Eight or nine conference games? That is the question facing the SEC with the additions of Missouri and Texas A&M in 2012.
And, not so unexpectedly, it will remain a question for the foreseeable future.
SEC athletic directors met for seven hours in Nashville earlier Wednesday, and the shape of future football schedules was one of the items on the agenda. Alas, Jon Solomon of the Birmingham News reports, no final decision was made on whether those future SEC football slates will include eight or nine games.
“There was thoughtful and collegial discussion by the group about several different concepts,” SEC spokesman Charles Bloom said in a statement.
At least at this point in time, a nine-game football schedule has little support among the membership for myriad reasons, with the ADs at Georgia and Tennessee being the lone known exceptions.
Adding another conference game would mean taking away one of the non-conference pastries that litter big-time football program’s schedules, ostensibly making it harder to become bowl-eligible; if the NCAA makes the rumored move to require seven wins in order to qualify for a bowl, that argument becomes a moot point. Then there are those who argue over the inherent unfairness of a nine-game schedule giving some teams five conference home games in a given season while others would only have four, although over time each member would be affected equally and negate any “unfairness”.
The reality is there really is no “good” reason for the conference to not add a game to its conference schedule to go along with its expanded membership. Or, as the always outstanding Mr. SEC.com put it in his must-read take on the situation, “the only reason not to go to a nine-game slate is pure cowardice.”
Not a lot of gray area there, and for good reason.