So was the whole three permanent opponent thing just thrown out?
- Thread starter DesotoCountyDawg
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I want a velvet painting of Larry Templeton shaking hands with Mike Slive with a belly up bulldog in the background.
3 permanent opponents option is based on moving to a 9 game conference schedule which hasn’t been decided on yet. Next year stays with the 8 game format.
This schedule is a 1-year deal. No permanent opponents. SEC is pressing ESPN for more money to add a 9th game. If we wind up with 9, there will be 3 permanent opponents. Most likely, Mississippi, Kentucky and A&M. If we wind up with 8, only Mississippi will be permanent.
If we go to three, bet your bottom dollar Bama will be one of the three. I'm with staying with one perm.
Bama will not be a permanent opponent under any circumstances.
The paranoia with this is so strong.
Absolutely no chance.
Bama gets Auburn, LSU, and Tennessee every year. CBS picked all 3 of those every chance they got…..every single year. There was a reason for that - they are ratings gold mines.
None of those are being traded for a game that is going to have everyone but Alabama fans changing the channel with 10 minutes to go in the 2nd quarter every single season.
I'm sure ESPN is just begging for that annual M-State v Bama game. **
The nine game schedule is coming. The fact that it's only one permanent opponent with an eight game schedule poisons that option for the long term.
Can the SEC office stand up to Saban? I doubt it. Our only hope is that ESPN forces Bama's 3rd opponent to be LSU and not us. Saban/Bama will not go down easy in this fight. I'm good with staying with one perm opponent, I'm sure the Barn would be glad to get ride of their "rivalry" with UGA, too.
Yeah. I think it’s inevitable. I think the SEC will do a few more “one off” schedules if needed to get a better deal from ESPN, but don’t see a 1-7 rotation without Bama v Tenn or LSU, Auburn/ Georgia or Texas-A&M as a viable option.
Larry must be the one on the right. Dude on the left is in the red
Also @dawgstudent a weekly game thread with a related AI picture + the prompt that got it would be fun. Most votes get a gift card
LSU, Tenn and Auburn are too big of a money maker for ESPN so thus the SEC.
I thought CBS was out of the picture after this season. Was I wrong or something change?
I thought I read somewhere that the SEC wanted Oklahoma and Texas playing all the SEC schools at least once in the next two years. We get Texas this year, and probably get Oklahoma next.
I think this is way too optimistic. It's going to be the tv networks versus Bama. Bama won't care about playing us specifically, but we'll be the easiest school to make their argument with.
I think ultimately the money wins, but it's not guaranteed. There's an argument that having the top SEC teams pick up a couple of losses every year beating each other up will hurt the perception of the league and post season revenue. I don't think that's a good argument with a 12 team playoff and it actually probably goes the other way, as the top SEC teams are going to get into the playoffs, so we should be trying to keep as many other teams post season eligible as possible. But if anybody can get the SEC to make a decision not based on money, it's Bama, and if the other blue bloods are also not keen on the idea, that makes it easier for them.
I am so glad we get to play Georgia again. We played them in will be 4 of the last 6 seasons I think.
Agree. It's ESPN vs. Alabama. We will see if good ole boy Bammer shlt wins out like it always has. But we're talking big money here. They will try and justify it saying that the SEC doesn't need more losses and they'll make it up in the playoff.
Of course they are out of the picture. But the point was they had the #1 game choice every week for over two decades, and 2 weeks a year they got the top 2 choices. They always picked those games because they knew those were going to always bring in huge ratings. I’d bet without a ton of research that the Iron Bowl, Bama-LSU, and Bama-Tennessee are three of the top 6-7 most watched games in the SEC every single season.
This is about the worst year possible to make this argument. Bama just got into the CFP over an undefeated Power 5 team on the strength of 4 signature wins due to playing a top tier schedule. 2 years ago, they were #5 and left out in favor of a far inferior TCU team (who didn’t even win its conference) because their schedule had no signature wins, and the only two Top 10 teams they played both beat them in nailbiter fashion. Bama now realizes more than ever that a tough SOS helps them far more than it hurts them. And with the 12 team playoff, the margin for error is now 3x as large, so they will have no problem playing ball.
Even a 9-3 Alabama, with a 9-game SEC schedule, is getting into the 12 team playoff just about 100% of the time. And they’ve only gone 9-3 once in the past 16 years….while going 10-2 or better for the other 15 years.
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