The eight-game conference schedule strikes back.

I know I risk sounding like a broken record, but a lot of SEC football programs can’t quit eight games, baby.

Jimbo said the coaches could not come to a consensus on 8 or 9 league games when OU and Texas join. Not surprising. @soonerad told me, “The SEC has been really great with engaging both Oklahoma and Texas in conversations regarding future scheduling models for all sports.”

— Heather Dinich (@CFBHeather) June 1, 2022

Emerson and Suttles, who’ve been on the mother, name names ($$).

Preserving secondary rivalries, plus simply having one more conference game, were why the nine-game model was thought to be the favorite heading into the week. The athletic directors at Alabama and Florida have publicly said they favor the nine-game model, Georgia is among those thought to favor it, too, and indications were the league office itself preferred it.

But proponents of the eight-game model, including Mississippi State, Kentucky and Arkansas, per a league source, made arguments that have made some schools re-think their vote…

“Re-think” is an interesting choice of verb there.  Clearly there’s some wavering going on.  And according to them, it’s not just about bowl eligibility.

… A prominent reason is what other conferences are doing: The ACC looks set to stay at eight games, and the Pac-12 may go back to eight. That concern was alluded to this week by Nick Saban, a longtime proponent of going to nine games.

“If we’re going to play nine conference games we’re going to end up playing probably five minimal top-15 teams in the country, and I’m talking about all of us, not just our team. How’s that going to compare to other conferences?” Saban said. “And what kind of opportunity: You could have a great team and lose two games in our conference, and somebody in another conference went undefeated but didn’t have the same opportunity to play as many good teams.”

As the saying goes, when you haven’t lost Nick Saban…

Meanwhile, Andy Staples ($$) rages against the dying of the light.

Did you spot the dumb one? Of course you did. It’s the 1-7 model. If a bunch of allegedly intelligent people got together and decided that Texas and Texas A&M — or Georgia and Auburn or Alabama and Tennessee — shouldn’t play annually when a reasonable possibility exists, then whoever voted to adopt that model should find a new line of work. They lack the common sense to sell football games for a living, and that calls into question their decision-making in every other matter as well. The Big Ten is likely about to change its scheduling model in the near future. Can you imagine that league’s leaders saying “We don’t need Michigan and Michigan State to play EVERY year?” Of course not.

The 3-6 model is the only logical choice.

Shit, dude.  What’s logic got to do with it?  It wasn’t logical for the SEC to stick with an eight-game conference schedule after the last round of expansion.  Why expect things to be different now?

About that nine-game conference schedule…

Josh Brooks is pondering the future.

Brooks conceded future schedules face challenges, particularly if the SEC elects to go with the 3-6, nine-game schedule model being discussed.

The 2026 UGA schedule, for example, already has four non-conference games scheduled: UCLA, Western Kentucky, Louisville and Georgia Tech.

“If it went to nine (conference games), yeah, by that metric, we couldn’t play 13 games,” Brooks said, asked if UGA might have to cancel or move a future game. “That’s something we’d all each individually have to deal with if we went down that pathway (of nine SEC games).”

Brooks shared how Georgia’s football scheduling strategy might also change.

“As things evolve, and as you look at the criteria of the playoff situation and what’s important, those metrics could change,” Brooks said. “But I think right now we’ve been in more of a mode where it’s been 10 (Power 5 games), a G5 (Group of 5) team and an FCS (opponent).

“It’s been up and down a little bit with that. You’ve seen different schedules, but that’s kind of been the standard metric we’ve been working off. Sometimes, it could shift to be nine (Power 5 opponents) and two G5s (Group of 5 schools) and an FCS.”

Well, that last model sure ain’t gonna work if the conference schedule goes to nine.

There’s something Brooks didn’t mention, though, that his counterpart in Florida did.

pic.twitter.com/zQMVuzG8SG

— Seth Emerson (@SethWEmerson) June 1, 2022

I don’t want the game to leave Jax, but I really don’t want the game to leave Jax based on a unilateral decision made on Georgia’s end.

On the road again

Words of wisdom from David Hale…

Tier 2a: What’s a guy gotta do to get some Heisman love around here? (one player)

Georgia’s Stetson Bennett

The discussion surrounding Bennett — even after winning the national championship last year — has grown more than tiresome. It’s true that Bennett wasn’t a star recruit and doesn’t have an elite arm and probably doesn’t have a serious NFL future. It’s also true that he benefited from a genuinely great defense that routinely put him in position to succeed. But Georgia’s offense was hardly laden with superstars last year, and Bennett’s numbers — 3,000 yards, 30 touchdowns — speak for themselves. On paper, a hip-hop musical about Alexander Hamilton, a TV show about a paper company in northeastern Pennsylvania and a tiered ranking of 131 QB situations shouldn’t work either, yet here we are. Stop picking Bennett apart and just enjoy the ride.

Amen to that.  Of course, it’s easy to feel that way when Todd Monken’s directing the traffic.

Transparency doesn’t win championships.

Hey, remember when members of the Georgia legislature cited the need for UGA to win football games as justification for putting a 90-day window in the state’s Open Records law as it applied to athletic departments?

The Louisiana legislature just said hold our beer.

Sen. Connick's update to Louisiana's NIL bill passed the Senate floor. It includes a HUGE public records exemption that will make info about NIL deals struck with public university athletes private.

Here's background from @JC_Canicosa: https://t.co/SBi2DtV7GX #lalege

— Julie O'Donoghue (@JSODonoghue) June 1, 2022

Don’t ask, don’t tell, bitchez.

TFW self-preservation is “what’s best for the SEC”

Folks are giving Bryan Harsin shit for this:

Harsin also said he didn't have preference on which three teams Auburn would keep as permanent rivals in the 3-6 model.

"In these meetings, every program has things that are going to be best for them, but you also have to consider what's best for the SEC."

— Tom Green (@Tomas_Verde) June 1, 2022

“He doesn’t appreciate history.”  “What do you expect from somebody from Idaho?”  Yada, yada, yada.

People, you’re missing the point.  He’s just following in the rich tradition of Auburn trying to make the schedule less of a struggle.  If you were him, why wouldn’t you want the SEC to move Alabama or Georgia (or both!) out of annual matchups?  Every year with one less game against either of those two is a year when he might actually win enough games to keep the Auburn faithful from running his ass out of town.

TFW everybody’s rowing in the same direction

How’s that whole contract extension thing going, Kirbs?

“I feel good. It’s not completely done and everything’s not wrapped up, but [Morehead has] done a tremendous job. Josh Brooks, you know, working with Jimmy [Sexton], they’ve worked hard on that,” Smart told Finebaum.

How hard can it be to put a blank check on the table and have Sexton fill it in?  Okay, I keed, I keed… a little.

Seriously, though, this comment:

“The one thing I’ll say about Georgia, the administration has been so supportive of whatever we need to do,” Smart said. “If that’s building a facility, if that’s hiring a mental health specialist, whatever we need to do to be the best football program we can be, the best athletic department, they’ve been there for that. And that continues. That’s why we were able to win a national championship. You know, you don’t get one without the other. You’ve got to have total buy-in from the organization, and we’ve had that at Georgia.”

Mark Richt’s gotta be thinking, where the hell was that when I needed it?  Better late than never for the rest of us, though.