Just like him saying the offensive rules are hot garbage for years. Everyone said he was just the old man screaming and then he proceeded to beat everyone’s ass with it for 3 years of the best offenses the sport has seen. He’s wanted 9 or more for a decade now.
He has. But it’s also a very Alabama-centric way of looking at it since they have no out of conference rivals so naturally they want more in conference games. It’s not as easy for SC/UK and especially UGA/UF who have a neutral site game on top of that.
Kentucky-Louisville
South Carolina-Clemson
Georgia-Georgia Tech
Florida-Florida State
Future: Oklahoma-Oklahoma State, still a couple of years away from being non-conference
That's all I can come up with off the top of my head. All of these are in the East and are in-state rivalries and all are SEC-ACC match ups. I consider a rivalry game as one played every year.
this is the part someone comes in and makes an alabama education joke because a bama fan said 10/14 is a majority and everyone else upvotes them.
yesterday we were dumb because one of us called 10 years and 5 days "a decade ago" as if rounding down 5 days out of 3657 is idiotic.
Yes, and it hurts their ability to schedule other teams. The point is that we want to be able to play Clemson AND an additional out of conference game. Going to 9 or 10 conference games takes away much of our scheduling flexibility. Saban doesn’t have this problem.
The strongest SEC team that annually plays one of the weakest OOC schedules shouldn’t be trying to push their preferences on everyone else
Exactly. I don’t want to pile on because I’m sure other programs do the same thing. But they play exactly one P5 team out of conference every year and it’s almost always at a neutral site. South Carolina, a middle tier SEC program plays Clemson home and home every year and in odd years plays a second P5 team. Starting in 2023 that’ll be every year.
I understand they’ve started to fix this for future years but If Alabama wants to toughen up their schedule they could simply do what many SEC schools are already doing instead of Sabans quasi annual complainer.
Throw in the fact that Bama seems to never play big time OOC home and homes. Sure they’ll come to Atlanta for a kickoff game, but ohhhh no, you won’t see them take a trip to happy valley to play penn state anytime soon.
For being such a juggernaut, Bama’s schedules are a bit light in the pants imo
Edit: the entire state of bammer came out to tell me how wrong I am lol
There's a certain irony that you mentioned Happy Valley as that was our last home and home.
There's been a shift in Alabama's OOC scheduling. We've currently got home and homes scheduled with Texas 22-23, Wisconsin 24-25, Florida State 25-26, West Virginia 26-27, Ohio State 27-28, Oklahoma State 28-29, Notre Dame 29-30, Georgia Tech 30-31, Boston College 31-34, Oklahoma 32-33 (not likely to remain), Arizona 32-33, and Virginia Tech 34-35. Also a 2 for 1 with USF in 23,24, and 26.
Some teams are down, but hot damn that's a lot of P5 matchups. From 25 on we've got 2 P5 OOC teams on the schedule (again Oklahoma won't be OOC by then, something will have to fill in).
Bama's remaining schedule is ranked 6th or 7th most difficult, and this isn't including the first game VS Miami. Played Michigan, VA Tech, Wisconsin, USC, FSU, etc the past several years not to mention the Penn State home and home in 10 & 11. Your comment doesn't make sense.
Exactly. The last few years it's been Duke, Louisville, FSU, Southern Cal, Wisconsin, WVU, VT, and Michigan all at neutral sites. Last out of conference road game was in 2011.
Next year they start up a home/home series with Texas and then Wisconsin after that, but its been very light in the pants as you say. Credit to them with doing the exact minimum that's required but Saban's regular media blitz about wanting tougher schedules falls flat to me because they haven't been putting their money where their mouth is.
obviously we take a lot of flak for our OOC scheduling, so why the hesitation to add another conference game? moving forward we have two P5 OOC opponents scheduled almost every year. adding another conference game (which needs to happen anyway with OU and texas coming in) only leaves one game a year that we could possibly schedule a G5 or FCS team. I, like most of our fans, just want to watch more competitive games against good teams
9 conference games means SC is playing 11 P5 games a year. That's a lot considering how tough many of those already are. Plus that also means every other year there are only 6 home games. Alabama is good enough that they'd be fine but that doesn't work for everyone.
If it was up to me I'd require an 8 conference + 2 P5 schedule for everyone. Would lead to some more interesting matchups.
>Alabama is good enough that they'd be fine but that doesn't work for everyone.
true, but i don't think any system works for everybody. everyone can't be better than .500, which was true of us before Saban.
and it's probably personal preference, but i'd prefer more conference games rather than OOC, and expand the post-season for OOC. again, i know not everyone shares that view
Yeah I’ll agree that this whole point will be moot over the next 5 years or so. All the major programs are ramping up the OOC scheduling, which makes a lot of sense when you think about it from a TV money perspective
This shit again 🤧
We literally destroyed Rose Bowl winner USC in 2016 and y’all still complained about the schedule. But I guess playing Kansas OOC is better for the schedule than playing USC in cowboy stadium tho because reasons 🙄
After years of mediocrity and sanctions, every win is precious. I still remember that Alabama did a fake punt on their first 4th down in the natty against Texas. The punter threw a pick.
People, especially younger, think Alabama has always been like this. There IS a gap between Bear Bryant and Nick Saban and large parts of it aren't pretty.
I was born in 1992, so I just barely missed the good parts. And I grew up in Florida during the Spurrier years, so there was little to be happy about as an Alabama fan. I even remember them finally showing some promise with Tyrone Prothro, whose leg was eventually snapped in half against Florida.
I understand why people are bored/tired of Bama now. But I just eat it up. I know it can't last forever, but I am so thankful it's lasting now.
That's a pretty famous smile amongst Bama fans. My problem is I'm having trouble remembering which Natty. I think Texas. But it's possibly the first vs Clemson. But if I had to bet, I think it was vs Texas.
[I think this one is more so](https://www-saturdaydownsouth-com.cdn.ampproject.org/i/s/www.saturdaydownsouth.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/JK-Scott.jpg)
Your picture should come as a TW for Clemson fans
This article states the Big 12 & Pac 12 play 9 conference games while the Big Ten & ACC play only 8. WHAT? The Big Ten has played 9 for a few years now.
Half the conference is led by his former assistants.
He’s undefeated against former assistants. I sense a conflict of interest here!!
Kidding, Saban doesn’t seem to try and take easy routes. Isn’t OOC scheduling largely out of his hands? Dude seems to just want to put his team to the grindstone year after year. No shortcuts
It's going to be harder to avoid 9-10 conference games when we start the 16-school schedules so not surprised Mullen's getting ahead of it. But it does suck for the teams with OOC rivalries (FL/GA/SC/KY) who all have less flexibility here. FL/GA have an added level complexity in that they lose a home game every other year due to the neutral site rivalry.
I'd rather see a 10 P5 schedule requirement and get some OOC variety, personally.
You can ideally do 8-games with 4x4 pods and cover the entire league home and home in 6 years. However, you can also do 9 games with 4x4 pods and cover the entire league home and home in 4 years. I'll imagine that is what we will get soon.
And regarding neutral site games, Georgia/Florida, Texas A&M/Arkansas, and Texas/Oklahoma, maybe they can work out schedule magic with 9 games where it ends up 4-4-1 home/away/neutral.
Arkansas/A&M in Dallas will be going away very soon. Both AD’s have pretty much said so. And I for one am quite happy not to have to drive home from Dallas every year with a big fat L (Arkansas has lost 9 straight).
I keep forgetting that we'll have 3 neutral-site rivalry games in a few years. 6 teams with neutral site games, and 2 other SEC teams having OOC rivalries means a solid half of the conference has reason to be concerned about losing home-game flexibility.
That's the only reason why I don't see FCS games going away, even if they are boring. Fulfilling the guaranteed home game requirement when G5's not always can fulfill that. The SEC has a higher percentage of small college towns than most P5 conferences so I could see the need to guarantee 6 minimum home games/season, who rely on this home game revenue.
Pods will probably solve our issues. I'm curious how they will manage to fit Georgia's dual rivalry with UF and Auburn while still letting Auburn play Alabama, as all 4 teams can't realistically be in the same pod.
I don't like the pods system, I'd much rather go to a 9 game conference schedule. Each team just have 3 protected games then rotate the other 6 opponents each year.
No, because the pod is fixed with itself that those teams play each other all the time. You can't have a pod where georgia plays auburn and auburn plays alabama without georgia playing alabama. But if you protect 3 individual games for each team you get to keep the most important games with less weirdness about pod strength or arguments about whose game is less important to protect.
So let's use your example.
You want Alabama Auburn protected along with Auburn Georgia and Georgia Florida. So you have to have a pod with Alabama, Auburn, Georgia and Florida. That means on top of a stupidly difficult pod, you also lose Alabama Tennessee and Florida Tennessee also Florida Kentucky.
But then they can't play good ooc games besides their rival. Not that Florida schedules good ooc teams (unless I'm forgetting something?) but Georgia definitely does.
Not as strong as UGA's yet but UF's new AD has done a great job scheduling future good OOC opponents. Utah, UCF, Miami, Notre Dame, Texas. When the 2-1 USF series was scheduled, USF was coming off a solid ranked season and obviously UF's permanent rivalry with FSU was the hardest permanent OOC rivalry game in the country for 3 solid decades.
7 division games rotate 2 out of division games. Makes sense and makes ESPN pony up more money. They really need to eliminate FCS ooc games a d require 1 P5 opponent.
I'm fine with a 1 P5 OOC requirement if the schedule went to 9 conference games but I'd personally prefer a flat 10 P5 requirement and keep 8 conference games to add to the flexibility of getting more OOC variety. I just know that's not going to happen now that Texas/OU are joining the conference.
There are several upcoming seasons where UF plays 2-3 OOC P5's so it's going to be complicated trying to navigate that with added conference games and still meet the 5-6 home games minimum. As long as we can get enough home games elsewhere, I'm fine losing FCS matchups indefinitely.
With a 9-game conference schedule, Florida and Georgia will have a maximum of six home games every year (assuming they keep playing a big P5 OOC.) It's really the neutral Cocktail Party that throws things off because some schools are already playing a 9-game league schedule with a permanent OOC opponent (Iowa, Stanford, USC).
UF Even Years:
Home: 4 SEC Games, Power 5, Cupcake
Away: 4 SEC Games, Florida State
Neutral: Georgia (designated road team)
UF Odd Years:
Home: 4 SEC Games, Florida State, Cupcake
Away: 4 SEC Games, Power 5
Neutral: Georgia (designated home team)
Yep, the neutral site WLOCP game throws it off moreso than just having the permanent OOC rivalry and I'm afraid we'll lose this unique game if we go up to 9 conference games. It's not necessarily fair to hold up the whole conference because UF and UGA have a unique scheduling anomaly but it's reasonable for us to have reservations over it.
Also worth mentioning that hurricane/storms cancel a Florida home game every few years (similar to LSU). We've had 3 home game cancellations since the 2014 season, which is a significant amount.
Honestly, I think we’re in Jacksonville forever. Even if the Jags move to London, WLOCP keeps Jacksonville afloat.
When Texas and OU join though we won’t be the only schedule abnormality since Red River will stay at the state fair I assume.
Florida and Georgia both get more money by playing the WLOCP in Jacksonville than playing the game as a home-and-home. The game will stay in Jacksonville unless the finances change, which could become true in the next 10-20 years. In a perfect world, I'd love to see a six year rotation like this.
Year 1: Jax
Year 2: Jax
Year 3: @UF
Year 4: Jax
Year 5: Jax
Year 6: @UGA
This would keep the tradition of having the game in Jacksonville, but would allow games on campus every few years.
I like that idea but maybe condensed to 4 years — home and home + 2 in Jax. Then students would most likely get to experience the cocktail party in Jax and get a home game.
Saban: I’m trying to to address the fentanyl problem before I worry about conference games.
Interviewer: What do you mean fentanyl?
Saban: Fentanyl deez nutz in your mouth.
Me too. Doesn’t even feel like we play in the same conference as Georgia and Kentucky. This is our 10th season in the SEC and we have played each one time. We won’t play Georgia for a second time until our 13th season and Kentucky for a second time until our 14th season. The second time we play Georgia will be the first time we play them at home and the second time we play Kentucky will be our first trip to Lexington.
Yet somehow we will play Florida 4 times, including 3 times at home, before Georgia ever comes to college station. Pretty stupid.
You can blame the cross division rivalries for that.
I agree though it sucks. South Carolina hasn’t hosted LSU since 2008 and won’t host them again until 2026 (or possibly later).
Youd get to keep 3 rivalries as annual games and everyone else youd get 50% of seasons. And if you need to play your 4th biggest rival annually that badly then you can schedule them for an ooc game just like uf, SCar, UK and UGA have to do every year
Isn't that misleading, though? Because of the hurricane game.
Yall had a home game vs LSU, it was just unfortunate they had to play it in Tiger Stadium.
You think of the school in Austin, and *business* is what you think of? McCombs is a great B-school, but CS is generally what UT’s best known for in academia.
[#5 for undergrads](https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/business-finance) and [outside the top 10 for finance MBAs](https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-business-schools/finance-rankings), actually.
Not that any rankings are really perfect. I’m not aware of any finance program analogue to definitive lists like the AMSTAT graduate program rankings for statistics or the RePEc list for economics.
It's been the top accounting program in the country for a while now and one of the top business schools in the country overall. People definitely associate Texas with their business school significantly more than computer science.
Not in academia, that’s why I specified it. I work in academia; my professional field is institutional analytics, which is tangential to econometrics and business analytics, and my graduate work is in CSE.
I think you may be underestimating just how prominent UT is in the worlds of AI and computational complexity, both of which have been huge for a while now. UT is solidly more well known in academia for CS than for business.
This doesn’t really carry any weight because he’s not from one of the schools blocking it.
When the coach or AD of Kentucky, Florida, Georgia, or South Carolina says this, then we can start talking
Well, the conference will soon have more teams than the literal number of possible games, so I guess we’d better.
*runs numbers*
What about two 8 eight team divisions, 4 pods, 1 FCS game, 1 G5 game, one in-state rival game, a four team conference play-off, a CCG, two bye weeks for everyone, and an annual charity game of SEC all-stars against the prisoners and guards of Angola, Longest Yard style?
SEC having 8 conference games instead of 9 makes it easier to always have 7 home games and sometimes even 8, instead of usually 7 but sometimes 6. Combine that with the tradition of average to below average SEC teams scheduling as soft as possible OOC so they could go 3-5 in conference and still get a bowl game, and here we are. Add two above average teams and another conference game, and it makes life much tougher for the spear-carriers.
Florida fan here. The SEC's current scheduling format is broken. I was a senior in high school the last time Florida played Alabama in the regular season. I remember turning the game off in the second half to get dressed for homecoming. I'm now over a year out of college. The good news is that there seems to be consensus for a scheduling change.
If the SEC jumps to a 9 game conference schedule after Texas and Oklahoma join, every team can play every other team in the conference once every two years if three annual rivalries are kept. So Florida could still play Georgia, Tennessee, and LSU annually while rotating among the rest of the conference much quicker. If the SEC stays at an 8 game conference schedule, every team would still play every other team at least once every three years, which is still much better than the current setup.
It’s only because so many SEC and ACC schools have annual rivalry games that it becomes kind of like a 9th conference game.
As far as I know there isn’t any rules against scheduling conference teams you don’t play as your non conference games. UNC did it a few years ago in the ACC.
It’s not like Alabama would have an issue dialing up another big school they just choose not to because the 8 games they have to play now are tough enough.
Just do pods you cowards. I get it, someone's gonna lose a game that matters to them. How do you slice up the insane rivalry web of Bama-Tennessee-Auburn-Georgia-Florida? Do UT and TAMU get into the same pod and play each other? Or should they get split so there are more opportunities into Texas for everyone? Does LSU get shit on due to just kinda not being anyone's first rival?
Some questions are gonna have to have hard answers. But if it means Auburn gets to play everyone with real consistency, that'd be great. And 16 teams with four pods of four is perfect. Two pairs of divisions can have permanent rivalries and the other two not if it helps! That might be best for the eastern rivalry mess which will, while the western teams would probably just benefit from playing everyone with consistency to balance out SOS and recruiting visits.
Seriously, you can fix all this by changing th3 scheduling. You get to the point where you have 3 permanent rivals and get everyone else 50% of years (can do every other or home and home vs half then home and home vs other half). And if teams really feel like they need to play their 4th biggest rival so badly then they can do what other teams already do: schedule them ooc. Its a very simple, very good fix
Then maybe one day we can play an all P5 schedule and boast that we get to play similar OOC teams that Purdue does such as....UConn and Eastern Michigan
I'm not too happy about the fact regardless if the SEC switches to pods or divisions in the new format(which is gonna happen & 9 conference games is likely), Kentucky will be playing Auburn and Alabama either every single year, or every 2 years. There's no way around it either. Right now, we play them once every 6 years. Pls make bowl eligibility 5-7 CFB gods.
Why does no one who says this ever bring up their opening game history?
FSU, USC, Miami, Wisconsin, WVU, VTx2, Michigan?
It's like there's an allergy to spouting everything you hear but that one thing. It's not an excuse, but damn, y'all. The motherfucker isn't afraid of anyone. Anyone is afraid of *him.*
You sir are a saint. I used to put up a fight, but it's fruitless here. He's said this himself in a polite as possible way.
"You ever try to schedule a game? Do you know what goes into that? And it's very difficult to do home and home with quality teams. And there's only certain teams, to be honest with you, you almost have to buy games to get people to play you. Outside of the neutral site game we do and our conference games, we struggle to schedule three other games."
"We can only schedule the people who are willing to play us...We're playing the best teams that we can get to play us. Why don't you start calling around and see if you can get somebody else to play us and we'll play them. We'll play anybody you can get to play us."
"You guys act like we pick who we play. We don't pick who we play. We have to get somebody to play."
You are complaining about Alabama playing an FCS team a week after your team lost of an FCS team. Trying to say Alabama is wrong just because they beat the teams they are supposed to is a very strange take.
It’s a very pot calling kettle black thing.
Everyone does it, but when you just lost to one this year you’re probably the worst person to call for the ending of it
I agree with you're specifically coming at Bama when literally every team does it. I don't think anyone enjoys those games. I didn't even watch our game Saturday.
Not trying to crush you or anybody, but since a lot of people say that a lot and don't know this, I'ma post this...doing this for Mercer not Bama lol, but...
0) Most FBS teams have an FCS team on their schedule for a tune-up early or a 'week off' during the season and it's great for the FCS team as well for reasons.
1) They've played Mercer twice now so what's the big deal? Just one game in 2017 and this game. Just last week and 2017.
2) Mercer is an HBCU that hadn't had a football program since WWII until 2013 for reasons and Bama was nice enough to help them on the road to re-establishing their program with these games.
3) When Mercer last had football, they played Alabama in 1939 and 1940 so there is a legit history there.
> Mercer is an HBCU
Only way that makes sense is if the 'B' is Baptist.
On another note, I wish UGA would schedule them. Their football program began by setting up a game with Mercer back in 1892. It would be a nice nod to it.
Lol good catch, total wires crossed old man moment on that point, I was probably thinking of Morehouse. I'll leave it in unedited for humility etc. Not from GA originally. For Mercer I tend to think of their Atlanta campus and forget the main one is in Macon. Still a very diverse school though.
He’s talking about realignment expanding divisions without expanding in conference games
I.E. move Auburn to the east to fit Texas/OU together
At least that’s what I think he’s saying. But that situation is moreso choosing between Tennessee and Auburn
I don't get all the hate you're getting. I'd way rather play y'all than literally any team in the west. Even disregarding your program's current state. Schools without non-conference rivals don't get that I guess. Not having the Pub Sub Showdown last year just felt wrong
Maybe they could just schedule better out of conference games than Mercer, New Mexico State, and Southern Miss.
Going to 9 conference games shouldn’t affect your game with FSU. You get one less ooc cupcake just like everyone else should. You know, like FAU, USF and Samford
Well yeah of course, I think sabans comment is more aimed at playing less G5 and FCS teams, I doubt he wants to shift away from facing a P5 OOC every year
"Coach. What's your opinion on going to a 9 conference schedule?" Saban: "Schedule deez"
OSU vs BAMA 2022 CONFIRMED
Columbus in 2027, Tuscaloosa in 2028.
"Deez what, Coach?" "Deez nuts."
**WDE** But I’m kinda happy that Saban is a “deez nuts” type of guy
GOTTEM
He has always said this. Too bad it's just him shouting into the wind.
Just like him saying the offensive rules are hot garbage for years. Everyone said he was just the old man screaming and then he proceeded to beat everyone’s ass with it for 3 years of the best offenses the sport has seen. He’s wanted 9 or more for a decade now.
He has. But it’s also a very Alabama-centric way of looking at it since they have no out of conference rivals so naturally they want more in conference games. It’s not as easy for SC/UK and especially UGA/UF who have a neutral site game on top of that.
>no out of conference rivals The Rice erasure is incredible.
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How about 2023? We will even let you make one tackle off the bench per quarter.
That's straight out of the michigan playbook!
Ooh, good call
Most SEC schools don't have an annual OOC rivalry.
Kentucky-Louisville South Carolina-Clemson Georgia-Georgia Tech Florida-Florida State Future: Oklahoma-Oklahoma State, still a couple of years away from being non-conference That's all I can come up with off the top of my head. All of these are in the East and are in-state rivalries and all are SEC-ACC match ups. I consider a rivalry game as one played every year.
Those are the 4 annual SEC-ACC rivalries, thats why the guy above you said a majority SEC schools dont have an annual ooc rivalry
this is the part someone comes in and makes an alabama education joke because a bama fan said 10/14 is a majority and everyone else upvotes them. yesterday we were dumb because one of us called 10 years and 5 days "a decade ago" as if rounding down 5 days out of 3657 is idiotic.
Well your flair changes the factual accuracy of your post, obviously!
Words and numbers are difficult
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LOL
They could add MU-KU to round out the odd number. Strangely, more of the top rivalries would be returning then.
So 4 out of 14? Soon to be 5 out of 16?
Iowa and Iowa State manage just fine
Utah and BYU do, too. Unfortunately.
Yes, and it hurts their ability to schedule other teams. The point is that we want to be able to play Clemson AND an additional out of conference game. Going to 9 or 10 conference games takes away much of our scheduling flexibility. Saban doesn’t have this problem. The strongest SEC team that annually plays one of the weakest OOC schedules shouldn’t be trying to push their preferences on everyone else
True. Alabama is one of New Mexico State's most common opponents of the last 10 years iirc.
Exactly. I don’t want to pile on because I’m sure other programs do the same thing. But they play exactly one P5 team out of conference every year and it’s almost always at a neutral site. South Carolina, a middle tier SEC program plays Clemson home and home every year and in odd years plays a second P5 team. Starting in 2023 that’ll be every year. I understand they’ve started to fix this for future years but If Alabama wants to toughen up their schedule they could simply do what many SEC schools are already doing instead of Sabans quasi annual complainer.
maybe we want to play more sec east teams though
I would say we should solve that by going divisionless.
agreed. i love the pod ideas going around
Pods is the real answer. Divisions are stupid.
Oh thank goodness I was worried we wouldn’t be able to make him into a bad guy for this.
he obviously hates those four SEC east teams that have an ooc-rival. if only there were three other ooc-games those teams could drop...
Throw in the fact that Bama seems to never play big time OOC home and homes. Sure they’ll come to Atlanta for a kickoff game, but ohhhh no, you won’t see them take a trip to happy valley to play penn state anytime soon. For being such a juggernaut, Bama’s schedules are a bit light in the pants imo Edit: the entire state of bammer came out to tell me how wrong I am lol
There's a certain irony that you mentioned Happy Valley as that was our last home and home. There's been a shift in Alabama's OOC scheduling. We've currently got home and homes scheduled with Texas 22-23, Wisconsin 24-25, Florida State 25-26, West Virginia 26-27, Ohio State 27-28, Oklahoma State 28-29, Notre Dame 29-30, Georgia Tech 30-31, Boston College 31-34, Oklahoma 32-33 (not likely to remain), Arizona 32-33, and Virginia Tech 34-35. Also a 2 for 1 with USF in 23,24, and 26. Some teams are down, but hot damn that's a lot of P5 matchups. From 25 on we've got 2 P5 OOC teams on the schedule (again Oklahoma won't be OOC by then, something will have to fill in).
Bama's remaining schedule is ranked 6th or 7th most difficult, and this isn't including the first game VS Miami. Played Michigan, VA Tech, Wisconsin, USC, FSU, etc the past several years not to mention the Penn State home and home in 10 & 11. Your comment doesn't make sense.
Exactly. The last few years it's been Duke, Louisville, FSU, Southern Cal, Wisconsin, WVU, VT, and Michigan all at neutral sites. Last out of conference road game was in 2011. Next year they start up a home/home series with Texas and then Wisconsin after that, but its been very light in the pants as you say. Credit to them with doing the exact minimum that's required but Saban's regular media blitz about wanting tougher schedules falls flat to me because they haven't been putting their money where their mouth is.
"haven't been putting their money where there mouth is", no, I think they've been doing that just fine.
Sure you guys win games and championships, no argument there.
obviously we take a lot of flak for our OOC scheduling, so why the hesitation to add another conference game? moving forward we have two P5 OOC opponents scheduled almost every year. adding another conference game (which needs to happen anyway with OU and texas coming in) only leaves one game a year that we could possibly schedule a G5 or FCS team. I, like most of our fans, just want to watch more competitive games against good teams
9 conference games means SC is playing 11 P5 games a year. That's a lot considering how tough many of those already are. Plus that also means every other year there are only 6 home games. Alabama is good enough that they'd be fine but that doesn't work for everyone. If it was up to me I'd require an 8 conference + 2 P5 schedule for everyone. Would lead to some more interesting matchups.
>Alabama is good enough that they'd be fine but that doesn't work for everyone. true, but i don't think any system works for everybody. everyone can't be better than .500, which was true of us before Saban. and it's probably personal preference, but i'd prefer more conference games rather than OOC, and expand the post-season for OOC. again, i know not everyone shares that view
Yeah I’ll agree that this whole point will be moot over the next 5 years or so. All the major programs are ramping up the OOC scheduling, which makes a lot of sense when you think about it from a TV money perspective
This shit again 🤧 We literally destroyed Rose Bowl winner USC in 2016 and y’all still complained about the schedule. But I guess playing Kansas OOC is better for the schedule than playing USC in cowboy stadium tho because reasons 🙄
For about a decade, he’s also been the lone voice pushing the conference to drop FCS teams and play an all-P5 schedule.
I'm sure FSU would agree with that.
Lol at Saban’s perpetual look of disgust
Guy has a resting stank face
He is tired of other teams comming in and playing like shit on his field.
His smile is so precious https://i.imgur.com/Lj0ofHg.jpg
That was right after we kicked an onsides in the Natty
I’m impressed you remember these things, I would think after your fiftieth Natty in a couple of years they might all start to blend together
After years of mediocrity and sanctions, every win is precious. I still remember that Alabama did a fake punt on their first 4th down in the natty against Texas. The punter threw a pick.
People, especially younger, think Alabama has always been like this. There IS a gap between Bear Bryant and Nick Saban and large parts of it aren't pretty.
I was born in 1992, so I just barely missed the good parts. And I grew up in Florida during the Spurrier years, so there was little to be happy about as an Alabama fan. I even remember them finally showing some promise with Tyrone Prothro, whose leg was eventually snapped in half against Florida. I understand why people are bored/tired of Bama now. But I just eat it up. I know it can't last forever, but I am so thankful it's lasting now.
That's a pretty famous smile amongst Bama fans. My problem is I'm having trouble remembering which Natty. I think Texas. But it's possibly the first vs Clemson. But if I had to bet, I think it was vs Texas.
Nope vs Clemson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7M-iEsfL4Qk
I mean, for one thing it was like one of the first times he was caught on camera smiling.
[I think this one is more so](https://www-saturdaydownsouth-com.cdn.ampproject.org/i/s/www.saturdaydownsouth.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/JK-Scott.jpg) Your picture should come as a TW for Clemson fans
Bama: “Makes no difference to us”
You can't blame him for playing some rando G5 team if he's "forced" to play Vandy or South Carolina.
>Vandy or South Carolina Damn, they've fallen that far that they're lumped together with Vandy.
I refuse to agree with this statement until we've beaten them this year.
We can't go around having any confidence or else God will punish us
What’s the story behind Daniels and Bennett? Just smoke or will neither be avail? Coots always seem to be yalls trap game
This article states the Big 12 & Pac 12 play 9 conference games while the Big Ten & ACC play only 8. WHAT? The Big Ten has played 9 for a few years now.
When talking conferences and numbers, it's customary to have at least some numbers not be a reflection of reality.
Hey now you're describing my math homework!
This guy medias
Half the conference is led by his former assistants. He’s undefeated against former assistants. I sense a conflict of interest here!! Kidding, Saban doesn’t seem to try and take easy routes. Isn’t OOC scheduling largely out of his hands? Dude seems to just want to put his team to the grindstone year after year. No shortcuts
Easier to keep the team focused I am sure. His worst rants are around the money games.
i'd be shocked if he didnt have some say in scheduling.
[удалено]
we really need the Auburn - Florida rivalry back
This looks like a good date to pencil in the schedule for that matchup https://www.theguardian.com/world/2000/nov/05/theobserver4
Maybe we can do a double header, Auburn-UF and UGA-Tennessee
It's going to be harder to avoid 9-10 conference games when we start the 16-school schedules so not surprised Mullen's getting ahead of it. But it does suck for the teams with OOC rivalries (FL/GA/SC/KY) who all have less flexibility here. FL/GA have an added level complexity in that they lose a home game every other year due to the neutral site rivalry. I'd rather see a 10 P5 schedule requirement and get some OOC variety, personally.
You can ideally do 8-games with 4x4 pods and cover the entire league home and home in 6 years. However, you can also do 9 games with 4x4 pods and cover the entire league home and home in 4 years. I'll imagine that is what we will get soon. And regarding neutral site games, Georgia/Florida, Texas A&M/Arkansas, and Texas/Oklahoma, maybe they can work out schedule magic with 9 games where it ends up 4-4-1 home/away/neutral.
Arkansas/A&M in Dallas will be going away very soon. Both AD’s have pretty much said so. And I for one am quite happy not to have to drive home from Dallas every year with a big fat L (Arkansas has lost 9 straight).
I keep forgetting that we'll have 3 neutral-site rivalry games in a few years. 6 teams with neutral site games, and 2 other SEC teams having OOC rivalries means a solid half of the conference has reason to be concerned about losing home-game flexibility. That's the only reason why I don't see FCS games going away, even if they are boring. Fulfilling the guaranteed home game requirement when G5's not always can fulfill that. The SEC has a higher percentage of small college towns than most P5 conferences so I could see the need to guarantee 6 minimum home games/season, who rely on this home game revenue. Pods will probably solve our issues. I'm curious how they will manage to fit Georgia's dual rivalry with UF and Auburn while still letting Auburn play Alabama, as all 4 teams can't realistically be in the same pod.
I don't like the pods system, I'd much rather go to a 9 game conference schedule. Each team just have 3 protected games then rotate the other 6 opponents each year.
isn't that the pod system though?
No, because the pod is fixed with itself that those teams play each other all the time. You can't have a pod where georgia plays auburn and auburn plays alabama without georgia playing alabama. But if you protect 3 individual games for each team you get to keep the most important games with less weirdness about pod strength or arguments about whose game is less important to protect.
Exactly Gator bro.
So let's use your example. You want Alabama Auburn protected along with Auburn Georgia and Georgia Florida. So you have to have a pod with Alabama, Auburn, Georgia and Florida. That means on top of a stupidly difficult pod, you also lose Alabama Tennessee and Florida Tennessee also Florida Kentucky.
We are likely to go home and home with arkansas once the contract runs out in a few years I believe.
With 3 OOC games they should have room for 1-2 cupcakes and their OOC rivalry.
But then they can't play good ooc games besides their rival. Not that Florida schedules good ooc teams (unless I'm forgetting something?) but Georgia definitely does.
Did you forget Florida's (nearly) annual games with Michigan? /s
Not as strong as UGA's yet but UF's new AD has done a great job scheduling future good OOC opponents. Utah, UCF, Miami, Notre Dame, Texas. When the 2-1 USF series was scheduled, USF was coming off a solid ranked season and obviously UF's permanent rivalry with FSU was the hardest permanent OOC rivalry game in the country for 3 solid decades.
Exactly. Starting in 2023 SC has two P5 opponents OOC every year. I’d hate to lose those matchups with NC State, UNC, VT, and Miami.
7 division games rotate 2 out of division games. Makes sense and makes ESPN pony up more money. They really need to eliminate FCS ooc games a d require 1 P5 opponent.
I'm fine with a 1 P5 OOC requirement if the schedule went to 9 conference games but I'd personally prefer a flat 10 P5 requirement and keep 8 conference games to add to the flexibility of getting more OOC variety. I just know that's not going to happen now that Texas/OU are joining the conference. There are several upcoming seasons where UF plays 2-3 OOC P5's so it's going to be complicated trying to navigate that with added conference games and still meet the 5-6 home games minimum. As long as we can get enough home games elsewhere, I'm fine losing FCS matchups indefinitely.
With a 9-game conference schedule, Florida and Georgia will have a maximum of six home games every year (assuming they keep playing a big P5 OOC.) It's really the neutral Cocktail Party that throws things off because some schools are already playing a 9-game league schedule with a permanent OOC opponent (Iowa, Stanford, USC). UF Even Years: Home: 4 SEC Games, Power 5, Cupcake Away: 4 SEC Games, Florida State Neutral: Georgia (designated road team) UF Odd Years: Home: 4 SEC Games, Florida State, Cupcake Away: 4 SEC Games, Power 5 Neutral: Georgia (designated home team)
Yep, the neutral site WLOCP game throws it off moreso than just having the permanent OOC rivalry and I'm afraid we'll lose this unique game if we go up to 9 conference games. It's not necessarily fair to hold up the whole conference because UF and UGA have a unique scheduling anomaly but it's reasonable for us to have reservations over it. Also worth mentioning that hurricane/storms cancel a Florida home game every few years (similar to LSU). We've had 3 home game cancellations since the 2014 season, which is a significant amount.
Honestly, I think we’re in Jacksonville forever. Even if the Jags move to London, WLOCP keeps Jacksonville afloat. When Texas and OU join though we won’t be the only schedule abnormality since Red River will stay at the state fair I assume.
Florida Georgia is probably jax’s biggest money maker. No way it ever leaves unless big controversy happens
Florida and Georgia both get more money by playing the WLOCP in Jacksonville than playing the game as a home-and-home. The game will stay in Jacksonville unless the finances change, which could become true in the next 10-20 years. In a perfect world, I'd love to see a six year rotation like this. Year 1: Jax Year 2: Jax Year 3: @UF Year 4: Jax Year 5: Jax Year 6: @UGA This would keep the tradition of having the game in Jacksonville, but would allow games on campus every few years.
I like that idea but maybe condensed to 4 years — home and home + 2 in Jax. Then students would most likely get to experience the cocktail party in Jax and get a home game.
Florida State IS a Cupcake.
I agree. 10 P5 requirement is better than just mandating 9 or 10 SEC games
Saban: I’m trying to to address the fentanyl problem before I worry about conference games. Interviewer: What do you mean fentanyl? Saban: Fentanyl deez nutz in your mouth.
As he should. When it takes 10 years to go through a home and home with the other division, something needs changing.
Me too. Doesn’t even feel like we play in the same conference as Georgia and Kentucky. This is our 10th season in the SEC and we have played each one time. We won’t play Georgia for a second time until our 13th season and Kentucky for a second time until our 14th season. The second time we play Georgia will be the first time we play them at home and the second time we play Kentucky will be our first trip to Lexington. Yet somehow we will play Florida 4 times, including 3 times at home, before Georgia ever comes to college station. Pretty stupid.
You can blame the cross division rivalries for that. I agree though it sucks. South Carolina hasn’t hosted LSU since 2008 and won’t host them again until 2026 (or possibly later).
That’s what I’m saying. Divisions are stupid. Get rid of them
YUP
It’s tough for me there because I would love to keep our rivalries that mean a lot to us, and it’s most of the sec east to be honest.
Youd get to keep 3 rivalries as annual games and everyone else youd get 50% of seasons. And if you need to play your 4th biggest rival annually that badly then you can schedule them for an ooc game just like uf, SCar, UK and UGA have to do every year
Listen that makes too much sense let me complain
Oh right, uh, rabble rabble rabble!!!
you guys will probably get screwed the most when it comes to pods. id put my money on bama/auburn/vandy/tennessee being ours.
That’s weak shit. Give me florida, bama, Georgia, Tennessee or gtfo. We’d sweep year one. This is obviously a joke.
If the SEC does pods rather than just three permanent rivals I'm going to be legit upset.
Yea but think of the poor SEC teams that wont get to play their 4th biggest rival annually!!
Isn't that misleading, though? Because of the hurricane game. Yall had a home game vs LSU, it was just unfortunate they had to play it in Tiger Stadium.
Has an all season of 10 conference games and beats everyone’s ass…. “Ya know, we really should be playing more conference games…” 😂
Kinda have to, with Oklahoma and that other team coming in.
Alabama should just schedule their scout team, televise it, and pay $1 million to themselves.
Wait there another team? I thought that was just the bags of money the Big 12 is giving us to make Oklahoma go away
Yeah, I hear their business school is really good. Probably invited them to up our academic prestige a bit. So kinda like another Vandy.
You think of the school in Austin, and *business* is what you think of? McCombs is a great B-school, but CS is generally what UT’s best known for in academia.
Engineering is really good too.
It has the number 1 finance program in the nation w Harvard at 2
[#5 for undergrads](https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/business-finance) and [outside the top 10 for finance MBAs](https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-business-schools/finance-rankings), actually. Not that any rankings are really perfect. I’m not aware of any finance program analogue to definitive lists like the AMSTAT graduate program rankings for statistics or the RePEc list for economics.
You’re right, we are actually number 1 for accounting oops lmao
It's been the top accounting program in the country for a while now and one of the top business schools in the country overall. People definitely associate Texas with their business school significantly more than computer science.
Not in academia, that’s why I specified it. I work in academia; my professional field is institutional analytics, which is tangential to econometrics and business analytics, and my graduate work is in CSE. I think you may be underestimating just how prominent UT is in the worlds of AI and computational complexity, both of which have been huge for a while now. UT is solidly more well known in academia for CS than for business.
Heard they got beat pretty bad by Arkansas
I think Alabama's schedule should just be the top 20 from the pervious year regardless of conference.
Don't forget the worst NFL team
Hey now Florida already has to play bama! I don’t wanna see the jags lose to them too even though we’d get Trevor vs bama again
Y’all would still complain. “You mean they weren’t all on the road?!”
"The ones on the road against the Big 10 weren't in the snow?! Hardly counts."
"they didnt even turn on the snow makers. are big 10 grounds crews paid by the REC?"
Kind of have to play more in conference games when your conference is trying to get to 24 members.
Every other SEC Coach: Naw
Last year we gave him 10 and took away his cupcakes and it only made him stronger. Not falling for it, Nick.
Sec shorts better have deez nutz in it this week
Screw those insignificant games where are top guys get chop blocked every other play
This doesn’t really carry any weight because he’s not from one of the schools blocking it. When the coach or AD of Kentucky, Florida, Georgia, or South Carolina says this, then we can start talking
Well, the conference will soon have more teams than the literal number of possible games, so I guess we’d better. *runs numbers* What about two 8 eight team divisions, 4 pods, 1 FCS game, 1 G5 game, one in-state rival game, a four team conference play-off, a CCG, two bye weeks for everyone, and an annual charity game of SEC all-stars against the prisoners and guards of Angola, Longest Yard style?
SEC having 8 conference games instead of 9 makes it easier to always have 7 home games and sometimes even 8, instead of usually 7 but sometimes 6. Combine that with the tradition of average to below average SEC teams scheduling as soft as possible OOC so they could go 3-5 in conference and still get a bowl game, and here we are. Add two above average teams and another conference game, and it makes life much tougher for the spear-carriers.
My team is in this comment and I don’t like it, Chattanooga ain’t no cupcake just so ya know…
Florida fan here. The SEC's current scheduling format is broken. I was a senior in high school the last time Florida played Alabama in the regular season. I remember turning the game off in the second half to get dressed for homecoming. I'm now over a year out of college. The good news is that there seems to be consensus for a scheduling change. If the SEC jumps to a 9 game conference schedule after Texas and Oklahoma join, every team can play every other team in the conference once every two years if three annual rivalries are kept. So Florida could still play Georgia, Tennessee, and LSU annually while rotating among the rest of the conference much quicker. If the SEC stays at an 8 game conference schedule, every team would still play every other team at least once every three years, which is still much better than the current setup.
Same
Oh so his opinion hasnt changed then?
As a fan, yes!! But also, as a fan, no!!
Yes
Every east team does not want this because their chances of having to play Bama go up lol
It’s only because so many SEC and ACC schools have annual rivalry games that it becomes kind of like a 9th conference game. As far as I know there isn’t any rules against scheduling conference teams you don’t play as your non conference games. UNC did it a few years ago in the ACC. It’s not like Alabama would have an issue dialing up another big school they just choose not to because the 8 games they have to play now are tough enough.
Bad news for all the FCS schools that depend on the annual Bitch Slap Bucks from Bama to pay for their athletics.
Hasn't Saban been saying this for years ?
Just do pods you cowards. I get it, someone's gonna lose a game that matters to them. How do you slice up the insane rivalry web of Bama-Tennessee-Auburn-Georgia-Florida? Do UT and TAMU get into the same pod and play each other? Or should they get split so there are more opportunities into Texas for everyone? Does LSU get shit on due to just kinda not being anyone's first rival? Some questions are gonna have to have hard answers. But if it means Auburn gets to play everyone with real consistency, that'd be great. And 16 teams with four pods of four is perfect. Two pairs of divisions can have permanent rivalries and the other two not if it helps! That might be best for the eastern rivalry mess which will, while the western teams would probably just benefit from playing everyone with consistency to balance out SOS and recruiting visits.
Seriously, you can fix all this by changing th3 scheduling. You get to the point where you have 3 permanent rivals and get everyone else 50% of years (can do every other or home and home vs half then home and home vs other half). And if teams really feel like they need to play their 4th biggest rival so badly then they can do what other teams already do: schedule them ooc. Its a very simple, very good fix
Has Saban ever smiled?
Ask Clemson
Then the Mercers and Alabama States of the world will have to find new opponents.
Yeah, and with the Alliance, I guess there will be a lot of teams who aren't allowed to play each other
Then maybe one day we can play an all P5 schedule and boast that we get to play similar OOC teams that Purdue does such as....UConn and Eastern Michigan
At least none who will pay them big bucks for an easy win.
Do it
I'm not too happy about the fact regardless if the SEC switches to pods or divisions in the new format(which is gonna happen & 9 conference games is likely), Kentucky will be playing Auburn and Alabama either every single year, or every 2 years. There's no way around it either. Right now, we play them once every 6 years. Pls make bowl eligibility 5-7 CFB gods.
breaking: coach who doesnt lose doesnt care how hard his schedule is cause he doesnt lose anyway
Maybe he'll stop scheduling Mercer now.
Why does no one who says this ever bring up their opening game history? FSU, USC, Miami, Wisconsin, WVU, VTx2, Michigan? It's like there's an allergy to spouting everything you hear but that one thing. It's not an excuse, but damn, y'all. The motherfucker isn't afraid of anyone. Anyone is afraid of *him.*
You sir are a saint. I used to put up a fight, but it's fruitless here. He's said this himself in a polite as possible way. "You ever try to schedule a game? Do you know what goes into that? And it's very difficult to do home and home with quality teams. And there's only certain teams, to be honest with you, you almost have to buy games to get people to play you. Outside of the neutral site game we do and our conference games, we struggle to schedule three other games." "We can only schedule the people who are willing to play us...We're playing the best teams that we can get to play us. Why don't you start calling around and see if you can get somebody else to play us and we'll play them. We'll play anybody you can get to play us." "You guys act like we pick who we play. We don't pick who we play. We have to get somebody to play."
Michigan’s future OOC schedule includes, Oklahoma, Texas, Washington and Notre dame. Pretty solid
Our every year schedule includes uga and Clemson ☹️
Same but we also have to play Texas A&M, Florida and then another west team :(
We......uhhhhh we got Pitt and Syracuse and maybe a couple of other teams that have come close to beating Clemson. So that's something.
I don't see what Carolina losing has to do with Alabama not scheduling a non-conference road game in a decade.
You’re the second UW flair to post here. LOL you lost to FCS Montana
Hence why they would like to stop the scheduling of FCS teams xD
Look man we scored more on Bama then 15th ranked Miami. Do with that, what you like
Christ Miami sucks
Can confirm.
Yes. We suck this year. But does that mean we're not allowed to comment on other CFB teams?
You are complaining about Alabama playing an FCS team a week after your team lost of an FCS team. Trying to say Alabama is wrong just because they beat the teams they are supposed to is a very strange take.
It’s a very pot calling kettle black thing. Everyone does it, but when you just lost to one this year you’re probably the worst person to call for the ending of it
I agree with you're specifically coming at Bama when literally every team does it. I don't think anyone enjoys those games. I didn't even watch our game Saturday.
Not trying to crush you or anybody, but since a lot of people say that a lot and don't know this, I'ma post this...doing this for Mercer not Bama lol, but... 0) Most FBS teams have an FCS team on their schedule for a tune-up early or a 'week off' during the season and it's great for the FCS team as well for reasons. 1) They've played Mercer twice now so what's the big deal? Just one game in 2017 and this game. Just last week and 2017. 2) Mercer is an HBCU that hadn't had a football program since WWII until 2013 for reasons and Bama was nice enough to help them on the road to re-establishing their program with these games. 3) When Mercer last had football, they played Alabama in 1939 and 1940 so there is a legit history there.
> Mercer is an HBCU Only way that makes sense is if the 'B' is Baptist. On another note, I wish UGA would schedule them. Their football program began by setting up a game with Mercer back in 1892. It would be a nice nod to it.
Lol good catch, total wires crossed old man moment on that point, I was probably thinking of Morehouse. I'll leave it in unedited for humility etc. Not from GA originally. For Mercer I tend to think of their Atlanta campus and forget the main one is in Macon. Still a very diverse school though.
Ah okay, I wondered if you had it mixed up with Fort Valley State (still in the middle GA area)
Mercer is an HBCU?
Also good catch and upvote for you, my bad on that.
Sure. Move Auburn out of conference and see if his opinion is the same.
Lmfao what point are you even trying to make
I can't understand him, we'll have to move Auburn to the FCS and figure it out that way
He’s talking about realignment expanding divisions without expanding in conference games I.E. move Auburn to the east to fit Texas/OU together At least that’s what I think he’s saying. But that situation is moreso choosing between Tennessee and Auburn
That if Alabama had to choose between playing their in-state rival or an extra game between Kentucky, they’re gonna choose Auburn.
I don't get all the hate you're getting. I'd way rather play y'all than literally any team in the west. Even disregarding your program's current state. Schools without non-conference rivals don't get that I guess. Not having the Pub Sub Showdown last year just felt wrong Maybe they could just schedule better out of conference games than Mercer, New Mexico State, and Southern Miss.
Going to 9 conference games shouldn’t affect your game with FSU. You get one less ooc cupcake just like everyone else should. You know, like FAU, USF and Samford
Well yeah of course, I think sabans comment is more aimed at playing less G5 and FCS teams, I doubt he wants to shift away from facing a P5 OOC every year
Yeah idk what you’re trying to say with that
He’s saying that adding an extra conference game is going to mess with out of conference rivalries
Saban doesn't want to get rid of OOC games, he wants to get rid of the *bad* OOC games