Man, what bang for the buck your average SEC paying ticket buyer can expect this season!
Sixteen? Sixteen? Wait a minute… there are only fourteen SEC teams, so…
Jeez, that’s embarrassing.
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UPDATE: If you’re looking for the full schedules, Mr. Steele has them broken down by team here.
Get The Picture 
Austin Peay went 8-4 and gave up 73 to UCF. Get ready for the criticism for stooping this low for the opener.
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Didn’t auburn get snubbed in 2004 for having a shitty OOC schedule? Some people never learn.
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Looking at that schedule, we are going to go into the SEC championship undefeated or with one loss.
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Toughest games look like second week @ South Carolina, @LSU, Auburn, and possibly @Mizzou if our defense isn’t ready to rock yet, though, their defense looked like it was made of gaseous elements. I’d say a loss comes somewhere from those first three listed. Hopefully not more than one and hopefully not to SC.
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It just means more…FCS.
The multiple-FCS schedules will end quickly when the SEC misses out on bowl revenue because a team did not have enough FBS wins.
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Note that ND is playing Vandy in 2018 in South Bend.
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A random note- ND is one of three schools, along with USC and UCLA, who have never scheduled a FCS school in football.
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@Nashville: Really liked it when UDub(an alum) was on that list,but they have gone big time with it. I liked it when they played 3 out of conference teams that were respectable.
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Did UF schedule Idaho before or after they announced they were dropping to FCS? I could see them being given a waiver, if it came to that, because of Idaho dropping down after the contract was signed.
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Before. We schedule easy games OOC aside from FSU, but we did not intentionally schedule two FCS teams.
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I’d give y’all a pass on that then.
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I’ll give them a pass because Idaho has the coolest nickname in CFB – The Vandals.
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Nice of the rest of the conference to hide the fact that our OOC schedule is such a joke.
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Ugh. In case anyone wonders why I don’t shell out thousands for football.
A typical weekend in Auburn, including TUF payments, travel, hotel, etc. costs about $2k
There are an almost endless number of things I can do with my family for that amount of $$ and still watch the game. On DVR no less. Thereby missing the stultifying commercial breaks, endless barrage of electronic music and announcements, etc.
It’s unlikely my family or I will ever attend another game in Auburn. Maybe a bowl game or SECCG.
But there is no way I’m going to offer up that amount of time, money, & effort to see Mercer.
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You know, Ward, I like you a lot. There’s just one thing you need to address, albeit kind of a big thing …
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Bless his heart. Maybe he’ll see the light soon.
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Dear Lord in heaven I hope not.
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LOL. Sorry. But I ain’t pulling for UGA even against SPUAT.
I will say I had a little flicker of hope that y’all would win it. And what a terrible terrible way to lose it. Trust me every Auburn fans knows exactly what you went through – last minute loss, etc.
It’ll come. They’re on the right trajectory.
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Hard to argue with that logic. And it’s a shame, too.
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This is ridiculous. Didn’t the conference pass a rule that only one FCS team per year is allowed and you have to schedule a Power 5 OOC? I seemed to remember something about that, and if not then that should be the rule.
I get the FCS schools wouldn’t survive without the revenue from “rent a win” type games but for the love of all that is good and proper can we just play one of these organized scrimmages a year?
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To address the excuse that the FCS (and small FBS) schools have to have the revenue from these games to survive, why not just set up a fund through which P5 and G5 conferences give them money without the costs and risks of these ridiculous scrimmages?
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Apologies if I’m belaboring this, but for the life of me I can’t understand why anyone in their right mind would buy season tickets. The only scenario I can think of is if I’m retired and living in the Athens area with family nearby, in which I attend 2-3 games a year and give the rest away to family, who have an interest in attending a game or two regardless of the opponent. Otherwise, IMO its such an insane hassle and expense just to see UGA whup up on Austin Peay or whomever.
With HDTV (and occasional 4K, which is downright sick) and all the trappings of comfort of watching at home, again I just don’t get it.
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If I hadn’t had f/s season tickets I would not have gotten tickets to the Rose Bowl and Natty.
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You do realize there were ways to attend both games that didn’t involve having to have season tickets. Most that I know who attended aren’t season ticket holders.
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Amen, to both comments.
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My sister-in-law, who’s never been to Athens, was able to land 2 tickets to the Natty. I understand the Rose Bowl tickets were even easier. I don’t believe season ticket holder’s wallets get treated any better than any one else’s wallet.
Gotta agree with 3rd&G. I’d never purchase season tickets these days, as we did all through the 90’s. Besides the outrageous costs and watered down schedule, there’s the varying start times, and they’ve essentially outlawed our tailgate spot on East Cloverhurst.
I will say that we had a great time back when we did have season tickets. But could never imagine it in the current situation.
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I don’t have season tickets and I bought 4 from the Rose Bowl directly, for face value. I did pay handsomely for ND tickets, though so did many season ticket holders below the magic threshold.
Season tickets don’t make economic sense. I get that there are other considerations, though.
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Easy for you, don’t buy them. Why question those who do?
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Just stating an opinion on a forum, which was structured for a sharing of thoughts or opinions. Nothing more or less.
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Ole Gus wasn’t exactly sticking his neck out when he advocated for a 9 game schedule and no FCS opponents earlier this week.
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Nick Saban and Fus Malzahn and I don’t often agree. But when we do….
We think the SEC should play a 9-game conference schedule.
Besides all the other good reasons for it, it’s stupid that we’re only guaranteed to play each non-Auburn SECWest team once every six years.
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Everybody is trying to replicate the “Process” at Alabama. Schedule soft ooc. And when scheduling real opponents, schedule them when theyre down.
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Erk, your forehead has taken too many hits. Bama is not the program to belittle when talking about schedules being easy or hard. They have opened with power programs for 8-9 years. Who are you referring to about being down when they played Bama? Not FSU?
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We’re not much better than Florida and Auburn to be honest. I have no idea which one is the FCS team between Austin Peay, Middle Tennessee and UMass. Our schedule is TERRIBLE next year.
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Our schedules throughout the years are head and shoulders ahead of UF and AU……that’s a fact.
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Most years FSU is quite a bit better than GTech. So I’m not really sure that’s true.
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Give a gator his due…
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We schedule a second P5 OOC team fairly frequently though. I think Michigan was y’all’s first second P5 OOC opponent in a long while. Auburn usually only goes 1 P5 too.
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I wish the CFB playoff group would make it mandatory that eligibility for the playoffs would be a minimum of 9 conference games, and no FCS teams on the schedule. It won’t happen, and it would take a couple of years to make it happen, but the SEC and ACC would be digging hard to comply. And fans everywhere would applaud.
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@Mac: What a damn fine idea. Too bad it will never happen. Imagine season tickets with all quality OOC games. I would not care even if they were Mountain West teams, etc. Just imagine all out of conference games had to be from Power 5 teams.
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Off topic Eason tweeted his thanks to UGA and that he is headed to UW.
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However, the SEC should mandate 2 P5 out of conference games or what used to be a called a BCS crasher such as Boise St.
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7 home games are needed every now and then. Y’all need to grow a pair and enjoy the season.
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I’ll take Meaningful Regular Season for 2,000, Alex!…and, congrats on the milestone, Senator. This is the best blog ever.
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