re: Will Alabama continue to fight against the 9 game schedule?

I hope so.

You guys who want 9 game schedules don't understand basic math and why it's bad for the league as a whole.

I hope they keep fighting it cause the 9 game schedule is a bad idea long term for the conference

Then what is your solution?

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Will Alabama continue to fight against the 9 game schedule?

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SEC schools against a 9-game conference schedule.

Nine of the 14 current SEC teams voted against the nine-game schedule, including the following:

Alabama

Tennessee

Vanderbilt

Kentucky

Auburn

Arkansas

Mississippi State

Ole Miss

South Carolina

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We'll have a 9 game schedule.

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Not until ESPN pays for it.

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Alabama’s been doing it for the past 30 years, too.

The difference would now be that it appears Alabama would be the only team doing it.

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bullchit, Saban only played a schedule if every advantage he could get was got. Fine, good for him. But your defense sounds like double talk at best and cowardice at worst.

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Not until ESPN pays for it.

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Of course. I didn't put a date on it. Eventually ESPN will pay for more frequent UGA/Texas, Bama/OU, LSU/Florida, Tennessee/A&M games and the like. And to still keep matchups like UGA/Auburn and Tennessee/Bama which will have to go away as a yearly matchup under the 8 game schedule.

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Kelly has consistently advocated for a 9 game schedule.



All 2 years he's been in the league? Oh wow.

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WTF does that have to do with the price of tea in China?

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So what 2 "upper 1/2" shools is Alabama gonna play:

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Sorry, but Tennessee is better than A&M. You need to flip those two even though both are borderline cases. While 1998 is a long time ago, 1939 is a lot longer in the past.

Bama would play Auburn, Tennessee and MSU. Tenn and MSU are teams they've got more than 100 games played against, while Auburn is the in-state rival.

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Isn't the SEC going to expand again?

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I doubt it.

It is all about the money. Eventually ESPN will give more money per team to get more frequent matchups between bigger name teams.

But there is only one team not in the Big 10 or SEC that ESPN would increase payouts to the SEC for. That would be Notre Dame.

FSU and Clemson have good football programs. But they aren't blue bloods like Texas, OU and Notre Dame are. They don't bring enough money to get SEC teams more money, so the SEC won't expand.

If something changes and ESPN offers more money if the SEC adds particular teams, we'll do it. But I don't see that happening unless ND joins.

The only change I see that could cause the SEC to benefit from expansion is if they no longer have a contract with ESPN and form their own network like the Big 10. In that scenario, they may need content to fill air time, in which case expansion might have value. But I don't think that ESPN is going to pay more for more teams that don't carry fan interest even when the team isn't that good. And like I said, the only team who does that is Notre Dame. Nobody cares abut FSU or Clemson when they're 8-4.