It should come as a surprise to exactly no one that Mike Slive is less than enamored with Larry Scott’s conference champs-only plus-one format.
“I’m willing to have a conversation about (only conference champions), but if you were going to ask me today, that would not be the way I want to go,” Slive said. “It really is early in the discussions, notwithstanding what some commissioners say publicly. There’s still a lot of information that needs to be generated.”
Translation: if you think I’m giving up the advantage of having the only conference that seems capable of having two schools in the title game without a battle, you’re crazy.
That being said, I think he’s off base with his complaints about playing the semifinals on the campuses of the higher ranked schools. Sure, there’s a competitive advantage. That’s the whole point. You’ve got to build some incentives into the system to make sure that schools don’t overload on cupcakes or, even worse, decide to take a regular season game off to prepare for the postseason, à la the NFL. That’s an even bigger concern if you adopt Scott’s proposal.
And, turning to the current state of affairs in the SEC, this is too cute by half:
… Meanwhile, as the SEC prepares to welcome Missouri and Texas A&M into the league, Slive said the conference is content with 14 members.
“I still view 14 as an extension of 12,” Slive said. “Going beyond 14 is no longer an extension of 12. Maybe the Pac-12 and Big Ten scheduling alliance may be their way of answering that question. I can only speak for us. I think it’s going to take us some time to absorb these two institutions. At this point, I don’t see us adding more. We’ve never been trying to get 14 so I don’t see us necessarily trying to get to 16.”
Slive said the SEC is currently in future TV discussions with CBS and ESPN and that finalizing future football schedules beyond 2012 does not impact those talks.
“They know who we are and what we have,” Slive said. “None of our schools will be hurt financially (in 2012-13). But that’s just today. It’s tomorrow that’s the real issue. The discussions are very important. They’re longterm. We’ll leave it at that.”
Right. This whole thing just sort of fell in Slive’s lap. And the TV negotiations going on simultaneously? Mere coincidence. If you’re buying this, I still haven’t been able to unload that beachfront property in Hahira and would love to talk with you.
Get The Picture 
Well, if Slive insists on a Plus One type format, he likely will lose. He is still only one vote and other conferences are not going to be thrilled with a rematch that includes a team than not only doesn’t win its conference but fails to even win its division.
I can envision a scenario like 2008 or 2009 when the SEC CG loser is unbeaten prior to that game and then making it in. But I would bet my paycheck that we won’t have teams that fail to win their division again.
There will be an exception to the only champions rule because as long as Notre Dame remains an independent, there will be such a clause. So you could get something like Conference Champs only, as long as a non-champ is not 4 spots or more ahead of them in the final poll.
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Slive should teach a course in “manipulative semantics”……”I still view 14 as an extension of 12″….”Going beyond 14 is no longer an extension of 12″…..good grief!
I believe, as does Bob above, that ” +1″ is also twisted semantics for
” plus-Nortre Dame” for any year the Irish can win nine games.
What if there isn’t a decent +1 in a given year? Yep..it will be + ND.
And may heaven help all the independents that have to compete with the Irish for ratings…
Consider this…under the plus 1 plan, all of the Independents become a psuedo confernce, vying for the “plus 1 Championship”! Maybe they will need a conference championship game to decide it.
This is nothing but a “Charley-Foxtrot” that will be ulitmatly be decided with guns and knives and daggars. I hope Slive knows that he’s holding the biggest gun.
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I like that. Biggest gun at a knife fight. Cluster-Fuck indeed!
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The converse is also true. Why are we even bothering to give any cred whatsoever to those guys from other conferences who are holding onto knives when the SEC has the biggest gun?
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Slive can take his marbles and go home if he wants to. The SEC has won 6 in a row. It’s also difficult to argue the SEC did not also have the second best team in 2 of those years (07,11) and can be argued that the SEC had the second best team two other years (08,09).
A championship that does not include the SEC is meaningless right now.
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+1 – this “all champs” thing will never fly so long as ND is an independent. I much prefer your rule over giving this to an NCAA committee to decide.
All these other conferences want to do everything in their power to limit SEC dominance and protect their own asses. Remember when the Pac-10 and Big 1? conspired to provide us that sweet Rose Bowl match-up of Illinois and USC in ’07 while we went to whip Hawaii in N’awlins. Yea – that was definitely in the best interest of the fans…
If picking the “Final 4” goes to a committee, we may never see two sec teams in there – regardless of rankings.
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“14 is an extension of 12”?! No, Mike, 14 is 14. If 14 was the same as 12, just better, then why are we struggling to come up with a scheduling format that doesn’t destroy several bedrock traditions of the SEC? 12’s 12. 14’s 14. And 16 is 16. Jackass.
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Yeah, for someone who normally sounds like he chooses his words pretty carefully — even when they’re words I completely disagree with — that was a whole lot of word/number salad from Slive.
I mean, if 14 is really the same thing as 12, then 16 is basically the same thing as 14, right? I mean, proportionally speaking, the increase is even smaller. Therefore 16 is more or less the same as 12 — or an “extension” at the absolute most — so why not just add New Mexico and Iowa State while we’re at it? They’re in states that border the states where we’ve just added members, so, like, by Slive’s definition that’d just be another “extension” too.
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“You’ve got to build some incentives into the system to make sure that schools don’t overload on cupcakes or, even worse, decide to take a regular season game off”
Aren’t those two things the same?
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Beachfront property in Hahira? We might be interested in that.
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Upon being told of Mr. Slive’s remarks, Larry Scott said, “Well, good for him.”
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