Last fall, plenty of people moaned, whined and complained that Georgia had been given an easy path through the Southeastern Conference.  Apparently those folks won’t be able to voice displeasure with the Dawgs’ upcoming schedules.

According to Georgia athletic director Greg McGarity, Mark Richt’s team won’t have to worry about his squad’s strength of schedule in the first year of the new College Football Playoff:

“From our standpoint, the University of Georgia doesn’t have to worry about that in 2014 because our strength of schedule is already off the chart for the next two years.  Who knows what the ’15 schedule will be, but we just know that in ’13 and ’14, the strength of schedule is not an issue here in Athens…

We have an idea of who we’ll play, but we don’t know when we’ll play.  We know it will be a road game because Auburn’s come back here in 2014.  Whoever we play on the West side will be a road game.  It hasn’t been finalized but Destin is when we’re planning to see everything because we’ve all got to move forward with dates, campus dates, homecoming dates and things like that.”

Georgia will host LSU in late-September as its rotating West opponent this year.  Auburn — the Bulldogs’ permanent cross-division rival — will welcome Georgia in mid-November.  UGA will also open the season with a non-conference date at Clemson.

In addition to its SEC slate, Georgia will once again open 2014 season with Clemson, but that game will be at Sanford Stadium.

After the SEC and ESPN unveiled the new SEC Network and some of their programming plans for it, Mike Slive referenced the fact that the SEC and CBS had also agreed on a new deal.  As part of that deal, the SEC Network will be able to air an afternoon game each Saturday which means CBS had to agree to nix its exclusive hold on that timeslot.

What else changed in the reworked agreement is unknown.

CBSSports.com’s Jeremy Fowler writes that the terms of that agreement “are expected to remain intact,” meaning the deal will still run through 2023-24 and that the network will continue to pay the SEC $55 million per year for, basically, one game per week and the rights to the SEC Championship Game.

According to Fowler’s source, “the renegotiation also included the exchange of non-revenue assets that weren’t disclosed by a source.”

So did expansion pay off for the SEC if the CBS deal remains the same?

Absolutely.

While each school’s split of the CBS revenue will be smaller — $55 million divided by 15 as opposed to $55 million divided by 13, with the league office always taking a full share — the new revenue stream created as a result of CBS’ acquiescence on the exclusivity front will more than make up for that shrinking portion.  Think of it like a meal… if CBS is the appetizer — cash-wise — and ESPN the main course, the appetizer will get smaller but the main course will get larger.

If Fowler’s source is correct and CBS is not having to pay more money to an expanded SEC, that’s a win for the network.  It’s product can also be rebroadcast by ESPN on the SEC Network which is promotion for CBS’ SEC game of the week programming.  Whether any CBS advertisers will get “bonus” runs on ESPN remains to be seen (Aflac, for example, will get more eyeballs for its weekly in-game trivia question with a re-airing on the SEC Network).

Also, CBS continues to have the first pick of SEC games each week.

For the SEC, they’ve given up nothing (that we know of) other than the potential for greater revenue from CBS.  In exchange, they’ve given themselves the opportunity to air three college football games on their new network each Saturday which should help the channel get cable and satellite carriage more quickly.  And ESPN will be throwing money at the league for the right to broadcast those SEC games whether the network gains immediate carriage or has to fight for it slowly.

One other point: Assuming the SEC is still a juggernaut in 2023-24 — and the league’s financial outlook suggests it will be –  and live football games are still pulling enormous ratings for networks, the SEC will be able to put its game of the week package back on the open market and cut a new massive deal with CBS or another distributor in 10 years.

With the information we currently have in hand, this renegotiation appears to be a win for both the Southeastern Conference and CBS.

Out with the old.  In with the new.

With the SEC/Big East Challenge dying — right along with the Big East as we knew it — the Southeastern Conference has found a new league to play against in the early part of each basketball season.  The SEC confirmed today what had been rumored for months — the Big XII/SEC Challenge will begin play in 2013-14.

The two leagues also recently partnered in taking control of the Sugar Bowl, which should turn into a fast-flowing revenue stream for both conferences.

Naturally, ESPN is behind the new hoops challenge.  All 10 Big XII teams will take part, while only 10 of the SEC’s 14 schools get to participate (for obvious reasons).  Like the old Big East challenge, the title of the series will flip-flop each year with the SEC getting top billing next season.

“The ability to showcase SEC basketball in this kind of conference competition makes this a unique and exciting event for our coaches, student-athletes and fans,” SEC commissioner Mike Slive said via press release.  “We are pleased to be able to work with the Big XII and ESPN to highlight the sport of men’s basketball.”

Here are the matchups for Year One of the Big XII/SEC Challenge.  (Arkansas, Georgia, LSU and Tennessee are the SEC squads not taking part.)

Thursday, November 14th — Texas Tech at Alabama

Monday, December 2nd — Vanderbilt at Texas, Auburn at Iowa State

Thursday, December 5th — Ole Miss at Kansas State, West Virginia at Missouri, TCU at Mississippi State

Friday, December 6th — South Carolina at Oklahoma State, Kentucky vs. Baylor (at Arlington, Texas)

Tuesday, December 10th — Kansas at Florida

Saturday, December 21st — Texas A&M vs. Oklahoma (at Houston, Texas)

In its first year this new challenge might have already equaled the number of interesting matchups created in six years of the SEC/Big East challenge.

Future schedules will be put together with input from ESPN, the SEC and the Big XII.  With the Big XII having a say, it will be interesting to see if Texas and Kansas ever OK a games with Texas A&M and Missouri, respectively.  Obviously, that won’t be happening this year.

For those SEC fans who don’t want to the see their favorite football league adopt a nine-game conference slate, you might want to start pulling for the Pac-12 to change its scheduling format.

CBSSports.com’s Bruce Feldman tweeted word today that the Pac-12′s football coaches will discuss this week the possibility of moving to an eight-game schedule, away from the current nine-game model.  If the Pac-12 were to backtrack, that might alleviate some of the pressure on the Southeastern Conference to go from eight to nine games with its schedule.  A Pac-12 reversal would mean that the majority of major conferences (Pac-12, SEC, and ACC) would use an eight-game plan rather than a nine-game plan (Big Ten and Big XII).

In turn, that might take the strength-of-schedule bullet from the gun of any playoff selection committee member looking for any reason at all to prevent the SEC from getting two (or more) teams into the playoff in a given year.

That said, coaches seldom hold the final cards when it comes to big conference decisions such as scheduling formats.  If they did, you can be sure the SEC would still be playing six conference games and would feature no conference championship game.  But there are larger things at play than one guaranteed patsy win each season, which is what most coaches would prefer.  Dropping the number of conference matchups would give a league fewer A-list games as television inventory, thus costing the Pac-12, in this case, money in the long run.

And television money is what we believe will ultimately drive the SEC to change its own format from eight games to nine.

Still, if you’re an anti-nine-gamer, it can’t hurt to pull for the Pac-12 coaches on this one.

Depending on who you talk to around the Southeastern Conference, the league is still seriously considering a possible move to a nine-game conference slate.  The 2013 schedule held fast at eight games.  A short four-year rotation (2014 through 2017) that will be presented at the spring meetings in Destin is also built on an eight-game model.  Additionally, the majority of SEC schools seem to want to stand pat at eight, especially those with built-in rivals from other conferences (Kentucky/Louisville, Florida/Florida State, South Carolina/Clemson, Georgia/Georgia Tech).

On the other hand, there are a few who want to see a nine-game schedule come to fruition.  Nick Saban of Alabama is one.  He believes schools in the same league should visit one another more than once every 13 years or so.  Go figure.

Then there are those who understand that the sales team who’ll be peddling the soon-to-be-officially-announced SEC Network will have an easier path to success if the conference has better television inventory.  Having seven extra SEC games to sell each year would certainly beat the SEC/Austin Peay and SEC/Elon matchups we get so many times per season as part of the current model.

Another factor is the new playoff selection process — an issue that will be tackled this week by the powers-that-be in college football.  We know that a playoff has been created in part because the Southeastern Conference has owned the BCS Championship Game for the better part of a decade now.  So with a selection panel consisting of folks from across the nation, it’s not difficult to imagine a day when voters from other regions attempt to spread the wealth to more conferences by refusing to invite a second SEC team — no matter how deserving — into their new four-team playoff.  Especially if all the other major conferences are playing nine-game conference slates and the SEC isn’t.  And if there isn’t going to be one, overriding RPI-type of ranking used by the selection committee… and for now that is the thinking.

Georgia athletic director Greg McGarity told The Macon Telegraph and The Columbus Ledger-Enquirer this week that the SEC’s scheduling plans will indeed be impacted by just what the heck “strength of schedule” will mean in future days:

“We continue to be educated on what the definition of strength of schedule means.  What are other conferences doing in that regard.  So there’s a lot of things to really discuss if we do go to a nine-game model.  But we have not talked about that other than just in theory, to see what some models of that would look like.”

The Big Ten, Big XII and Pac-12 are all either currently playing or planning to play nine league games per season.  The ACC had initially announced plans to go to a nine-game schedule, but reversed field and announced an eight-game plan when Notre Dame agreed to join the league as part-time football participant.

There’s an assumption, an expectation, that many folks seem to be jumping to with regards to the soon-to-be-announced SEC Network.  That belief is that the Southeastern Conference and ESPN will split ownership of the new channel.  And, yes, we’ve made that very same assumption.

Well, as Mama always said, “Never assume…”

As we’ve covered on this site before, there are at least three different ownership models open to the SEC when it comes to its new network.

1.  The SEC could follow the path taken by the Big Ten.  Jim Delany’s league owned 51% of its network with the other 49% owned by FOX Entertainment Group, when the network was launched.  (That ownership split flipped in favor of FOX — 51% to the Big Ten’s 49% — some time since 2010.)  By far the most successful of all the conference- or school-specific sports networks, many have jumped to the conclusion that the Southeastern Conference will just copy this set-up.  Again, we were one of those jumpers earlier this week.

2.  The SEC could opt to do what the Pac-12 has done and launch a network all on its own.  The SEC could own it while paying ESPN to run it.  The Pac-12 has a deal in place with Comcast Media Center to help with the production of its national channel and its six regional networks.

3.  Finally, the SEC could follow in the University of Texas’ footsteps and simply take home a fat check from ESPN every year.  The network would own the channel in that scenario, not the conference.  In Texas’ case, the school is set to receive $300 million from ESPN over a 20-year period.

You can likely scratch Option #2 from the list as the SEC certainly won’t want to incur all the start-up costs involved in a network launch.  Long-term, ownership might be a gold mine, but out of the gates it could be a nightmare scenario.

Option #1 — the one most have simply taken for granted will the path most likely to be taken — has its drawbacks, too.  As a co-owner of the network, the SEC’s cash intake would be tied to what the channel is bringing in… and up front, that might not be a whole lot.  Carriage battles with cable and satellite providers could be quite messy.  They have been for everyone else who’s launched a network (the Big Ten, the Pac-12, Texas, the NFL, etc).  Those fights delay a network’s growth and earnings.

Which brings us to Option #3, the Longhorn Network model.  It’s a plan that’s obviously already being used by ESPN, the company that the SEC will work with on its network.  It’s a plan that would guarantee the SEC is making X amount of dollars right from the outset, regardless of whatever struggles ESPN might have in carriage negotiations.

Yesterday a friendly tipster pointed out an additional tidbit to us — the Southeastern Conference owns nothing.  Here’s a breakdown of SEC revenues and expenses as of 2011.  Page down and you’ll find a spreadsheet showing exactly what the league owned through 2007.  If you look under land, building, equipment, other assets… you’ll find zeroes.

Since 1948 the SEC has had its offices in Birmingham.  The city has provided office space to the league in exchange for a $1 per year lease.  When the league moved the SEC Championship Game from Birmingham to Atlanta in 1994 there was some talk of the lease going up, but the city backed down when the SEC let it be known it was willing to pull up stakes and move.  There has been talk of moving the league’s headquarters from time to time since, but the SEC is still currently residing in 30,000-feet worth of leased property.

Add it all up and it seems likely that the SEC will simply allow ESPN to own the network in exchange for a hefty annual check.  Such a set-up would appear to be much more of a win-win for the conference.  The SEC would be guaranteed money up front, regardless of the struggles ESPN might face in launching the channel, getting it carried, and selling advertising for it.  On the back end, built-in escalators in the contract could guarantee that Mike Slive’s league will get even richer if the network outperforms its cash projections.

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“Put up again thy sword into his place; for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.”

You’ll find that line in the King James Version of the Gospel of Matthew.  You might know it better in its more colloquial form: “live by the sword, die by the sword.”  And when it comes to the SEC’s two revenue sports, you can change the word “sword” to “reputation.”

With the SEC landing just three NCAA Tournament bids this year, there are plenty of league coaches talking about what went wrong:

Tennessee’s Cuonzo Martin: “It’s almost like a mid-major mentality in this league, when you’ve got your second-place team that doesn’t get in the NCAA Tournament.  This is a BCS league.  It’s one of the best leagues in America.  That shouldn’t happen.”

Kentucky’s John Calipari:  “(One of the) things that hurt us was the impression the league’s down.  Everyone seems to say it.  That’s why I tell the coaches we’ve got to brag about each other.  We’ve got to set that straight.”

Florida’s Billy Donovan:  “When you have coaching changes, when you have player turnover, when you have departures of really good players, it’s going to take some time.  The unfortunate part with all those transitions going on is you really pay the price in November. … What happens is your league gets labeled in November and December.”

But as the Associated Press points out, five SEC teams ranked lower than #230 in non-conference strength of schedule.  Those teams that did play tough non-conference competition lost twice as many games as they won.  SEC members went a combined 15-33 against the other five major conferences this year.

Coaches can try to spin it, but the Southeastern Conference was down this year and everyone knows it.  Its reputation was deserved this year, but Martin, Calipari and Donovan are still correct in suggesting that reputation matters on Selection Sunday.

We just find it ironic that the SEC is the league moaning about reputation.

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The NCAA has decided not to implement controversial changes to its recruiting rulebook
The changes would have allowed schools to hire extra recruiters and to mail an unlimited amount of correspondence to prospects
Florida’s Billy Donovan has been named the AP’s SEC Basketball Coach of the Year
Georgia F Kentavious Caldwell-Pope has been named the SEC Basketball Player of the Year
Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy on his brash star guard: “The Marshall Henderson Show is like the traveling circus”
Tennessee coach Cuonzo Martin says the NCAA’s decision to invite just three SEC teams to this year’s tournament shows a “lack of respect”
Follow the Southeastern Conference each day at MrSEC.com and twitter.com/mrsec

First-year Mississippi State head coach Rick Ray has been through the wringer this season.  His team endured a 13-game losing streak before finishing the season with two wins in three games.  The Bulldogs were 9-21 overall and 4-14 in SEC play.  Ray inherited a paper thin roster and his own no-nonsense approach further whittled away at his bench as he handed down a pair of suspensions midseason.

The man lived through as much of a nightmare season as a coach can face, yet — with a win over Auburn on Saturday — he still managed to guide his team out of the Southeastern Conference basement.  You take victories where you can find them after a miserable regular season and that’s just what Ray did with an early-morning tweet yesterday:

Now, it’s probably not the best idea for a college coach to post something like that.  Even if ESPN.com’s Eamonn Brennan did say his team was the worst in SEC history earlier this season.  By tweeting about it, Ray was literally asking for a response.

Naturally, he got one.  But not from Brennan or from a fan.  Instead it came from Memphis Commercial-Appeal sportswriter Ron Higgins:

You can guess what happened next.  Yep, MSU fans lit into Higgins who responded with another roundhouse kick to Ray’s chops:

Wisely, Ray ended the back-and-forth:

Now why Higgins chose to jump Ray’s case is anyone’s guess.  Did Ray nix a scheduled interview?  Did he cut Higgins off while driving?  Or is Higgins just a pal of ESPN’s Brennan?

Whatever the reason, this little back-and-forth between a coach and a sportswriter on Twitter is unusual in the SEC.  Especially considering the fact that Higgins writes a “Traditions” column for the league’s official website, SECSports.com.

New Arkansas coach Bret Bielema — appearing on ESPNU’s coverage of National Signing Day — described his first recruiting season in the SEC as being a bit of a “whirlwind.”  He also explained that his new Razorback team will likely share some on-field tendencies with BCS champion Alabama.

During his brief phoner, Beliema did not bring up the fact that a year ago he had complained that Urban Meyer had brought SEC-style recruiting tactics to the Big Ten (ie: chasing other schools’ commitments).  While Bielema didn’t bring up it comment, ex-Tennessee coach and ESPN analyst-for-a-day Derek Dooley did:

“Well, you know, he talks about the adjustments he’s made, he didn’t mention one.  It was his philosophy in the Big Ten that he does not recruit other people’s commits.  He will change that philosophy in the Southeastern Conference.  Or he will perish.”

Dooley drew laughs with the remark, though Bielema was off the phone when the comment was made.  For the most part, Dooley has shown on television today that he might have missed his calling in life.  Here’s guessing there are few Tennessee fans out there who agree with that assessment.