AUTiger789

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Viewership traditionally drops as you get later into the season as teams get eliminated from CFP contention.

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Not in the SEC. Historically week 2 is the bottom and viewership typically builds from that point on.

Thanks to ABC/Disney greed.

ESPN’s PR account on X has still not tweeted out the ratings which tells me they are bad without YouTube.

A guy in the SEC office tweeted that Bama-LSU scored only 7.5 million viewers- LINK

If that’s true, that’s a very bad number. Since 2013, if you take out the Covid year, that game has averaged 10.5 million when aired on network tv. This would be the second lowest rated Bama-LSU game on ABC or CBS since 2013.

ABC Saturday prime time games involving an SEC team were averaging 8.3 million so far this season until the ABC/Youtube feud began. For a game that is usually a Top 5 viewership game in all of CFB most seasons to draw below that average is a disaster.

Meanwhile, the Texas vs Missouri game at 4.9 million would mark the 2nd lowest rated game in the ABC afternoon slot this season… ahead of only Ole Miss vs Kentucky. Prior to the YouTube dispute, the afternoon game was averaging 8.2 million viewers each week. Just 4.9 for Texas vs Mizzou is abysmal.

ABC better concede soon or this season’s ratings will quickly go down the drain. They were off to a great start to the season but these ratings are bad.

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Outside of a few odd years (Ernie/Bernie, for example), VOLS didn't have a very good basketball history prior to Pearl.

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Same for Auburn… marginal success under Sonny Smith in the 1980s and a handful of great seasons under Cliff Ellis, but that’s about it.

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But the subsequent 30 years of being a good/great program helps the VOLS reputation substantially, especially considering recency bias.

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Agreed, but it hasn’t been 30 years. It’s been 21.

Since Pearl came to Tennessee (2005-06), the Vols have…

14 NCAA Tournament appearances
8 Sweet Sixteens
3 Elite Eights
0 Final Fours

3 SEC Regular Season Championships
1 SEC Tournament Championship

Pearl came to Auburn 11 years ago (2014-15), and since then Auburn has…

6 NCAA Tournament appearances
2 Sweet Sixteens
2 Elite Eights
2 Final Fours

3 SEC Regular Season Championships
2 SEC Tournament Championships

Very comparable, IMO but Tennessee has had an extra decade of time to do it in.

Bruce Pearl is the ultimate program builder. Thank God y'all ran him off for having some kids over to grill out.

Keyshawn Hall now has the #4 player rating per KenPom through three games.

Like I said… this team has talent.

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I still say divisions would take care of this.

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You obviously were not around when we had divisions. There was no balance.

With the addition of Notre Dame to the future schedule, there are only 11 power 4 programs left that Auburn has never faced:

Arizona State
BYU
Illinois
Iowa
Iowa State
Oklahoma State
Pittsburgh
Stanford
UCLA
Utah

Auburn has done a pretty good job in recent years of knocking more off these teams off the list, even if some were by chance, getting paired off in bowl games.

Auburn will knock off Notre Dame in 2027. Previously we knocked off Cal in 2023… Minnesota in 2019… Purdue in 2018… Washington in 2018… Oregon in 2010… Northwestern in 2008… and West Virginia in 2008… and Washington State in 2006 (no longer P4).

We had UCLA scheduled for 2027-2028 but they canceled the series soon after moving to the Big 10.

If I had to pick a team from the list of programs we’ve never played, I’d choose Iowa. I think a a home and home with them would be a fun trip. Iowa City is a pretty cool town.

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That’s actually incredibly impressive on Tennessee’s part. I wouldn’t have guessed.

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Yeah I think they are only around 10 weeks away from passing Florida for the longest stint in the AP poll for an SEC team not named Kentucky…. Some Gator teams during the Donovan years got to like 90 or 95 weeks.

108- Houston
82- Tennessee
61- Purdue
46- Duke
44- Kentucky
36- AUBURN
34- Iowa State
32- Alabama
23- Florida
18- Michigan State

Auburn’s sixth longest active streak is in major jeopardy without a solid showing against #1 Houston on Sunday.

One crazy stat inside these stats is that during this 36-week run of being ranked in the Top 25, Auburn has played every other team on that list of top 10 active streaks at least once. Auburn is a combined 9-8 against the above group since we began our streak of being ranked on January 1st 2024… and Auburn has at least one win over all of those teams during that stretch with the exception of Duke.

Auburn will play its 18th game against that group of teams since the streak began… playing #1 Houston in Birmingham on Sunday.

Probably… but at the same time, maybe the committee learned its lesson last season with SMU.

I mean Texas Tech lost to Arizona State.

If they beat BYU twice, BYU will be 11-2 with their only losses coming to Texas Tech. BYU’s only ranked win would be Utah.

As for Utah… they’d be sitting at 10-2 with losses only to Texas Tech and BYU… their only ranked win?…. No one. Not a single one.

That does not seem like a conference that deserves two bids.

And the ACC is even worse.

Let’s just pretend that Texas loses at Georgia but beats A&M in Austin… let’s assume Bama beats Oklahoma this weekend… and for fun, let’s assume Vandy beats Tennessee in the season finale. Let’s just assume Bama beats the Aggies in the SEC CG.

LOCKS

Alabama (12-1) SEC Champs
Only loss is NR Florida State
Top 25 wins over Georgia, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Vanderbilt, Tennessee, and Missouri

Georgia (11-1)
Only loss would be to Bama by 3 points
Top 25 wins over Ole Miss, Texas, Georgia Tech, and Tennessee

Texas A&M (11-2)
Only losses at Texas and to Bama in the SEC Championship Game
Only Top 25 wins would be Notre Dame and at Missouri

SHOULD BE A LOCK BUT MY GOODNESS A WEAK RESUME

Ole Miss (11-1)
Only loss would be at Georgia
Only Top 25 win would be over Oklahoma

*I think any 11-1 team from the SEC with no bad losses gets in. But this has got to be the weakest resume by a 1-loss playoff contender out of the SEC that’s humanly possible.

THE REMAINING CONTENDERS

Texas (9-3)
Losses to Ohio State, Georgia, and Florida.
Top 25 wins over Texas A&M, Oklahoma, and Vanderbilt

Oklahoma (9-3)
Losses to Alabama, Ole Miss, and Texas
Top 25 wins over Michigan, Tennessee, and Missouri

Vanderbilt (10-2)
Only losses at Bama and at Texas
Top 25 wins over Tennessee and Missouri


One likely gets left out. I feel like Texas gets the nod with head to head wins over both OU and Vandy.

Does a 9-3 Oklahoma go ahead of a 10-2 Vanderbilt? The Sooners would have played the more difficult schedule but would have an extra loss.

They both would have losses to Bama and Texas, and they both would have wins over Tennessee and Missouri. OU would have an extra loss but only because they had to play Ole Miss while Vandy didn’t. OU also played and won a tougher OOC game in Michigan rather than Virginia Tech.

Who goes? Oklahoma or Vandy?