re: What if the SEC was divided into 4 equal divisions?

Those would not be the pods:

A&M/LSU/State/OM
OU/tu/Arky/Missery
UF/UGA/Auburn/SC
UK/Vandy/Bama/Tenner

At least one perm from each pod.

quote:

---

Also affords the ability to rotate through every team in the SEC every three years.

Makes too much sense to actually happen.

---

If you have a 9 game schedule with 3 permanent opponents WITHOUT divisions, you can rotate through the entire SEC every two years rather than 3. You can have a home and home series with every team every 4 seasons.

For example, if UGA's permanent opponents were UF, AU and SC, their "twice every 4 years" opponents would be:

Oklahoma/Texas
Kentucky/Vandy
Ole Miss/MSU
Alabama/LSU
Arkansas/Mizzou
A&M/Tennessee

That's six sets of 2 teams. It works out perfectly. You'd basically only have to make out 4 schedules (rotating 3 of the teams each year off the schedule with the other 3 rotating home/away) Those 4 schedules could then be on a rotation forever.

It's not complex. It's fair. It keeps rivalries. And it ensures teams play every other conference team regularly.

quote:

---

Southwest:
Texas, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Arkansas

Gulf:
Alabama, Mississippi, Miss State, LSU

---

WTF is equal about this?

Lets go with MIzzu, Texas, OK and Texas A&M

OM, MSU, ARK, LSU.

Bama, AU, TN Vandy

USC, GA, FL, Kentucky

My preferences in order ( not like that matters)


9 games with 4 team divisions

9 games with flex schedules(OU,Mizzou,Scar don't have three rivals, give them two)

9 game E/W split

9 games with 1 rival

9 games with 3 rivals

I don't see nine conference games unless it becomes more profitable than eight.

The assumption that ESPN or another network would pay more for more product hasn't panned out. And without a significant payout it just costs home gates and lower tier teams bowl eligibility.

There's also a competitive imbalance problem that it accentuates because with an odd number of conference games the number of home and away games are irregular. Given that home field advantage is a thing we should be leery of that imbalance

quote:

---

SEC is lame arse in this regard. It’s all a big rouse rigged to make its chicken shite teams look good

---

What are you talking about? The lower tier teams experience little success with little respect, especially compared to what they might expect in the ACC or Big 12.

If you are South Carolina or MSU you have a great fan base, good facilities, NFL players on your roster and are generally regarded as trash.

Arkansas is much more culturally similar to OM, MS and LSU.

If anything it should be:

AR
LSU
MS
OM

and

MO
OU
TX
A&M

quote:

---

The way to do this is not just divide into 4 pods of 4. You also allow each to to have a rival in each of other pods. That way each year a team plays, three feom their pod, three rivals and three from a cross pod. All teams played in the three years. You preserve/restore traditional rivals and easier to balance difficulties. A team gets a perceived east pod they get more difficult rivals.

---

Mostly agree. Obviously the newcomers lack real historical rivals but the system doesn't work unless you build the same style of treatment for everyone.

Here's a good option:

Regional groups
NW: Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri, Arkansas
SW: LSU, A&M, OM, MSU
SE: Georgia, Florida, Auburn, South Carolina
NE: Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Vanderbilt

A fixed opponent for each logically follows to keep more rivalries and even out the scheduling. If you have eight conference games then you play each of them four years out of six (1/3rd of the time in the rotated group and 1/3rd as the extra opponent). If you have nine conference games you play all of them every year.

The lower tier teams (eg Kentucky and Vanderbilt in the NE group) get lower tier opponents fixed out of group to compensate for tougher in group opponents. The SE group also gets one fewer upper tier opponent out of group to adjust for the extra big six opponent in group. Lastly I played around with the fixed opponents to spread around the games in bigger recruiting states like Texas, Florida, Georgia, Alabama and Louisiana.

That yielded opponents:

NW:
Oklahoma: LSU, Tennessee, Georgia
Texas: A&M, Alabama, Auburn
Arkansas: OM, Vanderbilt, Florida
Missouri: MSU, Kentucky, South Carolina
SW:
LSU: Oklahoma, Alabama, Florida
A&M: Texas, Tennessee, Georgia
OM: Arkansas, Vanderbilt, Auburn
MSU: Missouri, Kentucky, South Carolina
SE:
Florida: Tennessee, LSU, Arkansas
Georgia: Kentucky, A&M, Oklahoma
Auburn: Alabama, OM, Texas
South Carolina: Vanderbilt, MSU, Missouri
NE:
Alabama: Auburn, Texas, LSU
Tennessee: Florida, Oklahoma, A&M
Kentucky: Georgia, Missouri, MSU
Vanderbilt: South Carolina, Arkansas, OM

You could easily switch Auburn and Kentucky with similar effects. Either way Auburn is playing either Alabama or Georgia from the other group.