Vanderbilt, and Ole Miss & Miss State) you could still easily arrange the teams so that virtually all of the rivals could play each other. Kentucky and Tennessee would be the only rivalry that might not be so easily accommodated but only because having Tennessee, Miss State and Kentucky in a pod with Alabama would make for a fairly weak pod. But otherwise all of them can be accounted for even if the two schools from one state are not in the same pod.

By: SouthernBoiSB

SouthernBoiSB — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 05:23:23 +0000

@JRsec
You actually think Alabama & Auburn will be separated in the groupings?

Then again, I guess this is all depending on how many teams we go to: 15 (3 @ 5), 16 (4 @ 4), 18 (3 @ 6), 20 (4 @ 5), more???