Per Heather Dinich, rumor is we are inching closer to a nine-game SEC schedule. From the ESPN+ article:
Funny, strength of schedule didn’t seem to matter much when the Committee released its rankings throughout the season, and Indiana’s lack of competition with a pulse didn’t keep them from lumping the Hoosiers in with teams that faced more formidable competition. Ditto Boise State, Notre Dame, and I dare say Texas. But whatever. Let’s see what other bullshit is coming out of this…Sankey is worried that the Committee’s criteria isn’t crystal clear, and worries about a chain of events leading to further nonsense:
Yeah, that’s great. But there’s one other thing to consider:
That’s just great. The SEC can now add one additional challenging conference opponent and continue to beat the living hell out of each other while the B1G constantly adjusts schedules yearly among their 84 member institutions to ensure that teams only face one or two competitive conference games. Also…
What about f*cking Notre Dame? Every game is a nonconference game for them, so by this logic, every game the Irish plays is of lesser importance than the nine played by teams aligned with a conference. Right? Right?
The more they discuss and the more they adjust, I swear the less and less this makes any sense.
I don’t know who’s talking and who’s listening but strength of schedule didn’t mean shit last year. I don’t think I can be convinced otherwise. College football is really pissing me off.
Rescheduling to 9 conference means we’ll get screwed again by the SEC office.
Sankey would probably schedule us to play Texas twice in the regular season. Ratings, for the win!
Both games in Austin.
At night. You read my mind.
But at least Auburn will get the bye week before hosting us every year on Monday night immediately following us playing at Alabama.
This sport needs to break away from the NCAA, abolish conferences, appoint a commissioner, get anti-trust status, standardize rules of eligibility, enforce criteria for education, cap NIL that must flow through the athletic departments but under strict compliance and audit and formalize scheduling using the traditional regional alignments as much as possible. Kick FCS to the curb with a parting gift of TV money. It would definitely be NFL light with some ties still to the notion these are students first. Maybe two types of transfers…open window once per year and you can play the next season, other times required to skip a year. Skip year won’t count against eligibility but you get 4 or 5 seasons max unless medical hardship is included. This, of course, would all have to be protected by the Courts and/or Act of Congress to once again permit an athletic association to set its own rules. If it can work for Little League baseball it can work for CFB.
Not ever going to happen.
Given that we have witnessed the playoff drive the cancellation of nonConf games and the Big10 and SEC are pushing for more autobids, the school will have little incentive not to cash in on a home game cupcake. I see the 9 game SEC schedule as only a mattr of time.
I just hope that 4 or hopefully 5 games are permanent to saave what little tradition they haven’t destroyed in the pursuit of greed. Again I don’t care how long it takes UGA to a play in a former BigXII or SWC stadium again.
There were 2 Power 4 teams last year that played no Power 4 OOC games and made the playoff. The first was the Indiana Hoosiers who lost every game they played against a team with a pulse (and no, Michigan didn’t have a pulse). The second was the ESPN Invitational winner, the Ohio State Suckeyes. You could make the case Ohio State doesn’t make the playoff if they had played an OOC game in September against a high level opponent.
Notre Dame lost one of its non-Power 4 games at home to a mediocre Northern Illinois team. That loss by itself should have been disqualifying.