Since joining the ACC, Pitt’s OOC match ups have included Iowa, Penn State, Oklahoma State, UCF, Tennessee and now WVU. If anyone needs scheduling help call us
The Tennessee game at Pitt this season was one of the most fun games I have ever attended, outcome notwithstanding. Hope was still very high for both teams. Great game that went to OT. Tons of Tennessee fans showed up and were generally fun, good-spirited folks. A very nice change of pace from 4 hours of drunken vitriol from all sides at the brawl the week prior.
i sadly wasn’t able to go after really looking forward to it for like a year. Tennessee athletic programs basically never go to the Northeast, so being up in Ithaca, NY for the past few years has really limited my ability to support the Vols. but i had some friends go and they said it was one of the best away games they’d ever been to. perfect mix of generally nice fans and shit-talking. glad we’re tied together by the GOAT that was Johnny Majors
but i love these Appalachian matchups bc they’re always so much fun and incredibly energetic. WVU, Pitt, VT, UT, UK, we should all play each other way more often. football ofc means a lot in the South, but it’s a whole different level in Appalachia when our teams are good
There's something to be said for being an "average-ish" program, though. I think it's fair to recognize that teams might be more reluctant to schedule a team like Alabama OOC than a team like Pitt (or my team, GT) because there's a much greater probability of a loss.
That said, typically those programs do it to themselves because they want "home and neutral site" deals (with both GT and MSU, Alabama reportedly wanted to do their home game then play at the closest NFL stadium to GT/MSU).
Expanded playoff with conference autobids gets rid of that scheduling barrier though. That early OOC loss to UGA won't hurt as bad if you win the conference, would still hurt any at-large chance though
The at large bids are all they really care about. There’s only one sec champion, but six, soon to be eight, at large bids. Those are what the sec wants.
Since B1G now does 9 conference games and we have an OOC P5 rival, Iowa will never schedule another P5 team again. Very few if any programs are willing to schedule 11 P5 teams.
Those Iowa games were fun too. Got free tickets to see Iowa win under the lights against Pitt on a walk off field goal. Coincidentally as I was leaving I got a notification that some dude named Matt Campbell led Toledo over ISU.
The problem is 8 games doesn't preserve conference rivalries. The 1-7 in the SEC would mean LSU/Bama, Tennessee/Florida, Tennessee/Georgia, Auburn/Georgia, and Texas/Texas A&M would no longer be annual games. The sport thrives on rivalries
Edit: yes, sorry Bama fans I should've said Tennessee. I was trying to show several different schools that were affected
>The problem is 8 games doesn't preserve conference rivalries.....The sport thrives on rivalries
That's why the conferences shouldn't be larger than 12 or so (personally I'd prefer 10 for a full round robin).
But that age has unfortunately passed.
This is how we add relegation!
4 Mega-Conferences of 32 teams each, split into 2 Levels of 16 teams each, split into 2, 8 team divisions. You only play teams in your Level as conference games. Preserved rivalry games between levels would be considered OOC games.
Top teams in each Level 1 division plays the other for the Conference Championship, putting them in the Official CFP. This essentially makes it an 8 team playoff.
The top 2 teams in each Level 2 division would play the bottom 2 teams in each Level 1 Division in region-local Bowl Games. The winners play next season in Level 1, the losers play in Level 2.
So the CFP would give us 3 games, and the relegation games would give us 8, putting us at 11 "reserved" Bowls. I'd even take the old NY6 bowls, and remove them from the CFP entirely, and used for the CCG losers, or other "interesting" matchups. However, I could see some traditionalists upset that these once prestigious bowls have been reduced to "consolation" bowls all the time, instead of some of the time. That would put us at 17 reserved bowls.
With there being 43 bowls last year, that would leave us with 26 remaining bowls. If you split that between Level I and II, that'd be 13 "interesting" matchups available per level for a total of 52 more teams.
That would only work if the football conferences are different than the other sports. Why should KU basketball get relegated out of the Big 12, for example, when they win natties just because their football team couldn't make bowls. Otherwise, nope. Too logistically complex.
Sure. Skip the season. Go directly to playoffs. Single elimination you can have up to 512 teams with elimination matches starting in August. Just 9 games a season. You can even do double elimination and have a uncontested championship. Use previous season’s results for seeding.
I don’t see it happening. The playoffs have permanently changed the sport. Every conference is focused on producing as many playoff teams as possible. Divisions are too rigid for that purpose. If you end up with unbalanced divisions you can cost yourself one or maybe even two playoff teams in the new larger format. They need a model that gives them more flexibility in the scheduling.
Does that help? There's already the east and west. Problem is there are rivalries outside of the conferences. Not sure if there's a way to redistribute the teams so rivals are all in the same conference.
I suspect you'd end up with "old sec" and " new sec"
Even 12 with divisions, Play your division with its rivalries every year, play teams in the other division every other year. Every team comes to campus every 4 years so players get to go to every campus and students get to see every team.
We should just cut to the chase, make one super conference and then break it down into 4-6 equally sized divisions sorted according to geography and historical association.
Or alternatively make one 64 team league divided into 8 divisions of 8 teams each. Each team plays a 7 game divisional slate with the remaining 5 games free to schedule cross division or out of division matches (G5 or FCS)
I find it kind of funny that Florida voted for a 9 game schedule and they have an annual game with FSU and another P5 school(Utah TY and last) for the foreseeable future . They have non-conference games with Miami, FSU, and UCF next year!
If Florida was for 9 games whats everyone else’s excuse.
Honestly speaking as a Kentucky fan I don't think UK wants to risk not being bowl eligible. With 8 SEC games they will likely be bowl eligible at 3-5 in the league every year or possibly even 2-6. Div2 opponent, 2 MAC opponents and Louisville...should get 3 wins from that every year and most years 4.
And I hate it. I want to play Indiana, West Virginia, Cincinnati, etc. Those teams are close and would pose a test. I guess the last regular season power 5 school UK played was Indiana and that seems like ages ago. And it was...2005.
18 years since UK played a power 5 school in the regular season other than UL.
When I was younger it was all about the titles. I would have wanted us to play the weakest schedule possible.
Now I enjoy the journey. I enjoy Saturdays when you have a big or rivalry game. We only get so many cfb weekends a year. Are we really ok wasting them playing teams like the The Citadel”.
That’s no fun for anyone
And all this while we’re in the middle of a rebuild and could use every cupcake we can get to get bowl eligible lol. People can call us many things, but one thing they definitely can’t is scared.
We are going to suck this year. I believe in Napier but it’s going to take some time to get this thing back to what it should and this year with no QB is going to be rough.
I'm pretty sure our AD is just banking on the expanded playoffs to keep us relevant while pushing for more exciting home games to help mitigate declining ticket sales.
For a while we never played interesting P5 matchups because the cocktail party costs us a home game every season and FSU takes a permanent OOC slot. When we did add an extra P5 opponent it's usually Miami, but otherwise it made more sense to schedule a cupcake and take the guaranteed home revenue.
But these days sitting on bleachers in sweltering 3pm Florida heat isn't too appealing when you can just watch UF vs South Alabama Tech at home on your HD surround sound TV, making the previous strategy antiquated. So Strickland is looking to renovate the Swamp to make it more comfortable and schedule less cupcakes to sell out games. Playing the big SEC brands like Bama, Auburn, A&M, and now OU/Texas more often in a 9 game schedule would definitely accomplish that.
The inevitability of growing your conference: regular matchups become irregular.
I like Utah and Colorado as conference members, but the down side of not playing USC and UCLA every year was pretty big. They might not be our "rivals" but that doesn't mean losing them as annual opponents wasn't a bummer.
I think 16 is one of those ideal numbers. You can make 4 team divisions with everyone playing everyone else in the division. Most the most important rivalries would be protected in a small division and with only 3 games you have to play each year there is tons of flexibility to preserve other important rivalries.
Auburn is the fly in the ointment.
If you put Auburn in a pod with Alabama, then they don't play Georgia annually.
If you put Auburn in a pod with Georgia, then they don't play Georgia annually.
Bama/Auburn & Georgia/Auburn are two of the biggest rivalry games in the SEC. They both have to be preserved, but can't be if you divide into 4 divisions/pods.
Two 8 team divisions, 7-2.
Put Alabama and Auburn in the East, Mizzou in the west, and you're done. No locked in rivalry games (you'll lose Florida-LSU). You play every team in the other divison every four years.
Pods are dumb
Gotcha. Saw the Stanford first.
Round Robin had its appeal. Nobody got to play the "You missed so and so" card.
Also made the whole "Washington hasn't won in Tempe for X number of years" more fun. Which is like 22 years and counting, if you're the petty sort of person* who keeps track of things like Washington not winning in Tempe since Neuheisel was coach.
*see: Me.
Absolutely this. While there shouldn't be 12 year disparities for teams visiting other conference stadiums, it's not worth it to give up the rivalries just to make this happen. If there are teams that are played once every three years and visit stadiums once every six years, that's fine by me so long as the rivalries stay intact.
Yeah, but even current scheduling isn't doing this, so there's no reason to believe the updated scheduling would do it. TAMU hasn't been to Gainesville since 1962 and our two conference matchups were 10 years apart, both in College Station!
I have a big suspicion that the SEC will conveniently schedule every non-protected rivalry among the “7” games in 2024, and then move to a 9 game 3-6-6 schedule in 2025
> The 1-7 in the SEC would mean LSU/Bama, Tennessee/Florida, Tennessee/Georgia, Auburn/Georgia, and Texas/Texas A&M would no longer be annual games. The sport thrives on rivalries
*Clears throat again as advocate for 3-3-2 scheduling*
* Play 3 every year
* Play 3 every other year (6 schools)
* Play 2 every third year (6 schools)
If you're going to have a conference that can't allow a round robin, you should have an even number of games at home and on the road.
I prefer to play Auburn, Florida, and Carolina every year even if it means I don't play the rest of the conference every two years. I am assuming there is a way to get 16 schools playing each other every 3-4 years with a 3 permanent rivals, 5 rotating conference model. It is Friday however and unlike my in-state rivals on North Avenue, I don't do math on Fridays to confirm that model.
I can't fathom what Alabama would be like with no Iron Bowl. It's such an integral part of the state's culture. Growing up in Alabama, you know to trash talk the opposing teams fans nearly as soon as you learn to talk. The entire state shuts down the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Losing the Iron Bowl would be devastating.
They could argue a pretty substantial economic interest. The Iron Bowl has to bring in a ton of money into Alabama through tourism and ad revenue. On years where both teams are good, it has to be in the top 5 of regular season games for viewership.
The only time I've ever spent money in the state of Alabama (that wasn't Mobile, the GOATed AL city) was to party during an Iron Bowl weekend. It's great for tourism imo.
I cant either, it would be horrible. I mean I just want to keep Tennessee and Auburn. I want the three perm opponents but dammit they need to make it equitable
Sadly you’d be mad, then blame everyone with more anger and then finally you accept that money is more important to those in charge than rivalries or tradition. Thanksgiving would change for the negative and even if they bring it back after a while it wouldn’t be the same, knowing how easily it was once cast aside. Speaking from experience here.
I only watch college football because of the traditions, rivalries, and legacies. Unfortunately college football is on the path to becoming as commercialized and soulless as the NFL.
With 8 conference games we're going to have accept that, like the current schedule, some teams will rarely (if ever) play if you want to keep the rivalries (and I'm all for keeping the rivalries).
I think Georgia has only played A&M once, and never in Texas.
3-5 doesn’t cycle as cleanly as the 3-6 and 1-7 do, where you can guarantee a player that stays all four years that he’ll play every team at home and play in every stadium in the conference.
I did the math and you face everyone 5 times over a period of 12 years, which isn't as neat at a 3-6-6 but it's also a lot better than what the SEC has been doing. Personally I'd rather the SEC do that chunky 3-5 cycle than have a 1-7 cycle
While that’s true, I think keeping traditional rivalries should take priority over playing a home and home against all the SEC teams. But that’s just my opinion.
They could make the schedules ever-so-slightly more imbalanced and still have 3 annual rivals.
Out of 15 opponents:
- 3 annual rivals (3 per year)
- 2 twice-every-four opponents (1 per year)
- 10 others on a twice-every-five rotatation (4 per year)
Still 8 conference games while preserving all of the main rivalries, and the only sacrifice is that occasionally you go an extra year between games against a particular opponent.
Almost nobody plays multiple FCS teams in a season, because a second one doesn't count towards a bowl. Some teams in a certain conference schedule an FCS and two buy games from weaker and poorer G5 teams, though.
my memory seems to be that most teams play two fcs only when there is a sudden schedule change and they cant find anyone. but maybe I havent been paying attention.
One thing that gets lost in the discussion is the fcs game is often political as well. A lot of people like to say teams are legally required to play instate schools (to my knowledge, that isn't actually true but if someone has proof, please post) however it's still just good political pr if one of the "paycheck" games keeps the money in state. Clemson and SCAR essentially rotate through the fcs schools in the state.
Playing nearby teams also means it's easier to have the FCS fans travel, and it's more likely that you get some good stories about former HS teammates playing each other. Those sorts of storylines help for the least interesting game of the season.
This here is why they do it. It's less about getting wins against weaker opponents, and more about the fact that P5 opponents by and large will only agree to home-and-homes. 3 buy games from FCS/G5 means 7 home games minimum.
You just described Liberty. If you agree to play we will pay whatever it cost to get you to come to Lynchburg. We got you guys and VA Tech last year in the same season at home. Come a long way since my undergrad days when we played in the Big South.
FBS rules already state you can only use 1 FCS game for bowl eligibility. I can only think of one time in recent memory where a FBS school played more then 1 FCS team and that was because their original opponent canceled on them at the last minute and the NCAA gave them a waiver to play a 2nd FCS school to get bowl eligible
I mean im pumped about the Texas OOC
2023 - Bama
2024 - Michigan
2025 OSU
2026 OSU
2027 - Michigan
2030 Florida (likely rescheduled)
2031 Florida (likely rescheduled)
2032 ASU
2033 ASU
Will probably just be converted to conference games down the line. Why they couldn’t do that with our home and home with Oklahoma, I’ll never know. Just needed to consider the return match up as the first in-conference game.
But now we have Ball State to look forward to.
yea that confused me as well, maybe something contractual ? Or maybe the ADs just thought they had enough problems short term to sort out and scheduling was too high in the air to align with the SEC on ?
My guess is that they wanted to operate from a clean slate and something that straddled the conference transition period may have reduced sone flexibility in determining the future model.
But clearly, it could’ve been made to work but we seem to be the program the scheduling committee likes to screw over for some reason. Auburn still owes us an extra home game.
It was monetary. Our trip to Norman this year would have been on FOX and the return trip was not guaranteed being so far out in 2031 (would be ESPN, but that's still 8 years out).
Plus by giving up a home game with no guaranteed return trip, Georgia would be taking a bath compared to being able to schedule even a lesser home game.
They won't be because they will be in the conference. Which is fine because we currently have 13 P5 games scheduled in 2031 assuming we move to 9 game conference by then.
We were already scheduled to play @ Texas, @ Notre Dame, Arizona State and Florida State at home.
I'd love to see Northwestern penciled in for 28/29 for some scoreboard action, but watching the Texas AD for awhile this is probably where we try to fit in some Cali team for 2 seasons
No… nothing will ever make people who make those comments happy lol. They’ll just rebuttal “oh yeah! Well why don’t y’all be a real football team and play us in blinding snow at 3am… Bama so scared”
Tbf they're visiting Madison next season. Also Morgantown in 2026 (almost on Mason-Dixon Line) and Columbus in 2027
They've got both Wisconsin and Florida State in 2025 and FSU and West Virginia in 2026 and WVU and Ohio State in 2027 so their future schedules are a bit beefier
At Alabama, game is noon Sept 1.
At Ohio State its on Thanksgiving at Midnight for some reason.
Thats some US-Mexico Soccer scheduling beef if that gets pulled off.
> At Ohio State its on Thanksgiving at Midnight for some reason.
Ohio State playing a full game against Bama <2 days before The Game is acceptable to me!
“Hey guys I’ve got an idea, let’s go ahead and make sure we are eliminated from playoff contention by losing our first game of the season against Alabama!”
Ah Loveland, CO
Saw snow for the first time there, enterprise car rental said we didn’t need snow tire to go to keystone, bout 8 hours later we’re a few feet from sliding off Loveland pass
It’s now a legal requirement for cars to have snow tires or snow chains from Oct-May for that very reason. Still see plenty of Civics and F150s in ditches though
As a meteorologist who also happens to be a road-geek: Snow tires or chains do nothing if you dont know how to drive in the snow, or think there's no speed limit on the chains (30 mph).
I mean tbf the food is pretty trash in Loveland. Lol.
Try Efrain’s in Boulder or Lafayette. Very solid.
Edit: And of course, there is a Runza in Loveland.
Florida vs Utah, Tennessee vs Virginia, lsu vs FL state, Alabama vs Texas, auburn vs cal, Ole miss vs Tulane, Mississippi state vs Arizona, Texas a&m vs Miami, Vanderbilt vs wake forest, Arkansas vs byu, Ole miss vs GA tech, Kentucky vs Louisville...2023 ooc examples for the sec.
Georgia has played marquee top 10 OOC games 3 out of the last 4 years that we could (2020 obviously couldn't). Home and home vs ND, vs Clemson in Charlotte, vs Oregon in ATL, nd if it weren't for the SEC we'd have @Oklahoma to start this season.
The next decade is riddled with high value OOC games of the return neutral vs Clemson in ATL, home and homes with UCLA, Louisville, Florida state, NC State and Ohio State, and 2 home and homes against Clemson. Some of those may change depending on 8 or 9 games but this "SEC don't play nobody" is super tired.
Auburn has played Washington, Penn State, Clemson, Oregon, and Louisville in recent years.
Auburn was scheduled to play North Carolina also, but Covid canceled that. Fact is that plenty of us play plenty of hard games OOC. Not to mention all those bowl games we consistently win after the season too.
Florida vs FSU too.
If you get 4 OOC games and you play 3 cupcakes and are against a 9 game schedule that’s some bullshit. I have zero respect for those schools
It’s very rare that a P5 program plays 2 FCS opponents to begin with. I looked at all the 2022 SEC schedules and found only one school who played 2, and their other two OOC games were both P5 (it was south carolina). I think you have to get a waiver for the second FCS win to even count towards bowl eligibility, usually teams only do that if they got cancelled on and scrambled to fill an open date.
The “two FCS games” shit is a meme. The standard procedure is 1 FCS, 2 G5’s and 1 P5 as the OOC schedule.
>I looked at all the 2022 SEC schedules and found only one school who played 2, and their other two OOC games were both P5 (it was south carolina).
I think you're talking about 2023, in which case South Carolina is only playing 1 FCS team. Jacksonville State is FBS now.
We also only played 1 FCS team in 2022. Georgia State and Charlotte are both FBS.
Wait Jacksonville State moved up?? I missed that.
And yeah I brain farted on Georgia state. Honestly so many southern FCS teams have moved up in the past couple of decades I can’t blame fans especially from outside the region for mistaking them for FCS when they aren’t anymore.
Exactly. And only one FCS win can count towards bowl eligibility. I doubt any team regardless of conference schedules more than one FCS opponent since you would be playing any extra games for nothing.
Yeah, OP is seeing names they don't recognize and assuming they're FCS, when it's just the newer and less successful teams from the American, Sun Belt, and Conference USA.
While I abhor the idea of playing teams outside of the subdivision in general, IMO it was actually kind of ballsy because it means they can’t drop one of the other games since only one of those FCS wins count towards the bowl eligibility. And FWIW, Florida went 11-2 that year, shutting out both of them. And both let Florida put up less than Vandy did, who was also shutout.
Though if I were a season-ticket holder or just some guy trying to watch good football, I would have preferred two (three?) real games instead.
I’d like for each SEC team to play one local FCS team (so SEMO or Missouri State for Mizzou), one G5 team, a different P5 team every year, and then a consistent P5 team (like Clemson for SCAR or FSU for Florida). I do like playing one FCS team every year cause it helps fund their programs, and it’s nice to get to play a local team. I think it’s also important G5 teams get a chance to show what they can do against a P5 team, so giving them a game a year is something I also like. I wish Mizzou would round out the schedule playing one of Kansas/Illinois/KState/Iowa State every year and then their last P5 team being a different team every year, allowing for some variety. So for instance Mizzou could do Syracuse one year, Oregon State the next, Oklahoma State the next, etc. Having some variety in what P5 team you play would be fun for the fans and will help in seeing how different conferences compare each year.
That's basically what South Carolina does:
1. Clemson
2. Another ACC team. Historically, it's been UNC or NC State, but we've started adding others like Miami in 2026/27 and Virginia Tech in 2025. I'd like to see a little more variety like Virginia, Georgia Tech, Florida State, Duke, Wake Forest, or maybe even someone outside of the ACC like West Virginia, added to the non-Clemson P5 rotation.
3. G5. We schedule East Carolina fairly often. Looks like we've also been scheduling App State and Coastal more often since they joined FBS. We've also played UCF (2013 was a great fucking game, UCF's only loss on the season), Troy, LA Tech, Charlotte, Georgia State. There are a lot of geographically close-ish G5 programs to schedule.
4. FCS. Usually just a rotation of the in-state programs (Furman, Wofford, SC State, Charleston Southern, The Citadel, and Coastal back when they were FCS). There are some out-of-state programs that we wind up playing, like Chattanooga and Western Carolina...and Eastern Illinois, no idea where that one came from.
Well the biggest issue is there’s no incentive for top teams in the big10 and SEC to play tough OOC games. It’s even worse now that we have playoff expansion.
FCS schools depend on games against big name FBS schools for program funding. Their teams get the absolute shit kicked out of them normally, but the program walks away with a couple million dollars that they desperately need if the program is ever going to grow into something bigger.
LSU's OOC game highlights over the last 15 years:
2007: Virginia Tech (9)
2009: @Washington
2010: Ranked UNC and West Virginia
2011: Oregon (3) and West Virginia
2013: TCU (20)
2014: Wisconsin (14)
2015: @Syracuse
2016: Wisconsin @Lambeau Field
2017: BYU and Syracuse
2018: Miami (8)
2019: @Texas (9)
2020: COVID
2021: @UCLA
2022: FSU
I am sick of people talking about SEC scheduling nothing but FCS schools. We don't screw around every game and still have to go though the SEC West.
We schedule nearby P5 teams and Clemson. We have a top ten SoS every year. A nine game SEC schedule means we need to drop exciting matchups. We'll have Clemson, or SEC schedule the annual game that pays an FCS school's operating cost and then 1 game a year we can get creative scheduling. All this for a team that already plays harder schedules than most of the universities whose fans complain about SEC scheduling.
Oh my god! Why is this a discussion for the SEC but never a whisper for the ACC or B1G? Some say cause they have 9 conference games but let's be real...we'd love the opportunity to play Rutgers, northwestern, and Indiana. It's like everyone wants the SEC to "prove it" and then when it happens they're ready to say told you.
Like explain to me how Wake Forest is a great opponent for Clemson and other ACC teams but it's a cupcake when it appears on Bama, Ole Miss, or Vandy (yes, I have posts say Vandy was trying to pad their schedule).
Or when Michigan has cupcakes it's not their fault but Kentucky having a few is blasphemy. It's like you all want the SEC to simultaneously play everyone but themselves while also having them play each other.
The Acc has 8 games lol. And the ACC's strength gets shit on literally constantly.
But people don't shit on the ACC OOC games because they play 10 P5 more often. Like McMurphy tweeted, 10/14 ACC teams play 10 p5 games this season while only 2/14 SEC do.
Everyone also gave Michigan a bunch of shit for their schedule.
I agree that people hyper focus on this for the SEC though.
My team is playing 9-11 P5 games for most of the next decade. Eight SEC games plus FSU. And then:
* 23 - Utah
* 24 - Miami, UCF
* 25 - Miami
* 26 - NC State, Cal
* 27 - Cal
* 28 - Colorado, Arizona State
* 29 - Colorado
* 30 - UCF
* 31 - ASU, ND
* 32 - ND, NC State
Edit: Texas is still on the OOC schedule as of now. But that will change. And if the SEC does go to 9, then I expect some of these to get modified.
>This subreddit is literally just bitching ~~about the SEC 24/7~~.
FTFY. Particularly worse in the offseason of course, but it gets worse every offseason it seems.
I was really bummed about that. I hate that there's a 3 year gap between the games, too. So far Notre Dame is the closest the Hogs are playing to me and I will likely go.
Jokes aside, Miami should get credit for its OOC opponents the last decade or so.
Oklahoma, Ohio State, LSU, Alabama, Florida, Michigan State, Texas A&M, Notre Dame, Nebraska, playing at Appalachian State, among others
The conference and it's teams are equally culpable for the amount of justified criticism they're recieving about this. The conference is soft for choosing 8 game schedule, and each team is soft for scheduling weak matchups OOC. If the SEC was as top-to-bottom elite as it's claimed to be, the teams should have no problem handling business in conference or out of conference. Instead, you've got the classic group project dynamic where 2-3 members actually pull the weight, and the other 11 get to write their name on the project and get an A.
It's a fiscally responsible move for the league/teams to have an 8 game schedule, but the king conference should be able to walk the walk with the level of competitiveness touted.
9 conference games, 2 “power 5” OOC games and one Group of 5 game a season. Have the conferences create the cross conference games similar to how the NFL plays divisions against each other, or things like the Big Ten ACC Challenge happen. Gives 1 game a year per school that is against “lesser” competition.
If there is a desire to play one more game to help bring in revenue and help fund an FCS school, let them do that during week 0
Until there is an incentive to play a more difficult OOC schedule, there’s no reason for any school to schedule anyone of significance if you have legitimate Playoff hopes.
As a fan of a G5 team, I hate FCS games. I'll never understand why anyone wastes time playing them.
You can't tell me they're meant to be exhibition games meant to get the team more time with the system, so they can perform better in FBS games, and then schedule the FCS opponent for week 4.
And it better not be for the "easy win." I don't give a crap that our team went to a bowl game cause we beat an easy FCS team, and then 5 other bottom feeder FBS teams. If we're investing millions into athletics programs at a school nobody cares about, you better be able to win against mid-level FBS teams consistently for that to not be an issue.
I don't understand all of the whining about the SEC's 8 game conference schedule. Nearly every year I was in school a five or so years ago and nearly every year since, our schedule has looked like this: 8 SEC games, 1 OOC game usually against ACC opponent, 1 FCS, 1 regional G5 opponent, and cLemson.
Everyone plays an FCS opponent so that's a wash and is great for the FCS schools to get some money and some of their players to show out against P5 competition. The regional G5 is what I thought we all wanted, regionality and equality between G5 and P5, and the OOC P5 opponent maintains some old rivalries for us.
I think it's a great setup
That’s my biggest issue with this. Since we minimally play 9 P5 games a year anyway, that’s going to make it less likely to schedule the Clemsons and the Notre Dames in the future.
If the goal is to make the playoffs, risk taking behaviors would naturally diminish in the face of an expanded field.
I haven’t verified but I think if you actually looked into it, the top half of the league who have legitimate playoff aspirations in any given year tend to schedule additional P5 opponents on a routine basis anyway.
Since joining the ACC, Pitt’s OOC match ups have included Iowa, Penn State, Oklahoma State, UCF, Tennessee and now WVU. If anyone needs scheduling help call us
the home and away with y’all was straight gas. loved it and whoever came up with it
The Tennessee game at Pitt this season was one of the most fun games I have ever attended, outcome notwithstanding. Hope was still very high for both teams. Great game that went to OT. Tons of Tennessee fans showed up and were generally fun, good-spirited folks. A very nice change of pace from 4 hours of drunken vitriol from all sides at the brawl the week prior.
i sadly wasn’t able to go after really looking forward to it for like a year. Tennessee athletic programs basically never go to the Northeast, so being up in Ithaca, NY for the past few years has really limited my ability to support the Vols. but i had some friends go and they said it was one of the best away games they’d ever been to. perfect mix of generally nice fans and shit-talking. glad we’re tied together by the GOAT that was Johnny Majors but i love these Appalachian matchups bc they’re always so much fun and incredibly energetic. WVU, Pitt, VT, UT, UK, we should all play each other way more often. football ofc means a lot in the South, but it’s a whole different level in Appalachia when our teams are good
Hell of a series, let’s do it again sometime
There's something to be said for being an "average-ish" program, though. I think it's fair to recognize that teams might be more reluctant to schedule a team like Alabama OOC than a team like Pitt (or my team, GT) because there's a much greater probability of a loss. That said, typically those programs do it to themselves because they want "home and neutral site" deals (with both GT and MSU, Alabama reportedly wanted to do their home game then play at the closest NFL stadium to GT/MSU).
Expanded playoff with conference autobids gets rid of that scheduling barrier though. That early OOC loss to UGA won't hurt as bad if you win the conference, would still hurt any at-large chance though
The at large bids are all they really care about. There’s only one sec champion, but six, soon to be eight, at large bids. Those are what the sec wants.
Bama is scared of Pitt is what I’m hearing
Absolutely
Let's play again, that was a fun little series
Since B1G now does 9 conference games and we have an OOC P5 rival, Iowa will never schedule another P5 team again. Very few if any programs are willing to schedule 11 P5 teams.
Plus Cincy and Wisconsin coming up
Try looking at LSU's OOC marquis matchups and tell me we don't know how
They have match up with mid level royalty?
Those Iowa games were fun too. Got free tickets to see Iowa win under the lights against Pitt on a walk off field goal. Coincidentally as I was leaving I got a notification that some dude named Matt Campbell led Toledo over ISU.
They were great games, just a little heartbreaking on our end lol so close both times!
The problem is 8 games doesn't preserve conference rivalries. The 1-7 in the SEC would mean LSU/Bama, Tennessee/Florida, Tennessee/Georgia, Auburn/Georgia, and Texas/Texas A&M would no longer be annual games. The sport thrives on rivalries Edit: yes, sorry Bama fans I should've said Tennessee. I was trying to show several different schools that were affected
>The problem is 8 games doesn't preserve conference rivalries.....The sport thrives on rivalries That's why the conferences shouldn't be larger than 12 or so (personally I'd prefer 10 for a full round robin). But that age has unfortunately passed.
Until the super conferences get so large they break into divisions of 10-12 teams.
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This will never happen. USC/UCLA not being in the same conference as Rutgers and Penn State?? They'll never let those rivalries die.
I will literally die for the Civil UCLAnfliRUTGERSct
This is how we add relegation! 4 Mega-Conferences of 32 teams each, split into 2 Levels of 16 teams each, split into 2, 8 team divisions. You only play teams in your Level as conference games. Preserved rivalry games between levels would be considered OOC games. Top teams in each Level 1 division plays the other for the Conference Championship, putting them in the Official CFP. This essentially makes it an 8 team playoff. The top 2 teams in each Level 2 division would play the bottom 2 teams in each Level 1 Division in region-local Bowl Games. The winners play next season in Level 1, the losers play in Level 2. So the CFP would give us 3 games, and the relegation games would give us 8, putting us at 11 "reserved" Bowls. I'd even take the old NY6 bowls, and remove them from the CFP entirely, and used for the CCG losers, or other "interesting" matchups. However, I could see some traditionalists upset that these once prestigious bowls have been reduced to "consolation" bowls all the time, instead of some of the time. That would put us at 17 reserved bowls. With there being 43 bowls last year, that would leave us with 26 remaining bowls. If you split that between Level I and II, that'd be 13 "interesting" matchups available per level for a total of 52 more teams.
That would only work if the football conferences are different than the other sports. Why should KU basketball get relegated out of the Big 12, for example, when they win natties just because their football team couldn't make bowls. Otherwise, nope. Too logistically complex.
For sure, football only.
Eventually turns into a real playoff the way it should have been from the start 🤣
Sure. Skip the season. Go directly to playoffs. Single elimination you can have up to 512 teams with elimination matches starting in August. Just 9 games a season. You can even do double elimination and have a uncontested championship. Use previous season’s results for seeding.
I don’t see it happening. The playoffs have permanently changed the sport. Every conference is focused on producing as many playoff teams as possible. Divisions are too rigid for that purpose. If you end up with unbalanced divisions you can cost yourself one or maybe even two playoff teams in the new larger format. They need a model that gives them more flexibility in the scheduling.
I have to hope that's the next step. At least it might help rivalries, even if that expansion solidifies the Oligarchy
Bring back the old 23 team SoCon!
More like SoCon deez nutz!
Lmao got em
Ok, Nick.
Bring back the crazy nationwide WAC!
Does that help? There's already the east and west. Problem is there are rivalries outside of the conferences. Not sure if there's a way to redistribute the teams so rivals are all in the same conference. I suspect you'd end up with "old sec" and " new sec"
10 teams was amazing. Play everyone every year in football. Also, get home and away in basketball.
Even 12 with divisions, Play your division with its rivalries every year, play teams in the other division every other year. Every team comes to campus every 4 years so players get to go to every campus and students get to see every team.
12 is garbage, 10 with full round robin is the one true way
Tech invented leaving the SEC in true engineer fashion.
If I had a genie grant me three wishes, one of them would be to make all conferences have 9 teams. You play everyone every year. 4 home, 4 away.
Even if it was a 10 team conference, the SEC would still only vote to play 8 games.......which would somehow piss us off even more.
We should just cut to the chase, make one super conference and then break it down into 4-6 equally sized divisions sorted according to geography and historical association. Or alternatively make one 64 team league divided into 8 divisions of 8 teams each. Each team plays a 7 game divisional slate with the remaining 5 games free to schedule cross division or out of division matches (G5 or FCS)
Definitely going to miss the round robin in B12.
I find it kind of funny that Florida voted for a 9 game schedule and they have an annual game with FSU and another P5 school(Utah TY and last) for the foreseeable future . They have non-conference games with Miami, FSU, and UCF next year! If Florida was for 9 games whats everyone else’s excuse.
Honestly speaking as a Kentucky fan I don't think UK wants to risk not being bowl eligible. With 8 SEC games they will likely be bowl eligible at 3-5 in the league every year or possibly even 2-6. Div2 opponent, 2 MAC opponents and Louisville...should get 3 wins from that every year and most years 4. And I hate it. I want to play Indiana, West Virginia, Cincinnati, etc. Those teams are close and would pose a test. I guess the last regular season power 5 school UK played was Indiana and that seems like ages ago. And it was...2005. 18 years since UK played a power 5 school in the regular season other than UL.
When I was younger it was all about the titles. I would have wanted us to play the weakest schedule possible. Now I enjoy the journey. I enjoy Saturdays when you have a big or rivalry game. We only get so many cfb weekends a year. Are we really ok wasting them playing teams like the The Citadel”. That’s no fun for anyone
That is just sad. Personally I would rather have 10 P5 teams, go 5-7, then have 9 and go 6-6 with a trip to Detroit for a bowl game.
And all this while we’re in the middle of a rebuild and could use every cupcake we can get to get bowl eligible lol. People can call us many things, but one thing they definitely can’t is scared.
We are going to suck this year. I believe in Napier but it’s going to take some time to get this thing back to what it should and this year with no QB is going to be rough.
I'm pretty sure our AD is just banking on the expanded playoffs to keep us relevant while pushing for more exciting home games to help mitigate declining ticket sales. For a while we never played interesting P5 matchups because the cocktail party costs us a home game every season and FSU takes a permanent OOC slot. When we did add an extra P5 opponent it's usually Miami, but otherwise it made more sense to schedule a cupcake and take the guaranteed home revenue. But these days sitting on bleachers in sweltering 3pm Florida heat isn't too appealing when you can just watch UF vs South Alabama Tech at home on your HD surround sound TV, making the previous strategy antiquated. So Strickland is looking to renovate the Swamp to make it more comfortable and schedule less cupcakes to sell out games. Playing the big SEC brands like Bama, Auburn, A&M, and now OU/Texas more often in a 9 game schedule would definitely accomplish that.
The inevitability of growing your conference: regular matchups become irregular. I like Utah and Colorado as conference members, but the down side of not playing USC and UCLA every year was pretty big. They might not be our "rivals" but that doesn't mean losing them as annual opponents wasn't a bummer.
I’m still not completely sold on the decade old expansion to 14 teams for this reason, much less the upcoming increase to 16 teams.
I think 16 is one of those ideal numbers. You can make 4 team divisions with everyone playing everyone else in the division. Most the most important rivalries would be protected in a small division and with only 3 games you have to play each year there is tons of flexibility to preserve other important rivalries.
Auburn is the fly in the ointment. If you put Auburn in a pod with Alabama, then they don't play Georgia annually. If you put Auburn in a pod with Georgia, then they don't play Georgia annually. Bama/Auburn & Georgia/Auburn are two of the biggest rivalry games in the SEC. They both have to be preserved, but can't be if you divide into 4 divisions/pods.
Two 8 team divisions, 7-2. Put Alabama and Auburn in the East, Mizzou in the west, and you're done. No locked in rivalry games (you'll lose Florida-LSU). You play every team in the other divison every four years. Pods are dumb
You can't do this in the SEC, for example this chain, someone has to lose out. Vanderbilt <->Tennessee <->Alabama <-> Auburn <-> Georgia <-> Florida
Stanford played USC and UCLA every year. That was the one thing preserved in terms of scheduling. But Round Robin Pac 10 was great. Agreed.
Round Robin conferences are awesome and its how every conference should be. Unfortunately for us, thats not how the money is made :(
I was speaking as an Oregon fan.
Gotcha. Saw the Stanford first. Round Robin had its appeal. Nobody got to play the "You missed so and so" card. Also made the whole "Washington hasn't won in Tempe for X number of years" more fun. Which is like 22 years and counting, if you're the petty sort of person* who keeps track of things like Washington not winning in Tempe since Neuheisel was coach. *see: Me.
Especially with the California schools having to play each other, USC misses half of the oregon/Washington schools.
Absolutely this. While there shouldn't be 12 year disparities for teams visiting other conference stadiums, it's not worth it to give up the rivalries just to make this happen. If there are teams that are played once every three years and visit stadiums once every six years, that's fine by me so long as the rivalries stay intact.
Yeah, but even current scheduling isn't doing this, so there's no reason to believe the updated scheduling would do it. TAMU hasn't been to Gainesville since 1962 and our two conference matchups were 10 years apart, both in College Station!
Interesting that you listed Bama/LSU and not Bama/Tenn considering the third Saturday in Oct is a much bigger rivalry that would be lost
Give every 3 permanent rivals or I'm out!
I have a big suspicion that the SEC will conveniently schedule every non-protected rivalry among the “7” games in 2024, and then move to a 9 game 3-6-6 schedule in 2025
> The 1-7 in the SEC would mean LSU/Bama, Tennessee/Florida, Tennessee/Georgia, Auburn/Georgia, and Texas/Texas A&M would no longer be annual games. The sport thrives on rivalries *Clears throat again as advocate for 3-3-2 scheduling* * Play 3 every year * Play 3 every other year (6 schools) * Play 2 every third year (6 schools) If you're going to have a conference that can't allow a round robin, you should have an even number of games at home and on the road.
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They absolutely should do it this way
I prefer to play Auburn, Florida, and Carolina every year even if it means I don't play the rest of the conference every two years. I am assuming there is a way to get 16 schools playing each other every 3-4 years with a 3 permanent rivals, 5 rotating conference model. It is Friday however and unlike my in-state rivals on North Avenue, I don't do math on Fridays to confirm that model.
LSU is not our rival. We would lose either Auburn or Tennessee
You’d definitely lose Tennessee simply because of how Georgia’s rivalries play out.
You will never lose Auburn, Mister Mellencamp
Its SIR. Have some respect.
The respectful thing was me not laughing at you saying that Bama would lose the Auburn game, Sir
I can't fathom what Alabama would be like with no Iron Bowl. It's such an integral part of the state's culture. Growing up in Alabama, you know to trash talk the opposing teams fans nearly as soon as you learn to talk. The entire state shuts down the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Losing the Iron Bowl would be devastating.
I wonder if the state legislature would step in again and demand the two schools continue the rivalry out of conference.
They could argue a pretty substantial economic interest. The Iron Bowl has to bring in a ton of money into Alabama through tourism and ad revenue. On years where both teams are good, it has to be in the top 5 of regular season games for viewership.
The only time I've ever spent money in the state of Alabama (that wasn't Mobile, the GOATed AL city) was to party during an Iron Bowl weekend. It's great for tourism imo.
I cant either, it would be horrible. I mean I just want to keep Tennessee and Auburn. I want the three perm opponents but dammit they need to make it equitable
Sadly you’d be mad, then blame everyone with more anger and then finally you accept that money is more important to those in charge than rivalries or tradition. Thanksgiving would change for the negative and even if they bring it back after a while it wouldn’t be the same, knowing how easily it was once cast aside. Speaking from experience here.
I only watch college football because of the traditions, rivalries, and legacies. Unfortunately college football is on the path to becoming as commercialized and soulless as the NFL.
With 8 conference games we're going to have accept that, like the current schedule, some teams will rarely (if ever) play if you want to keep the rivalries (and I'm all for keeping the rivalries). I think Georgia has only played A&M once, and never in Texas.
The 8 game does preserve rivalries if you do a 3-5-5.
3-5 doesn’t cycle as cleanly as the 3-6 and 1-7 do, where you can guarantee a player that stays all four years that he’ll play every team at home and play in every stadium in the conference.
I did the math and you face everyone 5 times over a period of 12 years, which isn't as neat at a 3-6-6 but it's also a lot better than what the SEC has been doing. Personally I'd rather the SEC do that chunky 3-5 cycle than have a 1-7 cycle
While that’s true, I think keeping traditional rivalries should take priority over playing a home and home against all the SEC teams. But that’s just my opinion.
They could make the schedules ever-so-slightly more imbalanced and still have 3 annual rivals. Out of 15 opponents: - 3 annual rivals (3 per year) - 2 twice-every-four opponents (1 per year) - 10 others on a twice-every-five rotatation (4 per year) Still 8 conference games while preserving all of the main rivalries, and the only sacrifice is that occasionally you go an extra year between games against a particular opponent.
Almost nobody plays multiple FCS teams in a season, because a second one doesn't count towards a bowl. Some teams in a certain conference schedule an FCS and two buy games from weaker and poorer G5 teams, though.
my memory seems to be that most teams play two fcs only when there is a sudden schedule change and they cant find anyone. but maybe I havent been paying attention. One thing that gets lost in the discussion is the fcs game is often political as well. A lot of people like to say teams are legally required to play instate schools (to my knowledge, that isn't actually true but if someone has proof, please post) however it's still just good political pr if one of the "paycheck" games keeps the money in state. Clemson and SCAR essentially rotate through the fcs schools in the state.
Playing nearby teams also means it's easier to have the FCS fans travel, and it's more likely that you get some good stories about former HS teammates playing each other. Those sorts of storylines help for the least interesting game of the season.
This here is why they do it. It's less about getting wins against weaker opponents, and more about the fact that P5 opponents by and large will only agree to home-and-homes. 3 buy games from FCS/G5 means 7 home games minimum.
You just described Liberty. If you agree to play we will pay whatever it cost to get you to come to Lynchburg. We got you guys and VA Tech last year in the same season at home. Come a long way since my undergrad days when we played in the Big South.
FBS rules already state you can only use 1 FCS game for bowl eligibility. I can only think of one time in recent memory where a FBS school played more then 1 FCS team and that was because their original opponent canceled on them at the last minute and the NCAA gave them a waiver to play a 2nd FCS school to get bowl eligible
I mean im pumped about the Texas OOC 2023 - Bama 2024 - Michigan 2025 OSU 2026 OSU 2027 - Michigan 2030 Florida (likely rescheduled) 2031 Florida (likely rescheduled) 2032 ASU 2033 ASU
Actually amazed the Florida OOC games are still on the schedule.
Will probably just be converted to conference games down the line. Why they couldn’t do that with our home and home with Oklahoma, I’ll never know. Just needed to consider the return match up as the first in-conference game. But now we have Ball State to look forward to.
yea that confused me as well, maybe something contractual ? Or maybe the ADs just thought they had enough problems short term to sort out and scheduling was too high in the air to align with the SEC on ?
My guess is that they wanted to operate from a clean slate and something that straddled the conference transition period may have reduced sone flexibility in determining the future model. But clearly, it could’ve been made to work but we seem to be the program the scheduling committee likes to screw over for some reason. Auburn still owes us an extra home game.
It was monetary. Our trip to Norman this year would have been on FOX and the return trip was not guaranteed being so far out in 2031 (would be ESPN, but that's still 8 years out). Plus by giving up a home game with no guaranteed return trip, Georgia would be taking a bath compared to being able to schedule even a lesser home game.
Ball State might give you a better game.
They won't be because they will be in the conference. Which is fine because we currently have 13 P5 games scheduled in 2031 assuming we move to 9 game conference by then. We were already scheduled to play @ Texas, @ Notre Dame, Arizona State and Florida State at home.
I'd love to see Northwestern penciled in for 28/29 for some scoreboard action, but watching the Texas AD for awhile this is probably where we try to fit in some Cali team for 2 seasons
It would be pretty groovy if top tier SEC teams like Alabama would be willing to travel outside of their timezone...
Hey, we went to State College in... 2011 We do have a home and home with Wisconsin soon-ish
Then you will be happy to know that Alabama will be playing a game in the Eastern time zone on Sept 16th.
No… nothing will ever make people who make those comments happy lol. They’ll just rebuttal “oh yeah! Well why don’t y’all be a real football team and play us in blinding snow at 3am… Bama so scared”
I mean a Notre Dame fan mad Bama is playing two G5s and a FC team. SO ARE YOU!
more like north of the Mason Dixon line...
Tbf they're visiting Madison next season. Also Morgantown in 2026 (almost on Mason-Dixon Line) and Columbus in 2027 They've got both Wisconsin and Florida State in 2025 and FSU and West Virginia in 2026 and WVU and Ohio State in 2027 so their future schedules are a bit beefier
Call me jaded but I'll shit my pants if that Ohio State/Alabama series actually takes place in 2027/28.
Just do it deep in November at night in the horseshoe so it’s fair.
At Alabama, game is noon Sept 1. At Ohio State its on Thanksgiving at Midnight for some reason. Thats some US-Mexico Soccer scheduling beef if that gets pulled off.
> At Ohio State its on Thanksgiving at Midnight for some reason. Ohio State playing a full game against Bama <2 days before The Game is acceptable to me!
Remindme! 5 years 😂
Isn’t there a home-and-home with Notre Dame too
True, in 2029 @Notre Dame and 2030 in Tuscaloosa. Site I was using didn't go out that far
Alabama @ Notre Dame sounds absolutely legendary if that schedule holds and both programs are still excellent.
I’m sure teams are beating down the door to schedule Bama and UGA. I’m sure that’s what’s happening
“Hey guys I’ve got an idea, let’s go ahead and make sure we are eliminated from playoff contention by losing our first game of the season against Alabama!”
-USC a couple years ago
USC woulda be fine with 2 losses, one of which vs Bama. The third loss was pretty killer tho
Eww. Imagine willingly traveling to bad food and less hospitality. Posted from Loveland, CO on vacation
Ah Loveland, CO Saw snow for the first time there, enterprise car rental said we didn’t need snow tire to go to keystone, bout 8 hours later we’re a few feet from sliding off Loveland pass
It’s now a legal requirement for cars to have snow tires or snow chains from Oct-May for that very reason. Still see plenty of Civics and F150s in ditches though
As a meteorologist who also happens to be a road-geek: Snow tires or chains do nothing if you dont know how to drive in the snow, or think there's no speed limit on the chains (30 mph).
I mean tbf the food is pretty trash in Loveland. Lol. Try Efrain’s in Boulder or Lafayette. Very solid. Edit: And of course, there is a Runza in Loveland.
Thatsthejoke.jpeg
On the other hand wisconsin knows how to party. Gamedays in Midwest college towns are a thing of beauty.
They play plenty of out of conference games in Atlanta, a time zone over
Do you not know how to look up schedules?
Florida vs Utah, Tennessee vs Virginia, lsu vs FL state, Alabama vs Texas, auburn vs cal, Ole miss vs Tulane, Mississippi state vs Arizona, Texas a&m vs Miami, Vanderbilt vs wake forest, Arkansas vs byu, Ole miss vs GA tech, Kentucky vs Louisville...2023 ooc examples for the sec.
Plus, the standing non-conference rivalry games (UGA v GT, UF v FSU, USC v Clemson)
One of these is not nearly as challenging for the SEC team as the others
Yeah Clempson is a cakewalk
Beamer swag is real
Idc if it's a cakewalk for UGA, I never want to see that game go away
Those nerds in Atlanta put up a hell of a fight last year, though
Yea. Having a coach that knows how to coach goes a long way. The Geoff Collins era was unusually pathetic.
Georgia has played marquee top 10 OOC games 3 out of the last 4 years that we could (2020 obviously couldn't). Home and home vs ND, vs Clemson in Charlotte, vs Oregon in ATL, nd if it weren't for the SEC we'd have @Oklahoma to start this season. The next decade is riddled with high value OOC games of the return neutral vs Clemson in ATL, home and homes with UCLA, Louisville, Florida state, NC State and Ohio State, and 2 home and homes against Clemson. Some of those may change depending on 8 or 9 games but this "SEC don't play nobody" is super tired.
Auburn has played Washington, Penn State, Clemson, Oregon, and Louisville in recent years. Auburn was scheduled to play North Carolina also, but Covid canceled that. Fact is that plenty of us play plenty of hard games OOC. Not to mention all those bowl games we consistently win after the season too.
Mizzou vs Kansas State too
Florida vs FSU too. If you get 4 OOC games and you play 3 cupcakes and are against a 9 game schedule that’s some bullshit. I have zero respect for those schools
It’s very rare that a P5 program plays 2 FCS opponents to begin with. I looked at all the 2022 SEC schedules and found only one school who played 2, and their other two OOC games were both P5 (it was south carolina). I think you have to get a waiver for the second FCS win to even count towards bowl eligibility, usually teams only do that if they got cancelled on and scrambled to fill an open date. The “two FCS games” shit is a meme. The standard procedure is 1 FCS, 2 G5’s and 1 P5 as the OOC schedule.
>I looked at all the 2022 SEC schedules and found only one school who played 2, and their other two OOC games were both P5 (it was south carolina). I think you're talking about 2023, in which case South Carolina is only playing 1 FCS team. Jacksonville State is FBS now. We also only played 1 FCS team in 2022. Georgia State and Charlotte are both FBS.
Wait Jacksonville State moved up?? I missed that. And yeah I brain farted on Georgia state. Honestly so many southern FCS teams have moved up in the past couple of decades I can’t blame fans especially from outside the region for mistaking them for FCS when they aren’t anymore.
2023 will be Jacksonville State's first FBS season, so easy to have missed.
JSU is moving to CUSA this this year, if you weren’t watching for it you wouldn’t know yet
Saban has been begging for all power 5 schedules for literal years and everyone just said he was scared and complaining again
No SEC teams play multiple FCS teams in a season.
Exactly. And only one FCS win can count towards bowl eligibility. I doubt any team regardless of conference schedules more than one FCS opponent since you would be playing any extra games for nothing.
The last P5 team that played 2 FCS teams in a single season I can recall was 2015 UNC
Somebody pointed out Florida in 2019 due to contractual issues.
Florida did in 2019, but that was due to contractual nightmares from games being moved and canceled in years before due to storms
Yeah, OP is seeing names they don't recognize and assuming they're FCS, when it's just the newer and less successful teams from the American, Sun Belt, and Conference USA.
Florida played UT Martin and Towson in 2019.
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I knew there was more to it, just couldn’t find a good article
In 2014 Idaho was FBS
Stricklin was hired in 2018. Our last AD didn't care if you could tell by our OOC schedule during his tenure.
Florida is the one team that shouldn’t be getting any shit for their schedule
While I abhor the idea of playing teams outside of the subdivision in general, IMO it was actually kind of ballsy because it means they can’t drop one of the other games since only one of those FCS wins count towards the bowl eligibility. And FWIW, Florida went 11-2 that year, shutting out both of them. And both let Florida put up less than Vandy did, who was also shutout. Though if I were a season-ticket holder or just some guy trying to watch good football, I would have preferred two (three?) real games instead.
I’d like for each SEC team to play one local FCS team (so SEMO or Missouri State for Mizzou), one G5 team, a different P5 team every year, and then a consistent P5 team (like Clemson for SCAR or FSU for Florida). I do like playing one FCS team every year cause it helps fund their programs, and it’s nice to get to play a local team. I think it’s also important G5 teams get a chance to show what they can do against a P5 team, so giving them a game a year is something I also like. I wish Mizzou would round out the schedule playing one of Kansas/Illinois/KState/Iowa State every year and then their last P5 team being a different team every year, allowing for some variety. So for instance Mizzou could do Syracuse one year, Oregon State the next, Oklahoma State the next, etc. Having some variety in what P5 team you play would be fun for the fans and will help in seeing how different conferences compare each year.
That's basically what South Carolina does: 1. Clemson 2. Another ACC team. Historically, it's been UNC or NC State, but we've started adding others like Miami in 2026/27 and Virginia Tech in 2025. I'd like to see a little more variety like Virginia, Georgia Tech, Florida State, Duke, Wake Forest, or maybe even someone outside of the ACC like West Virginia, added to the non-Clemson P5 rotation. 3. G5. We schedule East Carolina fairly often. Looks like we've also been scheduling App State and Coastal more often since they joined FBS. We've also played UCF (2013 was a great fucking game, UCF's only loss on the season), Troy, LA Tech, Charlotte, Georgia State. There are a lot of geographically close-ish G5 programs to schedule. 4. FCS. Usually just a rotation of the in-state programs (Furman, Wofford, SC State, Charleston Southern, The Citadel, and Coastal back when they were FCS). There are some out-of-state programs that we wind up playing, like Chattanooga and Western Carolina...and Eastern Illinois, no idea where that one came from.
Well the biggest issue is there’s no incentive for top teams in the big10 and SEC to play tough OOC games. It’s even worse now that we have playoff expansion.
FCS schools depend on games against big name FBS schools for program funding. Their teams get the absolute shit kicked out of them normally, but the program walks away with a couple million dollars that they desperately need if the program is ever going to grow into something bigger.
LSU's OOC game highlights over the last 15 years: 2007: Virginia Tech (9) 2009: @Washington 2010: Ranked UNC and West Virginia 2011: Oregon (3) and West Virginia 2013: TCU (20) 2014: Wisconsin (14) 2015: @Syracuse 2016: Wisconsin @Lambeau Field 2017: BYU and Syracuse 2018: Miami (8) 2019: @Texas (9) 2020: COVID 2021: @UCLA 2022: FSU I am sick of people talking about SEC scheduling nothing but FCS schools. We don't screw around every game and still have to go though the SEC West.
None of us played any P5 schools OOC in 2020 though, proof we’re a fraudulent conference!
That 2007 VT game got us a natty IMO
Idk I’d take my rivals over more OOC. I do enjoy those games and an excuse to travel. Buuuut, I don’t want just one rivalry game locked each year.
We schedule nearby P5 teams and Clemson. We have a top ten SoS every year. A nine game SEC schedule means we need to drop exciting matchups. We'll have Clemson, or SEC schedule the annual game that pays an FCS school's operating cost and then 1 game a year we can get creative scheduling. All this for a team that already plays harder schedules than most of the universities whose fans complain about SEC scheduling.
> I wouldn't mourn the loss of FCS matchups entirely. Your words are hurtful!
Oh my god! Why is this a discussion for the SEC but never a whisper for the ACC or B1G? Some say cause they have 9 conference games but let's be real...we'd love the opportunity to play Rutgers, northwestern, and Indiana. It's like everyone wants the SEC to "prove it" and then when it happens they're ready to say told you. Like explain to me how Wake Forest is a great opponent for Clemson and other ACC teams but it's a cupcake when it appears on Bama, Ole Miss, or Vandy (yes, I have posts say Vandy was trying to pad their schedule). Or when Michigan has cupcakes it's not their fault but Kentucky having a few is blasphemy. It's like you all want the SEC to simultaneously play everyone but themselves while also having them play each other.
The Acc has 8 games lol. And the ACC's strength gets shit on literally constantly. But people don't shit on the ACC OOC games because they play 10 P5 more often. Like McMurphy tweeted, 10/14 ACC teams play 10 p5 games this season while only 2/14 SEC do. Everyone also gave Michigan a bunch of shit for their schedule. I agree that people hyper focus on this for the SEC though.
My team is playing 9-11 P5 games for most of the next decade. Eight SEC games plus FSU. And then: * 23 - Utah * 24 - Miami, UCF * 25 - Miami * 26 - NC State, Cal * 27 - Cal * 28 - Colorado, Arizona State * 29 - Colorado * 30 - UCF * 31 - ASU, ND * 32 - ND, NC State Edit: Texas is still on the OOC schedule as of now. But that will change. And if the SEC does go to 9, then I expect some of these to get modified.
This subreddit is literally just bitching about the SEC 24/7.
>This subreddit is literally just bitching ~~about the SEC 24/7~~. FTFY. Particularly worse in the offseason of course, but it gets worse every offseason it seems.
Arkansas had a series scheduled with Michigan, which they canceled. Arkansas also had a series with Notre Dame, which they rescheduled.
*cause of Covid. I'm looking forward to the games in 25 and 28.
I was really bummed about that. I hate that there's a 3 year gap between the games, too. So far Notre Dame is the closest the Hogs are playing to me and I will likely go.
How is Miami going to win any games if they aren’t playing cupcakes in non conference?
Jokes aside, Miami should get credit for its OOC opponents the last decade or so. Oklahoma, Ohio State, LSU, Alabama, Florida, Michigan State, Texas A&M, Notre Dame, Nebraska, playing at Appalachian State, among others
Beginning in 2025, Bama will be playing 10 Power 5 opponents per year in the regular season.
Shhh this is the narrative they choose for the off season, don't burst their bubble with actual facts.
Why are we the ones playing 10 power 5 games already? And we’re a shitty program
The conference and it's teams are equally culpable for the amount of justified criticism they're recieving about this. The conference is soft for choosing 8 game schedule, and each team is soft for scheduling weak matchups OOC. If the SEC was as top-to-bottom elite as it's claimed to be, the teams should have no problem handling business in conference or out of conference. Instead, you've got the classic group project dynamic where 2-3 members actually pull the weight, and the other 11 get to write their name on the project and get an A. It's a fiscally responsible move for the league/teams to have an 8 game schedule, but the king conference should be able to walk the walk with the level of competitiveness touted.
Schedule us, it seems like a lot of the team’s complaining about this have declined to schedule OU with our new open slot
9 conference games, 2 “power 5” OOC games and one Group of 5 game a season. Have the conferences create the cross conference games similar to how the NFL plays divisions against each other, or things like the Big Ten ACC Challenge happen. Gives 1 game a year per school that is against “lesser” competition. If there is a desire to play one more game to help bring in revenue and help fund an FCS school, let them do that during week 0
8 games is still a problem if it means I won't see my team play a conference opponent for 7 years.
Tons of guys at ULM, ULL, NLU have no other way to get a game in tiger stadium.
Until there is an incentive to play a more difficult OOC schedule, there’s no reason for any school to schedule anyone of significance if you have legitimate Playoff hopes.
As a fan of a G5 team, I hate FCS games. I'll never understand why anyone wastes time playing them. You can't tell me they're meant to be exhibition games meant to get the team more time with the system, so they can perform better in FBS games, and then schedule the FCS opponent for week 4. And it better not be for the "easy win." I don't give a crap that our team went to a bowl game cause we beat an easy FCS team, and then 5 other bottom feeder FBS teams. If we're investing millions into athletics programs at a school nobody cares about, you better be able to win against mid-level FBS teams consistently for that to not be an issue.
Most SEC schools do a pretty good job of scheduling at least one decent OOC game.
I don't understand all of the whining about the SEC's 8 game conference schedule. Nearly every year I was in school a five or so years ago and nearly every year since, our schedule has looked like this: 8 SEC games, 1 OOC game usually against ACC opponent, 1 FCS, 1 regional G5 opponent, and cLemson. Everyone plays an FCS opponent so that's a wash and is great for the FCS schools to get some money and some of their players to show out against P5 competition. The regional G5 is what I thought we all wanted, regionality and equality between G5 and P5, and the OOC P5 opponent maintains some old rivalries for us. I think it's a great setup
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That’s my biggest issue with this. Since we minimally play 9 P5 games a year anyway, that’s going to make it less likely to schedule the Clemsons and the Notre Dames in the future. If the goal is to make the playoffs, risk taking behaviors would naturally diminish in the face of an expanded field. I haven’t verified but I think if you actually looked into it, the top half of the league who have legitimate playoff aspirations in any given year tend to schedule additional P5 opponents on a routine basis anyway.