SEC planning big change

Umm, my post specifically says 4 divisions won't work, and the SEC isn't talking about switching to it.

 

So a 16 team league where the teams with the best records (tie breakers factored in) meet for the title. Saddle us with a tough slate, give bama an easier path and here we are. I don't trust the sec office as far as I can throw them.

 

Lol... I didn't mean to intimate otherwise, but it seemed a good place to explain my side.

 

Superconferences will ruin college football. There should be a 12-school limit per conference. Screw Texas and OU, and screw Mizzou and A&M too.

PAC-12, Big-12, B1G, SEC, and ACC should all be 12 teams. Period. The "Power 5" conferences should be exclusive and should not be cannibalizing one another. But nowadays it's all about capturing nationwide markets for TV money, blah blah blah. The fat cats win, and the fans lose.

 

But big money and big sports networks want to "re-imagine" college football... so that they can profit more from it, even if it means ruining rivalries and traditions along the way. It's sad that the university presidents let Sankey steer our GREAT SEC conference into this abyss.

If is ain't broke don't "fix" it.

 

Exactly.

The conference big wigs and the athletic departments and the networks are all looking for a big payday. They see dollar signs and don't care about the rest. That's why we will soon have an expanded playoff and superconferences and all this other nonsense that is fundamentally changing (ruining) college football. It's a shame.

 

I'd also like to see the SEC sell our product to overseas networks and not allow for ESPN to control all aspects on our game/conference rights. ESPN should be get contractual rights for the U.S.A. only, and the SEC should own/control the rights to sell our product overseas.

The SEC has far more power as a product than Sankey is "selling us out" for.

 

Hope they keep the rivalry games intact. Would hate to lose TWLODCP.

 

I think preserving the rivalries is the reason they are considering the one division format. That was a big deal during the last expansion.

I do agree they will need a system of picking the two best teams at seasons end as strength of schedule will vary greatly. I guess they could go with Playoff ranking.

Some of y’all don’t like change and I get it. But being ahead of the curve is the reason the SEC is the premier league instead of an also-ran.

 

As much as I like the SEC model, I cannot think of a way to balance traditional rivalries with equitable scheduling across 8-9 games in a 12-game schedule while keeping the conference game as-is.

One idea I have not seen elsewhere:
- Add an optional preseason or 0-week game with a cupcake team that goes beyond the 12-game schedule and change NCAA rules to accommodate. Increase conference schedule to 11 games, mandate one Power-5 out-of-conference, and mandate one of the conference games to be a neutral site. With many games it is possible to have divisions or pods, but traditional rivalries will still be broken or changed.

There are ways to optimize the schedule to keep a conference championship game, but with a 12-team playoff it would be disadvantageous to add an extra game late in the season. Cupcake games late in the season no longer help with resting injured players, so I would make it an optional warmup game in week 0.

 

It's a business, nothing more. Coaches get paid millions, players are getting NIL, they have to pay them somehow.

 

When ever win is equal, regardless of who it is against, any permanent rivals are unfair.

A permanent rival against Vanderbilt is almost a guaranteed win ever year. While a permanent rival against Alabama or Georgia currently is almost a guaranteed loss.

That immediately hurts the chance every year for whoever is stuck with those two permanently in a onendivision setup.

How would you like Florida-Georgia as our permanent rivalry currently? Think that is fair for the Gators to finish number one or two, especially if Alabama conveniently was given Vanderbilt for instance? (For the sake of the argument)

 

What’s wrong with the pod system? You keep your traditional rivals and rotate the schedule each year for each pod.

 

Add in the facility new/upgrades.
Point the finger at the fans, we scream for a better experience and wins. As you said, it all has to be bought and paid for.

 

Nothing is wrong with it. It is the same crying... College is not the NFL....blah blah.

 

Yea change can be scary for some.

 

Seems to me a 16 team conference will be a bit cumbersome if lumped together without divisions. I suppose it’s a given that we will go to a 9 game conference schedule and that puts us, Georgia, South Carolina and Kentucky at a slight disadvantage right off because we all have in-state out of conference rivalries we play every year so we will have one less game we can choose the opponent.

 

Nothing wrong with your takes. Just realize that we have been on this "get more money" track for a LONG time. It is our master and you can only serve one. To me, the biggie, which we have thankfully been immune to (at least up to now) is playing on Thursday night, a la the ACC. No one cared because we got entertainment on a meh night. Tell that to the folks who have to drive home after midnight from Podunk, Indiana. The other biggie, although it may finally get some sanity via football finally being recognized as a semi-pro league, is the silliness of sending a women's volleyball team halfway across the US to play a "conference" team because of what football mandates as alliances. I think we will see football as a "non-regular" sport so that it plays by rules the remaining sports are not beholden.

If things go "well" moving forward, I think the business model for major college football is going to be NASCAR. It has some "heroes" and a few "villains", but there is a concerted effort to keep the masses attached to the old ways. Too much money to be made (and lost) to go completely unvarnished and call it "AAA football". But to that, I am not saying this is what we are seeing today at UF, the other side of the coin regarding NIL and recruiting/program building is to cut players who aren't up to the task. Once that happens in sobering ways (Whittmore may be one of those) and the HC is unapologetic, the realities of the current model WILL manifest.

So to your takes, and mine, they aren't pretty but they ARE real.

 

Great, so we can expect Bama and uga to play the same easy teams every year while avoiding each other.

 

No kidding, I finally updated to ios16 and absolutely hate the new home screen display and notifications