6-6-22 John Cohen on SEC Football

[Out of Bounds]

Click to Listen

Mississippi State athletics director John Cohen joins the show on the Corona Premier guest line talking SEC football. John discusses the latest in the SEC football world as a new scheduling model is being debated with the addition of Texas and Oklahoma to the league. John takes us behind the scenes into the conversation among the SEC presidents and athletic directors as they try to determine a new scheduling format for the league's football teams. John gives his position on the potential changes and walks us through the pros and cons of a new scheduling format.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices


**These are automatic feeds from the Out of Bounds RSS Feed. It reads from https://cms.megaphone.fm/channel/BRCM6060472162 and automatically posts every 2 hours new podcasts from his show.**

 

[greenbean.sixpack]

Good interview with Cohen. Sounds like he is leaning to the 1/8, which is what i want. Several reasons, we'd get to see more teams (every school would play every other school home and away in a 4 year period). Most schools don't even have two true rivals, much less three. It will make a winning record more difficult. It will hurt G5 and lower schools. Finally, we get stuck with Bama on the 3/6 schedule (which may be ok if Vandy was the 3rd team, but it won't be).

 

[patdog]

We will not get Bama as a permanent opponent no matter what format is chosen.

 

[greenbean.sixpack]

We will not get Bama as a permanent opponent no matter what format is chosen.

If Templeton is still in the SEC office, he'll make sure it happens, he voted to ban cowbells. Even if he is not, Saban, likely the most powerful person in college sports, will make sure it happens.

 

[QuaoarsKing]

If Templeton is still in the SEC office, he'll make sure it happens, he voted to ban cowbells. Even if he is not, Saban, likely the most powerful person in college sports, will make sure it happens.

Saban has no interest in playing us every year. He will want Auburn, Tennessee, and LSU.

The SEC wants as many marquee games as possible and will set as many permanent blue blood vs blue blood as possible.

I think 3/6 wins out in the end, and this holdout from the "less prestigious" schools is a way to make sure that Mississippi State-Kentucky, Ole Miss-Vanderbilt, Arkansas-Missouri, etc., continue as permanent rivalries, which the SEC will be fine with.

 

[greenbean.sixpack]

Saban has no interest in playing us every year. He will want Auburn, Tennessee, and LSU.

The SEC wants as many marquee games as possible and will set as many permanent blue blood vs blue blood as possible.

I think 3/6 wins out in the end, and this holdout from the "less prestigious" schools is a way to make sure that Mississippi State-Kentucky, Ole Miss-Vanderbilt, Arkansas-Missouri, etc., continue as permanent rivalries, which the SEC will be fine with.

If Brian Kelly turns LSU into a year in and year out contender, do you think Saban will really want to play yearly over us? Not likely. Do you think he wants to add at team that can match him yearly on his schedule, negative. I doubt Saban is interested in fair and honest competition or the best team winning, he's interested in winning championships. It is an easier path to the championship playing MSU than TAMU.

1/8 will give us Bama/UGA matchups every other year. Do you want to see that or yearly forced rivalries like TAMU/Missouri?

 

[patdog]

No. He won't. It doesn't matter who is in the SEC office or who makes out the list of permanent opponents going forward. We will not be playing Alabama every year. Do you really think the SEC is going to pass on the TV audience for Bama-Auburn, Bama-Tenn, or Bama-LSU? It's just not going to happen.

We'll likely wind up with Mississippi, Kentucky and either Texas A&M or Auburn.

 

[patdog]

I think 3/6 wins out in the end, and this holdout from the "less prestigious" schools is a way to make sure that Mississippi State-Kentucky, Ole Miss-Vanderbilt, Arkansas-Missouri, etc., continue as permanent rivalries, which the SEC will be fine with.

This is exactly what will happen. It appeases the smaller schools who don't want to get stuck with 2 elite permanent opponents, and also give the SEC more marquee games on an annual basis.

 

[philduckworth]

So we are going to 9 conference games for sure?

 

[patdog]

Reports are its either 1-7 or 3-6. One poster got it wrong. That said, I’d say it’s about 95% chance the 3-6 rotation wins out.

 

[greenbean.sixpack]

Reports are its either 1-7 or 3-6. One poster got it wrong. That said, I’d say it’s about 95% chance the 3-6 rotation wins out.

Cohen seemed to be leaning to the 1/7 model, but he was holding his cards close to his vest. 3/6 model would hurt G5 and lower level schools (who would lose a payday) and add another loss to 8 SEC teams.

 

[Duke Humphrey]

Kentucky, South Carolina, USCe, Florida also
Have reservations because they have in-state rivalries with teams in other conferences that would make them play at least 10 P5 games a year in 3-6 model.

 

[patdog]

Hes not going to come out and say it, but he definitely wants an 8 game schedule

 

[patdog]

I suspect Miss., Mizzou & Vandy are also in the 8 game count. The rest prob want 3-6. So thats 8 schools on each side

 

[philduckworth]

Hes not going to come out and say it, but he definitely wants an 8 game schedule

8 is probably better for MSU, but 9 is better for college football. Personally, I prefer 9. I get very little joy from us beating a crap team.

 

[Duke Humphrey]

Would think so as well. The question is why would Auburn be for 3-6? To play Alabama, Georgia and x team every year versus just Bama. Same for Tennessee. Is history worth playing Bama and UGA every year compared to Kentucky?

 

[8dog]

Well it could be 9 but getting rid of the P5 requirement which may not eliminate the bad teams. Full disclosure: I didn’t listen to the pod

 

[patdog]

Itll be interesting to see what happens. May wind up with a compromise 2-6 rotation. Wouldnt be perfect, but may be something that could get 9 votes

 

[QuaoarsKing]

1/8 will give us Bama/UGA matchups every other year. Do you want to see that or yearly forced rivalries like TAMU/Missouri?

3/6 will also give us Bama/UGA every other year. Every single set of 2 SEC teams will be playing in at least 50% of seasons in either model.

So the question becomes does the SEC want more or fewer "marquee matchups" every year. I think the answer is "more," and the SEC can sweeten the pot by letting the bottom-tier schools like (sadly) us have 2 of their 3 permanents be other bottom-tier schools. (Which is what they'd want anyway, so that clears up room for the marquees.)

 

[patdog]

Thats another possible compromise. Wouldnt help the schools with rivalry games though. I dont see this getting resolved for another year or two.

 

[greenbean.sixpack]

Itll be interesting to see what happens. May wind up with a compromise 2-6 rotation. Wouldnt be perfect, but may be something that could get 9 votes

If two and we had OM and Ken, that would be good. OM would get us and would their other be Vandy or LSU?

 

[paindonthurt]

17 nine sec games.

That is all.

 

[maroonmania]

I'm fine with 1-8. I really don't see a difference between playing 8 SEC games and another FBS game or playing 9 SEC games. We play Arizona this year and next and Arizona St I believe the 2 years after. Can you really expect teams like that to be much worse than a random 9th SEC team? I don't think so. Now yes, if we could guarantee to schedule maybe Kansas or Oregon State every year I would rather play an 8 game SEC schedule but that's not happening.

 

[johnson86-1]

8 is probably better for MSU, but 9 is better for college football. Personally, I prefer 9. I get very little joy from us beating a crap team.

I don't think it means a whole lot for college football how they do it, but I think 8 SEC games with 1 P5 game is better for college football than 9 SEC games with no required P5 OOC game. Granted, you'll still have UGA, UK, USCe and UF will probably keep their OOC P5 rivalry regardless of schedule, but I think the cross regional interP5 matchups are good for college popularity.

If you do 9 SEC games and 1 P5 requirement, then that is good for the average college football fan i guess, but it really hurts your non-P5 schools.

 

[greenbean.sixpack]

I'm fine with 1-8. I really don't see a difference between playing 8 SEC games and another FBS game or playing 9 SEC games. We play Arizona this year and next and Arizona St I believe the 2 years after. Can you really expect teams like that to be much worse than a random 9th SEC team? I don't think so. Now yes, if we could guarantee to schedule maybe Kansas or Oregon State every year I would rather play an 8 game SEC schedule but that's not happening.

Are you high? A random 9th SEC game could be UGA, UF, UT, OK, etc., etc. Arizona is the worst team in the PAC-12 (on par with Vandy) and Arizona St is a 8-5 type team (likely on par with MSU/UM/Ark/UK).

 

[Go Budaw]

Are you high? A random 9th SEC game could be UGA, UF, UT, OK, etc., etc. Arizona is the worst team in the PAC-12 (on par with Vandy) and Arizona St is a 8-5 type team (likely on par with MSU/UM/Ark/UK).

I just don’t see why anyone cares about the farce of bowl eligibility anymore under the current system. Give me more primetime games and more chances at big upsets every year any day. If you can’t go 3-6 in the SEC against a 9 game schedule, you didn’t have a season worth playing in the postseason anyway. The difference of 6-6 / 3-6 vs. 7-5 / 3-5 shouldn’t make a damn to anyone either.

College football as a whole sucks *** now so its hard to really get worked up about it either way, but I’d much rather have as many high profile games as possible. Loved the 10-game All-SEC slate a few years ago.

 

[QuaoarsKing]

Most years, Ole Miss, Kentucky, and Auburn + 6 of the other 12 won't be so bad. No worse than we already have it.

The 1/7 model isn't going to work for the blue bloods or the conference financial goals. It's just a bargaining chip for the have-nots to make sure they get an easier lineup of 3 permanents in the 3/6 model. And the blue bloods will happily agree to that because they want to play the marquee games anyway. If anyone is going to derail the 3/6, it's going to be Texas A&M, who is going to pout hard about having to play Texas every year again, but what are they going to do, leave the SEC over it?

 

[Go Budaw]

Most years, Ole Miss, Kentucky, and Auburn + 6 of the other 12 won't be so bad. No worse than we already have it.

The 1/7 model isn't going to work for the blue bloods or the conference financial goals. It's just a bargaining chip for the have-nots to make sure they get an easier lineup of 3 permanents in the 3/6 model. And the blue bloods will happily agree to that because they want to play the marquee games anyway. If anyone is going to derail the 3/6, it's going to be Texas A&M, who is going to pout hard about having to play Texas every year again, but what are they going to do, leave the SEC over it?

They’d be getting Texas as their permanent either way. Surely they realize that.

 

[QuaoarsKing]

They’d be getting Texas as their permanent either way. Surely they realize that.

I'm fairly sure that in a 1/7, Texas would get Oklahoma, leaving Texas A&M with LSU

 

[maroonmania]

Are you high? A random 9th SEC game could be UGA, UF, UT, OK, etc., etc. Arizona is the worst team in the PAC-12 (on par with Vandy) and Arizona St is a 8-5 type team (likely on par with MSU/UM/Ark/UK).

Yes, high and feeling great. We have our West teams plus GA this year with only 8. So I wish we had 9 this year because the 9th would likely be Vandy, Missouri or South Carolina. There aren't a lot of teams in the FBS that you can just count on being down all the time. NC State was dang good last year but we beat them. Yea, Arizona is down right now but we didn't know that would be the case when we scheduled them.

 

[Go Budaw]

I'm fairly sure that in a 1/7, Texas would get Oklahoma, leaving Texas A&M with LSU

Dunno about that. I’m pretty sure that Texas - Texas A&M was the bigger TV draw when it was still being played, although both are / were big. But its yet another reason why the 1/7 won’t happen. The league is going to want A&M - Texas, Texas - OU, Auburn - UGA, Bama - UT, LSU - Bama, Florida - UT, and Florida - UGA to ALL happen every year.

 

[patdog]

If only 1 permanent opponent, TX permanent will be OK. No doubt about it. A&M would get LSU. But, as you say, 1 permanent opponent won't happen. Way too many big rivalries (and huge tv ratings) would move to every other year.