re: Case Can Be Made For Strengthening SEC Football Schedules

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In that case Auburn would have a conference championship and Wisconsin would not. I'm talking identical resumes except strength of schedule, and the team with the worse strength of schedule has one less loss.

I just don't understand why we'd change it up when we've gotten in all 4 years with this scheduling style. If the CFP wants to implement regulated scheduling for better games, I'd be all for it, but I think right now we'd be putting ourselves at a disadvantage to play more P5 games than we have been.

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For the record, I am not in favor of a 9 game conference schedule or getting rid of the FCS game. Neither of them actually mean jack shite when it comes to real SoS. Cupcakes are cupcakes and adding in crappy east teams isn't going to increase our schedule strength - it can actually make it weaker and would have this year.

I'm just pointing out the real reasons why the teams were selected. SoS can and does have an impact and it's not because teams are punished etc. It's important that we keep a solid SoS.

But that FCS game isn't killing our SoS, and neither is an 8 game conference schedule. In fact, the 2 conferences that have FCS games and 8 game conference schedules are the 2 conferences that usually have the toughest schedules in the country. Meanwhile, the conferences with 9 game conference schedules usually have the easiest - with the Big10 being the best of the 3.

What will and does kill our SoS is a down SEC like has been the case the past few years and not having a good OOC opponent, as FSU was last year and as Duke will be after this coming season.

But Auburn would have been in because they played the toughest schedule in the country last year, only had losses to Clemson - a playoff team and LSU, a respectable team. While at the same time having wins over Alabama and Georgia. Conference champion means very little, as shown when Ohio went over Penn St.

Wisconsin lost to the only good team they played. Auburn showed they could play with the best, Wisconsin did not. Alabama was close to Ohio St(I do not buy it, I knew we were in as long as Wisconsin lost) because FSU dropped down so much and we did not have a high quality win(at best we could say FSU was better than it's record, but we could not say "top10 win"). Ohio St had the Wisconsin win, btu as I mentioned earlier - they also got manhandled by Iowa. Ohio St showed a very low floor and Alabama did not.

It's all about showing you are among the best 4 teams. The truth is Alabama got in last year because it was a rather weak field resume wise. Almost a 2007 type year, but just short. That same resume most years would have not been good enough.

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Pac 12, B1G, and Big 12 already play 9 conference games. It is the SEC that is behind the curve on this.

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I'm all-in for playing 9 conf games and dropping the FCS games. With permanent cross-division rivalry games, there's only a single 8th slot for rotating the other 6 cross-division teams. It takes 6 YEARS to rotate back on the schedule. That's ridiculous! With a 9th SEC game we'd play all 6 rotating teams in 3 years, with only a 2-year gap between a rotating team's home/away flipside:

Years - 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024
Week-6 @SC, vsGA, @ FL, vsSC, @GA, vs FL
Week-8 vsTN, @TN, vsTN, @TN, vsTN, @TN
Week12 vsKY, @VB, vsMO, @KY, vsVB, @MO

2019 Schedule with 9 SEC Games (rotations)
Week-1 ns Duke (neutral site non-conf P5)
Week-2 vs G5 team
Week-3 vs Ole Miss
Week-4 at Texas A&M
Week-5 vs G5 team
Week-6 at S Carolina (GA, @FL, SC, @GA, FL)
Week-7 vs Arkansas
Week-8 vs Tennessee (no rotation)
Week-9 OPEN DATE
Week10 vs LSU
Week11 at Miss State
Week12 vs Kentucky (@VB, MO, @KY, VB, @MO)
Week13 at Auburn
Week14 ns SEC Title Game

A 9th SEC game causes 1 more away every other season, but neutral site non-conf openers pay too well to give up for offsetting home/aways. The KY/VB/MO rotation is an easy enough "breather" before the Iron Bowl and SEC-CG.

Simple schedule changes to implement and it's so much better -- in every way! Let's do this!

Well it's not going to happen, and I think they are great. You don't get games like App St upsetting #5 Michigan without them, and as others have pointed out - it's a game where people can afford to take their family.

Besides, 9 games is terrible and just goes to put the conferences in even more of a bubble. Add another P5 OOC opponent instead.

And the only thing disgraceful to the games is losing them.

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ORRRRR...

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Nah. Only 8 SEC games sux. Playing 8 of 13 SEC opponents isn't even 2/3. That's what's stupid. Getting rid of divisons is also stupid. With the new HCs in the East, GA is now very good, SC is already getting better, FL will get a lot better and TN will be improving too. The 9-game SEC scheduling I illustrated above is actually a minor change that's simple to implement.

What you don't seem to get: It's not really going to improve our SoS.

In mathmatical SoS formualas most of them use an average. There are 12 games in a season and it's just 1 game. Of which you are increasing the difficulty by a marginal amount most years. The end result in the grand scheme of things is that the 1 single game will have almost no effect on the overall SoS.

It would take scheduling way down overall in many games to see much effect on the overall SoS.

Among humans, well unless you are replacing it with a top25 team, nobody really gives a shite. The committee wants to see quality wins, and they don't want to see bad losses. The rest are filler for the most part, and FCS or Mizzou/Kentucky/Vandy isn't going to make a shite of difference.

It will however make Mizzou/Kentucky/Vandy less likely to be bowl eligible, which in turn cuts out practice time for those teams, makes them weaker as a whole and makes the conference weaker along with themselves.

And playing a football game is never cowardly or disgraceful. Stop being a silly drama queen. It's a tune up game and in reality it's one of the things that makes college football great because it allows for crazy upsets.

I don't know if you just don't understand basic math or what, but it's a 12 game season and 1 single game where you swap out cupcakes doesn't really mean shite to anyone.

Just like nobody was talking about how we beat Vandy this year, nobody is going to give a shite then either. And you mention GA, FL or SC and yet the next team in our rotation is Mizzou.

And you clearly don't understand the importance of teams going to bowl games or why schools will lose money going to a lower bowl to do so. The NCAA limits practices and the teams that go to bowl games are given an extra 2 weeks of practice time.

And the reason Saban wants 9 conference games is for rotation and being able to tell a recruit he will play in that state in a 4 year career, not because he thinks it's going to result in the shite you are talking about here. That can be accomplished in other ways.

And you are just a dumbass with the coward stuff and obviously need to go back to school as you don't know what the hell the word means. How the hell can I be a coward when I'm not even the one going out there and playing? And the people who schedule the games - they don't either. Those who do go play the game, they whip the shite outta such teams, so how are they cowards?

I can see the 30 for 30 now:

"9"
The Number that ended the SEC's
reign.

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You're scared of playing a 9th SEC game.

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B1G also banned playing FCS teams. For some odd reason you seem to be very scared to play a 9 game SEC schedule like the majority of other Power 5 conferences are already doing. It is the SEC that is behind on this not the other conferences. It isn't a level playing field. Sorry.

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Yep. The SEC and ACC are the only P5 conferences scared to play 9 conference games.