Why the hail would we make it more likely to get less teams into the playoffs? That 9th game had better come with a ton of extra cash for every SEC in the form of the new contract with ESPN... Nothing comes for free!
More SEC games = potential for a loss = possible poorer seeding for SEC in CFP = less SEC NC. The SEC is already a gauntlet with 8 games as it is. I see no benefit of moving to 9 SEC games other than more TV $ and I couldn't care less about that. What I do care about are teams like Indiana and Arizona St and Boise St should play an OOC schedule like the Gators have for the last ~5 yrs or so... As long as those types of teams are getting into the CFP, I do not want to see the SEC move to 9 games, imho
Could we borrow NW, Indiana, Nebraska, MN, Illinois, Wisconsin, UCLA and Iowa as substitutes for league matchups toward those 9 games? Regardless i enjoy a greater number of good games per year more than guaranteeing 6 league wins each year.
Agree, but Sankey has to negotiate for more money for that 9th game... One more thing he has to change in this new contract. We are still the SEC and the best college conference in all sports, not just in football. So, he should DEMAND (in the next contract) that ESPN use all of their network channels to make all of our September games night games. It's too HOT in down south in September. Also, we are the premier conference in the nation, and the SEC deserves that time slot on TV.
That daytime bama game a few years ago was ridiculous and i was just standing. Kids had to be feeling it. Definitely should be all night games.
Sankey is NOT a very good negotiator. He's been a disappointment. NO teams in the G5 should get a bye week playoff game... that is, until all the games are played. The playoff committee should re-rank the final 12 teams to see which ones truly deserve to have a bye week.
Im for no byes. Last years rankings proved its a crapshoot for any committee to get it right. Line em up and play. Last man standing gets a trophy. If you cant beat em all, if you aint girst youre last.
I have no love for the bye weeks, but the only reason I mention them is that the crappy teams were the ones getting them. I would rather that they play every week and have no bye weeks. The space between the start of the playoff games and then the bye weeks on top of that made it a pain in the butt figuring out when these game were going to get played. They need to smooth that out and eliminate the bye weeks... I agree with you.
I know a surefire way to have more college football games in general. Why can't there be two football seasons instead of one? The pros have more than one league/season, why not college too? The existing fall season lasts four months, from September through December. Why not have a spring season from March through June? Not all conferences would have to play two seasons. For example, the SEC and others could play in the spring, the Big Ten and others could play in the fall. The spring and fall champions could then play for the national title in January. Players who wanted to play two seasons could simply transfer between seasons. The only problem would be if everyone who played in one season then transferred to play in the other.
The majority of the teams in the SEC will still get their fill of cupcakes. Mostly because their "Big Rivalry" game is also a conference game except for the following: Scar - clempson UF - half ass u Kentuck - Maybe Louisvill? UGAG - Ga Tech. The rest have their big rivalry with a league member leaving them room for the cupcakes.
That was a man bites dog situation. Bama lost at home to LAMO in 2007. It happens incredibly infrequently.
I have no doubt guaranteed spots in the playoffs will accompany a 9 game schedule. The ability to rotate through the entire SEC should be a top priority. UF has as many home games vs Auburn as they do national championships since 08, that's ridiculous.
This will increase season ticket prices because SEC games are now priced accordingly. For those of you who watch from your couch, there is no impact. For those who attend every home game, your football expenses just went up. Hence, the reason why the SEC wants to do this. For that extra game, schools won't be paying Towson $1M to come get beat up, and, they will also gather higher ticket income for that game. Win-win for the school, but, not your wallet.
Pod scheduling works perfectly for 16 teams and 9 conference games. We aren't married to division play anymore, so there's no sense in having so many permanent opponents at the expense of playing everybody in the conference more often. 4 pods of 4 teams each, 3 permanent opponents in your pod, play 2 teams from each of the other pods home and home, then play the other 2 teams from each of the other pods home and home. Everybody plays everybody home and home in 4 years. The problem is we aren't going to stay at 16 teams.
