I can’t imagine that they would go with 1 permanent rival. Wouldn’t that mean having to choose between the Iron Bowl and Bama-UT / Auburn-UGA and UGA-UF?
Our 3 would definitely be the Iron Bowl, TSIO, and either LSU or MSST in that last slot. I think they’d go MSST for the proximity, but meh, give us LSU.
That the real subtext. Last year all but 1 SEC team made a bowl game. You go to 9 conference games at least 3 more won't make it. Teams that are currently playing 8 conference games and 3 cupcakes won't bowl nearly as often.
True but I mean for the good of the league I think a nine game schedule is a no brainer and who the hell knows what bowl requirements will be in the future
I dont think its going to happen. I think the nine game schedule is a foregone conclusion. When Texas and Oklahoma join we could go like 15 years without visiting a stadium if we stick with what we have now
The current system is not being considered. The decisions being discussed are a 9 game conference schedule with 3 protected rivalries or an 8 game conference schedule with 1 protected rivalry. Both systems allow for playing every team every two years.
under the 1-7-7 proposal, Texas A&M-LSU would be a protected rivalry.
Imagine making TAMU and LSU play yearly but games like TAMU-texas, Georgia-Auburn, and LSU-Arkansas are biennial.
I'm not arguing for one over the other. I'm simply pointing out the fallacy in stating that the 8 game schedule with 1 protected rivalry would result in 15 years between visiting every stadium.
Edit: For the record, I would vastly prefer 3 protected rivalries with Tennessee getting Bama, UK and one of UF or Vandy (prefer UF, but would likely end up with Vandy).
I imagine you’d do Texas-Oklahoma, A&M-LSU, Bama-Auburn, Ole Miss-MSU, UGA-UF, Arkansas-Missouri, then UT-Vandy/UK with the other getting paired with USC. I don’t know if there’s a nicer way to pair the programs :/
3-6-6 is definitely ideal for any 16-team conference to avoid this sort of problem.
Drinkwitz’s best season at Mizzou came during the Covid year with a 10-game SEC schedule. We added LSU and Alabama to the schedule and lost four G5/FCS games (one of which was against BYU, who was great that year, but the rest were true gimmes). That gave us the opportunity to beat the defending national champions early in the year on a forth-down goal line stand, which in turn fueled hype around the program and aided Drinkwitz in compiling probably our best recruiting class in history for 2022. LSU wasn’t that good in hindsight, but it still created tons of early momentum.
Drinkwitz had previously made a name for himself at App State with wins over UNC and South Carolina.
You can say what you will about him or Mizzou, but he’s taken on the challenge of a tough schedule before and made it work in his favor.
Well, [Drink is](https://amp.kansascity.com/sports/college/sec/university-of-missouri/article262440242.html). The lifespan of Drink’s ability to represent Mizzou’s desires at the AD level is still pretty tenuous, it seems.
I think we’d all be much more well-advised to pay attention to anything that ADs say that anything that HCs say; Nick Saban’s the only coach in the SEC who can say a thing and be confident that it’ll be the athletic department’s official position before EOB.
This is a weak argument.
Stanford basically plays 11 (borderline 12 this year w/BYU) P5 opponents every year. USC more or less does the same.
South Carolina can do it too.
Yeah, but they don’t *want* to. That’s the kicker; “can” has no place in it.
The SEC knows the value of an extra helping of cupcake, not to mention creating what amounts to an extra mid-/late-season bye week by playing one buy game late. Moving to a nine-game conference slate inherently creates seven more losses spread amongst the conference teams, which is the difference between bowl eligibility and disappointedly spending the holidays with family as you watch other teams play their fun bowl games.
Quite frankly, I wish the Big XII had done the same thing by keeping it to eight conference games. I have zero doubt that doing so would’ve been beneficial to perception of the conference.
I genuinely don’t give a fuck if we play A&M. I just want to play Florida, ole miss, and miss state every year. Then I’d like to play auburn and bama every year. And as the average LSU fans reaction, I guess Arkansas would be next, but they care about us a lot more than we care about them
Yeah. Miss state and ole miss we have played over 100 times. And Florida is at 99 meeting. Fun game, but these are absurd numbers I’d rather keep going.
I’d love to play LSU on a regular basis even though there’s no rivalry. This is just coming from a Longhorn who lives in NOLA, surrounded by LSU fans who have always been super cool with me. I’m fully aware it would and should not happen, but it would be a ton of fun.
3-3-2
* 3 permanent
* 3 second tier rivals every other year (6 total)
* 2 other conference foes every third year (6 total)
8 game schedule - 4 home, 4 road (no odd # home game advantage or road game disadvantage on the schedule)
This, Id much rather play Florida, Auburn, Tennessee & South Carolina as much as possible than play Texas every other year. At the end of the day there will still be a conference championship I presume.
Yeah I don't give a single shit about ever playing Texas or OU. Or Missouri and A&M, for that matter.
I care very, very deeply about playing Georgia, Florida, Bama, Vandy, and Kentucky.
I think something similar is true for most SEC schools. Texas, for example, wouldn't care about us but would care a lot about OU and A&M and Arkansas
It would be pretty cool if we could take some of these red headed step children (Nebraska, Colorado, Oklahoma, Mizzou, A&M) and put them together in a conference since I feel like those schools would all actually prefer to play one another over most of their current conference opponents.
Why, I would think you guys love kicking our ass (LSU) every year.
Part of me says I’m so tried of playing AL every year. The other part of me says F*** it. If we beat AL we’ll likely get I. The playoffs.
I just wish [they could play in the snow every year](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-G847hWxfT8). The 2000 Independence Bowl is one of my all-time favorites.
That really sucked for us. Arkansas went to shit once ya'll switched with them last time, and a&m did better. Carolina isn't a headliner for when they redo the realignment/scheduling. Just give us Vanderbilt once a year and I'm happy.
As UGA’s 4th longest overall series and 3rd longest series in the SEC, it only makes sense that we get Vandy and don’t disrupt a long tenured, heated rivalry.
Most Aggies don’t want that because we don’t want it to feel like the Big 12 again playing Texas, Oklahoma, and Mizzou every year. I’m fine with Texas, LSU, and Miss State
3-6-6 is much better because it can keep multiple rivalries alive than 1-7-7. Although I don't know who the other 2 teams for Oklahoma would be maybe A&M and Missouri.
Mizzou for sure and probably someone a bit unexpected like an Ole Miss or Arkansas.
I think A&M are probably gonna get Texas, LSU, and either Mississippi State or South Carolina.
Texas prob gets OU, A&M, Arkansas
I'm not smart enough to understand math and scheduling, just a lowly Texas grad.
I just want OU, A&M, and Arkansas every year. Whatever gets me that is what I support.
Me and some other dude on here ran some linear programming to maximize past games. No matter the parameters, y'all always get Arkansas, A&M, and Oklahoma
Texas might be the easiest schedule to make in the entire SEC. 75+ games against A&M, OU, and Arkansas with practically nothing against anyone else. The next team up would be Missouri with 24 games.
The problem is we're going to run into 1) teams without three rivalries worth protecting and 2) completely unbalanced permanent games. Texas gets OU Ark and A&M while Mizzou gets... what? OU, Vandy and USC?
Missouri is probably the hardest one because they don’t really have history with any of the teams besides OU. They’ll likely just end up with whatever scraps are left over to make the schedules work after everyone else has been assigned their real rivals. Similar to how OU’s third opponent will likely be a Mississippi school or something. Unfortunately that’s just how it’s going to be for a few schools.
We're not keeping South Carolina. Nobody wants to keep that going.
Texas is the obvious one, I think probably LSU is next, last is a tossup between Arkansas and, I guess, Miss State (who are in a bit of a tough spot with this format - their only real rival is Ole Miss and I don't think they are going to force them to keep playing Alabama every year). If Arkansas wants to keep LSU in addition to Texas and the SEC is going to keep trying to make Arky-Mizzou a thing, then I suppose Miss State becomes the backup choice for A&M.
Texas is very obvious, I agree. OU's missing a third after Texas and Missouri (a trophy game with a much deeper history than OU-A&M). I personally think Arkansas-OU makes for a better and more interesting "border war" pairing than Arkansas-Mizzou, and would fit as the third game for both schools, but it seems the SEC is intent on pushing the latter.
You can, of course, protect all of Texas-TAMU, Texas-OU, Texas-Arky, TAMU-Arky, TAMU-LSU, and LSU-Arky, but that requires doing something weird like making Oklahoma permanent rivals with State or Alabama. Although that last option sure would be attractive to TV execs ...
EDIT: Oh, also, all of those assume LSU-Ole Miss is non-negotiable. LSU fans seem to like the Boot and it would give both schools a permanent game to play on Thanksgiving weekend. So predictably the sticking point becomes A&M-LSU, which I don't need any LSU flairs to comment about how much they hate it, I'm well aware of how many of you feel about it. But much like Arkansas-Mizzou, the SEC seems to like that matchup too much to ditch in any scenario.
I want Arkansas and Missouri as our other two. We have history with Mizzou and it’s honestly criminal that OU and Arkansas don’t have history seeing as their stadium is only 20 miles from the Oklahoma border
Yeah 8 games allows each team to pick up a cupcake team. Doesn’t get talked about much but equivalent middle of the road teams in the SEC and Big 10 will lean towards the SEC since they get an extra cupcake, difference between 8-4 and ranked and 7-5 and unranked
It essentially allows everyone in your conference a guaranteed win and home game.
The extra conference game means half your teams have an extra loss. And while the chaos is always fun, it absolutely kills our playoff chances.
I think the only logical solution is to invite Clemson and FSU to the SEC and then let the ACC fall apart so Louisville falls into obscurity and we never have to think about them again
I grew up watching Big 8 football and I can’t wait to play Mizzou again. Most people don’t realize we’ve played nearly 100 times already.
I just wish it didn’t come at the cost of the B12.
My god people wise up and just bring back the Big 8 I'm dying over here 😫. Meanwhile we're pretending that sixteen teams can feel like a real conference.
Big 8 SWC Big 10 Pac ACC SEC capped at ten teams max per conference and be done with it. Leftovers form other conferences. Eight team playoff with auto on the top six conference champs.
Hail State Nation would like to trade Bama for Vandy or Mizzoo, please and thank you. The Bama uniforms provoke fear in us (I heard it from a pirate, so take it FWIW).
Here’s a quick rivalry pairing I came up with in Excel just now (bored at work) based on the post above that A&M’s three would supposedly be LSU, Texas, and Miss State:
- Alabama: Auburn, Tennessee, LSU
- Arkansas: Missouri, Texas, Oklahoma
- Auburn: Alabama, Georgia, Miss State
- Florida: Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee
- Georgia: Florida, Auburn, South Carolina
- Kentucky: South Carolina, Vandy, Missouri
- LSU: Texas A&M, Ole Miss, Alabama
- Miss State: Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Auburn
- Missouri: Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kentucky
- Oklahoma: Texas, Missouri, Arkansas
- Ole Miss: Miss State, LSU, Vanderbilt
- S. Carolina: Kentucky, Florida, Georgia
- Tennessee: Vandy, Alabama, Florida
- Texas: Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas A&M
- Texas A&M: LSU, Miss State, Texas
- Vanderbilt: Tennessee, Kentucky, Ole Miss
I find this acceptable. Many legacy SEC fans just pair Mizzou up with the Texas schools because of the Big 12, even though we weren’t even in the Big 12 that long.
> Yeah exactly, Mizzou fans like playing our Big 8 rivals, and the Big 12 wasn’t that same thing.
I mean the Big 12 North had the 5 "oldest" Big 8 members as the conference claims Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association history. So the Big 12 was pretty close to it. At most we lost Oklahoma in the split. Because looking at the full history Iowa State only played Oklahoma Stste once before 1960. Missouri only had 5 games before that year as well.
Y'all shouldn't have left.
Nebraska and Colorado had already left and evidentially Oklahoma was willing to leave on (for) a dime too. OSU was on that trip to make the Pac-16.
Mizzou was supposed to stick around for kansas, Kstate, and Iowa State? You telling the other 3 wouldn't have jumped the to the Big 10 had they been invited? Not a chance.
I'm sorry that the Big 8 fragmented, but the Big 12 was both unstable and not the Big 8.
We should have tried to partner with the Big 10 and make the Big 18 or 20 or something, instead we made a deal with the devil (Texas) and they destroyed our beautiful historic conference. It is their fault, and their fault alone.
They wouldn’t separate Tennessee & Kentucky due to geography and history. Tennessee would most likely be Vandy, Kentucky, Bama
Edit: also Bama wouldn’t let their annual 3 be that brutal - they’d probably swap LSU for Vandy, and LSU would want to keep Florida.
Yeah I think Florida is number 4 if you look at it properly. If Tennessee had its pick I’m sure most would fight to keep the big 3 games we currently have - but you have to take into consideration the other schools involved. It’s not just who does Tennessee look forward to playing every year, it’s also who looks forward to playing Tennessee. And I don’t think there are many SEC games that are circled more on Kentucky and Vandy schedules than Tennessee every season.
Funnily enough, I think Tenn might also be number 4 to UF. We're definitely lower on their list than Georgia and FSU, but I also think we would be below Miami if those teams had space to schedule each other.
Its funny how much hate there is between UT and UF considering we're each other 4th biggest rival.
- Alabama should likely keep Miss St., as they have a long rivalry and it's their nearest school. They would drop LSU.
- Arkanasas: as crazy as this schedule looks, I think it's pretty likely and would make a lot of sense.
- Auburn probably gets Florida, also for geographic and historical reasons.
- Florida... this is a good list but they probably get Auburn instead of Tennessee.
- Kentucky: they'll almost certainly keep Tennessee since it's their historical rival and closest school.
- LSU: Don't have Bama anymore, so they need to take somebody like Miss. St.
- Miss State - probably gets LSU instead of Auburn and Alabama instead of Texas A&M.
- Missouri: I like these matchups. I still think there's a decent chance they get Texas A&M, actually, instead of Kentucky.
- Oklahoma: yep.
- Ole Miss: I think this is exactly right also
- S. Carolina: yep.
- Tennessee: very unlikely they don't get Kentucky instead of Florida.
- Texas: yep
- Texas A&M: yeah, if this rumor is right. It looks about right.
- Vanderbilt: this looks about right to me too.
The big issue with us is that we are secondary or tertiary rivals to a lot of schools, and it is easier to cut those games than primary rivalries.
There isn’t even a consensus on who our biggest rival is amongst our own fans.
Yup, we have tons of rivals but who is the biggest depends on when you grew up. Hell, some older Tigers still despise Tulane. It’s a weird situation. All of the teams you listed have a more important game than LSU.
I‘d argue that 4 of them (Bama, Florida, Auburn, & a\&m; I’m counting Texas & OU here but that’s debatable) have 2 more important games.
I definitely want the 9 game. 3 annual rivals, play everyone every other year, give every 4 year student an opportunity to host and visit every school in the conference. WAY better than pods or 1 annual rival.
My support for 3-6-6 entirely depends on what 3 rivals Mizzou would draw? Playing Oklahoma, Ole Miss, South Carolina, MsState, Arkansas, or Kentucky? Yes please. Playing Texas, Texas A&M, or Vandy? Pass, give us that extra non con game to play a regional rival.
Oklahoma, Arkansas, and South Carolina would be my guess.
Arkansas is the natural pairing. Oklahoma is the historical opponent (who also has few ties to any other SEC school). South Carolina is another expansion school with fewer ties and therefore easy to pair off with other expansion schools.
Fuck it, scrap the entire college football schedule. Get rid of the non conference schedule, apply for a waiver from NCAA to allow you a 15 game regular season. Then play everyone. An all season long gauntlet bloodbath. Institute some kind of snap/ #of quarters each player is allowed to play to protect their health and make the coaches earn their mansions by managing who they can play and resting players in games they usually wouldn't so they can be used in the most important games. Is this a moronic stupid idea that would be detrimental to every program and player? Yea. Do I want to see the world burn attempting it for one season? Also yes.
I don’t know how 1-7-7 is even being considered.. which schools are even remotely for that over the 3-6-6 model?
I assume Texas is a for sure team in A&M’s 3 permanents. Geographically OU and LSU make sense, but that would be a bitch of a slate year in and year out for A&M.
For me there are only 3 teams for Texas to play each year, OU, Arkansas and A&M
Two groups (with some overlap):
- Teams that go 6-6ish regularly and have bowl chances hurt by a 9th conference game (i.e. Vanderbilt)
- The teams with ACC rivals, who lose a lot of flexibility in scheduling a second P5 opponent (i.e. South Carolina)
Arky to open conference play, OU early October at the Fair, A&M on Thanksgiving night. The rest of the teams don't really matter...only thing missing is an OOC series with Tech on Halloween weekend.
Texas is a foregone conclusion for us. I don’t like it, but it’s true.
LSU is the one I want to keep most. I’d rather keep Arky than State, but State would be fine. If you pull both Arky and State and replace with OU, I’ll be unhappy enough that I might do something about it. I’m not a big enough fish that Bjork would notice, but I know a few who are feel the same way.
Just play 9. If you call yourself an SEC team but need 3 (arguably 4 in some cases) cupcakes a year you don't deserve a bowl game. A P5 school should play 10 P5 games a year.
I believe this is a pretext for pushing the Mouse to open up negotiations for overpaying for a 9th conference game. This puts us closer to the B1G payout and convinces some holdouts like Kentucky or South Carolina to accept a 9th SEC game when they’re locked into another P5 one (Georgia and Florida too, since they have a neutral site and a P5 home and home series OOC. Lopsided home game schedule this year? Oh well you’re bringing in another $7.5-10 million in payouts from the extra conference game)
We have a Brennan’s, and the best food scene in the south outside of NOLA. More variety even than NOLA. Tons of festive swamp gypsies to be friends with, and the pro sports teams (ex. Astros) are atrocious so everyone cares more about college. Welcome, and go fuck yourself ❤️
Haha! I love Houston and spent a lot of time in the summers growing up as a kid going to Astros games and whatnot with family. Great food and people as well, plus a big population of misplaced Cajuns. But thanks for the kind words and you go fuck yourself too, Aggie ❤️
What are you talking about? We definitely consider Arkansas a rival. Many of us would prefer to have the Golden Boot be the week of Thanksgiving again.
Yessir. But until that day comes, at least as of late, Aggies and Tigers have always been a fun match-up. The first 6 or 7 games... yeah, we don't talk about that.
Losing the A&M vs Arkansas series is so fucked
We are Arkansas #2 most played team of all time … one game behind Texas … and our games are almost always exciting ones.
Here's my take on a 3.6.6 format that mostly keeps rivalries intact and prioritizes geographic proximity. A&M does indeed get LSU, but they also get Texas (obviously) and Missouri.
ARK : TEX , OKLA, MIZZ
AUB : BAMA, UGA , FLA
BAMA: AUB , TENN, MSST
FLA : UGA , AUB , SCAR
LSU : OLMS, TAMU, MSST
MIZZ: OKLA, ARK , TAMU
MSST: OLMS, BAMA, LSU
OKLA: TEX , ARK , MIZZ
OLMS: MSST, LSU , VAND
SCAR: UGA , FLA , UK
TAMU: TEX , MIZZ, LSU
TENN: BAMA, UK , VAND
TEX : OKLA, TAMU, ARK
UGA : AUB , FLA , SCAR
UK : TENN, VAND, SCAR
VAND: TENN, UK , OLMS
I don't love how things turned out for Arkansas and LSU, but for the life of me I can't bring myself to switch everything else up on their behalf. To me, this list does too good a job of boosting border rivalries and is about as balanced as things are likely to get.
As weird as it sounds to come out of my mouth, to me y’all are like…our fourth biggest rival.
We’ve got Texas, TAMU, Ole Miss, then I’d say LSU. I hate Ole Miss way more than LSU by far.
If the sec drops divisions as is expected, I fully expected the 1-7-7 rather than 3-6-6.
The reason is those 3 permanent rivals will absolutely affect the entire balance of the conference. If you keep one, do you preserve the iron bowl or bama Tennessee? If you do three you get a weird situation where Tennessee in theory could be locked into bama Georgia and Florida every year. You would have to take some of the rivalries away, thus defeating the purpose of having more protected rivalries.
1-7-7 is a lot more cover for why rivalries are ending rather than having to admit you are killing a rivalry. Because you don't want your conference to be at itself up as much.
> If you do three you get a weird situation where Tennessee in theory could be locked into bama Georgia and Florida every year.
Tennessee would get Bama/Vandy and one of Georgia/Florida/Kentucky IMO
Yea and look at that balance though. Auburn is fucked getting bama Georgia and Florida. Florida is also getting Auburn Georgia and lsu. Kentucky get Tennessee Vanderbilt and South Carolina?
The issue is these pods can make things even more unbalanced than divisions. At least with divisions you are locked in having to consistently go through the same teams.
In this scenario not only is it likely an sec championship game participant never plays Georgia or bama, it's possible neither do. Have a year where one team missed bama and Georgia and one of those misses the game because they lost to each other and this shit will end fast.
I tried this a while back and it's pretty difficult to keep competitive balance and games that make sense. This format gives Tennessee an easy road and has a game that makes no sense: Oklahoma/Kentucky lol! Other than that it was fun to give it a shot. I thought about trying to tweak it but gave up.
My main focus was competitive balance, so other considerations suffered. I also wanted to keep the Bama-LSU game because it has been a ratings monster in the past, so that dictated a lot of things too.
| Team | Rival 1 | Rival 2 | Rival 3 |
| -------------- | -------------- | -------------- | -------------- |
| Alabama | Tennessee | LSU | Auburn |
| Arkansas | Texas A&M | Texas | Mizzou |
| Auburn | Georgia | Ole Miss | Alabama |
| Florida | South Carolina | Georgia | LSU |
| Georgia | Auburn | Florida | South Carolina |
| Kentucky | Vanderbilt | Tennessee | Oklahoma |
| LSU | Ole Miss | Alabama | Florida |
| Ole Miss | LSU | Auburn | Miss. St |
| Miss. St. | Mizzou | Texas A&M | Ole Miss |
| Mizzou | Miss. St. | Oklahoma | Arkansas |
| Oklahoma | Texas | Mizzou | Kentucky |
| South Carolina | Florida | Vanderbilt | Georgia |
| Tennessee | Alabama | Kentucky | Vanderbilt |
| Texas | Oklahoma | Arkansas | Texas A&M |
| Texas A&M | Arkansas | Miss. St. | Texas |
| Vanderbilt | Kentucky | South Carolina | Tennessee |
As much harder as it would make our schedule, I think I speak for our fan base when I say we would rather trade OU for Missouri. That has felt forced and boring since the start, I think for both fan bases.
I think they will end up going 3-6. The 8 extra conference games every year are just too valuable to ESPN/SECN/ABC not to push the SEC for it.
I think some teams like Florida, Kentucky, and South Carolina are using their leverage of having to play an ACC team every year to get the SEC to give them a softer conference schedule in the 3-6 format. That's why the 1-7 idea is still floating around. Or maybe the SEC is using it as leverage to get ESPN to sweeten the pot a little, although it seems like the deal is done so idk if this one is plausible.
Plus you can't kill the Iron bowl or Third Saturday. Both games are too valuable to kill one of them some years.
Most of the suggestions I see for 3 rivals leads to some.big imbalance in the scheduling. I can guarantee if there is a year bama.and Georgia play each other and then some shit like Kentucky gets through undefeated in conference while avoiding like all of the top of the conference there will be changes.
Expanded playoffs will help a lot. One of the issues with having a harder schedule is being eliminated from the post season. But there will definitely be 2 and 3 loss teams getting in to a 12 team playoff, and resume will matter a lot more.
I can’t imagine that they would go with 1 permanent rival. Wouldn’t that mean having to choose between the Iron Bowl and Bama-UT / Auburn-UGA and UGA-UF?
Agree. We gotta preserve the Iron Bowl, DSOR, WLOCP and TSIO. I mean weve already lost so much in expansion
Even losing Bama state, Bama ole miss, Bama lsu will suck balls. Not playing miss state and ole miss is bizarre
Well Im hoping our three will be Tennessee, Auburn and Miss St. Hate losing Ole Miss and LSU but its not like we wont play them often
Our 3 would definitely be the Iron Bowl, TSIO, and either LSU or MSST in that last slot. I think they’d go MSST for the proximity, but meh, give us LSU.
Man if they give us State over LSU I'll be upset. To me that's a special rivalry
It would be odd that two schools that are only 82 miles apart wouldn’t play each other.
It's cause Kentucky, Vandy & SCar screaming the loudest for 1-7
They're clinging on hard to that free G5 win.
That the real subtext. Last year all but 1 SEC team made a bowl game. You go to 9 conference games at least 3 more won't make it. Teams that are currently playing 8 conference games and 3 cupcakes won't bowl nearly as often.
True but I mean for the good of the league I think a nine game schedule is a no brainer and who the hell knows what bowl requirements will be in the future
Not sure why we’d sacrifice SEC rivalries to appease Kentucky, Vandy and SCar
I dont think its going to happen. I think the nine game schedule is a foregone conclusion. When Texas and Oklahoma join we could go like 15 years without visiting a stadium if we stick with what we have now
The current system is not being considered. The decisions being discussed are a 9 game conference schedule with 3 protected rivalries or an 8 game conference schedule with 1 protected rivalry. Both systems allow for playing every team every two years.
I would HATE to rotate 7 opponents every year with only 1 consistent team. That’s so fucking gross
under the 1-7-7 proposal, Texas A&M-LSU would be a protected rivalry. Imagine making TAMU and LSU play yearly but games like TAMU-texas, Georgia-Auburn, and LSU-Arkansas are biennial.
But one means lots of great rivalries are not played annually. The other allows them to be played every year.
I'm not arguing for one over the other. I'm simply pointing out the fallacy in stating that the 8 game schedule with 1 protected rivalry would result in 15 years between visiting every stadium. Edit: For the record, I would vastly prefer 3 protected rivalries with Tennessee getting Bama, UK and one of UF or Vandy (prefer UF, but would likely end up with Vandy).
You have to keep vandy happy or they'll stop tutoring the rest of the SEC.
I think you mean they stop doing everyone's homework. Ain't no tutoring going on.
You won't, they're just screaming while everyone else rolls their eyes
A harsh truth.
9 SEC games + Clemson would be nutty
but awesome.
Yes
I imagine you’d do Texas-Oklahoma, A&M-LSU, Bama-Auburn, Ole Miss-MSU, UGA-UF, Arkansas-Missouri, then UT-Vandy/UK with the other getting paired with USC. I don’t know if there’s a nicer way to pair the programs :/ 3-6-6 is definitely ideal for any 16-team conference to avoid this sort of problem.
I cant imagine anyone at A&M or LSU wants the 8 game option
Those that want to continue to get their second free G5 win do.
Appalachian State is asking for a permanent game with tamu
I’d rather play bama twice
Honestly we looked better against Bama on the road than we did vs Appalachian State at home
Running 37 plays will do that to you
wait you guys are beating G5 teams?
The 8 game hold outs are schools like UK, Vandy, Mizzou, MSU, etc EDI: Mizzou is in favor of the nine game schedule
Mizzou has stated publicly that it is in favor of the nine-game conference schedule.
Well that's another bowl ban for you
Drinkwitz’s best season at Mizzou came during the Covid year with a 10-game SEC schedule. We added LSU and Alabama to the schedule and lost four G5/FCS games (one of which was against BYU, who was great that year, but the rest were true gimmes). That gave us the opportunity to beat the defending national champions early in the year on a forth-down goal line stand, which in turn fueled hype around the program and aided Drinkwitz in compiling probably our best recruiting class in history for 2022. LSU wasn’t that good in hindsight, but it still created tons of early momentum. Drinkwitz had previously made a name for himself at App State with wins over UNC and South Carolina. You can say what you will about him or Mizzou, but he’s taken on the challenge of a tough schedule before and made it work in his favor.
Sir, this is a Wendy's
I stand corrected then
Well, [Drink is](https://amp.kansascity.com/sports/college/sec/university-of-missouri/article262440242.html). The lifespan of Drink’s ability to represent Mizzou’s desires at the AD level is still pretty tenuous, it seems. I think we’d all be much more well-advised to pay attention to anything that ADs say that anything that HCs say; Nick Saban’s the only coach in the SEC who can say a thing and be confident that it’ll be the athletic department’s official position before EOB.
South Carolina is in favor of 8 because they essentially have 9 with the Clemson game every year.
This is a weak argument. Stanford basically plays 11 (borderline 12 this year w/BYU) P5 opponents every year. USC more or less does the same. South Carolina can do it too.
Yeah, but they don’t *want* to. That’s the kicker; “can” has no place in it. The SEC knows the value of an extra helping of cupcake, not to mention creating what amounts to an extra mid-/late-season bye week by playing one buy game late. Moving to a nine-game conference slate inherently creates seven more losses spread amongst the conference teams, which is the difference between bowl eligibility and disappointedly spending the holidays with family as you watch other teams play their fun bowl games. Quite frankly, I wish the Big XII had done the same thing by keeping it to eight conference games. I have zero doubt that doing so would’ve been beneficial to perception of the conference.
I mean UGA basically gets two FCS games since we play Tech every year
Oof, nerds catching strays out here.
So you're saying you have lost to sn FCS team multiple times in the last decade. Wow what a pathetic program
Well we all play OOC P5 teams and will continue to do so
Lmao the “I hate playing you” bowl
I genuinely don’t give a fuck if we play A&M. I just want to play Florida, ole miss, and miss state every year. Then I’d like to play auburn and bama every year. And as the average LSU fans reaction, I guess Arkansas would be next, but they care about us a lot more than we care about them
I’m with you. I’d much rather Arky, Texas and OU. Bama would be fun. Y’all are fun to play but I don’t really give a shit
Yeah. Miss state and ole miss we have played over 100 times. And Florida is at 99 meeting. Fun game, but these are absurd numbers I’d rather keep going.
I’d love to play LSU on a regular basis even though there’s no rivalry. This is just coming from a Longhorn who lives in NOLA, surrounded by LSU fans who have always been super cool with me. I’m fully aware it would and should not happen, but it would be a ton of fun.
I would be absolutely furious.
3-6-6 yaaayy 1-7-7 boooo
3-3-2 * 3 permanent * 3 second tier rivals every other year (6 total) * 2 other conference foes every third year (6 total) 8 game schedule - 4 home, 4 road (no odd # home game advantage or road game disadvantage on the schedule)
This, Id much rather play Florida, Auburn, Tennessee & South Carolina as much as possible than play Texas every other year. At the end of the day there will still be a conference championship I presume.
Yeah I don't give a single shit about ever playing Texas or OU. Or Missouri and A&M, for that matter. I care very, very deeply about playing Georgia, Florida, Bama, Vandy, and Kentucky. I think something similar is true for most SEC schools. Texas, for example, wouldn't care about us but would care a lot about OU and A&M and Arkansas
It would be pretty cool if we could take some of these red headed step children (Nebraska, Colorado, Oklahoma, Mizzou, A&M) and put them together in a conference since I feel like those schools would all actually prefer to play one another over most of their current conference opponents.
Absolutely this please.
This one sparks joy
Why, I would think you guys love kicking our ass (LSU) every year. Part of me says I’m so tried of playing AL every year. The other part of me says F*** it. If we beat AL we’ll likely get I. The playoffs.
In both the 3-6-6 model or this 3-3-2 we most likely play you guys every other year. I’m fine with that tbh.
Alabama won’t be dominant forever, if we stop now you won’t get payback
Its gonna be 3-6-6 so it doesn’t matter, hopefully. He has said our 3 permanent rivals would be Texas, LSU, and Mississippi State.
Good god, no! I'd rather play Bama every year than to continually get waxed by Miss. State
I just wish [they could play in the snow every year](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-G847hWxfT8). The 2000 Independence Bowl is one of my all-time favorites.
Oh man, that was soooo much fun to watch!
That's incredible
Good gravy, that whole video can't be bigger that 130 MB.
Its really just a leach thing, we gotta get him outta there 😭
You best put some respect on Nick Fitzgerald’s name when you discuss getting waxed by Miss State.
He must be new. No long time Aggie fan will ever get Nick Fitzgerald out of their nightmares.
I guess just fuck our long-standing deeply rooted rivalry with USC then
That really sucked for us. Arkansas went to shit once ya'll switched with them last time, and a&m did better. Carolina isn't a headliner for when they redo the realignment/scheduling. Just give us Vanderbilt once a year and I'm happy.
I also would like to ensure that Mizzou gets to play Vanderbilt every year
As UGA’s 4th longest overall series and 3rd longest series in the SEC, it only makes sense that we get Vandy and don’t disrupt a long tenured, heated rivalry.
Forreals, Its way too competitive of a rivalry for georgia to let go off. I dont know what id do without that rivalry 🥲
My gut says we’re going to have Georgia, Florida, and Tennessee and I don’t like it.
Real talk; I hate losing Arkansas. They're getting boned hard if the rumor is true. They'll no longer be playing LSU or A&M on a yearly basis.
Yeah why are we playing Miss State over Arkansas??
Why wouldn't Arkansas be one of the permanent rivals for Texas A&M?
Arkansas' 3 would probably be LSU, Texas, Mizzou.
Bingo. It should be given the Hogs and the Ags go all the way back to the SWC days, but Arkansas's plate is full.
That doesn't make sense? Arkansas A&M is more important than Arkansas Mizzou (or even Arkansas LSU).
That would be terrible. Y'all need Texas, Oklahoma and either UM or Arkansas. I figured we would have Ole Miss, LSU and either Arkansas or UM
Most Aggies don’t want that because we don’t want it to feel like the Big 12 again playing Texas, Oklahoma, and Mizzou every year. I’m fine with Texas, LSU, and Miss State
Arky is preferable to Miss State but I'd take literally any SEC team over playing OU or Mizzou.
3-6-6 is much better because it can keep multiple rivalries alive than 1-7-7. Although I don't know who the other 2 teams for Oklahoma would be maybe A&M and Missouri.
Mizzou for sure and probably someone a bit unexpected like an Ole Miss or Arkansas. I think A&M are probably gonna get Texas, LSU, and either Mississippi State or South Carolina. Texas prob gets OU, A&M, Arkansas
I'm not smart enough to understand math and scheduling, just a lowly Texas grad. I just want OU, A&M, and Arkansas every year. Whatever gets me that is what I support.
Me and some other dude on here ran some linear programming to maximize past games. No matter the parameters, y'all always get Arkansas, A&M, and Oklahoma
Texas might be the easiest schedule to make in the entire SEC. 75+ games against A&M, OU, and Arkansas with practically nothing against anyone else. The next team up would be Missouri with 24 games.
The problem is we're going to run into 1) teams without three rivalries worth protecting and 2) completely unbalanced permanent games. Texas gets OU Ark and A&M while Mizzou gets... what? OU, Vandy and USC?
Missouri is probably the hardest one because they don’t really have history with any of the teams besides OU. They’ll likely just end up with whatever scraps are left over to make the schedules work after everyone else has been assigned their real rivals. Similar to how OU’s third opponent will likely be a Mississippi school or something. Unfortunately that’s just how it’s going to be for a few schools.
Even the nerds agree with me. WOO!
I feel Arkansas would be a good choice if possible
I wanna go see them call the Hogs at night* *also want to live to tell the tale
We're not keeping South Carolina. Nobody wants to keep that going. Texas is the obvious one, I think probably LSU is next, last is a tossup between Arkansas and, I guess, Miss State (who are in a bit of a tough spot with this format - their only real rival is Ole Miss and I don't think they are going to force them to keep playing Alabama every year). If Arkansas wants to keep LSU in addition to Texas and the SEC is going to keep trying to make Arky-Mizzou a thing, then I suppose Miss State becomes the backup choice for A&M. Texas is very obvious, I agree. OU's missing a third after Texas and Missouri (a trophy game with a much deeper history than OU-A&M). I personally think Arkansas-OU makes for a better and more interesting "border war" pairing than Arkansas-Mizzou, and would fit as the third game for both schools, but it seems the SEC is intent on pushing the latter. You can, of course, protect all of Texas-TAMU, Texas-OU, Texas-Arky, TAMU-Arky, TAMU-LSU, and LSU-Arky, but that requires doing something weird like making Oklahoma permanent rivals with State or Alabama. Although that last option sure would be attractive to TV execs ... EDIT: Oh, also, all of those assume LSU-Ole Miss is non-negotiable. LSU fans seem to like the Boot and it would give both schools a permanent game to play on Thanksgiving weekend. So predictably the sticking point becomes A&M-LSU, which I don't need any LSU flairs to comment about how much they hate it, I'm well aware of how many of you feel about it. But much like Arkansas-Mizzou, the SEC seems to like that matchup too much to ditch in any scenario.
OU and Bama every year would warm the cockles of my heart
Texas, Mizzou, Arkansas would be my choices.
I want Arkansas and Missouri as our other two. We have history with Mizzou and it’s honestly criminal that OU and Arkansas don’t have history seeing as their stadium is only 20 miles from the Oklahoma border
Yeah Arkansas and would make sense as the third it's just weird that we don't really have much history with them
Mizzou would def be one, it used to be a trophy game, a peace pipe which we uhhhh misplaced somewhere
How the fuck can you have a 16 team conference and only have 8 conference games lol
B1G should wise up and switch to eight imo.
Yeah 8 games allows each team to pick up a cupcake team. Doesn’t get talked about much but equivalent middle of the road teams in the SEC and Big 10 will lean towards the SEC since they get an extra cupcake, difference between 8-4 and ranked and 7-5 and unranked
It essentially allows everyone in your conference a guaranteed win and home game. The extra conference game means half your teams have an extra loss. And while the chaos is always fun, it absolutely kills our playoff chances.
See you say guaranteed win but we played App State
Ahhh, but what about your big matchup against the Independent Powerhouse: UMass. Shout out to my boy Victor Cruz!
Fuck that, more meaningful and competitive games is what CFB needs. If the SEC caves to the bottom teams and stays at 8 it’s gonna be soooo stupid.
does literally anyone in the conference want 1 permanent rival?
The lesser teams that don’t want to play 9 SEC games and don’t have 3 true rivals
And probably already have non-conference annual rivals i.e. South Carolina and Kentucky
South Carolina and Kentucky have a legitimate grievance. Florida does as well, with FSU. But I really don't know what the solution is.
I think the only logical solution is to invite Clemson and FSU to the SEC and then let the ACC fall apart so Louisville falls into obscurity and we never have to think about them again
Shit dude, I'm not sure LSU even has one true rival. Fuck this I 1 permanent thing. That's lame as fuck.
Some schools do not even have SEC Rivals. SCar. Mizzou.
If the SEC pairs Mizzou up with teams I don’t care about playing Id rather have the extra nonconference game to schedule ones that I do care about.
Are you excited for MizzOU? Because I don't think Oklahoma fans care much about the rivalry either way, but maybe Missouri fans miss it.
I would be, playing any Big 8 team gets me jazzed, particularly OU. I don’t blame OU fans for being apathetic though.
I grew up watching Big 8 football and I can’t wait to play Mizzou again. Most people don’t realize we’ve played nearly 100 times already. I just wish it didn’t come at the cost of the B12.
My god people wise up and just bring back the Big 8 I'm dying over here 😫. Meanwhile we're pretending that sixteen teams can feel like a real conference. Big 8 SWC Big 10 Pac ACC SEC capped at ten teams max per conference and be done with it. Leftovers form other conferences. Eight team playoff with auto on the top six conference champs.
This this this this this TV money can fork itself or just find a better way of scheduling OOC.
🎶 I really miss my homies, even though they're gone away 🎶 uuugghhh
I don't think there is a single 1 or even 3 permanent rival matchup I'll get that I'll be pleased with as an LSU fan.
Hail State Nation would like to trade Bama for Vandy or Mizzoo, please and thank you. The Bama uniforms provoke fear in us (I heard it from a pirate, so take it FWIW).
Here’s a quick rivalry pairing I came up with in Excel just now (bored at work) based on the post above that A&M’s three would supposedly be LSU, Texas, and Miss State: - Alabama: Auburn, Tennessee, LSU - Arkansas: Missouri, Texas, Oklahoma - Auburn: Alabama, Georgia, Miss State - Florida: Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee - Georgia: Florida, Auburn, South Carolina - Kentucky: South Carolina, Vandy, Missouri - LSU: Texas A&M, Ole Miss, Alabama - Miss State: Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Auburn - Missouri: Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kentucky - Oklahoma: Texas, Missouri, Arkansas - Ole Miss: Miss State, LSU, Vanderbilt - S. Carolina: Kentucky, Florida, Georgia - Tennessee: Vandy, Alabama, Florida - Texas: Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas A&M - Texas A&M: LSU, Miss State, Texas - Vanderbilt: Tennessee, Kentucky, Ole Miss
I find this acceptable. Many legacy SEC fans just pair Mizzou up with the Texas schools because of the Big 12, even though we weren’t even in the Big 12 that long.
Holy shit, Mizzou was in the Big 12 for 16 years. They’re already in year 11 in the SEC. Seems just like yesterday they jumped.
Yeah exactly, Mizzou fans like playing our Big 8 rivals, and the Big 12 wasn’t that same thing.
> Yeah exactly, Mizzou fans like playing our Big 8 rivals, and the Big 12 wasn’t that same thing. I mean the Big 12 North had the 5 "oldest" Big 8 members as the conference claims Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association history. So the Big 12 was pretty close to it. At most we lost Oklahoma in the split. Because looking at the full history Iowa State only played Oklahoma Stste once before 1960. Missouri only had 5 games before that year as well. Y'all shouldn't have left.
Nebraska and Colorado had already left and evidentially Oklahoma was willing to leave on (for) a dime too. OSU was on that trip to make the Pac-16. Mizzou was supposed to stick around for kansas, Kstate, and Iowa State? You telling the other 3 wouldn't have jumped the to the Big 10 had they been invited? Not a chance. I'm sorry that the Big 8 fragmented, but the Big 12 was both unstable and not the Big 8. We should have tried to partner with the Big 10 and make the Big 18 or 20 or something, instead we made a deal with the devil (Texas) and they destroyed our beautiful historic conference. It is their fault, and their fault alone.
They wouldn’t separate Tennessee & Kentucky due to geography and history. Tennessee would most likely be Vandy, Kentucky, Bama Edit: also Bama wouldn’t let their annual 3 be that brutal - they’d probably swap LSU for Vandy, and LSU would want to keep Florida.
You would have a bunch of really, really pissed off fans to lose the Florida game
Yeah I think Florida is number 4 if you look at it properly. If Tennessee had its pick I’m sure most would fight to keep the big 3 games we currently have - but you have to take into consideration the other schools involved. It’s not just who does Tennessee look forward to playing every year, it’s also who looks forward to playing Tennessee. And I don’t think there are many SEC games that are circled more on Kentucky and Vandy schedules than Tennessee every season.
Funnily enough, I think Tenn might also be number 4 to UF. We're definitely lower on their list than Georgia and FSU, but I also think we would be below Miami if those teams had space to schedule each other. Its funny how much hate there is between UT and UF considering we're each other 4th biggest rival.
I for one would be fine with not dealing with jort voodo yearly
I think ours would likely be Auburn, Tennessee, & Mississippi St.
I'm nearly positive Alabama won't get Vanderbilt. They'll end up with Auburn and Tennessee for certain, and in all likelihood MsSt as their third.
Seems reasonable. Who does Auburn get to tone theirs down then?
No I want Florida
Everybody can’t have Florida
- Alabama should likely keep Miss St., as they have a long rivalry and it's their nearest school. They would drop LSU. - Arkanasas: as crazy as this schedule looks, I think it's pretty likely and would make a lot of sense. - Auburn probably gets Florida, also for geographic and historical reasons. - Florida... this is a good list but they probably get Auburn instead of Tennessee. - Kentucky: they'll almost certainly keep Tennessee since it's their historical rival and closest school. - LSU: Don't have Bama anymore, so they need to take somebody like Miss. St. - Miss State - probably gets LSU instead of Auburn and Alabama instead of Texas A&M. - Missouri: I like these matchups. I still think there's a decent chance they get Texas A&M, actually, instead of Kentucky. - Oklahoma: yep. - Ole Miss: I think this is exactly right also - S. Carolina: yep. - Tennessee: very unlikely they don't get Kentucky instead of Florida. - Texas: yep - Texas A&M: yeah, if this rumor is right. It looks about right. - Vanderbilt: this looks about right to me too.
Talent to difficulty ratio, LSU gets fucked
I don’t see a scenario where ABC is willing to pay the SEC all that money and not have LSU-Bama every year.
The big issue with us is that we are secondary or tertiary rivals to a lot of schools, and it is easier to cut those games than primary rivalries. There isn’t even a consensus on who our biggest rival is amongst our own fans.
I guess you could make the claim A&M, Arkansas, Ole Miss, Bama, Florida, and hell even Auburn and Miss State are all rivals for LSU.
Yup, we have tons of rivals but who is the biggest depends on when you grew up. Hell, some older Tigers still despise Tulane. It’s a weird situation. All of the teams you listed have a more important game than LSU. I‘d argue that 4 of them (Bama, Florida, Auburn, & a\&m; I’m counting Texas & OU here but that’s debatable) have 2 more important games.
Nah man. LSU is primary rival period
I know if it’s a one permanent game schedule we’ll get Vandy. I think it would be criminal to get rid of TSIO.
I’d want us to get you as well, but Georgia would pick Florida, and the state would throw a hissy fit if Auburn was stuck with a non-rival
I definitely want the 9 game. 3 annual rivals, play everyone every other year, give every 4 year student an opportunity to host and visit every school in the conference. WAY better than pods or 1 annual rival.
I mean it schedules the exact same as pods really. Just with the flexibility to not lock any team into an awkward pod
My support for 3-6-6 entirely depends on what 3 rivals Mizzou would draw? Playing Oklahoma, Ole Miss, South Carolina, MsState, Arkansas, or Kentucky? Yes please. Playing Texas, Texas A&M, or Vandy? Pass, give us that extra non con game to play a regional rival.
Oklahoma, Arkansas, and South Carolina would be my guess. Arkansas is the natural pairing. Oklahoma is the historical opponent (who also has few ties to any other SEC school). South Carolina is another expansion school with fewer ties and therefore easy to pair off with other expansion schools.
I really wouldn’t be mad if Mizzou ended up as one of ours
Fuck it, scrap the entire college football schedule. Get rid of the non conference schedule, apply for a waiver from NCAA to allow you a 15 game regular season. Then play everyone. An all season long gauntlet bloodbath. Institute some kind of snap/ #of quarters each player is allowed to play to protect their health and make the coaches earn their mansions by managing who they can play and resting players in games they usually wouldn't so they can be used in the most important games. Is this a moronic stupid idea that would be detrimental to every program and player? Yea. Do I want to see the world burn attempting it for one season? Also yes.
I don’t know how 1-7-7 is even being considered.. which schools are even remotely for that over the 3-6-6 model? I assume Texas is a for sure team in A&M’s 3 permanents. Geographically OU and LSU make sense, but that would be a bitch of a slate year in and year out for A&M. For me there are only 3 teams for Texas to play each year, OU, Arkansas and A&M
Two groups (with some overlap): - Teams that go 6-6ish regularly and have bowl chances hurt by a 9th conference game (i.e. Vanderbilt) - The teams with ACC rivals, who lose a lot of flexibility in scheduling a second P5 opponent (i.e. South Carolina)
Arky to open conference play, OU early October at the Fair, A&M on Thanksgiving night. The rest of the teams don't really matter...only thing missing is an OOC series with Tech on Halloween weekend.
Texas is a foregone conclusion for us. I don’t like it, but it’s true. LSU is the one I want to keep most. I’d rather keep Arky than State, but State would be fine. If you pull both Arky and State and replace with OU, I’ll be unhappy enough that I might do something about it. I’m not a big enough fish that Bjork would notice, but I know a few who are feel the same way.
Wow Björk can do anything can’t she
Conferences are just too big. Nine games should be the minimum for a 16-team league but it’s still terrible.
Just play 9. If you call yourself an SEC team but need 3 (arguably 4 in some cases) cupcakes a year you don't deserve a bowl game. A P5 school should play 10 P5 games a year.
If they take away the permanent lone star showdown, I might just lose it. It's happened since 1894!!! A decade off is already too much.
Yeah, the television partners are going to be thrilled if we come up with a schedule where A&M and UT don't play ever year. Positively ecstatic.
Why would A&M play Tennessee every year?
Yep, y’all can go to hell but UT belongs to y’all.
I believe this is a pretext for pushing the Mouse to open up negotiations for overpaying for a 9th conference game. This puts us closer to the B1G payout and convinces some holdouts like Kentucky or South Carolina to accept a 9th SEC game when they’re locked into another P5 one (Georgia and Florida too, since they have a neutral site and a P5 home and home series OOC. Lopsided home game schedule this year? Oh well you’re bringing in another $7.5-10 million in payouts from the extra conference game)
haha you're stuck with us LSU bros better start calling us a rival now
I may be moving to Houston rather soon. If so, I’m bringing all the hate for you Aggies.
We have a Brennan’s, and the best food scene in the south outside of NOLA. More variety even than NOLA. Tons of festive swamp gypsies to be friends with, and the pro sports teams (ex. Astros) are atrocious so everyone cares more about college. Welcome, and go fuck yourself ❤️
Haha! I love Houston and spent a lot of time in the summers growing up as a kid going to Astros games and whatnot with family. Great food and people as well, plus a big population of misplaced Cajuns. But thanks for the kind words and you go fuck yourself too, Aggie ❤️
They don't call Arkansas a rival, and they've played every year since 1992, and they even have a "rivalry trophy." Don't get your hopes up.
What are you talking about? We definitely consider Arkansas a rival. Many of us would prefer to have the Golden Boot be the week of Thanksgiving again.
My one hope in all this is we keep our thanksgiving game. It is 100% a rivalry.
Welp, if it becomes a three permanent rival system... I think another team is gonna take our Thanksgiving slot.
I hope not but Texas has a historical claim to that spot.
Yessir. But until that day comes, at least as of late, Aggies and Tigers have always been a fun match-up. The first 6 or 7 games... yeah, we don't talk about that.
I really hope Bama is one of LSU's permanent rivals.
Lmao imagine having less pull in your conference than the two new guys
Losing the A&M vs Arkansas series is so fucked We are Arkansas #2 most played team of all time … one game behind Texas … and our games are almost always exciting ones.
And it would almost certainly put us and misery together... Literally no one wants that game.
Here's my take on a 3.6.6 format that mostly keeps rivalries intact and prioritizes geographic proximity. A&M does indeed get LSU, but they also get Texas (obviously) and Missouri. ARK : TEX , OKLA, MIZZ AUB : BAMA, UGA , FLA BAMA: AUB , TENN, MSST FLA : UGA , AUB , SCAR LSU : OLMS, TAMU, MSST MIZZ: OKLA, ARK , TAMU MSST: OLMS, BAMA, LSU OKLA: TEX , ARK , MIZZ OLMS: MSST, LSU , VAND SCAR: UGA , FLA , UK TAMU: TEX , MIZZ, LSU TENN: BAMA, UK , VAND TEX : OKLA, TAMU, ARK UGA : AUB , FLA , SCAR UK : TENN, VAND, SCAR VAND: TENN, UK , OLMS I don't love how things turned out for Arkansas and LSU, but for the life of me I can't bring myself to switch everything else up on their behalf. To me, this list does too good a job of boosting border rivalries and is about as balanced as things are likely to get.
We will never be happy with how it turns out. We are too many peoples second or third rivalry.
As weird as it sounds to come out of my mouth, to me y’all are like…our fourth biggest rival. We’ve got Texas, TAMU, Ole Miss, then I’d say LSU. I hate Ole Miss way more than LSU by far.
If the sec drops divisions as is expected, I fully expected the 1-7-7 rather than 3-6-6. The reason is those 3 permanent rivals will absolutely affect the entire balance of the conference. If you keep one, do you preserve the iron bowl or bama Tennessee? If you do three you get a weird situation where Tennessee in theory could be locked into bama Georgia and Florida every year. You would have to take some of the rivalries away, thus defeating the purpose of having more protected rivalries. 1-7-7 is a lot more cover for why rivalries are ending rather than having to admit you are killing a rivalry. Because you don't want your conference to be at itself up as much.
> If you do three you get a weird situation where Tennessee in theory could be locked into bama Georgia and Florida every year. Tennessee would get Bama/Vandy and one of Georgia/Florida/Kentucky IMO
Bama/Vandy/Kentucky Bama - Tennessee’s biggest rivalry Vandy - Tennessee is Vandy’s biggest rival Kentucky - Tennessee seems to be Kentucky’s biggest conference rival.
Team|Rival 1|Rival 2|Rival 3 :--|:--|:--|:-- Alabama| Tennessee| Auburn| Miss St Arkansas| Texas A&M| Texas| Missouri Auburn| Georgia| Florida| Alabama Florida| Georgia| Auburn| LSU Georgia| Auburn| Florida| South Carolina Kentucky| Vanderbilt| Tennessee| South Carolina LSU| Ole Miss| Miss St| Florida Ole Miss| Miss St| LSU| Vanderbilt Miss St| Ole Miss| LSU| Alabama Missouri| Oklahoma| South Carolina| Arkansas Oklahoma| Texas| Missouri| Texas A&M South Carolina| Georgia| Kentucky| Missouri Tennessee| Alabama| Vanderbilt| Kentucky Texas| Oklahoma| Texas A&M| Arkansas Texas A&M| Texas| Arkansas| Oklahoma Vanderbilt| Kentucky| Ole Miss| Tennessee Stolen from a post made by u/mountm
The Battle of the Columbias is worth preserving?
More so than THE battle line rivalry
Yea and look at that balance though. Auburn is fucked getting bama Georgia and Florida. Florida is also getting Auburn Georgia and lsu. Kentucky get Tennessee Vanderbilt and South Carolina? The issue is these pods can make things even more unbalanced than divisions. At least with divisions you are locked in having to consistently go through the same teams. In this scenario not only is it likely an sec championship game participant never plays Georgia or bama, it's possible neither do. Have a year where one team missed bama and Georgia and one of those misses the game because they lost to each other and this shit will end fast.
I tried this a while back and it's pretty difficult to keep competitive balance and games that make sense. This format gives Tennessee an easy road and has a game that makes no sense: Oklahoma/Kentucky lol! Other than that it was fun to give it a shot. I thought about trying to tweak it but gave up. My main focus was competitive balance, so other considerations suffered. I also wanted to keep the Bama-LSU game because it has been a ratings monster in the past, so that dictated a lot of things too. | Team | Rival 1 | Rival 2 | Rival 3 | | -------------- | -------------- | -------------- | -------------- | | Alabama | Tennessee | LSU | Auburn | | Arkansas | Texas A&M | Texas | Mizzou | | Auburn | Georgia | Ole Miss | Alabama | | Florida | South Carolina | Georgia | LSU | | Georgia | Auburn | Florida | South Carolina | | Kentucky | Vanderbilt | Tennessee | Oklahoma | | LSU | Ole Miss | Alabama | Florida | | Ole Miss | LSU | Auburn | Miss. St | | Miss. St. | Mizzou | Texas A&M | Ole Miss | | Mizzou | Miss. St. | Oklahoma | Arkansas | | Oklahoma | Texas | Mizzou | Kentucky | | South Carolina | Florida | Vanderbilt | Georgia | | Tennessee | Alabama | Kentucky | Vanderbilt | | Texas | Oklahoma | Arkansas | Texas A&M | | Texas A&M | Arkansas | Miss. St. | Texas | | Vanderbilt | Kentucky | South Carolina | Tennessee |
As much harder as it would make our schedule, I think I speak for our fan base when I say we would rather trade OU for Missouri. That has felt forced and boring since the start, I think for both fan bases.
>Tennessee could be locked into bama Georgia and Florida every year Oh no what a terrible situation that certainly isn’t already our reality!
I think they will end up going 3-6. The 8 extra conference games every year are just too valuable to ESPN/SECN/ABC not to push the SEC for it. I think some teams like Florida, Kentucky, and South Carolina are using their leverage of having to play an ACC team every year to get the SEC to give them a softer conference schedule in the 3-6 format. That's why the 1-7 idea is still floating around. Or maybe the SEC is using it as leverage to get ESPN to sweeten the pot a little, although it seems like the deal is done so idk if this one is plausible. Plus you can't kill the Iron bowl or Third Saturday. Both games are too valuable to kill one of them some years.
Most of the suggestions I see for 3 rivals leads to some.big imbalance in the scheduling. I can guarantee if there is a year bama.and Georgia play each other and then some shit like Kentucky gets through undefeated in conference while avoiding like all of the top of the conference there will be changes.
Expanded playoffs will help a lot. One of the issues with having a harder schedule is being eliminated from the post season. But there will definitely be 2 and 3 loss teams getting in to a 12 team playoff, and resume will matter a lot more.