Moore persuades SEC ADs on schedule issue
TUSCALOOSA | University of Alabama Director of Athletics Mal Moore has persuaded his Southeastern Conference peers to ask the league office to make adjustments to the SEC's 2010 football schedule, as well as it's upcoming 10-year release of future schedules, to bring more equity to the number of games each team must play against an opponent coming off an idle week.
Following a story by The Tuscaloosa News that revealed the Crimson Tide will have played more than three times as many idle-rested SEC opponents as any other school in the league over a four-year span ending in 2010, Moore said he would bring the issue to the attention of the league's athletic directors at their next meeting.
That meeting took place Tuesday morning in Birmingham, and SEC Associate Commissioner Charles Bloom said his office will now seek to make necessary changes.
“There was definitely a consensus among the athletic directors that it was out of sync,” said Bloom. “We are going to see what can be done, both for next year and the future.”
Bloom said all 12 of the league's athletic directors were in attendance. Efforts to reach Moore were not immediately successful.
As of now, six of Alabama's eight SEC opponents will be coming off an idle week when they play against the Crimson Tide, by far the most in the league. From the 2007 season through 2010, Alabama's schedules included 16 idle-rested opponents, while the next highest total in the league over that span (LSU) was only five. SEC Executive Associate Commissioner Mark Womack told The News in a story published last month that the league's last 10-year schedule cycle, which covered the 2002-2011 seasons, did not initially allow for that many idle dates among Alabama opponents, adding that subsequent schedule changes significantly increased the disparity.
Womack is in the process of completing the league's next 10-year schedule cycle, which will cover the 2012-2021 seasons. The previous cycle included parameters that prevent teams from playing more than five consecutive SEC games, or more than two consecutively on the road, but made no provision for equity of idle-rested opponents.
Last month, Womack said adding a parameter for idle-week equity could likely be done, but might delay the release of the new cycle.
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