APOne at a time, nine-game conference schedules are hacking through quality non-conference games like a machete through wild brush.
Not that Ole Miss could currently be considered a quality non-conference opponent – I’ll default to Steve Spurrier on that one — but perhaps by, say, 2015 and ’16.
That’s when Clemson was supposed to play the Rebels in a home-and-home series, but that contract has been “mutually terminated” per a release (the Tigers also cancelled a series with Oklahoma State).
Instead, Ole Miss now has a four-game series with Memphis beginning in 2014. Ole Miss will host the Tigers in 2014 and 2016, and Memphis will have home games in the odd years. Obviously, Ole Miss is looking for W’s, which have been hard to come by lately, and adding the Tigers is about the surest way to get one.
The ACC is moving to a nine-game conference slate with the additions of Pitt and Syracuse; the SEC could still possibly do the same. As we’ve seen over the past few weeks, adding another conference game means fewer schools actually want to schedule tough out of conference.
Starting in 2013, Clemson and UGA have a home and away game scheduled. This is more attractive to the region and also gives half of the Clemson team, that is from Georgia anyway, a chance to come home for a weekend. Clemson already plays S.C. each year anyway, so in 2013 and 2014, if they had kept the game, their out of conference schedule would be full of SEC teams only. Even with Ole Miss. on the schedule, that’s not exactly advantageous for Clemson or any ACC school.
woebegong: great points.
The best lines, of course, at SEC media days, have come from The Ole Ball Coach, Steve Spurrier. A media reporter was mildly harassing Spurrier about scheduling, and he retorted, that he certainly did not make up the schedules. If he did, he certainly would NOT have scheduled LSU but rather would have scheduled Ole Miss. ha.
@ woebegong – good points, but I’d counter with this: The ACC needs somebody to run the table with that kind of schedule to start to regain all the “cred” they’ve collectively flushed down the toilet over the last 10-15 years.
Sadly, the schedule does get out of whack in scheduling, but it is all cyclical really. Now with 14 teams and the majority of the schools not favoring 9 SEC games, it will continue to get worse. A school like UGA, has already got two long standing, traditional rivalries with Auburn and Florida, so with the SEC games in place, there are six open SEC dates for games, under the present configuration. Given the rotation of the other 11 teams, it is going to appear to be lop sided in favor of one team every few years. LSU and S.C. have had a rivalry game for quite a few years, so he is either going to back up his talk about how good S>C. really is, or continue to put out one liners that make the media laugh, but in no way address the the problem. Come on Stevie, push for a nine game SEC schedule and then you might see a different alignment of games each year. Would he be saying anything, if LSU had been experiencing a few down years, and say, though unlikely at the moment, Ole Miss. or Miss. St. was a powerhouse. Why doesn’t he complain when he plays Kentucky and Vanderbilt every year?
You continue to post very good germane points. Email Spurrier. I know Miles has tried to eliminate the auto crossover games which have Ole Miss pared against Kentucky every year, so much for parity. Muschamp likes the LSU – Florida matchup every year, from what I gather, but Miles is not thrilled with it. I think Miles wants a greater parity of game and opponents, but a 9 game schedule will provide that.
Slive said that this season’s schedule was this seasons alone and should not be interpreted of being anything else. That would indicate to me that there are some negotiations and scheduling yet to be done. Maybe some fans can at least get their “druthers” in with their favorite teams, but if there is truly a desire to have better parity of games, there has to be some kind of change made. LSU has beat SC, I think 13 of the last 14 games or something similar. And Ole Miss, Miss. State, etc. similarly (though I know they are both in the West)
Stevie 5 chances Spurriers problem is he so much wants to go out a winner, and his time is getting short. He is 67, and I know at 63, I don’t have that energy to do what I did 10 years ago, so it is wearing on him. He is still at the stage where he is trying to get a great passing game, and who knows how that will go this year. He has been blessed with some godd coaches these last few years, but he has a new defensive one, so who knows where he will be at years end.
Probably the only way to achieve anything close to parity of schedule is to go to 9 games and even then, that will not solve every problem. College teams are cyclical as far as it goes to be good and bad. Teams are up on top for a while and then they go through a few lean years. Who knows if the LSU and Alabama of today will be so strong in a few years. Certainly both have gone through a couple of lean years, prior to this latest surge. Florida was up there for a number of years and is now rebuilding. It happens to every team, so complaining about the schedule will accomplish nothing in my estimation. The SEC as a whole, probably gets the best recruiting classes each year in the NCAA, but sometimes, these recruits can’t make the transition from high school to big boy football for a variety of reasons on and off the field. One player can greatly alter a teams success, because these kids have so much to learn to as far as playing as a team, and sometimes, once a cog is missing, it happens.
Like a 9 game ACC schedule is going to be tough. Only if you have a Dabo coaching