We've only played them there 3 times (1 was the odd covid year) and they've come to Gainesville once.
But being "real" or not is not an excuse to go along with the dismantling of our traditions in college football. The SEC university presidents hold ALL the card whether they know it or not, but they have to get Sankey on board or ditch him for someone that can and is able to push the will of the university presidents. With two Conference Divisions we can achieve anything we can with pods, and we can keep our traditions and rivalries... it's what makes our conference the best in the country. Cutting out annual rivalries will to make our conference increase viewership is a logical fallacy at best and a diminishing return, because of less viewership, at worst. You made honest points as to why this may come about, but you still haven't made it clear why it's better.
The will of the presidents. LOL They want the money to pay for the university athletics program. Period.
No, its actually the most fair way to do it AND keep the rivalries we have. Each pod plays pod members plus all of a different pod each year in sort of a rotating "division". Put your rivalries in your pod. 1. UF, UGA, UT, SC 2. AU, UA, UK, VU 3. LSU, MSU, OM, ATM 4. Tx, OU, Mizz, AR Year 1 Pod 1 plays Pod 2, 3 plays 4 Year 2 1 plays 3, 2 plays 4 Year 3 1 plays 4, 2 plays 3 Year 4 repeat with opposite home vs. away Keeps the rivalries except UT UA and UF LSU. LSU only because a rivalry because they were our permanent opponent in the west. Rather play Auburn personally, but something has to give. UT keeps OU and ATM UA keeps AU
They are leaving a ton of money on the table and killing rivalries Go to 4 pods. Play your pod every year + rotate other teams. Then do a 4 team SEC playoff for big $$$$$ SW: OU Texas TAMU Mizzou SE: Florida Tenn UGA Vandy Central: Bama Auburn UK USC West: LSU Ark MSU Ole Miss
It isn't about whether it is better, just you get the bad with the good. You get the bad, the good is the master: revenue.
Some of you guys act like these rivarly games (the very few that don't get preserved) would be going away. They'd still be played every other year, and the most important ones (UF/UGA, Bama/UT, etc) would certainly be kept annual. Variety is nice...i don't need to see UF play Vandy or Mizzou every year. They'll need to figure out tiebreakers, though.
With letting teams into the playoffs who lost or even did not play in the SECCG, the SECCG became obsolete.
It is strictly a money-maker for the conference. It has no bearing on the playoffs, unless a good team loses and then a team from another conference takes their place.
Interdasting............ I just posted essentially the same thing and @Gatorrick22 gives me a disagree and gives yours a winner. Me thinks he didn't read one of our posts very well.........
I can see it now. We get Oklahoma, texas, ATM, LSU, uga, ut, at bama. Meanwhile bama and uga get the Mississippi schools, vandy, usce, arkansas, kentucky.
Going to be interesting to see how the tiebreakers will work if you have 4 or 5 teams with the same record.
I agreed with his statement at the top of the post. - " They are leaving a ton of money on the table and killing rivalries.
SEC never does fair scheduling and I don’t expect it with this change either. Will we play away games 3 more times at A&M before Georgia even goes there once?
It’s almost as if the SEC agreed to sandbag their conference in order to get expanded playoffs. They should be trying to raise the SEC to make it ultra prestigious. That winning the SEC is on par with the Natty. Two formats can do that: 1. 4 divisions of 4. Then a 4 team SEC playoff 2. My favorite… PROMOTION and RELEGATION 8 teams in upper and 8 teams in lower division Upper is eligible to win the SEC. You play all teams in your division plus 1 (or 2) in the other to preserve rivalries. -Top 2 teams in Upper play for SEC title -7th in Upper plays 2 in Lower for Pro/Rel -8 in Upper plays 1 for Pro/Rel (A team in lower can still make CFP is selected) The SEC has a chance to add to its prestige. European soccer is a good framework. Teams care about winning the EPL AND Champions league. Multiple things can be highly valuable at once
Last year UK was good and sucks this year. A&M was decent and sucks this year. Teams have ebs and flows. We were good from 2018-2020 and sucked last year. Point is it goes both ways. Sometimes you'll get lucky, sometimes you won't be but at least it would be some objective transparent formula that tried to keep schedules balanced.
