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Kirby Smart ‘not gonna whine and cry’ about new SEC scheduling model
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Kirby Smart ‘not gonna whine and cry’ about new SEC scheduling model
ATHENS — Kirby Smart loves Georgia football traditions as much as anyone, but the Bulldogs head coach isn’t fretting pending changes to the schedule.
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Tennessee loses the Florida and Georgia games. That is going to ruin their recruiting. The Vanderbilt and South Carolina games also won't be big TV draws. Which will also harm their recruiting.
@thadec...I don't understand your comment, and I don't see how the new 3-6 scheduling format would do anything but improve parity in the schedules and offer up some great, diverse matchups that we hardly ever see. As a recruit at TN or elsewhere, I only see harder games and more chances to get on a bigger stage more often and impress. You're putting too much emphasis on 2 games out of 9 every year.
If each team does not play each other to reach the SEC championship game as it is now in division play, how can one team claim to be the champion? It's all crazy and about money.
@Tom_Bomadil...I'm not sure I understand your comment either. Even with divisions, not every team plays every other team. With the new format, the (2) teams with the best SEC records will play in the SEC Championship game.
This scheduling model is attractive because it sets up a school to play every other SEC program over a two-year cycle, with both home and away games against every other school over a four-year cycle. Year 1 will have a team's three annual rivals plus six other SEC opponents. Those six are then rotated out for the rest of the conference in Year 2, allowing for games against all 15 conference foes. So, this format will actually prove to be much better than the current division format in making sure your concern is addressed.
And YES, this is all about money, but it's also going to offer up fans - and season ticket holders - better games and more exciting matchups that change every year.
Great article, Mike G.!!!
What's Saban's beef?
He plays those three teams every year now.....Does he want UGA on his schedule every year instead!? or OKU or TX!?
Did he expect to get Vanderbilt, Missouri and Kentucky/USCe/Miss State as permanent opposing teams!?
I wonder if he thinks that the "S" in SEC stands for Saban!?
Boo hoo! What a whiner!
I'll stick with Coach Kirby.....play the next team on the schedule-just tell us who it is!!
Go Dawgs!
I hadn’t seen anything about Saban complaining about AL’s projected regulars, but it’s weird that he would, since those are all teams his team plays every year right now, anyway… Whiners gonna whine, I guess.
Looks fair to me. BAMA and UGA won't always be top dog. Over the years, that distinction has gone to over half the teams in the SEC at some point.
Saban is on the verge of retirement...Auburn's got a new HC...Fisher is on the "Hot Seat"...NIL...Transfer Portal...things change. Who knows...in ten or twenty years, you might not want Vanderbilt or Miss St. on your schedule.
I assume, that they used historical data of each team's performance (detailed) and extrapolated it over 50 years (or so) to determine which teams will be the most consistent winners...and spread the wealth accordingly.
The rest is luck-of-the-draw. That's about as scientific as they can get. Kinda like "card counting", IMO. Lol
It doesn't matter. If history has taught us anything...it has taught us that College Football has become conformist and will change the rules or the schedules to maintain a high level of "competition" for their Video Overlords...ESPN. Lol.
And...every 4 or 5 years present themselves to the Networks on bended knee to ask if they are pleased and request "Mo' Money,". Lol...predictable.
@MontanaDawg and @Tom_Bomadil
I agree that this plan provides the maximum benefit to the most people. But "most people" isn't everyone. I don't think you quite get Tennessee's conundrum here. Knoxville is a very tough recruiting environment. The Vols have flagship football school standards when it comes to winning, but Tennessee isn't a talent-rich state. Also, of the relatively small amount of 4 star and 5 star prospects the state produces, not all of them stay home, particularly the ones in east Tennessee and especially those from the Memphis area. And they don't have an elite academic reputation, urban campus, or anything else notable. In order to get the talent necessary to compete they need to A. recruit extremely well in Georgia, Florida and Alabama plus B. get on national TV as much as possible. Tennessee is losing their #2 and #3 biggest rivalry games and their #2 and #3 biggest TV dates. They are losing home-and-home games located in their 2 biggest recruiting markets. Yes, they will play UGA and Florida on a rotating basis, but in a 16 game conference it will take years to rotate through the entire league. So a kid who goes to Tennessee will probably have 1 road game against Georgia and one home game against Florida (for example) during his 4 years there. The trips to Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi will be exciting for the fans but - again - Tennessee won't grab very many kids from New Orleans and Houston by playing the Bengal Tigers and Aggies once every 4 years.
It is just ... strange to see Texas, Alabama and especially Oklahoma (who gets a game in Texas and Florida each year; the 2 states in the SEC footprint for both TV purposes AND recruiting) make out like bandits while the screws get put to the Vols. Missouri and A&M? Same. The 4 Big 12 vagabonds making out so well while a charter SEC member like the Vols get the shaft is really amazing.
If I were a Tennessee fan I would be furious. But since I am not, then whatevs I guess. Maybe if they had, I don't know, won a conference title since 1998 - I had no idea that it had been that long! - they would have fared better with this.
giving us UK instead of USCe stinks, but as Kirby says who cares, just beat them all.
@thadec...I understand your concern better now. Thanks for explaining. The final decision on the 3 permanent rivals has not been made, so things could certainly end up differently than forecast. I suspect there will pros and cons to every team's permanent rivals. If your concerns end up being warranted then TN may just have to adjust their recruiting strategies as needed.
I had also read a long time ago that the "permanent " rivals may actually get re-schuffled every so often, but I haven't heard anything new addressing this in the current discussions.
I don’t know that I’d say @thadec is “concerned” about Tennessee’s recruiting challenges. It is an interesting perspective, though. All I know is, after watching them get fat on blue chip recruits from the state of Georgia in the 90’s while Georgia Football fumble***ed around for the decade, they may have to tighten their belts for awhile longer now that Georgia’s flagship university is finally treating recruiting like the priority it is.
I have spent...wasted...hours thinking of ways to insure parity all the while locking in traditional rivalry games in the SEC.
I also wanted teams to be able to play the first game every year, an opponent from another conference.
It finally dawned on me that it can't be done.....parity is predicated on the notion that teams will always be at a particular standard ....teams by their nature change every year because of several factors...
Have teams by mutual agreement, pick one "rival" and play that game every year.....Georgia would always play Florida or Auburn. Use random selection to pick 8 conference games every year sans your rival.
Keep in mind that starting in 24, there will likely always be at least 2 maybe 3, or 4 SEC teams in the playoffs.
Next, we all need to embrace Kirby's attitude......"just tell me who we play, and we'll work to beat every opponent"!
With this set up, it is entirely feasible that you have more than two teams with the same record, is it not? If that happens, how do they determine the two that go to the SECCG?
@99nout...certainly that is possible. It might come down to a combination of who won and by how much against any common opponents that season, and if that doesn't decide it then my bet is SOS within the SEC will determine the teams.
Same way they did, before they split into divisions...which was to create a Championship game at the end of the season. They also, applied those same "tiebreaking rules", to divisional ties...head-to-head, ranking, non-conference record, etc.. I don't remember the flow chart, but, there is/was one...right down to a "coin-flip". Lol