Any bets on how this puppy’s gonna turn out?
A year ago I would have sworn Auburn-Georgia and Alabama-Tennessee would be preserved, come hell or high water. Now, I’m thinking it’s eight games and ditch the rivalries. That’s what most of the coaches and ADs want, but they’ll tell us it’s for the fans.
It’s the natural culmination of what Slive has wrought over the past five seasons. And they can always revisit the ninth game if they need a better TV contract or the playoff selection committee screws over the conference.
At least there’s no players union, though. I’d hate to see what I love about college football tossed aside.
Get The Picture 
Why is this so stinkin’ hard? Have UGA vs AU and UA and UT play every year and do away with the other cross-division “rivalries.” Every other school goes back to the old one year at home, one year on the road, see you in a few years format. I hate going to Tuscaloosa and Baton Rouge so infrequently with said format, but I would hate not seeing the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry and the Third Saturday in October MUCH more.
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UA, AU, UGA, and UT are 4 of the most lucrative athletic departments in the country. If they don’t carry enough influence to preserve their rivalries then maybe it’s time for a discussion on succession. Wonder what ol Slive would think about that.
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the Vols find themselves mired in more than $200 million of debt, the most in the SEC, with reserves of just $1.95 million, the least in the conference.
http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2013/01/28/Colleges/Tennessee.aspx
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Nobody’s leaving the SEC over scheduling.
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I do love that secession is ALWAYS on the table as an option in the south.
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His post read “succession”, which I interpreted as, “Who will succeed Slive as commissioner?” Perhaps it was a typo and UGA will rise again.
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His handle gives the game away, no?
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Personally, I think he had a great idea.
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t was my idea in the first place.
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Wait a minute, there. I thought that up just a couple of years ago…..Hold on…..Did you say that somebody already advocated for secession before?….And a state did it?…..WHAT??!!!…11 states did it?!!!….Well, eh…….I don’t care, it was MY idea and that’s my story…..
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It will never be in the best interest of UGA to play Missouri every year and Auburn twice per decade but those in charge in Athens are more interested in the dollar which means acquiescing to the SEC. If we lose Auburn who’s next? Florida? SC?
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The years when UGA and AU do not play a conference game, AU & UGA schedule a non-conference game. Keep Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry an annual affair.
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Why voluntarily play a 9th conference game (even though it doesn’t count) and give the other 12 schools the benefit of the TV game in the conference package? If the schools could sell the game outside the conference package, I could see it, but this game just makes everyone else richer and our schedules tougher.
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I hate auburn, but I love playing them every year.
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$live and company are officially going to take the remaining joy out of SEC football if they move forward with the 8-game proposal that eliminates the traditional rivalries. Why don’t we just eliminate the divisions and go to a rotating schedule and get rid of the WLOCP and the Iron Bowl if no rivalry is sacred? All of this for Missouri and Texas A&M? Why couldn’t the suits in Birmingham and the ADs just left well enough alone in 2010 and ’11?
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I’m with you. It was greed for money and power that left us stuck with A&M and Missouri. It’s a joke that they’re even part of the SEC geographically speaking, and now we might lose playing Auburn every year? That really is enough to make football a whole lot less interesting because there’s always something nice about a rivalry that is so big and so historic and has made or broken so many seasons over the past decades.
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Amen!!
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This whole thing got started because of a glich in NCAA Rules and Roy Cramer’s desire to have an SECCG, which effectively is a bowl game where the SEC gets to keep all the money. It’s always all about money…period. I say we kick out the 4 newest member (IMHO they don’t really belong in the SEC anyway), downsize to 10 teams and play a round robin schedule where every team plays every other team each season. You get a real conference champion that way, too. If Slive wants a conference championship game, it is possible to do that also with the top 2 team playing. (I’m not really for that, just saying it could happen.) Everybody gets what they want: The fans that want a 9 game SEC schedule get that. The fans that want an SECCG get that. The conference gets $$. And we get rid of this BS about ending traditional rivalries just for the sake of filthy lucre and “competitive balance.”
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It will be interesting to see the vote on an 8 game schedule with no perm rival. At first blush I feel pretty confident saying the initial vote would be 5-2 for keeping. The four affected schools and USCe for keeping it and LSU and UF for ditching it. Not sure where the other 7 schools would come down though.
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I think the Cocks would not be on our side on this. I think their permanent opponent is Arkansas. What’s in it for them? I also think the remaining schools would likely vote for the proposal unless the networks said the 8-game package is less attractive without those 2 games.
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Would you rather keep a perm opp in arky while your competition plays bama, lsu, and auburn or vote to lose that competitive advantage?
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Cocks are now scheduled to play TAMU every year with Mizzou playing Arkansas.
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Why would Carolina support keeping it? They never cared about Arkansas and now they get A&M. Actually, outside of the 4 teams involved, the rest of the league does not like the crossover rivalry. And with Bama’s domination of UT, the other teams in the west not named Auburn don’t like that one bit.
I agree with the Senator..I don’t like where this is going.
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Have you looked at UGA’s record against Auburn the last few years? Except for 2010 and a fluke in 2013 (Thanks to JHC) we beat the WarTigerPlainsmen like a drum. Now that Malzahn is there maybe the Barners would want the series with Georgia to end. It sure makes sense for them if you think about it.
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If they do that they need to realign the divisions, send UK and Mizz to the west for the Alabama schools. That way no real rivalries are lost.
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LSU would agree with that plan. They’d waltz into the SEC Championship Game probably 8 out of every 10 years. 🙂
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Plus the Bama-LSU game is a big rivalry as is Auburn-LSU.
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Great idea. Maybe we can trade Vandy to the AFC Central for the Steelers while we’re at it.
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THIS made me spit out my coffee!
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I think it’s pretty obvious that Slive wants 9 games for a variety of reasons, and having given the ADs and coaches not named Saban time to whine about it (as they did when the league went from 6 o 7, and then 7 to 8 games), I suspect he’s now trying to line up 8 presidents/chancellors to support him.
For us at Vandy, I’d be very comfortable with 9 conference games, one non-conference game vs. a like-minded Duke/Stanford/Northwestern, one C-USA/MAC/Sun Belt opponent, and one area FCS team to be a good neighbor and throw some $$$ at a nearby school (Austin Peay, TSU, Tennessee Tech, UT-Martin, Chattanooga). I don’t think it’s that hard, but many of my fellow Vandy fans are strangely scared that we might miss out on the pleasure of another bowl game in Birmingham if it gets too tough.
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Saban is in favor of the 9 game schedule.
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Tradition is part of what makes the SEC valuable. I just don’t see it happening
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When theBig 12 did away with the traditional rivalry game between Nebraska and Oklahoma that is what led to Nebraska leaving the Big 12 for the Big 10. Games like these are what make CFB what it is. This has all the earmarks of killing the golden goose.
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I want to know who’s going to bat for us.
We jumped on the grenade and went to Auburn 2 years in a row so this damn expansion schedule would work. We had to bite the bullet and play Nebraska 2 years in a row while freaking Kansas State got to dictate who they played in a bowl game. Now the AU game is potentially on the chopping block (again)? Slive says not everyone is going to be happy with the schedule format, but I’d say we’ve already done enough for the greater good to get our way one damn time. We are not Missouri or South Carolina. We are a cornerstone of the Southeastern Conference and should act as such.
So I say again, who’s going to bat for us? McGarity? Bang up job so far.
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You’re right SB. UGA gets no respect from the SEC office. That’s why the refs do what they do to Georgia with impunity. And our AD sits there and just takes it. What a pussy.
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Doesn’t Slive understand that his job may not be very secure if he continues to p*** off too many people.
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He’s 73 and rich. Unfortunately, I doubt he cares much.
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I am fine just the way it is, the BigXII proved that destroying a long time tradition (OU/Nebraska) for a rotation of team with less history does not work. I do not like the current direction of College Football and doubt I will support the game if the tradition is destroyed.
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Prior to the expansion witha smaller 10 team SEC players did not get play every team in the conf. in 4 or even 5 years. Players live for beating rivals on a big stage which requires tradition.
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What is everyone worried about? We have Howdy Doody McGarity in our corner.
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Who is Buffalo Bob?
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Mark Richt, no doubt. Note how Howdy and Buffalo have sold out completely for the $$.
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It isn’t just the Washington DC and the NCAA that is incompetent when it comes to leadership, there is a void in Birmingham and Athens as well. Letting the traditional rivalries expire makes the SEC as pathetic as the Big 12 and Big Delany conferences. What can possible be wrong with adding a 9th SEC game? It is better for fans, and better for proving this continues to be the best conference in CFB. And both FU and LSU are sad, smallish whiners for begging out, that is annually one of the most anticipated games on the CFB schedule. Do you really want to drop this for another walk-over game? Needless to say the UGA/AU and TN Bama games should be defended ferociously but not in isolation, schools should face a team of their “status” from the other division. It may vary some in years of particular strengths and weaknesses, but it usually means one of the perennial title contenders has earned their ticket to Atlanta.
Like voters, we pretty much get what we deserve, if fans allow this to happen they deserve to watch a rapid decline in the sport. Not demanding a better home slate and continuing to by season tickets for 1-2 decent home games a year is the reason these bean-counters/politicians are getting by with this lack of vision. Short term they may rationalize it put more dollars in their pockets, but long term the sport will become a shell of what it has been. And supporters of a weakened schedule will be to blame, not a carpetbagger like Slime or a wimp like McFrugal.
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I wish I said that!
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Let’s start talking about dropping the Iron Bowl and see what happens.
NO ONE cares about pissing off UGA!
Realign the conference geographically and be done with it or drop the divisions and the best team wins. It worked before the $EC got so greedy.
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Just drop the divisions and give each team 2 permanent conference games and rotate the rest, problem solved.
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That’s actually an interesting an idea. We could keep the WLOCP and Auburn, and still see our current East rivals on a pretty regular basis (mainly speaking of UT and SC, I honestly don’t care how often we do or don’t play UK, Vandy, Mizzou).
I haven’t thought it out from a conference wide standpoint, so I’m not sure if I agree with you or not, but at the least it’s very thought provoking.
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The problem with that has always been the NCAA requirement for divisions if you want to host a conference championship game. Lord knows that’s one of the SEC’s most valuable properties right now so it’s not going anywhere. SEC would have to get an exemption from the NCAA, but who knows if the NCAA will still be calling the shots in the next few years?
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The ACC or the Big Ten already presented a proposal this past season to address this (divisions) though in their case it was in an effort to choose their championship game participants. So the idea is already out there.
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sorry, you beat me to it, hadn’t seen your comment yet when I was writing mine. 🙂
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That rule could change pretty soon though. Remember the ACC is currently in the process of challenging it. And according to this article it has support from other conferences. I agree with you that as it stands now, FarmerDawg’s suggestion isn’t feasible, but that could change pretty soon.
http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/writer/dennis-dodd/24483893/acc-supports-deregulation-of-conference-championship-games-would-change-postseason-structure
Of course, the NCAA has a couple of other items on their plate right now, so this might get tabled for the time being.
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The ACC is now a subsidiary of Notre Dame so depending on what Notre Dame wants, the ACC will get it and get it good
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Hardy har har. Notre dame sucks and is headed the way of ga tech. ACC= Fsu and basketball season
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SEC network is going Sunday night games too so let’s just destroy college football -tradition does not matter.
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This makes me wish I gave a lot of money to UGA so I could threaten to stop giving it to them if the end of the DSOR came to pass. Sadly I don’t think anything other than dollars will factor into this decision.
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One other thought. Slive also suggested that the “Big 5” power conferences may essentially have a new sub-division within the NCAA in the not-too-distant future. If that’s the case, one wonders if games against non-power conferences will be restricted.
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It’s time we all woke and inhaled the fumes. The end result will be an 8 game SEC schedule with no permanent cross division rivals, no WLOCP, and at least 3 OOC cupcakes, all as a way to maximize the # of teams that’ll go to a 16 team playoff. The declining regular season attendance won’t be a concern, because it’ll be more than made up in TV ad dollars. ESPN and the conference suits will be happy. They should be–they’ll be making more money than ever off of vastly under-compensated labor.
Fans, what fans?
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“declining regular season attendance won’t be a concern,”
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, this is going to be a boon for the CGI rank and file in Communications Workers of America Local 5003 in Burbank.
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If UGA played 4 permanent conference teams every year, I wish they were florida, Auburn, Tennessee, and Ole Miss. Remember when we used to play Ole Miss regularly?
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