Westward Expansion

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Sankey caved in the summer to the calls for more conference games to match up with the B1G, but let’s face it, this is telling that the two conferences aren’t the same.

The pundits hee’d and haw’d over the idea that Georgia was playing Charlotte so late in the season, and had already concluded their SEC slate of games with two games remaining. Mind you, name a SEC game this year that we could’ve “comfortably” rested players for the sake of roster management? Anybody? Anybody? Bueller….

With the expansion to nine conference games, this will be an impossibility. Take a look at the 2026 slate:

09/05 – Tennessee State
09/12 – WKU*
09/19 – at Louisville*
10/31 – Florida (in Atlanta)
11/28 – Georgia Tech
TBA – Auburn
TBA – Missouri
TBA – Oklahoma
TBA – Vanderbilt
TBA – at Alabama
TBA – at Arkansas
TBA – at Ole Miss
TBA – at South Carolina

We get two “cupcakes” to start then head up to a decent ACC program to start a ten game P4 slate of games, half of which are currently in the Top 25 of the CFP rankings, and six are in the AP top 25.

Thanks, Greg.

31 thoughts on “Westward Expansion”

  1. There is a good piece over on the Atlantic about the SEC dominance in the TV ratings. Of course, the comment section is internet gold with all of the delusional B1G fans trying to rationalize why nobody wants to watch their shitty regular season games. Just think about the absurdity of the top B1G schools ranked # 1 and 2 while doing load management while also having the top-2 Heisman candidates who barely anyone has seen play. Now tell me more about pro-SEC media bias.

    • The comments section on that article was pure gold, and major schadenfreude for SEC fans. I didn’t realize exactly how bad the rankings were for the B1G until I saw it. And everyone proclaimed a. few years ago that they had changed the game with their 3 network deal…yet one of those networks is already trying to sell their Championship Game rights for next year to a streaming service.

  2. Caving to the extra conference game was stupid. There was no need to do it and I wonder what Sankey got in return? Surely he didn’t cave to that without getting something in return.

    • Sankey may not have gotten anything from it, but the fans who buy season tickets did.

      • I was about to ask if there’s no BYE week next year based on that list of 13 games. I just assume it will be Oct 24th.

  3. Still a 12 game schedule? I’m counting 13 and thought we were going to have to drop Louisville or WKU?

    • and on UGA’s 2025 slate…
      and on ANY SEC teams slate any year.
      This year’s VANDY team could have won the B1G..
      Even AU would have been right there fighting for the B1G title. (they’re the best bad team in the country).
      The SEC is BETTER top to bottom and it isn’t even close.
      And the jerks that forced the CFP on the rest of the country were (in a round about, sneaky way) acknowledging this truth.
      The disparity between the SEC and the rest of CF is what the CFP was invented to overcome.
      That and rat poison $$$ was the winning formula.

  5. That’s okay, Kirby will address it when we ThreePeat (make sure Pat Riley knows I used that free of charge) next year. To Sankey’s face

  7. I don’t have a problem with nine games. But standardizing that isn’t going to fix this issue of unbalanced schedules because it’s these massive, bulky conferences themselves that are the problem. If you’re in an 16- to18-team conference, you’re not going to play half the teams regardless of an 8- or 9-game schedule. That’s how you end up with Ohio State not playing Oregon and Indiana, or Texas A&M missing every CFP contender in the SEC. And even if, when making these schedules, the conferences try to balance them out based on recent success, you can’t really do that in the portal era because things can change so quickly. See, e.g., Penn State.

    • Correct – what is the point of a “conference” if there aren’t enough data points between them to make meaningful comparisons? The fact that 4 SEC teams tied at 7-1, but there were only two games between those 4 (both featuring us, of course), tells you all you need to know about how absurd it is (and don’t get me started on the ACC/tiebreaker/lack of crossover!)!

  8. Hopefully Sankey refuses to cave in to the b10 on automatic qualifiers. Remove the committee totally. Use a system designed to reward strength of schedule. Give credit for tuff out of conference games. Not grading on won/lost record first as the committee does. Make it a computerized format. Clear rules not human selection which will never be fair.

    As a fan I love the improved home schedule. The league weekly tv schedule is greatly improved with Texas and Oklahoma added. With NIL there are no cupcakes in the SEC. No other league is close.

    Yeah that favors everyone outside the SEC for the playoffs. Other leagues seem to be cancelling tuff non conference games. This will continue till they are penalized for weak scheduling. Right now the b10 has a much easier path every year.

    • Preach it!
      But we have to realize that it works exactly the way the people that came up with this crap wanted it to work..The SEC gets screwed by shifting committee parameters? Exactly..mission accomplished.
      That’s why it won’t change unless the SEC takes a stand and demands what you are calling for.

  10. I would just prefer if we(SEC)… just said « fuck it » and just did our own thing and became our own league.
    go to 20 teams with 5 four team divisions and have our own playoff & championship.
    (maybe add Clemson, tech, fsu, unc)

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