I've seen this mentioned elsewhere earlier in the year but didn't see much more than that since. With Texas and Oklahoma set to join the SEC, the big change is doing away with the East and West divisions and having just the one division with the top 2 vying for the SECCG. Not sure I like this format because in the past 15 years, the top 2 teams have been the West teams. If you look at it now, based on just what we have in games alone, it would be Georgia and LSU but if Tennessee were to finish out it would be Georgia and Tennessee playing in the SECCG because Tennessee won the head-to-head with LSU. Of course, with the full division, all teams would play 2 more conference games so who knows. What do you all think? There was some talk that a 4 team pod would feature the Top teams playing for the SECCG in a CFP-style matchup. SEC Football Is Reportedly 'Leaning Heavily' Towards Making Significant Change (msn.com)
Not a fan. It works in the Big 12 because every team plays each other. Too many teams in the SEC to do that. To make it remotely fair. You would have to make it an all SEC schedule. 12 games out of the 16 teams every year. Also get rid of yearly games(LSU) and rotate through all the teams.
Yeah, I feel like the SEC would have to come up with some type of formula on rating teams based on yearly performance to schedule them to keep it somewhat equal.
And make sure rotating games share home and away... unlike the 4 trips we have had the Texas A&M and no trips for them to Gainesville. Traditional rivalries need to be ditched going forward in a one division setup.
Definitely going to be major changes ahead. No matter what they do though, there will be lots of teeth gnashing over it. Of all the things they’ve floated, I just hope they go with the 1 permanent annual game plan, not the 3. The 3 perm-game plan will not be fair in who gets who, imho. Unfortunately, I believe they’ll go with the latter.
I'm not a fan of only 1 permanent game. Rivalries is what makes college football fun. I don't want us to give up Georgia, LSU, or Tennessee. Those are games we circle every year. (along with FSU).
4 Divisions is unworkable, that would be 2 games to win the conference PLUS however many the playoffs are going to be, never gonna happen. 3 permanent, 6 rotating (which was the rumor when this was talked about during the summer) and the top 2 teams play for the title is the best we can get with a 16 team conference, everyone would play home and home vs the rest of the conference over 4 seasons, superior to the haphazard way they do things now.
You have to have some sort of balanced schedule. If anything keep east and west divisions and so away with cross over games to ensure scheduling balancing. imagine a team not having to play Georgia Alabama lsu or even the gators. Cake walk schedule.
Bingo. A free for all type scheduling will only lead to Georgia getting their way. They’ve done it in the past.
There has to be an algorithm that every team rotates through everyone else's schedule over a set number of years. Either a 10 game SEC with 2 OOC or a full on 12 SEC schedule. Hell do away with the championship game and play a 13 game SEC schedule. Best record is the crowned champ. If there is a tie. Co- Champs. When the CFP is expanded most yrs the SEC will get 2-3 teams in based on SOS alone. No other conference can ever say they would be playing a harder schedule.
College football has always been about tradition and the pageantry that goes along with that. Screwing around with rivalries just to please some sort of national obsession the make our conference the new coolest conference in the country is shortsighted at best. We can achieve everything we need with 2 divisions, by adding more SEC conference games. A 9 or 10 SEC game schedule will do everything the the "pods" will do but without wiping out the old established rivalries and tradition in the SEC football conference as a whole, one that we have enjoyed since it's inception in 1933. Why throw away the baby with the bathwater? We don't need to re-invent football scheduling or alignments to keep our conference as the top conference in the country.
yep. $50 says Bama and UGA get nice home-away with Vandy, Mizzou, and Carolina right off the bat. UF will get LSU, Texas and OU as road contests with a return to GNV right before they expand again, so they never happen.
If your goal is to destroy rivalries then 4 pods is the way to go, but why would we do that? Why would we want to destroy what makes college football and annual rivalries the best part of college football? Why can't 2 divisions work to get the top 2 teams in the SEC in the playoffs? And who says that we need 4 pods to get more team in the playoffs? Please explain it and diagram it for us.
This, and the rivalries, the pageantry are 3 important reasons why we need to keep our traditions and rivalries in the 2 division format. The main reason why the SEC office wants this new system has still not been explained to us why the want to ditch a conference and schedule what is working well in the two division system. All we need to do is make the SEC schedule include a 9 or 10 SEC game schedule. The pods system will not fix this year's dilemma. And with respect to Tennessee even if LSU wins out they still might make a 12 team playoffs team in our current 2 division set up. What would the pods change? How would pods better that outcome?
