Creating the Perfect Pod Schedule

Rotating Conference Schedule


Top section are matchups for even years, bottom section are for odd years


Keeping Historic Rivalries: The biggest factor when deciding a team's 3 annual opponents is number of preexisting matchups and their history. The keyword being historic. Some more recent rivalries such as LSU-Alabama and Florida-LSU will have to be played biannually. Newer teams (post-Arkansas) have their annual opponents decided by giving more weight to the other factors listed below. Some other matchups that are typically deemed historic such as Auburn-Florida will have to also be played biannually since there are other elements that keep the conference balanced.

Relative Geographic Location: Another obvious element is the matchup's geographic location. Given that MSU and Alabama are only 80 miles away from each other and have 105 collective meetings since 1896 making it a prime matchup. Teams in the western part of the SEC (Mizzou, Arkansas, Texas A&M) are matched together. This would allow visiting fans to make an easier trip and generally help with recruiting. If a recruiter for a team like Mizzou pitches the idea to a parent that they can travel to Fayetteville to watch their son instead of having to travel all the way out to the eastern side of the conference every other week, you may have an easier time getting a commit. Logistically traveling for teams becomes much less demanding and overall helps create a much better product on the field.

Minimal Home/Away Repeats When Implemented: I tried minimizing the amount of repeated home/away games once this system is implemented. When Texas A&M and Mizzou joined in 2012, matchups like Georgia-Auburn were forced to play at the same venue the following year. This was to balance the number of home & away games each team played to 4 home & 4 away. This schedule was created with the current transition following the 2025 year in mind (when the current system ends). Florida & Georgia are both given 1 home opponent, 1 away opponent, and their neutral site matchup. The venues for each matchup changes following the completion of the two year rotation. This would allow an incoming freshman to play every SEC team at least once at home and on the road by the time they graduate as a senior.

Balanced Schedule Difficulty: I believe this schedule also helps balance the overall difficulty for teams in the conference, further maximizing everyone's resume for the CFP. No team was given more than two Big 6 teams (Alabama, Auburn, Florida, LSU, Georgia, Tennessee) for their annual opponents in a given year (except Kentucky, who was given 0 Big 6 annual opponents but 4 in the remaining schedule on even years). This kind of change will also allow the conference to keep the 8 conference games it currently has and easily expand to 9 conference games if 2 new refugee teams from the ACC or Big 12 want to join the SEC later on down the road. One of the biggest complaints I've seen regarding the pod schedule is that removing divisions would create the possibility for ties in the standings of the conference. This however, is avoidable. You can still have divisions in this system. If two teams in the same division have the same record following the end of the season, there are a few metrics that could help determine a winner. The most obvious is a head-to-head matchup. If the two teams did not play then you could have some kind of point aggregate similar to the Champions League. It could be based on point differential against SEC teams, overall points scored, or by away points scored. There are certainly many ways around a potential tiebreaker.


Please let me know what (if any) changes you think should be altered to create a perfect schedule that everyone is happy with.