In other news (apolitical thread)...

[Cincydawg]

It's funny, because we do have quite a few Vol fans here, but they all post almost exclusively in the political thread.  The hardly ever post in the actual sports threads. 

@jgvol does.    They would retain Vandy/Bama/UF.

[utee94]

I agree with the new schedule format, but I'm not sure Arkansas will be a in the Texas 3 team rotation just because it's been so long since they were true rivals.  Its' been ancient history for almost 40 years, except a few non-conference games and a bowl game or two.  What I'm saying is the league may want to provide a more intriguing made for TV match up rather than an old, non-significant rivalry (to the people that matter).

For A&M, I hope it's Texas obviously and LSU.  Just so I'm clear, we don't have the same 3 teams correct?  Texas could have say Ark, A&M, and OU and A&M could have Tex, LSU, and Miss St or OM or whatever.  I guess it doesn't super matter because you still play 3 more SEC teams. 

Yes, absolutely correct.  They're not going to lock teams into "pods."  The 3 perma rivals can be any composition, based on history/relevance/interest in the matchup.

And I'm pretty sure the SEC wants Texas and Arkansas playing.  They deliberately did it for 2024/2025, and I don't think they're going to change that.  

There should still be plenty of meat for top-tier matchups in the "other 6/6" groupings.

[847badgerfan]

Is Tennessee/Kentucky a thing?

Who does Kentucky get?

[Gigem]

Yeah that's what I was thinking.  If only we had some resident Vol fans to ask for their opinions.

I think Alabama is going to be a tough one.  Seems like several teams probably consider them to be their rival, while Alabama doesn't necessarily reciprocate.  Would LSU and Alabama want to ensure the continuation of their rivalry?

And then, things could get unbalanced.  If Alabama's three rivals are Tennessee, Auburn, and LSU, that seems a little top-heavy for most years.

You can't have your cake and eat it too.  These legacy programs had to understand that whey they voted to expand the conference they had to give up some of these yearly games.  

I would think Alabama/Auburn would be a 100% sure thing.  Not sure about LSU/Bama or Tenn/Bama, but I would think Tenn Bama would be priority over LSU/Bama.  

[Cincydawg]

Is Tennessee/Kentucky a thing?

Who does Kentucky get?

UK would probably get leftovers.  They don't really have rivals in the SEC.  Maybe they get UGA instead of Ole Miss.

[847badgerfan]

You can't have your cake and eat it too.  These legacy programs had to understand that whey they voted to expand the conference they had to give up some of these yearly games. 

I would think Alabama/Auburn would be a 100% sure thing.  Not sure about LSU/Bama or Tenn/Bama, but I would think Tenn Bama would be priority over LSU/Bama. 

Tennessee/Bama is a lock.


Third Saturday in October - Wikipedia

[utee94]

You can't have your cake and eat it too.  These legacy programs had to understand that whey they voted to expand the conference they had to give up some of these yearly games. 

I would think Alabama/Auburn would be a 100% sure thing.  Not sure about LSU/Bama or Tenn/Bama, but I would think Tenn Bama would be priority over LSU/Bama. 

Oh yeah for sure. I think theoretically almost every team should be able to get its main rivals, but it might create such an imbalance that it becomes undesirable.

[FearlessF]

I'm wondering if Kentucky gets a made up rivalry with one of the top teams, for some built in fodder

[utee94]

One thing's for sure, given their propensity for loving cupcakes, I imagine there will be a long line of SEC teams clamoring to maintain their longstanding rivalries with Vanderbilt, Kentucky, and Miss State!!

[Gigem]

I'm wondering if Kentucky gets a made up rivalry with one of the top teams, for some built in fodder

For some reason, they paired A&M up with USCe in the previous version of the SEC with the E/W divisional yearly game.  We led the series like 10-3 or something so it wasn't much of a rivalry.  

The previous rotation is the one I really didn't like because they held the rest of the league hostage to maintain those 3-4 games that threw everything else under the bus.  As mentioned, UGa has never been to Kyle, and we've only played once at Samford.  In 13 years of league play.  

[utee94]

For some reason, they paired A&M up with USCe in the previous version of the SEC with the E/W divisional yearly game.  We led the series like 10-3 or something so it wasn't much of a rivalry. 

The previous rotation is the one I really didn't like because they held the rest of the league hostage to maintain those 3-4 games that threw everything else under the bus.  As mentioned, UGa has never been to Kyle, and we've only played once at Samford.  In 13 years of league play. 

I'm not sure that was done to preserve the longstanding rivalries.  I think that was just the SEC being the SEC and dicking around with the scheduling.  Most of the SEC rivalries existed within those divisions anyway.  Georgia, Tennessee, and Florida, were all division games. Tennessee and Vanderbilt was a division games.  Auburn-Alabama, Alabama-LSU, LSU-Ole Miss, Ole Miss Miss Sate.  I think the only one that wasn't a division game is maybe Auburn-Georgia?

So maybe you're right about the specific case of the Aggies only playing Georgia once during that entire time, because of the Auburn-Georgia game.  But even if they locked that one in, Georgia still had 2 other non-division slots each year, and only 5 teams to rotate through.  They should have hit the Aggies at least 2-3X in that 13-year period.

[Gigem]

I'm not sure that was done to preserve the longstanding rivalries.  I think that was just the SEC being the SEC and dicking around with the scheduling.  Most of the SEC rivalries existed within those divisions anyway.  Georgia, Tennessee, and Florida, were all division games. Tennessee and Vanderbilt was a division games.  Auburn-Alabama, Alabama-LSU, LSU-Ole Miss, Ole Miss Miss Sate.  I think the only one that wasn't a division game is maybe Auburn-Georgia?

So maybe you're right about the specific case of the Aggies only playing Georgia once during that entire time, because of the Auburn-Georgia game.  But even if they locked that one in, Georgia still had 2 other non-division slots each year, and only 5 teams to rotate through.  They should have hit the Aggies at least 2-3X in that 13-year period.

I'm not trying to only single out that one instance, it's just well known to Aggie fans that the scheduling was wonky.  With a 14 team league, you should be able to get some kind of round-robin home/away with all league teams on something of a normal schedule. Preferably at least every 4 years.  I'm sure that there are lots of other teams in there that hardly ever played.  It just makes things feel like you're a stranger in your own conference.  I think I mentioned it, but we played Tenn, Vanderbilt, Kentucky, Florida all multiple times in that span.  

The point I'm trying to make, and failing at miserably, is that there was hardly any consistency in the scheduling, and a lot of it was due to 3-4 teams having multiple rivals outside their division.  

[FearlessF]

it's wonky in the Big as well, and has been since long before expansion

[Cincydawg]

I'm wondering if Kentucky gets a made up rivalry with one of the top teams, for some built in fodder

They definitely will get made up rivalries.  On reflection, I suspect they get UGA.  There will be some USCe-A&M "rivalries", it's inherent.