The SEC is Eating Itself Alive

[casual-observer]

Your viewpoint is skewed, You are only seeing SEC games (which are great). Most games around the country are MUCH more boring. The SEC didn't need its schedules upgraded. The rest of the country did.

I dunno...when was the last time a Vanderbilt game was interesting? Or there was a legitimate chance Bama or Georgia was going down?

I think the phrase "any given Saturday" is more true today that it was pre-NIL.

Good call out - I am skewed to the SEC. But it's because they are 16 great teams. And the parity has made Saturday's so much more entertaining.

 

[SpookyAction]

It’s kind of like Tennessee is a self made millionaire and the others are inherited wealth millionaires .

ESPN licked our behinds thoroughly during the prime Fulmer years. So did CBS. I remember it quite well because of the real shock when they stopped.
Manning was screwed out of the Heisman, no doubt.

I used to watch College Gameday because there was a lot of features about the VOLS. I quit watching when Dooley was hired. Even during Fulmer's final season ESPN spoke about the VOLS in terms of turning it around any moment.

 

[#1fulmerite]

This is why Florida State and Miami turned the SEC down and we settled for USCe and Arkansas.

 

[jonesknows12]

The big question I have is will UGA-GT, UF-FSU, USCjr-Clemson still happen with this 9 game schedule? I see that schools are pulling out of future home and away games with non conference opponents but haven’t heard anything about the instate non-conference rivalries.

 

[livefaith]

Expand the playoff to 32 teams and kill the remainder of the meaningless bowls.

I've never understood this mindset ... if a Billy Bob's Oil Change Bowl is created and New Mex State and Eastern MI play in it ... then HOW on earth does this negatively affect anyone? For a lot of young men it is a spectacular experience, especially as a Senior and last game. The fans can watch their team one last time that season, and special for families.

I don't get the disdain. Is it a pride thing? Does someone force you to watch it? Does it somehow take away from the team you are a fan of? Do we get a bill in the mail for it? Does meaningless to you mean meaningless to everyone?

 

[volbound1700]

moving to a 9 conference schedule next year 2 things need to happen:
1- fan bases need to get use to more losses
2- the playoff committee better see an SEC 3 loss team as good or better than 2 loss Big 10 team

Depends on schedule. There are situations where the B1G team could have harder schedule than SEC team. Who you play should matter. The committee also needs to reward scheduling tougher OOC games IMO.

 

[Rickyvol77]

This is why Florida State and Miami turned the SEC down and we settled for USCe and Arkansas.

We never asked Miami to join although we looked at them. The SEC wanted Texas and Florida St first in 1989. Both said no so we focused on Texas A&M and Arkansas. Arkansas jumped at chance but AM was stuck due to politics. So we looked at South Carolina, West Virginia and Miami and decided on the Cocks

 

[xpsyclonex2002]

NIL means parity. Teams like Sabans Alabama can't stockpile 5* players. Too much money to park them on the bench. It's a dilution of talent. The rich will always fare better, but the mids will better compete.
I think we are seeing a tectonic shift in the football landscape. Schools in states with money will perform better because the businesses in the state will drive the NIL. States with multiple large colleges will suffer if they don't have the money to split. Take Alabama for example. Alabama is not a poor state but no one considers them affluent. Two big football programs and a finite amount of money for the NIL. Somebody is going without. Auburn likely fades out over the next decade. FL as a state has plenty of money for all of their football programs.same for Texas. California will likely have a resurgence. Schools like Syracuse and BC could turn into powerful schools because they have money in the state and no other schools to compete with.

 

[Flathead75]

No matter how you slice it, last year the SEC had average schedule difficulty of 10.5, the Big 10 was 37.5 hardest! Another SEC game is going to kill us if strength of schedule is not taken seriously in consideration. I think the best thing would be used the BCS analytics and let computers evaluate everything! We don’t need the Michigan AD or Ohio State AD in charge of the committee, it needs to be someone that isn’t biased against any conference, or a computer!

 

[hUTch2002]

I dunno...when was the last time a Vanderbilt game was interesting? Or there was a legitimate chance Bama or Georgia was going down?

I think the phrase "any given Saturday" is more true today that it was pre-NIL.

Good call out - I am skewed to the SEC. But it's because they are 16 great teams. And the parity has made Saturday's so much more entertaining.

Last weekend for both questions.

 

[CPVOL]

Random thought - Mizzou will beat Vandy.

 

[UTFranklinVol]

moving to a 9 conference schedule next year 2 things need to happen:
1- fan bases need to get use to more losses
2- the playoff committee better see an SEC 3 loss team as good or better than 2 loss Big 10 team

#2 ain't happening without considering strength of schedule and which games you lose. for instance let's say Tennessee lost 3 games and those games were Georgia Bama and Oklahoma which would probably be considered the three toughest games on the schedule. you might say Tennessee was a better team than an 2 loss B10 team because of their "tough" schedule, but the committee may see if different. they may say anytime Tennessee runs into stiff competition they can't handle it and lose so why would we invite them to the playoffs if they can't win big games. but if Tennessee beats two of those teams but slips up against a couple others it's more forgivable especially if there are injuries to consider.

 

[UTFranklinVol]

If you wanna talk cupcake schedule, Miami has only 3 true road games this year. THREE! The 4th being at FSU. They only leave hte state period 3 of 12 games. First 4 games being at home in Miami. 8 home games in Miami.

lol wait a minute you're saying that going 7.5 hours away from Miami to Tallahassee isn't a true road game? nah I'm not buying it. that's like a whole other state. that's twice the distance from Columbus Ohio to Ann arbor Michigan.