Why do the Dogs get the easy schedule every year and we get the hardest?

Funny how that works...
Maybe we should work on beating a good but not great TAMu team...
For some reason we sort of sleep walk in that game.
Whether that was the 20 game or last year's game vs a backup QB...
We clearly were unprepared for the Aggies.

We did beat them in 2022 at their place. I think they had the stomach flu, but at this point...

 

Yep...we have wasted some chances to beat very average teams. I was at the 22 game, neither team played particularly well but AR had a big td run to give us a cushion. Day game and a totally dead crowd, no impact whatsoever

 

Lived in Daphne, AL — just across the bay from Mobile, for 4 years. You’re spot on with the roll tide bullshit. They’d yell that shit anywhere and everywhere. It was particularly painful because my 4 years were 2009-2012 — ugh! They were so fired up after destroying us in the SECCG to begin their reign of terror. Worst time ever to live in Bama

 

I'm pissed about our schedule for the last three years. It isn't just about who we play, they seem to schedule off weeks or cupcakes before us often. Three years ago it was just about every SEC game we played was against a team who had an off week the week prior.
I do believe they protect the schools that they think have a chance to win a championship, that's pretty much how conference scheduling goes. They want position the league to win it all. If we start dominating, I'd expect to have a more favorable schedule. As a fan I don't like it, but that seems to be what's going on. Back in the old days it seemed like they scheduled way out in advance, and it seemed that we'd get on a cycle where the teams that usually sucked, were all the sudden world beaters when we played them.

 

I agree! Many Gator fans love to get dramatical over any perceived slight by the SEC. Irecall reading that our SEC basketball schedule was one of the easiser ones last year and yet some folks complained that it was harder than most.

 

In fairness, one of the reasons UGA has an easier schedule than us is because they don't play UGA.

What needs to happen is we need to become that team that makes everyone's schedule tough again.

 

Nice area up there. Fairhope is pretty sweet if you havent been there in a while.

 

We wanted to live in Fairhope but it was just a bit more expensive and we found a really nice place on an acre in Daphne. Went into Fairhope all the time.

 

Swanky and Alabama just doesn't sound right does it. My buddy lives there on the water. Inlaws own all the Winn Dixies

 

I thought that Aldi had snapped up Winn-Dixie. Maybe just a subset of them because they own the one's here in G'ville.

 

Half and half. Winn Dixie in Fairhope is way better than Publix. Its weird.

 

Because the SEC knows they are only good for licking their own balls and chasing their tails!

 

30ish years ago all we had was AOL Gator message boards. Any rival fan could come on- and they did. Especially Tennessee.
Once a UT fan came on and asked our opinion as to why their SOS was #2 and ours was only #12. (I'm making up the numbers, but you get the point.)

The Gator fan response was...
Well we play you and you play us...
The SOS follows suit.

 

Last season our OOC schedule was nuts. We played the other 3 big FL schools Miami, UCF and FSU. But normally our OOC schedule isn't as daunting. UGA lucked out because their "Rival team" Georgia Tech is middle of the road team unlike our "Rival" FSU who has historically been a very successful team more years than not. Otherwise our conference schedule is fairly similar to UGA's.

Our new conference schedule model of no divisions will or should alleviate some of the imbalance of schedule opponents. IMO the model we had of playing the same division opponents each year along with only 2 opposite division opponents, one being a permanent opponent (ie: Our LSU) and the 2nd team rotating between the rest was the culprit to scheduled conf opponent imbalances, we basically played only 1 new conference team each year, the rest are the same teams on the schedule every year.

 

The new conference format/schedule is going to be interesting. I still tend to like 4 team pods, but that doesn't seem to be the path they are going. But they do seem to be leaning toward adding a conference game, I'm torn on that issue.
Very curious about how far they go protecting rivalries.

 

Mizzou has the easiest schedule by far.

 

Thank you!

If you want to believe the SEC makes schedules to protect favored teams, then please explain why Mizzou is getting such preferred treatment. Their sec schedules last season and this are as favorable as they could be.

Like others have said, the UF vs UGA SEC schedules are a wash, except for UGA being much stronger than UF lately. The UF OOC slate is much tougher than UGA this year though.

 

What I find funny is Dawg fans don't get what frustrates us UNTIL it happens to them--

in '99, UF beats National Champ UT and plays in SEC championship. We lose and get Citrus Bowl (UT gets Orange Bowl against Nebraska).
In 2012 UGA beats us and plays 'Bama in SECGG for spot in NC. They lose and get Citrus and we get Sugar Bowl against Louisville. But Dawg fans went to talk radio all up in arms about how they get the lower tier bowl after beating us.

NOW, UGA's schedule, after several easy ones, gets some heavy hitters like UF has, and suddenly both the fan base and even Kirby have bitched about the SOS (Kirby gave a look to Sankey at SECCG last year).

 

I like the toughness of our schedule because it means we play great teams, and that's exciting for me as a football fan. But what bothers me is that several SEC teams get off easy and to add insult to injury they often get two weeks (excluding the Gators-UGA game where we both get two weeks) to prepare for us... like Texas did last year.

Let's make a change to our scheduling and go to the 2 division 3 year rotation schedule that I came up with.

 

It goes back decades and I mean long long ago. We played UGA and Auburn back to back, no open date for a very long time. It was brutal. To make it worse, there were 7, as I recall SEC conference games, not get this sometimes Bama played 6 in the conference and would designate some weak knee as a conference game. Yep a so so team they could beat 8 days a week would be "named" a SEC game. Look it up.