He told an interviewer that Bama is getting Auburn, Tennessee and LSU for its permanent opponents. Either it’s a done deal and he’s venting, or he’s trying to put pressure on Mark Womack to change that. My guess is the former. Jimbo Fisher said he knew who TAM was getting months ago, so apparently those decisions have been made assuming they get ESPN to open the vault door a little wider. Of course two years ago Tennessee sucked, now they don’t. Maybe in 2024 LSU sucks.
Should also be noted that these “permanent” rivals aren’t permanent at all; they can be changed after every 4-year cycle of rotating through the other 12 teams.
I saw that Florida - OU match and thought the same. Neither will adversely impact the other’s home attendance but it is long way for trying to create any sense of rivalry between fan bases.
With Texas we have a sellout every two years but the other two will not be sellouts. Too bad we don’t have an alternative to Missouri for Turkey Week. I can’t visualize that game remaining as a nationally featured television game as the LSU game once was.
Presumably they’ll still need someone to play at 1:30 on Black Friday on ABC/ESPN. Unless OU wants that spot, or Texas-A&M wind up there, nobody else wants it. And A&M didn’t want it when playing LSU.
Remember, $300 million of the new SEC TV deal is ESPN taking over the exact time slots CBS has had for 27 years. Including Black Friday. They’re paying for it, they’ll put somebody in that spot, and my guess is it will remain us.
Looking at the Ross Dellenger projection, it won’t be OU-Texas because that’s tied to the State Fair of Texas in perpetuity. It won’t be OU-Florida because Florida finishes with Free Shoes. I don’t think it will be A&M-Texas because they didn’t want Black Friday for the LSU game. And it won’t be Texas-Arkansas because they’ll finish with the Aggies, just like they did for 120 years.
It will be interesting to see who they put at the end of the OU schedule though. I suppose they could put OU-Misery at the end as a Big 8 renewal and thus move Misery somewhere else on ours. Or OU may end up with a rotating game at the end.