If you’re looking for the SEC to follow the path blazed by its Midwest Power Five counterparts, you’re likely in for quite a bit of a wait.
Back in July of last year, the Big Ten announced that, moving forward, the conference has banned its member institutions from scheduling opponents who play at the FCS level.The SEC, of course, regularly schedules such creampuffs, and it appears it has no plans of changing that aspect of their scheduling for the foreseeable future.
“It’s a conversation piece, but we have not eliminated those,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said earlier this week according to the Opelika-Auburn News. “Our schedule is set up across the season, rather than toward the end, so each conference is allowed to have its scheduling philosophy. ...
“There’s relatively speaking a limited number of those FCS games. Some of those are quite challenging opponents, relatively speaking. But we have not had a hard and fast discussion about eliminating those opportunities.”
The last five seasons (2011-15), 12 of the 14 current members of the SEC scheduled games against FCS foes each of those years, with the lone exceptions being Florida and Texas A&M. The Gators didn’t play an FCS team in 2015, but did the other four seasons, while the Aggies played one in four of the last five seasons. The lone season A&M didn’t in that span? 2011, the Aggies’ last season in the Big 12 before moving to the SEC for the 2012 season.
This season, all 14 SEC members will play a team from the FCS.
Arguably the only way the SEC will be moved to join the Big Ten in eliminating cupcakes from future schedules? When strength of schedule plays a role in the conference getting shut out of the College Football Playoff. Until then, the league looks like it will continue its annual feast of pastry lightweights.