OT: SEC Scheduling "mandate"
The SEC presidents had meeting, apparently, to discuss some issues and decided that they'd formalize a non-conference scheduling mandate to fit in at least one game vs. another school from one of the "Big Four" conferences (B1G, Big 12, PAC12 and ACC). The article refers to it as an "unprecedented strength-of-schedule component," to which I say....Ummm, now you're just making it mandatory, something they were already doing. But the fact that they are now publically stating it, I'm like...what the f*ck ever... More rhetoric. Link: http://msn.foxsports.com/south/story/sec-football-adopts-strength-of-schedule-requirement-for-2016-042714
April 28th, 2014 at 12:40 PM ^
Wouldn't have minded a similar announcement a couple of years ago from the B1G. Would have meant we wouldn't be dealing with this appalling home slate.
April 28th, 2014 at 12:53 PM ^
We play Utah and Notre Dame out of conference. We already would be exceeding this criteria.
April 28th, 2014 at 12:57 PM ^
We play Notre Dame and Utah this year - two such teams.
In '15, we play Utah and Oregon State.
In '16, we move to 9 game B1G schedule and have Colorado.
In '17, we have Florida
For those SEC schools that have traditional non-conference rivals like South Carolina, Georgia and Florida (Clemson, GaTech and FSU) it won't change anything, but it will mean an upgrade for Mississipi, Mississippi State and a few others.
Then it fell apart
April 28th, 2014 at 12:51 PM ^
that this might mean playing north of the Mason Dixon line, right?
April 28th, 2014 at 12:55 PM ^
The SEC ain't gonna do a no travelin' north of that there Mason Dixon.
I can assure you that we are about to witness plenty of "neutral site" Tennessee vs Purdue games at LP Field, LSU vs Wake Forest at the Mercedez Benz Dome, and last but not least: the vaunted neutral site Florida vs Virginia game in Tampa.
In September/nonconference portion of season.
April 28th, 2014 at 12:54 PM ^
The SEC name isn't going to be enough to put one of their teams in the championship game anymore. Most if not all of the SEC teams have played clunker games later in their schedule so I like that are addressing their scheduling strength, hopefully getting rid of oppenents like Chattanooga for Alabama, Furman for LSU, Appalachain St. for Georgia, Coastal Carolina for South Carolina.....
The schools you mention all play one, if not more, teams from a power conference just about every year. This ruling isn't going to affect them.
The move is being praised everywhere but it seems to me by not choosing to move to 9-game conference schedule, that they reinforcing the notion that the SEC will put its name ahead of all else - here, competitive scheduling.
Under the plan, all SEC schools will have 7 guaranteed home games per year. Contrast this to the PAC-12 where half of the schools this year will only play 6 home games.
In return, LSU will still be playing UF and UGA twice as much as Bama.
"A lot of time, money and consideration went into Sunday's announcement, with the SEC concluding an extensive study on the likely prerequisities for making the College Football Playoff."
Part of me wants to say that this sentence means that Mike Slive revisited one of many articles which said that strength of schedule would be a primary consideration and had a very insecure moment, hence making mandatory something that at least some teams very likely would have done themselves anyway.
Were there any legitimate contenders in the SEC that weren't already doing this? This feels like nothing more than a public chasitising of Ole Miss or Kentucky to at least schedule a crappy team from another conference once and a while.
Don't they pretty much play Louisville every year?
That is true. I was more taking a crap on UK. That said, Louisville in the BE/AAC I guess doesn't count.
Louisville is in the ACC going forward.
When they start scheduling out-of-conference contenders, then I'll take this seriously.
Florida plays Florida St every year. LSU has played Oregon recently and starts a home and home with Wisconsin. LSU also has a future home and home with UCLA. South Carolina plays Clemson every year. Georgia plays Clemson a decent amount. Tennesse has done a home and home with Oregon and is going to start a home and home with Oklahoma this year. Texas A&M has home and home's coming up with UCLA and Oregon and a one off with Arizona St. Alabama plays Wisconsin in 2 years.
Currently fielding a few phone calls.
allows for some good point totals, too. I imagine they'll get some calls as well.
SEC fans celebrate this moment in scheduling. Yay!
...so that makes them real, right?
seriously how are people so serious about football down there with that hanging around?
Most SEC schools follow this rule so it's not going to change anything...
Florida plays FSU, Georgia plays GT, S. Carolina plays Clemson, Kentucky plays L'Ville, Alabama and Auburn usually play in one of those kickoff classic games, etc.
They'll continue to play their one game and then schedule 3 other shit teams to fill the OOC schedule including a D1AA before their rivalry game.
My dream M schedule. Wk. 1: Cool Opponent @ Home. Wk 2: @ND. Wks. 3-14 Big Ten Schedule. That's it. O yeah kick out Rutgers and Maryland plz.
next 3 years
vs LSU in Houston
vs Alabama in Dallas
vs LSU in Green Bay
that ain't bad
Florida--Florida State
Georgia--Georgia Tech
Missouri--none Play IU next year, Purdue 3 consecutive starting in 2016
Kentucky--Louisville
South Carolina--Clemson
Tennessee--none Play Oklahoma next two years, never been shy about playing good schools
Vanderbilt--none nothing on the immediate horizon of note
Alabama-- none play WVU and Wisconsin once each next two,
Arkansas--none play TT in 15 with home and with TCU in 16-17
Auburn--none play Kansas State in 14, Louisville in 15
LSU--none alternate next 4 years with Wisconsin and Syracuse, including a game at Green Bay
Miss State--none, nothing on the horizon
Ole Miss--none, nothing on the horizon and dear God they play Prebyterian this year
Texas A&M--none, nothing this year ASU in 15, UCLA in 16 and 17
So basically the SEC press release was to say look at this mandate that pretty much everyone is following on their own except Vanderbilt and the Mississippi's
April 28th, 2014 at 11:04 PM ^
We did have a Clemson game scheduled this year but they backed out after the Notre Dame - ACC thing. We also have a decent team in Boise State scheduled and Memphis is a regional rivalry (and a member of the zombie Big East) that we use for recruiting and supporting a large alumni base in Memphis. They wanted us in basketball and we wanted them in football, it works out. La-Lafayette and Presbyterian are total win grabs, though. In 2017-18 we've scheduled Ga Tech, so there's that.
Also: Mississippi State is just awful. That's not necessarily related to football, though.
Edit: Grammar