Let's Talk SEC Baseball Scheduling...

The scheduling model needs to be revisited to address the imbalance that's inherent to it. It's always bothered me that we played a full round-robin minus ONE team, since that is an EASY fix by just adding one weekend and making the schedule 33 games. However, the competitive advantage/disadvantage in this was inherently pretty small. With the expanded SEC, not playing 3 teams every year makes for a HUGE scheduling discrepancy.

My proposal to "fix" it:

Play 6 single SEC games in the midweek, or approx 1 every other week during the SEC season, with this happening in back-to-back weeks once(10 week season)-- which ends up equaling a home and home against each of the 3 teams you miss on the regular weekend schedule. This takes the total SEC schedule to 36 games and balances it to a bit better degree. You can even match it up geographically to cut down on the travel. For instance, we play @ Tennessee on Wed on our way to Lexington for the weekend series. Then Tennessee plays us in Starkville on their way to Tuscaloosa, etc...

This is marginally harder on a pitching staff and team -- but it's still fair since it applies equally to everyone. You can even discuss adding back a double-header Saturday when you have an SEC game the following Tuesday... or manipulating the schedule to Thurs, Fri, Sat or Sat, Sun, Mon schedules for an additional day's rest around the SEC midweek games.

Why do I think this idea has merit beyond simply "balancing the schedule"? The coming SECnetwork. It's going to air SEC baseball constantly during the spring. Setting this up correctly allows SEC in-conference baseball to be seen 7 days a week on tv. What would you pay for this service? It would be worth $10/mo to me EASILY. I'd watch Ole Miss vs Arkansas Pine Bluff on Tuesday night as well on the channel -- but you get the point of why more quality matchups have alot of value to the channel.

The downside is it sucks for the fans that actually try to attend games(much like TV in general most of the time), and it takes a tough schedule and makes it even a bit tougher. Still, nowhere close to the grind these kids see at the next level, however.