The only "must" is Ole Miss. I'm sure Miss St will get thrown in there due to proximity, but Auburn is just as important as Florida or Bama to me (which probably shows my age). Perfect world would Ole Miss/Auburn/Bama for me.
Miss St is getting one of Bama or Auburn most likely due to having played both over 90 times and not really having any rivalries with east teams.
I was guessing that the most likely opponents for LSU would be Ole Miss, Bama, Miss St, and A&M. Feel like y’all will get stuck with A&M as your third if you don’t want both Mississippi schools.
Yes, South Carolina is your 7th most played game. But Georgia is 2nd on South Carolina’s list. And no other sec team is close to Georgia in their history.
Oh I agree that is the most likely scenario. If I think about it from the Bama side, we are a much more "opportunistic" rivalry than traditional. There was some rivalry with Charlie Mac and Bear back in the day, but I didn't grow up "hating" Bama. It was just another SEC game until Saban came and added some juice to it. But after he is gone and both programs go through their dips (1 current and 1 eventual...) I think it will be pretty standard again. I grew up with all those crazy Auburn games, so that game is usually my favorite of the year. With Auburn and Tenn being the "must" games for Bama, I wonder if they will want to make us their 3rd or give y'all Miss St.
Yea it will be interesting to see who is making the decisions for Bama. Most of our fans over say 35 years old see the LSU game the same as you do. No hatred, just the occasional big game and more of a party atmosphere surrounding it. But very few of our fans view Miss St as a true rival so I’m not sure many would push for that game. Miss St will want that game for ticket sales though.
This would work. I think 3-6 is inevitable and the way to go. Any chance they do pods/mini-divisions instead? That's kind of how I always envisioned it, but what you laid out makes sense. I think if it were pods it would be: Florida Georgia South Carolina Kentucky Bama Auburn Tennessee Vandy LSU Texas A&M Ole Miss Miss St Texas Oklahoma Arkansas Mizzou I get losing UGA-AU every year would suck, but you're still playing everyone once every 2 years. Not as bad as now where you have Florida and Auburn, who were once annual rivals pre-divisions, playing once every 6 years.
Everything I have seen has said pods aren’t being considered. Not sure why though. The only other one apparently being considered is a 1+7 model that is the epitome of stupid. Like anyone who has even a remotely good thing to say about the 1+7 is a imbecile.
for the SEC, yes. 1+7 would work for some other conferences though. Pac 12 being one of them. Split Zone Duo podcast touched on all of the conferences on which schedule format works best last week.
I just want the conference to build you guys a stadium in Mt Pleasant. That is all. Bus the students over, about same travel time as Miami has on gameday. Spoiler I also would not mind them not having our game on the hottest weekend of the season. That may help the fan experience
Bruh, I don't get paid $4 million a year to create conference schedules. But there are articles that have been around for years that lay it all out. 9 SEC games are happening. Really hope we do some kind of buyout of Texas and Oklahoma to get it rolling before 2025.
Preserving secondary rivalries, plus simply having one more conference game, were why the nine-game model was thought to be the favorite heading into the week. The athletic directors at Alabama and Florida have publicly said they favor the nine-game model, Georgia is among those thought to favor it, too, and indications were the league office itself preferred it. But proponents of the eight-game model, including Mississippi State, Kentucky and Arkansas, per a league source, made arguments that have made some schools re-think their vote: A prominent reason is what other conferences are doing: The ACC looks set to stay at eight games, and the Pac-12 may go back to eight. That concern was alluded to this week by Nick Saban, a longtime proponent of going to nine games. “If we’re going to play nine conference games we’re going to end up playing probably five minimal top-15 teams in the country, and I’m talking about all of us, not just our team. How’s that going to compare to other conferences?” Saban said. “And what kind of opportunity: You could have a great team and lose two games in our conference, and somebody in another conference went undefeated but didn’t have the same opportunity to play as many good teams.”
Who gives a fuck, Nick. You lose two games you're probably still going to the SEC Championship unless there are two 0 or 1 loss teams and then those 2 will probably go to the CFP. 8 games and keeping division isn't going to help you. I'm why he's changing his tune
A service academy maybe? Who knows. Seriously though, never seen a more invisible 5-star on a roster before. Never heard anything about the guy while he was on the team.
LSU is going to be tough. It’ll have to be some combination of Alabama, Florida, Auburn, Arkansas, Ole Miss, and State
Us getting State, Vandy, and LSU would be quite the draw. The two losingest programs in the SEC and a schizophrenic.
Assuming the 3+6 option with no divisions, I wonder how often the SEC Championship game participants will be decided by ridiculous tie breakers. I don’t really understand the point of calling something a conference when nobody in it plays a remotely similar schedule. The only way it makes sense to me is having pod representatives and a mini playoff in the conference. Maybe I’m overthinking it, though.
You could do an expanded SEC playoff if not for them expanding the actual playoff. It isn’t like the schedules are balanced currently. UT gets a comparatively easier schedule in a 3+6 format with I assume would be Bama, Vanderbilt, and UK than the current system where Bama is our current permanent west opponent. So I’m all for it.
Vandy I think will be interesting. Are they going to actually go historical? Or are they going to give them more of a schedule based upon the team’s groups that need an easier opponent.
Tennessee actually hired General Neyland because UT couldn’t beat Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt has to have Tennessee, beyond that I dont know they have strong opinions about who their other two would be.
Ole Miss will be their #2 choice, but after that is questionable. They could want Alabama back, or Auburn or Georgia to help with ticket sales. Or Kentucky to have a more even rival.
Tennessee has played Kentucky 55 times more than it has played than it has played Florida and 54 more times than it has Georgia. Tennessee has been playing Kentucky since 1893. We are their biggest rivals in the SEC. I'd be shocked if Kentucky gives up that game.
It is also an easier drive for away Kentucky fans than South Carolina or Georgia. I'd like to bring back the Beer Barrel, which was retired after two Kentucky football players died in a drunk driving accident. Just call it the Barrel and paint some blue, white and orange stripes on a new one.
I’m enjoying wasting time at work coming up with scenarios for this format so here is an example of what Tennessee’s schedule could look like Odd year: Bama Vandy Kentucky Texas Florida Auburn A&M Miss St Mizzou Even year: Bama Vandy Kentucky Oklahoma LSU Georgia Arkansas Ole Miss South Carolina