re: Fox Sports - Alabama actively plans an "atrocious schedule" and gets away with it

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Are you really this stupid? Both teams have to be willing to play. I would imagine not many P5 teams at the moment are willing to come play a game in Bryant Denny Stadium against Bama

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If he's been " lobbying" for it since 2010 I would think that would be more than enough time to get an agreement in place with another P5 school.

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Yep (other than the ACC). And we can't use the old argument of the SEC being so tough that our 8 is better than their 9 anymore.

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Clemson played Auburn and still has USCe so that gives them 10. Where is Miami's 10th P5 game?

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The head coaches voted 13-1 to stay at eight conference games. The only coach voting for nine conference games was Alabama's Nick Saban.

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LINK

Klatt is a moron. Does he understand that Bama can't schedule and play itself?

Right now, Bama is playing a better than average schedule at this point in the year. Not great, but better than average. I'll use the Sagarin ratings - they may not be perfect but it's a good reference for a consistent source.

Right now, Bama's strength of schedule is at 55. For comparison, Georgia's SoS is 51 and Washington's is 64 - so it's not the worst in the top ten. And if you consider the Sagarin top 20 SoS's, Wisconsin = 69, VT = 76, UCF = 99.

Remaining in the year, Bama has yet to play (with Sagarin ratings)... and I will include a normal playoff progression probability:

LSU (6-2) - 25
Miss St (6-2) - 14
Mercer (4-4) - 133
Auburn (6-2) - 8

Georgia (8-0) - 4
Ohio St (7-1) - 2
Notre Dame (7-1) - 5 (or maybe Georgia again)


I'd wager that no other team in the country has a tougher potential upcoming schedule.

Finally, maybe Klatt does not understand the economics of major college sports. In a nutshell, there are about 25 NCAA football teams that are profitable. Even less for basketball, and their income streams are not nearly as large, even for Kentucky. The bottom line is that only about 50 sport/teams total fund ALL of the NCAA outside of their media contracts (and most of THAT is funneled back to schools and is already included in this equation).

With those type of economics in place, teams MUST either fill their own stadium seats or make a great payout for going out of their home stadium. Most teams will fill their conference games as required, and then strive for three at home and only one on the road (or neutral). Almost all Power 5 teams do this. They might drop down to 2-2 in some years, but they will aim for 3-1 if they can get it. Every year.

Would I like to see something different? OF course. But the economic situation is what it is. Until scheduling is taken away from the schools, it will always be this way. Personally, as noted here in the past, I would like to see six power conferences of 12 teams each, with a five division-three opposite division conference schedule. Then two mandated home and aways determined by conference/division positions (i.e., this year and next SEC-East#3 plays PAC12-North#5). And so forth. Then the final two games could be scheduled by the schools at their choice from outside the power six conferences.

I'd even throw in a bottom conference team relegation just to spice things up even a little more. This would definitely allow for visits by fans to new locations and new teams being played, and it would be far more even. But hey, that's just me... but we all know that things are not going to change any time soon.

If I recall correctly, Saban is the lone voice in the SEC that wants 9 conf games. Does the article mention how the other SEC schools love the fcs game instead of a ninth conf game?

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A game at Arizona or in Ames is a way tougher environment than a neutral site

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Yea, playing @ 2-10 Arizona (2003), @ 5-7 Washington (2009) or @ 4-8 Syracuse (2015) is definitely tougher than playing Clemson, Michigan, Virginia Tech, Wisconsin, Southern Cal or Florida State at a neutral site.

For sure. No doubt.

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MontyFranklyn

It is honestly just an attempt to drive ratings. Cowherd knows Bama gets the views so they go after Bama.

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Correct.

I should have noted above that the team buses for Ole Miss, Florida St, and Tennessee are functionally equivalent to buckets of turds - those are usually top 25 teams. If they would have normal records for this time of year, Bama would be playing a top 10 strength of schedule this year.

But even so... over the last few years, here has been Alabama's final Strength of Schedule:

2016 - 1
2015 - 1
2014 - 2
2013 - 39
2012 - 19
2011 - 15
2010 - 14
2009 - 2
2008 - 28
2007 - 30

I understand that he's making a home/away scheduling point. But it's just economics. Year in and year out, Bama actually does play strong schedules - as tough as anybody else, year in and year out, IMHO given future scheduling and opponent strength variability. I'd stack our 10 year SoS up against just about any other team - there might be a couple better but not many. You can't get schedule strengths like this without playing in a tough conference and good opponents.

There is no neutral site for a Bama team that has bandwagon fans everywhere you go

By that theory, Alabama would just buy up the tickets on the road portion of a home-and-home anyways.