Sounds like Kentucky, Mississippi State and a few others

[travis.sixpack]

…are holding up the SEC move to a nine game schedule in 2024. It also sounds like ESPN is trying to get away with keeping the per-team payout the same. They will pay OU and UT what the rest of the SEC schools are getting, but won’t renegotiate the overall contract. I wonder what kind of horse trading Sankey is having to do to get the Have-nots on board a 9 game schedule that might not pay out extra TV revenue.

Decision time nearing: Where things stand with SEC schedules

How is the SEC's scheduling debate going, and what could be next as the conference nears a decision?

theathletic.com

https://footballscoop.com/news/report-sec-leaders-split-on-future-scheduling-format

Why Auburn AD John Cohen hasn't made up his mind on SEC football schedule decision

Auburn athletic director John Cohen knows a decision will likely be made on the future SEC football schedule this month. He's still not sure which one he wants, though.

www.montgomeryadvertiser.com

 

[patdog]

Interesting. I hope the 1-7 format wins. But I just don't see that happening at the end. I know they want to try to get consensus on this, but I think at the end of the day, we're going to be told it's 3-6 take it or leave it.

 

[QuaoarsKing]

My prediction is that MSU, Kentucky, Ole Miss, and Vanderbilt will all sign on to the 3-6 schedule format if the SEC will put it in a long-term contract that each of us gets 2 of our permanents against each other, and only 1 "hard" permanent opponent. I think the SEC is fine with that from a financial perspective, but may get a little bit of grumbling from Saban and other "haves"

I think our 3 permanents are very likely to be Ole Miss, Kentucky, and Texas A&M.

 

[travis.sixpack]

My prediction is that MSU, Kentucky, Ole Miss, and Vanderbilt will all sign on to the 3-6 schedule format if the SEC will put it in a long-term contract that each of us gets 2 of our permanents against each other, and only 1 "hard" permanent opponent. I think the SEC is fine with that from a financial perspective, but may get a little bit of grumbling from Saban and other "haves"

I think our 3 permanents are very likely to be Ole Miss, Kentucky, and Texas A&M.

Yeah, I think that is ultimately what happens. And to be honest, ESPN would rather see more blue blood annual match ups than Bama-MSU type games.

 

[The Cooterpoot]

A 9 game schedule doesn't benefit us at all

 

[travis.sixpack]

A 9 game schedule doesn't benefit us at all

It will probably get Bama and/or LSU off the schedule, every other year.

 

[MStateU]

Why are these the only 2 opinions? If they are trying to protect some secondary rivals what’s wrong with 6 and 2? Then Alabama could still play auburn and Tennessee. Auburn could still play Alabama and Georgia.

me thinks they want the 9 games as a money grab and using these secondary rivals as bait. Either take the 6/3 model or you lose Alabama and Tennessee game.

just do 6 and two. Protect those games and make the other schools happy that want to stay at 8 games. What’s so hard about that?

 

[The Cooterpoot]

It will probably get Bama and/or LSU off the schedule, every other year.

And GA, TN, OK, TX on it. We still lose an easy win.

 

[Dawgpile]

I don't think bowls will matter to the same degree that they do today in the future except to set 13+ in the rankings, and I don't think a 6-6 record will be the benchmark to get to a bowl.

I don't give a **** if State has to play an extra conference game. It's brutal no matter what.

 

[QuaoarsKing]

Why are these the only 2 opinions? If they are trying to protect some secondary rivals what’s wrong with 6 and 2? Then Alabama could still play auburn and Tennessee. Auburn could still play Alabama and Georgia.

me thinks they want the 9 games as a money grab and using these secondary rivals as bait. Either take the 6/3 model or you lose Alabama and Tennessee game.

just do 6 and two. Protect those games and make the other schools happy that want to stay at 8 games. What’s so hard about that?

Both 1-7 and 3-6 allow you to play every team in the conference at least half the time. (As opposed to 1/6 of time, like we currently play every East team other than Kentucky.) I think there's a lot more conference cohesion that way.

 

[IBleedMaroonDawg]

A 9 game schedule doesn't benefit us at all

No, but it is coming anyway.

 

[Perd Hapley]

It will probably get Bama and/or LSU off the schedule, every other year.

And get the SEC (meaning us) a lot more money each year.

 

[dickiedawg]

And get the SEC (meaning us) a lot more money each year.

Except if Travis (OP) is right and ESPN is not willing to up the per-team payout for that extra inventory, then going to nine SEC games doesn’t benefit us at all. Not sure it benefits anyone, actually, except the fans who get one more conference home game every other year- though for us it’s likely to replace the p5 game so really more of a wash.

 

[patdog]

Why are these the only 2 opinions? If they are trying to protect some secondary rivals what’s wrong with 6 and 2? Then Alabama could still play auburn and Tennessee. Auburn could still play Alabama and Georgia.

me thinks they want the 9 games as a money grab and using these secondary rivals as bait. Either take the 6/3 model or you lose Alabama and Tennessee game.

just do 6 and two. Protect those games and make the other schools happy that want to stay at 8 games. What’s so hard about that?

THIS is the compromise that needs to happen. Everyone gets their biggest 2 rivals every year, then you rotate 6 of the remaining 13 teams, rotating either 2 or 4 teams each year so you get 2 year on, 2 years off with every team (once every 13 years, you'd get 3 years off). Really the only games you'd lose every year that anyone cares about would be Bama-LSU and LSU-Florida (and Saban's bitching about keeping Bama-LSU and LSU has historically bitched about Florida anyway).

 

[GloryDawg]

It will probably get Bama and/or LSU off the schedule, every other year.

LSU has been inconsistent for 10 years. They really don't worry me. The only two consistent teams are GA and Bama. Everyone else has not been really inconsistent at being good in ten years. Outside of GA and Bama who has really scared you consistently over the past 10 years?

 

[ronpolk]

If espn is not willing to give more money for a 9th game then the SEC shouldn’t do it. Once espn is willing to pay more, then you talk. It seems pretty simple to me.

 

[vhdawg]

Why are these the only 2 opinions? If they are trying to protect some secondary rivals what’s wrong with 6 and 2? Then Alabama could still play auburn and Tennessee. Auburn could still play Alabama and Georgia.

It's math.....there's no easy schedule rotation with 14 teams and two permanent opponents. With eight games and one permanent opponent, or with nine games and two permanent opponents, you can play all the rotating schools home and away every four years.

With eight games and two permanent opponents, you can't play everyone home and away evenly in a round number of seasons....it would blow out to a 14-year rotation where you'd play everybody else three times home and away every 14 years.

Any of the other combinations of eight or nine games with one, two, or three permanents are also similarly difficult, except for eight-games-one-perm and nine-games-two-perm.

		# of permanent opponents
		1​	2​	3​
# of games	8​	4​	4.666667​	5.6​
	9​	3.5​	4​	4.666667​

 

[OG Goat Holder]

It's math.....there's no easy schedule rotation with 14 teams and two permanent opponents. With eight games and one permanent opponent, or with nine games and two permanent opponents, you can play all the rotating schools home and away every four years.

With eight games and two permanent opponents, you can't play everyone home and away evenly in a round number of seasons....it would blow out to a 14-year rotation where you'd play everybody else three times home and away every 14 years.

Any of the other combinations of eight or nine games with one, two, or three permanents are also similarly difficult, except for eight-games-one-perm and nine-games-two-perm.

		# of permanent opponents
		1​	2​	3​
# of games	8​	4​	4.666667​	5.6​
	9​	3.5​	4​	4.666667​

This is not a problem that cannot be overcome. It's actually fairly easy. So what if you don't play every SEC team home/away every 4 years? It's not a big deal.

 

[greenbean.sixpack]

I like it that the smaller programs are banding together.

 

[patdog]

It's math.....there's no easy schedule rotation with 14 teams and two permanent opponents. With eight games and one permanent opponent, or with nine games and two permanent opponents, you can play all the rotating schools home and away every four years.

With eight games and two permanent opponents, you can't play everyone home and away evenly in a round number of seasons....it would blow out to a 14-year rotation where you'd play everybody else three times home and away every 14 years.

Any of the other combinations of eight or nine games with one, two, or three permanents are also similarly difficult, except for eight-games-one-perm and nine-games-two-perm.

		# of permanent opponents
		1​	2​	3​
# of games	8​	4​	4.666667​	5.6​
	9​	3.5​	4​	4.666667​

It ain't that hard. You play everyone 3 times home and 3 times away in 13 years.

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[Perd Hapley]

…are holding up the SEC move to a nine game schedule in 2024. It also sounds like ESPN is trying to get away with keeping the per-team payout the same. They will pay OU and UT what the rest of the SEC schools are getting, but won’t renegotiate the overall contract. I wonder what kind of horse trading Sankey is having to do to get the Have-nots on board a 9 game schedule that might not pay out extra TV revenue.

Decision time nearing: Where things stand with SEC schedules

How is the SEC's scheduling debate going, and what could be next as the conference nears a decision?

theathletic.com

https://footballscoop.com/news/report-sec-leaders-split-on-future-scheduling-format

Why Auburn AD John Cohen hasn't made up his mind on SEC football schedule decision

Auburn athletic director John Cohen knows a decision will likely be made on the future SEC football schedule this month. He's still not sure which one he wants, though.

www.montgomeryadvertiser.com

Its just a game of chicken between ESPN and the SEC that will eventually get resolved. There will be 9 games. ESPN isn’t going to budge on the contract until 9 games is agreed, because why would they? They get no significant added revenue really if there’s only 8 games beyond what they are already having to shell out to OU / TX for their cut. Teams like MSU / OM, UK, and Vandy aren’t going to want the 9 games without the assurance of revenue increase.

And while it’s nice that the SEC willing to listen to the concerns of us have-nots, when push comes to shove it is really not going to matter what any of those 4 schools think. They don’t need all those schools consent to go to 9, and may not need any (can’t remember if its 75% or 80% threshold to change, but its somewhere in that ballpark). But all these major reforms tend to be unanimous. We’ll go to 9 games officially (some more begrudgingly than others), and then the league will have the needed leverage to renegotiate the ESPN deal.

 

[onewoof]

Pay us more for the yearly beat downs that we take to build your championship resume.

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