re: SEC 1st week opponents' home football stadiums

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Other than that you haven’t attempted to schedule a top OOC opponent and the majority of the SEC operates the same way.

It’s honestly amazing the SEC has gotten away with it for years including the week 8-9 where everyone in conference plays nobodies.

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Maybe you need an education in college football economics, because here is the way it works for MOST teams in upper tier power conferences.

Most teams need to play SEVEN home games in order to make the economics of paying for the football stadium builds/upgrades and funding athletics in general for the entirety of the school's programs in other sports.

There are 12 total football games. Most conferences play an 8 game conference schedule (at least the SEC does, anyway, and that's all that counts in this treatise). This means that out of that 8 game schedule, you will have A) 4 home and B) 4 away games no matter who the opponents are.

Most teams also try to schedule two power-5 conference games with alternating C) home and D) away games within the same schedule year. Now we are at 5 home, 5 away games with two additional open game slots.

Most teams will try to fill those final two open slots with E) a minor to mid-major team with no return away trip, and F) a low to minor state or "directional" school with a payday and no return away trip. Sometimes these games are dictated by state politics. This completes your 7 home games.

Take the 2025 Alabama schedule:

Fla ST away (D)
La Monroe home (E/F)
Wisconsin home (C)
Georgia away (B)
Vandy home (A)
Missouri away (B)
Tennessee home (A)
South Carolina away (B)
LSU home (A)
Oklahoma home (A)
Eastern Ill home (E/F)
Auburn away (B)

Let's look at Texas next:

Ohio St away (D)
San Jose St home (C)
UTEP home (E/F)
Sam Houston home (E/F)
Florida away (A)
Oklahoma home (A)
Kentucky away (B)
Miss St away (B)
Vandy home (A)
Georgia away (B)
Arkansas home (A)
Texas A&M home (B)

In other words, Texas has EXACTLY the same type of schedule as Alabama. One could argue about the quality of opponents in any given year but the point is that the TYPE of scheduling is the same.

The two power 5 non-conference home/away games are usually scheduled quite far in advance. Of course, you have no idea how good a team will be that far out - or how bad. You can only schedule as best you can. As of now, future Alabama opponents include:

2026 - @West Virginia, S. Florida, Fla St.
2027 - West Virginia, @Ohio St
2028 - Ohio St., @Oklahoma St
2029 - @Notre Dame, Oklahoma St.
2030 - @Georgia Tech, Notre Dame
2031 - Georgia Tech, @Boston College
2032 - Arizona, @Minnesota
2033 - @Arizona, Minnesota
2034 - @Virginia Tech, Boston College
2035 - Virginia Tech

The oddity of the S. Florida game is a return to Tuscaloosa for them, we have already played a home/away portion of a 2:1 deal in 2023 and 2024.

Some teams can pull off 8 home games but they run the risk of fan unhappiness with weak opponents, even though the fans can see them at home more often. And if you have 8 home games, you'll probably have 6 the next year or soon thereafter. Anyway... 7 home games. That's the target. It's the only way power 5 teams can make the money situation work over the long haul. You want to know if a particular college football team is really a "have" or "have-not" program? See how many home games they are playing year after year.

Sorry for the post length but it's amazing that so many fans don't understand the scheduling dynamic.

I read the post and I know and agree with most of what you said. It all teams schedule 2 P4 teams and if they do they schedule 2 bottom dwellers.

It’s the QUALITY of opponent. Scheduling Syracuse or Arizona or Baylor is a good bet even 6-7 years out will not be a quality P4 opponent.

I also believe in my post I said bama and a few other sec teams try to schedule quality, but the majority do not and have gotten away with shifting an extra terrible game to week 8-9 every year.

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It was the Braves home stadium between Fulton County Stadium and Truist. It SUCKED as a baseball stadium or for any event....it was about 80 degree incline and if you wore a size 6 or bigger shoe your feet had to turn at right angles to fit between the aisle. I do not know what they were thinking. It was SO steep people would literally crawl down the steps sober or walk down backwards because it felt like you were stepping off into thin air on every step. I am not sure there was a good seat in the house. They paid far more attention to the in game but out your seat atmosphere...it was great in that respect, it was just about as fun as a nut thumping trying to watch a ballgame in it.

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I never had any issue with the seating. I'm also not a fat frick.

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That's a highscool stadium

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In the south that's a middle school stadium