Sankey says you can’t use the next to last game as a tune up, anymore, and we’ll need to have our ninth SEC game the weekend before our annual tilt with the North Avenue Trade School.
Guess that means we’ll only have one cupcake to compete against to end the regular seasons starting in 2027.
Suck it, Nerds.
I don’t understand why all the SEC has done the last 3 years is cave to the Big10. They want us to play 9 conference games? Ok. Expand the CFP to 12? Sure. Dictate to us when we play who? Sure. Now they want a 24 team CFP and no SECC?
The SEC system worked fine. It’s a gauntlet, the SECC is the benchmark no one else could match. The winner got a few weeks to get healthy for the CFP semis, and rarely was there a team outside the top 4 that could have won (maybe 2018 and 2023 UGA, but lose the SEC and you’re out).
What do we get for rolling over? Nothing worth having. Even cupcake week has a couple of good games for the suits at ESPN to show. I hate the 16 team league. The schedule will never be balanced among SEC teams, but we get an extra game to beat each other to death. The big 10 has 3, maybe 4 good teams. They don’t all play each other. Who did indiana or ohio st play with a pulse after mid October in the regular season? Injuries pile up. They pile up faster in the SEC.
The 24 game CFP is garbage. It will cost us the SECC and probably cause the season to begin in mid August. Those noon games in Columbia SC or Gainesville, really anywhere in the SEC footprint, should be delightful. The fans will love the directional games as great chances to die of heat stroke.
I truly wish Sankey would reply to this. I can’t even understand how it’s about the money unless the ESPN suits ran a model that says there’s a ratings dip that needs to be avoided but we’re already under a contract so why agree to stipulations after the fact?
I was a fan of ESPN for their early years on the air. In the last decade or so, it seems they do about as much hard as good. I was afraid ESPN becoming the SEC’s broadcast “partner” was a deal with the devil.
Sanky’s back must be really sore. He’s in a constant state of bending over.