Tigers X - Number one Source to Talk Auburn Tigers Sports
Pat Dye Field => War Damn Eagle => Topic started by: Snaggletiger on July 18, 2013, 11:45:53 AM
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pasted some copyin' from Kevin Scabimskee. Spurrier said basically the same things yesterday with regard to scheduling. And I agree that lately it's been advantage Bama. The Visor says the Big 10 plays everyone in conference and that's the fair way to do it. Seems logical but how do you do that in the SEC? You can't unless you eliminate all OOC games. The Hat feels it's unfair for LSU to play Florida and Georgia while Bama plays UT and UK. No, it's not balanced for that particular year. But first, most teams go in cycles regarding how strong they are. Auburn is a prime example. I don't imagine Les had a problem with playing Florida 2-3 years ago when they sucked. Second, when they changed the Choppe...err...format, all teams chose and agreed who their cross division yearly opponent would be. AU and UGA agreed that the oldest rivalry in the south should continue. UGA is damn good now. Just the way it goes. For their part, Bama and UT have always had a great rivalry game on the 3rd Saturday of October. Not Bama's fault that the Vols can't get their collective shit together. Anyway....
HOOVER, Alabama - Never mind that he opened by telling us he spent his summer doing hyperbaric oxygen therapy research on concussions. That, and rappelling down the side of a building.
Put aside his historical thesis on social media and the Harlem Shake and his unfortunate demonstration of his ability to speak Australian.
Forget all the fun on the fringe, and focus on the facts, mate.
Based on the facts, Les Miles is right. Right on time. Right on topic. Right on the inexplicable imbalance in SEC football scheduling.
"Scheduling should never decide championships," the LSU coach said Thursday morning. Of course, it shouldn't, but obviously, it helps. Or hurts.
Miles went off on what would be called a rant if he'd raised his voice and pounded the podium during his big-room appearance at SEC Media Days. But he didn't go full Saban. Miles stuck to the facts, and the facts are all on his side.
His main point: There's a repeated scheduling advantage and disadvantage in the SEC when it comes to cross-division opponents based on traditional rivalries.
Not even Mike Slive, as skilled a debater as he is, can deny that point.
The most eye-popping stat of this year's schedule is a big part of the reason the media here was right to pick LSU third in the West behind Alabama and Texas A&M.
LSU plays Florida and Georgia from the SEC East. Last year, the Gators and Bulldogs went a combined 14-2 in the league.
Alabama plays Tennessee and Kentucky. Last season, the Vols and Wildcats combined went 1-15 in the league and fired their head coaches.
That's beyond imbalance. That's the difference between shooting a bullet and throwing it.
There's a good chance this "bridge" schedule is going to collapse on LSU's title hopes.
Hence, my suggestion that the SEC do away with traditional cross-division rivals as long as the league stays with eight conference games.
My AL.com colleague Jon Solomon broke down the strength of SEC schedules from the start of a two-division league in 1992 to the present. He demonstrated that Alabama's had the third-easiest league schedule over that time frame.
One fun fact from Jon's study: The SEC has had six traditional powers in Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, LSU and Tennessee. Among that group, Auburn and Florida have played the others 83 times since 1992. Alabama and Georgia have played the others 75 times.
Advantage, Alabama and Georgia.
Earlier this week, South Carolina's Steve Spurrier renewed his call to have division games only decide the division championships because of the imbalance in cross-division games. That's not going to happen, but Spurrier made a valid point.
So did Miles. Again. And again, all the facts and the stats in the world probably aren't going to change a thing.
He might as well have been speaking Australian.
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It is hard to hate on Miles. He is passionate about his job, his players, and his program.
And yes, the SEC sucks the Bama root. Hard.
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It is hard to hate on Miles. He is passionate about his job, his players, and his program.
And yes, the SEC sucks the Bama root. Hard.
Agree on both counts. And I'm the same with Dark Visor. Love how he says whatever comes to mind and gives less than 1/2 a shit what anyone thinks. But I don't know how you change the scheduling to make it more unless you eliminate permanent cross division games and rotate opponents every year. As an old....school guy, I love the AU/UGA rivalry and would hate to lose it. But then, college football keeps taking a little bit of tradition out of the equation every year with the BCS and constant conference realignments. Missouri in the SEC??? Fuck that! I don't care if they can compete or not. They don't belong in this conference. (Rant off) But, I think it was THS who said a while back that being younger, he didn't really care one way or another about the AU/UGA series or at least didn't have the same passion about it as someone who'd followed it as long as I have. Sorry if it wasn't you.
Agreed on the Bama knob schlobbing, but again, can't really blame them under the current system for keeping the UT rivalry. How could anyone expect that a program with the name, the tradition, the facilities and a stadium that seats 100K plus, would just suck for so long.
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Agreed on the Bama knob schlobbing, but again, can't really blame them under the current system for keeping the UT rivalry. How could anyone expect that a program with the name, the tradition, the facilities and a stadium that seats 100K plus, would just suck for so long.
Personally, I don't give a shit about the UT rivalry. However, I do think that UT will get better. Nobody was really bitching about Alabama playing them when Fulmer was there shitting on Bama year after year. No problems there.
What would REALLY help scheduling is going to a 9 game SEC format. Miles certainly doesn't want that, though. Make no mistake, he is supporting something that helps his team. He's not going to come out and say "I want to make it harder for Alabama to get to the SECCG", but that's exactly what he is saying. It's unfair that Alabama plays UT and UK, so let's give them two other opponents. But then the two opponents you gave them get shitty in 3 years. Oh, so now it's time to whine about Alabama playing those guys. Let's give them back UT and UK, because now those teams are good. UT and UK have the #1 and #3 recruiting classes in the country, respectively. If they can capitalize on that for the next few years with coaching, and sustain that recruiting momentum, they're not going to be shitty for long.
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Personally, I don't give a shoot about the UT rivalry. However, I do think that UT will get better. Nobody was really bitching about Alabama playing them when Fulmer was there shootting on Bama year after year. No problems there.
What would REALLY help scheduling is going to a 8 game SEC format. Miles certainly doesn't want that, though. Make no mistake, he is supporting something that helps his team. He's not going to come out and say "I want to make it harder for Alabama to get to the SECCG", but that's exactly what he is saying. It's unfair that Alabama plays UT and UK, so let's give them two other opponents. But then the two opponents you gave them get shootty in 3 years. Oh, so now it's time to whine about Alabama playing those guys. Let's give them back UT and UK, because now those teams are good. UT and UK have the #1 and #3 recruiting classes in the country, respectively. If they can capitalize on that for the next few years with coaching, and sustain that recruiting momentum, they're not going to be shootty for long.
Somewhere a goat is lonely...
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Missed this one during the fad. Pretty funny...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQpUk-_kKWc
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Personally, I don't give a shit about the UT rivalry. However, I do think that UT will get better. Nobody was really bitching about Alabama playing them when Fulmer was there shitting on Bama year after year. No problems there.
What would REALLY help scheduling is going to a 9 game SEC format. Miles certainly doesn't want that, though. Make no mistake, he is supporting something that helps his team. He's not going to come out and say "I want to make it harder for Alabama to get to the SECCG", but that's exactly what he is saying. It's unfair that Alabama plays UT and UK, so let's give them two other opponents. But then the two opponents you gave them get shitty in 3 years. Oh, so now it's time to whine about Alabama playing those guys. Let's give them back UT and UK, because now those teams are good. UT and UK have the #1 and #3 recruiting classes in the country, respectively. If they can capitalize on that for the next few years with coaching, and sustain that recruiting momentum, they're not going to be shitty for long.
To me, the rivalries are good, and as everyone was saying, no one faults them for having to play UT every year. We get that.
It's the fact that since A&M & Mizzou joined the conference, Slive took that as an opportunity to throw the whole rotation of the other two cross-divisional teams out the window. Suspiciously, the "random" teams that have been cherry-picked for Bama to play ever since have been pretty light in the pants. To my knowledge, there is still no actual rotation system in place. Slive's just "winging it" when putting the schedules together, which at least appears to be taking care of Bama first with lightweights, fucking over their closest competition, LSU, and then working from there.
After having just drew Vandy in 2011, Bama's "rotating" East team was Mizzou last year and Kentucky this year. This year, LSU's East opponents were 14-2 in the SEC last year. Bama's were 1-15.
Do we know who they play next year? Vandy again? Seriously, why don't we have an actual rotation yet? Why is the 2014 inter-division games still a mystery?
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After having just drew Vandy in 2011, Bama's "rotating" East team was Mizzou last year and Kentucky this year. This year, LSU's East opponents were 14-2 in the SEC last year. Bama's were 1-15.
Amazing, isn't it! Having a bammer serving as the head of scheduling pays dividends.