Which is essentially the same as the permanent rival format I suspect the SEC will adopt when OU and EOE join. Three permanent rivals, play 5 of the other 10 one year, play the other 5 the next. So you’d play everybody at least every two years, and play everyone home and home within any 4 year period.
Viewed in that light, I expect a 3-6-6 model for the SEC which would require 9 conference games.
This is the model I’ve been predicting since the “OU/Texas to the SEC” news broke last year. It just makes the most sense. No pods…just 3 “every-year opponents”.
Seems as if the concept is gaining momentum.
And to that point (paywall)
A 4-5-5 model is also being considered apparently. You will note that 4+5+5 does not give the same answer as 3+6+6; you would not play everyone every two years. But it would be better than Georgia’s never been to Kyle Field, Jerry Franklin was the hero in our last trip to Vandy, etc.
Yea but someone will still be stuck both Bama and Georgia every year while others get them every 2 and only away every 4
Auburn will be the only team stuck with those two, and it’s because they want to be stuck with them. Tennessee isn’t going to play both (they probably want Vandy and Kentucky, let’s hope they don’t get them).
Jeff How will the SEC championship be determined the Pod system??
well, right now 6 teams get Bama every year (we’re one of them) and 6 others get Georgia every year.
So, what’s the difference?
Plus, don’t forget that Georgia hasn’t always been the elite team it has since Kirby went there 4 or 5 years ago. They’ve had down cycles. Look at LSU. It wasn’t pleasant have to play them most of the last 20 years, but they are relatively down right now. We were a top 10 team back to back years about a decade ago, then wandered through the value of Bert and Chad for a few years.
Year in, year out, the "I play these 3 every year) and then rotating through the other 12 home and away in a 4 year period is vastly superior to what we’ve had. It’s been a couple of years and I don’t remember the exact number, but since we joined the SEC 30 years ago now, we’ve played Vandy like 6 times. Meanwhile Alabama (who needs NO scheduling help) had played them 11 or 12…something like that. Adopting the “My 3” plan kills those kind of inequities.
I like it - a LOT more than just adding teams to the East and West (and how do you do that with Texas and OU without someone from the west being shipped to the East?). and also more than the pods, which are too restrictive, because if I play you every season, and I play X every season, then you HAVE to also play X every season…so it makes putting the pods together much, much more difficult.
The idea being floated by all of these conferences is if you remove the divisions, you simply have the two teams at the top of the overall conference standings play in the Conference Championship game.
I thought they were talking about having four different pods
I kind of like having two divisions like they have now and kicking Alabama and Auburn to the east LOL
Same way the basketball champion is determined now. Best conference record. Two best records will be in the SECCG. I’m sure there will be plenty of tiebreakers if the T-2 teams didn’t play each other.
Same would be true for the permanent rival setup.
A pod would just be a scheduling construct, it wouldn’t be a mini-division. You could think of the 3-6-6 as each team has its own mini-pod that’s different from everyone else’s. Ours might be OU, Misery and A&M, but OU’s might be Texas, LSU and Moo U, for instance,
Gotcha… Will be interesting to see what they do… I guess they got a couple more years until they have to decide.
Matt thinks, and I saw an article the other day that agrees, that they’ll announce something during the SEC spring meetings in a few weeks.
Which could be just a framework – no more divisions, we’ll go permanent rivals – with details to be fleshed out before EOE/Zero U come on board.
Wow. I’m surprised considering it looks like it’ll still be 2025 before they take the field… OR… maybe they will take the field before then??
I still doubt it, but they could unveil a basic framework just so we have an idea what we’ll be dealing with. For instance, if they’re going to go to nine SEC games, which seems likely, need to know in advance to rework the NC schedules.
Yeah I was listening to talk radio about a week ago and they were talking about 80-100 million to break out of the contract is a reason why they probably wouldn’t
I’ve heard Texas could and would pay the exit fee but OU can’t.
Yeah I can see that being a likely scenario
My great question, and fear, is who would our permanents be? Maybe we will become as good as Bama someday and we won’t care. But as of today, I am a little weary of having to brag that we have the toughest schedule in the land. If they gave us, for instance, LSU, OU and Texas…good god. Texas is somewhat down at the moment…but get them into the SEC and they won’t be much longer. (If they can keep their boosters at bay…so on second thought, maybe they will stay down). OU will always be a monster, and LSU will be back. Soon. In a major way.
If I had a say and it was a 4 team deal give me Mizzou, Ole Miss, OU, and the Whorns. Or switch the Aggies for OU. But Norman is closer to Fayetteville than most, so I imagine we will get the Bomers no matter what I want…
If they base it on geography (by distance) Norman is closest, then Columbia (Missery), then Oxford (Ole Piss). If we do pods, that would be our permanent rivals.
Funny thing is, OU is about the same distance from College Station as Baton Rouge is. So, OU could argue not to play in our pod. And aTm could argue that TX, OU, and LSU were closer than anyone else, which would benefit them when they’re “up”.
It’ll be Interesting as to how they work it out. My thought based on distance would be that two pods would be OU, Missery, Ole Piss and us, and LSU, Mistake, Texass, and aTm. But OU vs Texass is kind of a big game. Wonder if they schedule “rivals” outside of pods? (Based on current members us and LSU, being given the center point, obviously if it’s LSU and aTm getting the center point, then we will get a pretty distant pod).
Level playing field now