SEC to Remain at Eight Conference Games.

[Townhallsavoy]

Must schedule one major quality out of conference opponent per year.

Bullshit ruling if you ask me.

[The Six]

The SEC Presidents and the Commissioners just told Saban and the 9-game people to go take a flying leap at a rolling doughnut on a gravel driveway.

[Saniflush]

The SEC Presidents and the Commissioners just told Saban and the 9-game people to go take a flying leap at a rolling doughnut on a gravel driveway.

I thought Saban would be in favor of the current scheduling since they have benefited so much from it?  LSU is really the ones that have had the roughest go of it.

[wesfau2]

Some quality number crunching here (liberated from ITAT):

Following yesterday's vote and the fallout from Joe Alleva's public comments, its important to get the facts all out on the table.  Alleva has every right to be furious.  And the media is doing the best job they can to try to cover up the real facts.

The media talking points today are these:
- "Alabama can't help it if Tennessee is down"
- "Things are cyclical... UT will come back"
- "Etc., Etc."

The Main Point:  The problem is not each school's annual cross-divisional opponent.  The problem is the OTHER cross divisional opponents each school always gets to play, and Alabama has almost always had a distinct advantage in this area.

Here are each of the Western Heavyweights main annual cross-divisional rivals' records since the conference split into divisions in 1992:

LSU's annual Eastern Rival (Florida):   134-42  (76.1%)
Auburn's annual Eastern Rival (Georgia):   111-64-1   (63.4%)
Alabama's annual Eastern Rival  (Tennessee):   109-66-1  (62.2%)

Yes, LSU has had the toughest annual opponent of the three... and Alabama has had the easiest... but in order to keep traditional rivalries, this is honestly the best that can be done.  I have no complaints in this department.

-------------------------------

The problem is each team's "Other" SEC Eastern games.  Everytime the SEC has had the ability to give Alabama an advantage in Eastern scheduling, they've done so.  The history of cross-divisional scheduling can be broken down into four distinct time frames:

1992-2002:  The 5-2-1 format
2003-2011:  The 5-1-2 format
2012-2015:  The 6-1-1 format (with SEC Office manipulation)
2016-????:   The 6-1-1 format (with concrete rotation)



Time Frame 1:  The 5-2-1 format (1992-2002)
This time frame gave Alabama an unbelievable advantage.  In addition to playing Tennessee annually, Alabama was given the luxury of playing Vanderbilt annually.  Vanderbilt accumulated a 10-78 SEC record during these 11 seasons.  This is virtually an extra off-week for bama.  Meanwhile, LSU played Kentucky (26-62)... and Auburn played Florida (75-13) during this same time frame.

Obviously Alabama had a built-in advantage, mandated by the SEC office, during this time period.  No doubt this had a lot to do with their 5 SEC West titles compared to Auburn and LSU's combined 3 during this same period of time.

Here are the numbers behind their advantage:

Auburn's NON-UGA SEC East Opponents' Record:  102-74 (58.0%)
LSU's NON-UF SEC East Opponents' Record:   69-105-2  (39.8%)
Alabama's NON-UT SEC East Opponents' Record:  57-118-1  (32.7%)

THE PERCENTAGE GAP:   25.3%  (AU's opponents MINUS Bama's Opponents)




Time Frame 2:  The 5-1-2 Format (2003-2011)
Cross-divisional schedules were by far the most balanced during this time period.  Each team had two rotating Eastern opponents which helped to even out the disparity between the annual rivals of Georgia, Florida, and Tennessee.

Here are the numbers:

Auburn's NON-UGA SEC East Opponents' Record:  69-75  (47.9%)
Alabama's NON-UT SEC East Opponents' Record:  66-78  (45.8%)
LSU's NON-UF SEC East Opponents' Record:  57-87  (39.6%)

THE PERCENTAGE GAP:  8.3%  (AU's opponents MINUS LSU's Opponents)

Shrinking the gap from 25.3% down to 8.3% was very positive for the SEC as a whole.  As a result, during this 9-year period of relative parity in the West, the Division Championships were split very evenly:  3 for LSU; 2 for both Auburn and Alabama; and 1 for Arkansas

Obviously, Alabama did not appreciate their built-in advantage being taken away.  With an even playing field, they are not able to dominate.... and this 9-year period was quite honestly the most even playing field (in terms of scheduling) the SEC had ever witnessed in its history.




Time Frame 3:  The 6-1-1 format (with SEC office manipulation) (2012-2015)
With expansion came scheduling upheaval.  And when there is upheaval, there are opportunities for manipulation.  The SEC office was "forced" to step in and create "random" schedules with no basic formula or methodology for cross-divisional rotation.  This created a perfect opportunity to give Alabama another advantage.

Here are the numbers:

LSU's NON-UF Eastern Opponents:   11-5  (68.8%)
Auburn's NON-UGA Eastern Opponents:   7-9  (43.8%)
Alabama's NON-UT Eastern Opponents:   2-14  (12.5%)

THE PERCENTAGE GAP:   56.3%  (LSU's opponents MINUS Alabama's Opponents)

This gap is quite honestly unreal.  No wonder LSU has not been able to win the West during the past two seasons.  When facing such an incredible scheduling disadvantage, how could a team win under those circumstances?

This is where the "Alabama can't help it if Tennessee is down" argument falls apart.  Everyone knew Tennessee was down when these schedules were made.  The SEC office surely knew at the time these two schedules were made out that Alabama had a major advantage compared to the other Western heavyweights in getting to play Tennessee annually.

In the four years prior to this new Post-Expansion time frame, here were the Big 3 Eastern teams' SEC records:

Florida:   22-10   (68.8%)
Georgia:  20-12   (62.5%)
Tennessee:   11-21   (34.4%)

Obviously everyone... INCLUDING THE SEC OFFICE... knew that Tennessee was down, and had been down for quite some time.  As the SEC office hand-picked everyone's schedule during this "interim" time to deal with Expansion, instead of trying to even-out the distinct scheduling disadvantage between Auburn/LSU and Alabama, they decided to double-down and make it even easier for Alabama.

Directly following the 2011 season in which #1 LSU played #2 Alabama for the National Championship, the SEC office decided to assign LSU to play South Carolina (6-2) and Georgia (5-3) during the next two seasons while simultaneously sending Alabama to play Missouri (2-6) and Kentucky (0-8).... this despite knowing that Alabama already had the luxury of playing Tennessee while LSU played Florida.  THIS IS WHY JOE ALLEVA IS ANGRY.  And he has every right to be.

Following Alleva's and Head Coach Les Miles' public criticism that has been on-going for a couple of years now, the SEC office has tried to tone it down a bit.  In 2014, Alabama will play Florida in addition to Tennessee.... while LSU will play Kentucky in addition to Florida.  But is this at the expense of Auburn?  Auburn will play South Carolina in addition to Georgia..... every pundit's top 2 eastern teams in next year's preseason rankings.

When next season is in the books, its very likely the "random" scheduling strength gap between Alabama and LSU/Auburn will shrink a bit, but it will still be a gap that leans towards Alabama's advantage.


Time Frame 4:  The 6-1-1 format (with concrete rotation) (2016 and beyond)
Finally, every team will see a rotation develop that will make the strength of schedules more uniform.  It's virtually the same format we are in now, but without the chance for bias from the SEC office.

The sad thing is that we could have entered into this format immediately following expansion.  Instead of working out an unbiased formula for rotation, the SEC office chose to use the upheaval to make Alabama's schedule much easier.

This new phase we'll enter into in 2016 won't be quite as even as the period we saw from 2003-2011 under the 5-1-2 format..... there will be individual seasons of major advantages/disadvantages for some teams.  But over the course of multiple years.... say a decade or more.... it should all even out.

Starting in 2016, watch Alabama's success diminish to a more even level compared to its western rivals.  It is what always happens when they are forced to play on an even playing field..... something they've unfortunately rarely had to deal with throughout their history.

http://mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=6&f=1010&t=12846255

[Snaggletiger]

Them numbers don't mean shit.  Slive an the whole SEC is jealous of Bama so they give everybody the week off before they gotta' play us.

[AUChizad]

Some quality number crunching here (liberated from ITAT):

This is some quality shit and quite appalling.

I knew it to be true, but didn't have time to sit down and crunch the numbers to prove it like this dude did.

Complete whore shit.

[WiregrassTiger]

This is some quality shoot and quite appalling.

I knew it to be true, but didn't have time to sit down and crunch the numbers to prove it like this dude did.

Complete whore shoot.

Translation: I ain't much good at ciphering.

[Townhallsavoy]

Does anyone really care that much about the Georgia game?  It's not really a rivalry to me.  I get more upset when we lose to LSU than to Georgia.  I especially hate that we have Georgia on our schedule at the end of the season.  Not to mention, now we'll be forced to play @Georgia and @Alabama every other year. 

[Snaggletiger]

Does anyone really care that much about the Georgia game?  It's not really a rivalry to me.  I get more upset when we lose to LSU than to Georgia.  I especially hate that we have Georgia on our schedule at the end of the season.  Not to mention, now we'll be forced to play @Georgia and @Alabama every other year.

Don't like where they fall on the schedule but yes, it's THE oldest rivalry in the south and one of my favorite games every year.  There have been more epic finishes in AU/Jawja games than with any other team we play. 

[Tiger Wench]

Does anyone really care that much about the Georgia game?  It's not really a rivalry to me.  I get more upset when we lose to LSU than to Georgia.  I especially hate that we have Georgia on our schedule at the end of the season.  Not to mention, now we'll be forced to play @Georgia and @Alabama every other year.

The youth of today... Sigh.

[AUJarhead]

Does anyone really care that much about the Georgia game?  It's not really a rivalry to me.  I get more upset when we lose to LSU than to Georgia.  I especially hate that we have Georgia on our schedule at the end of the season.  Not to mention, now we'll be forced to play @Georgia and @Alabama every other year.

That's because you are from NOLA.  Live in Atlanta for a year and get back to me.

[WiregrassTiger]

Does anyone really care that much about the Georgia game?  It's not really a rivalry to me.  I get more upset when we lose to LSU than to Georgia.  I especially hate that we have Georgia on our schedule at the end of the season.  Not to mention, now we'll be forced to play @Georgia and @Alabama every other year.

I kinda understand where you are coming from because Ga tech used to be such a big rivalry that began to die out when I was a kid and of course is dead now. Times and rivalries change.

But, as you should know, this one hasn't. How many folks do you know that hail from Ga and go/went to AU? A bunch, I'm sure. How many players are from Ga. that are on the team right now? I think that it's often more than are from Alabama.

It's big to me. Personally, losing the UF game hurt my feelings. I loved beating UF.

It's really hard to prioritize my fav rivalries but Thuga is def up there for me. Too much history and great games for it to miss my short list.

[Godfather]

Does anyone really care that much about the Georgia game?  It's not really a rivalry to me.  I get more upset when we lose to LSU than to Georgia.  I especially hate that we have Georgia on our schedule at the end of the season.  Not to mention, now we'll be forced to play @Georgia and @Alabama every other year. 

Yes

Fuck the dawgs!!!

[Snaggletiger]

Bama and Georgia are #1 and #2 for me on the big game list.  Wouldn't give a rippity rip if we rotated with every other team in the conference for the rest of the schedule.  However, since LSU has become a permanent fixture, I'm loving that game more and more every year.

A lot of people probably don't remember but before the conference was divided into east and west, LSU was not one of our every year games.  Bama, Georgia, Tennessee and Florida were, along with GT for an out of conference game.  LSU was always on Bama's schedule. 

[AUChizad]

Yeah, you're on an island here, THS.

I'm only like a year older than you and I'm not from Georgia, but you're insane if you don't think there's any significance to the Georgia rivalry.

I'm not going to argue that it's more significant than Bama, but as far as college football tradition goes, it can't be topped.

The above sentence is leading me to two tangential rants.

1) I've expressed before that this irks me, but the South's Oldest Rivalry is officially UNC-Virginia (yawn), while Auburn-UGA is referred to as the Deep South's Oldest Rivalry despite the fact that Auburn-UGA's first game was played first (February 1892 vs. October 1892) and was the first meeting between two Southern college football teams ever. The distinction is that UNC-UVA have met ONE more time in their history and have played in consecutive years every year since 1919 after 23 prior meetings, whereas Auburn has only played in consecutive years since 1944 because Auburn didn't field a team at all in 1943 due to WWII (I don't think that should count as a disruption). Otherwise, Auburn-UGA would have played consecutively since 1919 with 23 prior meetings as well.

2) This is another example of "tradition", a word overused and overplayed by Bama, being actually more entrenched at Auburn. The first and (debatably) longest running football rivalry in the south. Add that to the list that includes Toomer's Corner, the eagle flight, Tiger Walk (which they've since copied), etc. The list goes on and on.

However, the fact that I felt the need to go on rant #2 proves the original point that Auburn-Bama is still the most significant rivalry.

[Saniflush]

Yeah, you're on an island here, THS.

I'm only like a year older than you and I'm not from Georgia, but you're insane if you don't think there's any significance to the Georgia rivalry.

I'm not going to argue that it's more significant than Bama, but as far as college football tradition goes, it can't be topped.

The above sentence is leading me to two tangential rants.

1) I've expressed before that this irks me, but the South's Oldest Rivalry is officially UNC-Virginia (yawn), while Auburn-UGA is referred to as the Deep South's Oldest Rivalry despite the fact that Auburn-UGA's first game was played first (February 1892 vs. October 1892) and was the first meeting between two Southern college football teams ever. The distinction is that UNC-UVA have met ONE more time in their history and have played in consecutive years every year since 1919 after 23 prior meetings, whereas Auburn has only played in consecutive years since 1944 because Auburn didn't field a team at all in 1943 due to WWII (I don't think that should count as a disruption). Otherwise, Auburn-UGA would have played consecutively since 1919 with 23 prior meetings as well.

2) This is another example of "tradition", a word overused and overplayed by Bama, being actually more entrenched at Auburn. The first and (debatably) longest running football rivalry in the south. Add that to the list that includes Toomer's Corner, the eagle flight, Tiger Walk (which they've since copied), etc. The list goes on and on.

However, the fact that I felt the need to go on rant #2 proves the original point that Auburn-Bama is still the most significant rivalry.

I am sensing a twitter battle coming.

[wesfau2]

Does anyone really care that much about the Georgia game?  It's not really a rivalry to me.  I get more upset when we lose to LSU than to Georgia.  I especially hate that we have Georgia on our schedule at the end of the season.  Not to mention, now we'll be forced to play @Georgia and @Alabama every other year.

Newjack.

[WiregrassTiger]

Yeah, you're on an island here, THS.

I'm only like a year older than you and I'm not from Georgia, but you're insane if you don't think there's any significance to the Georgia rivalry.

If you are honest, I suspect your support for this rivalry in this thread is mostly due to your wanting to grow up to be just like me. And that's o.k.

[Townhallsavoy]

Yeah, you're on an island here, THS.

I'm only like a year older than you and I'm not from Georgia, but you're insane if you don't think there's any significance to the Georgia rivalry.

I'm not going to argue that it's more significant than Bama, but as far as college football tradition goes, it can't be topped.

The above sentence is leading me to two tangential rants.

1) I've expressed before that this irks me, but the South's Oldest Rivalry is officially UNC-Virginia (yawn), while Auburn-UGA is referred to as the Deep South's Oldest Rivalry despite the fact that Auburn-UGA's first game was played first (February 1892 vs. October 1892) and was the first meeting between two Southern college football teams ever. The distinction is that UNC-UVA have met ONE more time in their history and have played in consecutive years every year since 1919 after 23 prior meetings, whereas Auburn has only played in consecutive years since 1944 because Auburn didn't field a team at all in 1943 due to WWII (I don't think that should count as a disruption). Otherwise, Auburn-UGA would have played consecutively since 1919 with 23 prior meetings as well.

2) This is another example of "tradition", a word overused and overplayed by Bama, being actually more entrenched at Auburn. The first and (debatably) longest running football rivalry in the south. Add that to the list that includes Toomer's Corner, the eagle flight, Tiger Walk (which they've since copied), etc. The list goes on and on.

However, the fact that I felt the need to go on rant #2 proves the original point that Auburn-Bama is still the most significant rivalry.

I like islands.  I have good sunscreen.

I'll also stand up and claim that everyone here would be ecstatic to see Kentucky two weeks before Alabama.  Especially if we had a chance at getting to the SECCG. 

It's not that I dislike the game.  Don't get me wrong; I hate Georgia too and love the tradition. 

But tradition's dead.  It got sick with the BCS and it died with the playoffs.  College football has grown to be a national product and bowl games and pageantry and rivalries are being put on the wayside.  Keeping tradition alive and making life more difficult when plenty of other teams are taking full advantage of easier schedules is atavistic.

[Snaggletiger]

My only qualm with the game is it being so close to the Iron Bowl. I'm okay with it as long as we play a Samford in between or have the week off. 

As Chizad alluded to, Auburn is all about tradition.  I hope they always will be.  I'd love to bring GT back as a permanent OOC opponent.  The Wreck Tech Parade was a big deal when I was in school.