And there you have it: per Jeremy Foley, the SEC has officially adopted the 6-1-1 scheduling format, so the big cross-divisional rivalries have been saved. And so is that seventh home game against a Sun Belt opponent.
The two other big questions are answered by Jon Solomon.
It’ll last as long as the networks will pay for it.
Get The Picture 
It will go to 6-1-2 before this summer of discontent is over.
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That’s awesome. At least I’ll get to see AU play FU at least 2 more times before I die.
Assuming I live into my 70s or so.
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That would, of course, depend on how old you are now. 68? 69?
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Might need to make it to your 80s now.
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This should serve as a warning to the playoff fans. These are the same guys who are ultimately going to be deciding on that format and they clearly aren’t much for creative thinking or putting the fan’s interests ahead of their own.
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If their interests are money, all we have to do is quit buying tickets to cupcake matchups and not utilize the concession stands. They’ll get the hint. I think they are so smug as to think they can simply put any product out there and we’ll just swallow it hook, line, and sinker. It is pretty insulting.
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Yep. This is just like many things in life where, if you don’t like something, the most effective way to show your displeasure is by keeping your money in your wallet. It’s a shame that so many things have to be that way (this included) but that’s what we’re stuck with at the moment.
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So instead of buying season tickets, and keeping priority for Jax and whatever the postseason happens to be, we just buy single game tickets to what each spring we feel will be the best games? And who cares about seating priority – let’s just move all around each game, based on whatever the best seats are for each matchup (based on buyiing them one game at a time).
It’s a great plan in the real world, but not so great in scenario like this. They’ve got a lot of us making a tough decision, don’t they? I don’t really like either choice to be honest.
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Buy your Jax and bowl tickets from secondary markets. You’ll come out on the better end of the deal.
Do you want change? You must also change.
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I think it’s a great plan but that’s me. You have to make the determination for yourself. A lot of variables obviously go into whether that type of fan experience is for you. Some people hate the idea of sinking all that money into donations and season tickets year after year when they really only care about a couple of games anyway.
It would be a different story if they were trying to fill the schedule with more compelling matchups but that’s not what’s happening.
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All I cared about was preserving the Auburn-Georgia game. That’s been done, so I’m pleased.
I’m intrigued by the fact that the rotating games are no longer home and home. I hope that our next game with LSU is in Red Stick, in that case, because I’ve never been able to get down there for a game due to weddings, poverty, and other foolishness. All of the other SEC West sites I’ve either already seen or don’t really give a shit about seeing them (Arkansas and Texas A&M).
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Senator,
With all due respect, I think your arguments (and snarkiness) should be directed toward the most recent conference expansion and not the holy grail 9th conference game.
When MU and ATM were added, tradition headed for the exit.
The deal now is money – and championships. ESPN has the money and the SEC presidents want it. Winning championships fuels their run for the money. Nine conference games makes it harder to win those championships and hurts hometown economies.
Some teams may want to add another cupcake to the schedule to replace the ninth game and I would suggest those programs have a lukewarm passion to win. While you argue that 6-1-1 adds another cupcake, I would argue that a nine game conference schedule eliminates the chance for rivalries to blossom like Alabama-Penn State.
Have a nice day,
BD
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DB, from a fan’s perspective, I’ve never understood why the SEC needed to expand. I was quite happy with the status quo. But that’s water under the bridge now; we’re at 14 and we’ve got to live with it. In that context, I firmly believe that a nine-game schedule honors what’s best about the SEC.
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I’m not sure adding a 9th game where you lose a home game every other year and, yes, make your schedule somewhat harder on a permanent basis and possibly eliminates cross-sectional rivalries honors what’s best about the conference. Heck, even with a 12 team conference it was hard to develop rivalries within the conference (unless they formed in the SECCG).
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What is the SEC going to do when it goes to 16 teams? Stay at 6-1-1?
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By the way, how does a one-shot meeting like Alabama-Penn State blossom into a rivalry, anyway? 😉
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Not sure what you mean…the rivalry began in earnest in the early 80s…I guess my point is that anything like that won’t happen now (for most conference teams).
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Three SEC schools play annual rivalry games with OOC BCS-level opponents from their same states (Florida, Georgia and South Carolina), so, sure, it can be done.
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Ummm…didn’t y’all just cancel a series with Ohio State? 🙂
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Ummm…no, we didn’t. Ohio State cancelled it.
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Gotcha
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So you’re saying that, with a 9 game conference schedule, Alabama would play 3 cupcakes every year and not schedule any decent out of conference matchups.
That’s an extremely weak argument to throw out there.
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I’m saying that for all of the conference teams.
I tend to believe Saban would continue to schedule as he always has for Alabama. Some other conference teams probably wouldn’t not add a tougher opponent.
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What do you mean by “all?” SC? Georgia? Fla? Pretty sure they’re not going the 3-cupcake route anytime soon. At least, I sure as hell hope not.
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So you’re saying that Buffalo, Florida Atlantic and Georgia Southern don’t constitute three cupcakes?
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He means if we have 9 league games. We’ll always play Tech.
After our 2009 schedule, I will take schedule smack talk from no one ever again.
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^ This ^
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I was being facetious b/c I think Bama would continue to schedule the same way as well. My point was that your Bama-Penn State example was a very poor example for the point you were trying to make.
In any event, if we went to 9 games, I think the teams that would avoid a quality OOC game are the same teams that never develop any OOC rivalries anyway b/c they already avoid quality OOC games (Arkansas and Ole Miss, I’m looking in your direction).
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For the record, I’m not totally opposed to cupcakes. They serve a purpose. Eat one now and again and it’s a rather nice treat. Eat ’em all the time and it’ll affect your health.
I love college football. I love to see the big games and I love to go to them. But I can see the perspective of taking a breather now and again.
During Alabama’s most recent lean years (when the cupcakes often times did the feasting) there was a waiting list for season tickets. Yes, sometimes the stadium wasn’t totally full, but most all of the tickets were sold.
I also could not care less about playing Kentucky, South Carolina, Vandy and the like. I don’t care if they are in the conference. I don’t care if we ever play them again.
I also don’t worry about playing Georgia and Florida from the East, because there’s a decent chance one of those two teams will be in the SECCG. (Although it’s kind of interesting that Bama and UGA have never matched up there.)
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“Georgia AD says SEC hasn’t decided how many years new football schedule format will last.”
That statement presupposes that we are in an inherently unstable scheduling arrangement (which I fully agree with). It’s not a question of if, but when, we shuffle up the scheduling deck and start over again.
And that’s ultimately what I hate the musical chair, conference realignment game. One of the most wonderful things about CFB is the tradition, the pageantry, the history. The fact that your grandpa, your father, yourself, and your son will have seen the ebbs and flows of a rivalry, the highs of winning a MNC and the lows of dealing with a program in absolute chaos, and all of the fun times in between.
Rearranging the chairs, whether it be the regularity of games played, the loss of an historic rival, or the growth of ambivalence in CFB due to catering to a cable sports network instead of the school’s fans, simply smothers the golden goose that has always been full of passion, youthful optimism, and eternally hot co-eds.
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Beautifully stated.
Who among us saw any of this shit coming 18 months ago?
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If we’re going to have 8 conference games in a 14 team conference, then the 8-1-1 with no home and home is the best of the bad choices. That’s all I can say for it, though.
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Sorry, meant “6-1-1” is the best of the bad choices.
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The real problem for goergia is the WLOCP which is always played in JAX. That means UGA has to play a game evey year against a team/teams that will come to athens without expecting reciprocity i.e. a cupcake. Make the WLOCP home and away then we can play another home and away series against somebody good and play them in Athens when UGA plays Florida on the road and play them on the road when UGA plays Florida in Athens.
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Yeah, but Histry and Tradishun! And 4 days of drinkin.
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Plus luukin’ at young poontang!!! Shit Yeah!!!
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