Case Can Be Made For Strengthening SEC Football Schedules

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Think back to the end of last football season. What was your takeaway from the Mercer game? Unless you happened to be one of those handful of players who got their only game action of the year, perhaps of their careers, in mop-up duty, it’s likely you have no memory of the 56-0 win.

The importance of playing Mercer in the next-to-last football game of the season had no positive impact on Alabama football and could have had a disastrous negative effect. Although it was clear to most with football acumen that the Crimson Tide was one of the nation’s best teams and worthy of the College Football Playoff, Bama had failed to win the Southeastern Conference championship, and that could have put Alabama chances in jeopardy with the CFP committee. There was a national hue and cry against Bama getting into the playoff because of playing Mercer, which most of us didn’t know had a football team until the Bears turned up on the Tide’s schedule.

Alabama survived, so everything is fine, right? Maybe so, maybe not.

The Alabama mindset to play a cupcake in the next-to-last weekend of the season has as its strategic value the fulfillment of the SEC mandate that every team have a game on both that next-to-last and last weekends before the SEC Championship Game.

The risk is that it could have cost the Crimson Tide that little thing known as the national championship.

The Crimson Tide should never be criticized for its wont to play a non-conference, neutral site game to start the season. Even when Florida State fell flat following its loss to Alabama in the kickoff game in Atlanta last year, the Seminoles had been ranked third in the preseason polls, and the game was considered perhaps the best ever season-opener ever scheduled. Those games have been good for Alabama’s reputation and they are tremendous money-makers for the athletics department.

It wasn’t the FSU game that put a blot on Bama’s non-conference schedule; it was the other ones, and particularly Mercer coming in the next-to-last weekend of the college football regular season. Fresno State and Colorado State sound better than they are.

A few years ago we suggested that the SEC needs to play 10 conference games, one game against a team from another Power Five conference (ACC, Big Ten, Big Twelve, or Pac-12), and one cupcake, perhaps for homecoming.


All in Favor: Nick Saban (Photo: Stuart McNair, 247Sports)

About the time we were suggesting 10, at the annual SEC spring meeting in Destin, the 14 football coaches were polled regarding a proposal to go from eight to nine league games. The vote was 13 Against, Nick Saban For.

Since then Saban has suggested “nine or ten” SEC games with the others against Power Five opponents. No more Mercers or (and these are the 2018 non-conference opponents for Bryant-Denny Stadium) Arkansas State, Louisiana-Lafayette, Citadel (this year’s next-to-last) type games.

Alabama and Saban, however, are not going to increase the level of competition unilaterally.

Incidentally, the coaching landscape in the SEC has changed dramatically since that vote in Destin. Today it is noteworthy the number of Saban disciples coaching in the league — Jimbo Fisher at Texas A&M, Will Muschamp at South Carolina, Kirby Smart at Georgia, and Jeremy Pruitt at Tennessee. That might change the attitude.

(The coaches do not determine this policy, but the presidents probably would look more favorably upon a proposal for more league games if their football coaches endorsed the plan.)

Four SEC teams already have difficult non-conference games as a part of their regular schedules, natural rivalry games — Florida with FSU, Georgia with Georgia Tech, Kentucky with Louisville, and South Carolina with Clemson.

Leaving for a moment the subject of SEC teams playing nine (the disadvantage is having five games either home or away one year, four the other) or ten games, most Alabama fans would probably want to opt out of the neutral site non-conference games. We’ve seen Jerry’s World and Mercedes-Benz Atlanta.

Part of the experience of college football is the experience of seeing other campuses, and having fans of other schools see your campus (in Alabama’s case, a showcase, cited by College Football Playoff Executive Director Bill Hancock at the latest Tide national championship parade as being the college campus central casting would call for).

Also consider this. Division I college football averaged 42,023 fans per game in 2017, the lowest since 1997 and second lowest total since 1991 (41,170). The Southeastern Conference led all conferences in average attendance (75,704), the lowest total since 2005 and a drop of 2,926 fans per game since 2015 (78,630). Average per game attendance in the Power 5 conferences: 1. SEC 75,704; 2. Big Ten 66,151; 3. Big 12 56,852; 4. Pac-12 49,601; 5. ACC 48,442.

According to the NCAA, the SEC led the nation last season in fan turnout, but that number was down 2,433 per game from 2016.

In Bama’s seven home games, the Tide averaged 101,722 per game in a stadium that seats 101,821. That ranked fourth in the nation. Although that indicates that Bryant-Denny had only 99 empty seats on average, anyone who attended games could see more empty seats than that at most games, and quite a few empty as the games progressed.

Exchange Power Five opponents for the cupcakes and ticket demand and actual attendance would increase.

Upgrading schedules is the right decision.

2018 Alabama Crimson Tide Football Schedule

Sept. 1 vs. Louisville (in Orlando)
Sept. 8 Arkansas State
Sept. 15 at Ole Miss
Sept. 22 Texas A&M
Sept. 29 Louisiana-Lafayette
Oct. 6 at Arkansas
Oct. 13 Missouri
Oct. 20 at Tennessee
Oct. 27 OPEN DATE
Nov. 3 at LSU
Nov. 10 Mississippi State
Nov. 17 Citadel
Nov. 24 Auburn

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