Well, now that you mention it, maybe that whole everybody’s-got-a-bye-week-before-they-play-‘Bama thing was a little overblown, right, Nick Saban?
“I know somebody is going to ask about bye weeks, so let’s clear this up for the year,” he said. “Everybody out there assumes that having a bye week is an advantage. And I’ve always answered the question saying I don’t know if it is an advantage or a disadvantage.”
To back up his point, Saban cited research done within the program concerning teams coming off an open date. Looking at the past five seasons, the other 11 SEC schools have a combined record of 29-29 coming off bye weeks, Saban said.
“I’m not saying I’m right and you’re wrong, but the statistics kind of prove it is not an advantage or a disadvantage,” Saban said. “It probably depends a lot on the circumstances.”
I think that’s right. You could give Vanderbilt a month off before playing the Tide and it wouldn’t make any difference. The most obvious way a bye week can help is if it gives a team the opportunity to get an injured player or players back for a key game.
By the way, does it surprise anybody that Saban actually took the time to research the subject? Not me. I’m just curious if he did it before the scheduling snafu was brought to the SEC’s attention or after it became clear that nothing much was going to be done about it for this season.
Get The Picture 
So, does that mean some Georgia fans can stop complaining that Florida seemed to have a lot of bye weeks before the WLOCP?
🙂
In honesty, in the Florida/Georgia rivalry, I think a bye week is an advantage.
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The other obvious way it helps a team is that it gives them an extra week to put in new plays. Does everyone remember the 2005 WLOCP when the Gators came out with an entirely different O from what they had played up to that point in the season? They put up 2 TDs before the UGA D could adjust. After the D adjusted UGA completely shut down the Gators. But it was too late and the Gators won 14-10. Would the extra week help Vandy beat Bama? No. Will it help an evenly matched or slightly inferior team win? Absolutely!
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I can’t speak for how well the SEC plays Alabama after a bye week, but we are about to find out how well Georgia plays Tennessee after taking nine weeks off.
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Vanderbilt not the worst team in the SEC. They are an absolute powerhouse compared to UGA.
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Don’t count your chickens.
Vanderbilt has the worst mascot in the SEC (at least until the PC folks at Ole Miss have their way).
You’ll find out next week.
I will be ready for that one, too.
Russ.
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Worst mascot until Ole Miss adopts their land bear shark hoddy toddy
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Uga VI told me Ole Miss is the only school in the nation who wants to be Auburn.
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You forgot about Clemson.
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I thought Nick Saban didn’t have time for that s&*t?
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If it wasn’t any big deal, Alabama wouldn’t have thrown a temper tantrum to Mike Slive about the issue and tried to get it changed. Does it guarantee a win? Why, no, just take a look at JAX last year. The better team is still typically going to win. But it’s undeniable that the advantages you gain from freshness and time to recover from injuries is a real thing.
And, to follow up on Mike’s point, there’s no doubt that Florida’s byes in the UGA-FL game have been a huge advantage for the Gators.
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Since 1990?
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I’d say so. Do you not agree? I don’t really know much about when their bye weeks fell before the 90’s, but I think you can make the argument that they were a better coached outfit throughout the 90’s, and when you take a better team and build in another week for them, that pretty much spells doom for Georgia.
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Well,Steve Spurrier sure thought so. That is why he got the FLA AD to arrange the FLA schedule so that FLA had a bye week before the WLOCP. That was part of Spurrier’s strategy to win the game. (So much for the myth that school ADs have no control over SEC scheduling.)
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I seem to recall a UGA player stating a few years ago that the best thing about a bye week is that it allowed their shoulders to have a chance to heal up somewhat.
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It would have been nice to have a bye week before the GA/FL game in 2005.
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Nah…we never get that lucky.
UF sure as hell does though. Bye week before LSU saved them when Tebow got lit up running up the score on UK.
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The Gators always get all the breaks. If we had an extra week in 2005 and Shockley got to play in the WLOCP the Gators are toast.
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Richt needs to take the boys out on a slumpbuster at the Jiggle Hut to ease the tension
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I would like to see if there is a bye-week advantage when two closely matched teams (say a spread of 3 points or less) play each other. As noted, Vandy can have as much time off as they want and their still not going to beat Bama. But when the opponents are close in ability, the bye week may help.
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