I’ve changed my mind on the new pod concept in re SEC Expansion.

[xxxWalkTheDawg]

It allows the status quo to keep on. The west teams beat up on each other to see who gets to beat the East team in the champ game.

The SEC East has not gotten better in recent years, they have gotten worse. The ebb and flow isn’t happening.

This results in a harder road for MSU to claw our way to the Liberty bowl while Kentucky can just have a decent game above their heads then take care of business to get to the Outback and possibly to the Citrus if they play above their heads for a couple games.

im sorry… but that’s ********. Freaking Missouri has won the East twice. Missouri!

The best games are now happening during the season while the SEC champ game is a yawner. Year after year. This has to be fixed to allow the two best teams in the champ game. Not let a team cruise through the East and then get curb stomped in the SEC Championship. Pods only furthers this. It will allow the same thing.

It needs another look. There needs to be parity in the conference. Not one meat grinder and one pillow right. And not 4 meat grinders and 4 pillow fights.

 

[DesotoCountyDawg]

I didn’t read a lot in the big thread about the pods bu would it be possible to do two permanent “rival” opponents and the rest of the schedule rotates?

 

[PBRME]

That would be a lot better. GA will have to give up one of their rivalry games though.

 

[patdog]

I think it’ll be 3 or 4 permanent opponents, but it’s definitely possible. Not sold that it’ll be pods, although that could work too.

 

[DesotoCountyDawg]

3 would probably give everyone their rivalry games.

 

[PooPopsBaldHead]

Here are your pods. Put it in stone Sankey.

Mississippi State, Kentucky, Missouri, Vandy.
Oklahoma, Texas, Texas A&M, Arkansas
LSU, Ole Miss, Alabama, Auburn
Tennessee, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina

 

[22yardpunt]

Well done sir.

 

[Duggar Hall Desk]

I would much rather see an open schedule and just have the two best teams play for the Championship. IF they decide to do 4 divisions, would the SEC consider making the final regular season week a semifinal round so the division leaders could all compete for the SEC Championship? If not, I don't like the pod idea

If so, my suggestion would be:

Texas, TAMU, Oklahoma, Arkansas
Miss St, Ole Miss, Missouri, LSU
Auburn, Alabama, Tennessee, Vanderbilt
Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, Kentucky

Allows traditional major rivalries to continue
Each division has a consistent contender

 

[patdog]

If it’s pods, swap Missouri & Texas A&M & you’ve got it. There won’t be any semifinal last weekend of the season, you’d see paired pods (on a rotating basis) with the 2 winners meeting in Atlanta.

 

[PBRME]

I would much rather see an open schedule and just have the two best teams play for the Championship. IF they decide to do 4 divisions, would the SEC consider making the final regular season week a semifinal round so the division leaders could all compete for the SEC Championship? If not, I don't like the pod idea

If so, my suggestion would be:

Texas, TAMU, Oklahoma, Arkansas
Miss St, Ole Miss, Missouri, LSU
Auburn, Alabama, Tennessee, Vanderbilt
Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, Kentucky

Allows traditional major rivalries to continue
Each division has a consistent contender

GA is going to want AU, UT, and FL every year.

 

[DesotoCountyDawg]

Approved. Let’s get it done!

 

[Dawgg]

It’s funny if you look back at the history of the SECCG, it started off very one sided with the East winning 6 straight from 93-98.

Then it went back and forth from 99-08.

Starting in 2009, the West took over and never looked back, winning 12 of the last 13.

 

[MStateU]

As long as Alabama keeps winning, Birmingham isn’t changing anything.

Period.

 

[Duggar Hall Desk]

If it’s pods, swap Missouri & Texas A&M & you’ve got it. There won’t be any semifinal last weekend of the season, you’d see paired pods (on a rotating basis) with the 2 winners meeting in Atlanta.

I could live with that swap. Yeah - I realize that a pod playoff is a pipe dream.

 

[Duggar Hall Desk]

GA is going to want AU, UT, and FL every year.

Maybe if they stop losing to Bama, they can get everything they want. Until then, they get to keep their cocktail party and will have to live with a rotation system like evryone else.

 

[UpTheMiddlex3Punt]

Here's what I'm thinking.

1. No pods.
2. Two best teams play each other in the SECCG. No divisions.
3. One permanent rival per team. Sorry Georgia with your Florida, Auburn, and Tennessee rivalries. I think they should be in-state when possible, followed by current intensity, followed by geographical proximity. Iron Bowl, Egg Bowl, UT/A&M, cocktail party, Tennessee/Vandy, LSU/Arkansas, SC/KY, OU/Missouri. There's an argument to be made for LSU/A&M, UT/OU, and Arkansas/Missouri for the final three pairings, but I don't care.
4. Now we do something that is kinda mathy but relatively simple to explain. Place the 16 teams in a circle where the permanent rivals are directly across from each other. The order doesn't matter, but the order stays the same every year.

You'll see that each team has seven teams to its left before getting to its rival, and seven teams to its right. Select four teams to the left, noting the relative positions. An example might be too pick the first, second, fifth, and seventh teams to your left. Now pick the same positions to the right. The reason you have to do this symmetrically is that you are the nth team to the right for the team that is the nth team to your left. Every team will use this same set of relative positions for its schedule. Home/Visitor will alternate each year between left and right (one year, if the team is to your left, you are the home team, but the next year, you'd be the visiting team).

For the math nerds out there, you'll notice that the positions to your left selected can be represented by a seven bit number where four of the bits are 1. For example, the first, second, fifth, and seventh arrangement above could be represented by the number 83. You can publish the list of all the numbers ahead of time so there will be no shadiness from year to year (no picking an arrangement that appears to be beneficial to certain teams based on current trends). In case you're wondering, the valid numbers are 15, 23, 27, 29, 30, 39, 43, 45, 46, 51, 53, 54, 57, 58, 60, 71, 75, 77, 78, 83, 85, 86, 89, 90, 92, 99, 101, 102, 105, 106, 108, 113, 114, 116, and 120. This is 35 years worth of schedules. It's 70 years if you require it to be repeated to swap the home teams. The conference office can scramble that list and publish it ahead of time so there's nothing up their sleeves. There are also ways to arrange that list to keep two consecutive numbers from being mostly identical (e.g. 83 and 51 are similar, swapping the seventh team for the sixth team). In either case, publish the list ahead of time to show there's nothing up the conference's sleeves.

It sounds complicated, but it's actually really easy to implement, fair, and doesn't reward or punish a team for having several good or bad permanent rivals.

 

[Dawg1976]

Dream on. The sec will most certainly screw us.

 

[Raiderdawg.sixpack]

Georgia - Tennessee was not an annual game until 1992. UGA only has 2 true long-term annual rivals in the SEC: Florida and Auburn. UT only played UGA 8 times in 55 years pre-divisions. Tennessee’s 3 long term rivalries are Alabama, Kentucky & Vandy. Growing up in Knoxville as a UT fan, I considered Auburn way more a rivalry game than Florida or Georgia. That game can drop.