If you SEC football a fan of a certain age – let’s say about my age – you don’t have strong memories of the conference before it embraced the two divisions.
After the SEC increased from 10 to 12 teams, adding Arkansas and South Carolina, it boldly split into divisions in 1992. This allowed the conference to host the SEC Championship, thanks to an NCAA rule that allows such an event to be held when divisions were present at the conference.
Thirty years later the divisions were over, especially after Last week the NCAA Division Council voted to waive the requirement for conferences to have divisions to host the league championship. Pac-12 and Mountain West abandoned the units in 2022, and the ACC aims to do so by 2023.
Oklahoma and Texas will join the SEC by the 2025 season, and that expansion could mark the end of the SEC division era. One large family of 16 teams.
The SEC has not finalized the planning model for its extended future, but here are the key proposals, according to Sports Illustrated and ESPN:
Option A – SEC schedule of eight games. Each team will have one designated opponent with whom it will play each year – think Alabama-Auburn; Ole Mississippi State; Florida-Georgia – and seven other opponents at the conference threw in socks each year, allowing the team to play with all of its non-competitive counterparts at the conference every two years.
Option B – SEC schedule of nine games. Each team will have three designated opponents with whom it will play each year, plus six SEC rescuing opponents. Once again, this will allow the team to play with each conference opponent at least once every two years.
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I’m not going to spend a lot of time parsing option A for several reasons.
First, I prefer plans that offer more conference games. Does anyone think that Alabama vs. South Miss is better for sports than Alabama vs. SEC enemy?
The eight-game conference schedule leaves room for more cupcake games that top the coaches ’records. Sorry, but this is the Big Boys League. If a coach needs to be given a win to stay at work, just pay the coach his ransom and move on.
In addition, the adoption of Option A would mean some historical rivalries that help make football colleges the way they are, will not happen on an annual basis – games like Auburn-Georgia will be forced to take a back seat after the Iron Bowl and “Cocktail -parties ». ”
Option B offers an additional conference game and retains more annual competitors, so if these are the two leading options, then I will take my weight for that choice.
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However, building a schedule for this model is not easy. Some teams have three or more natural opponents, while others have only one or two rivals to defend.
Maintaining one rivalry can happen due to the optimal schedule of the other team. Also, this model is not ideal for creating an equal schedule – the strength of a team’s schedule will be based in part on how strong its three opponents are – but certainly the strength of the schedule will be taken into account to some degree.
I spent two hours one night this week trying to balance the rivalry for option B in a way that offered a resemblance to justice. Several times I thought I had a great plan until I reached the last pieces of the puzzle that didn’t fall into place.
Here are two main options I’ve developed for this 3-6 scheduling model (three annual competitions plus six rotating SEC enemies):
My plan is 1 for the three opponents of each team in Model 3-6
Alabama: Auburn, LSU, Tennessee
Arkansas: Missouri, Texas, Mississippi
Auburn: Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky
Florida: Georgia, Oklahoma, Vanderbilt
Georgia: Florida, Auburn, South Carolina
Kentucky: South Carolina, Auburn, Tennessee
LSU: Texas A&M, Alabama, Ole Miss
Ole Miss: Mississippi, Vanderbilt, LSU
Mississippi: Ole Miss, Arkansas, Texas A&M
Missouri: Arkansas, Oklahoma, South Carolina
Oklahoma: Texas, Missouri, Florida
South Carolina: Kentucky, Georgia, Missouri
Tennessee: Vanderbilt, Alabama, Kentucky
Texas: Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas A&M
Texas A&M: LSU, Texas, Mississippi
Vanderbilt: Tennessee, Ole Miss, Florida
My plan is 2 for the three opponents of each team in Model 3-6
Alabama: Auburn, LSU, Tennessee
Arkansas: Missouri, Texas, Tennessee
Auburn: Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi
Florida: Georgia, Kentucky, Oklahoma
Georgia: Florida, Auburn, South Carolina
Kentucky: South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi
LSU: Texas A&M, Alabama, Ole Miss
Ole Miss: Mississippi, Vanderbilt, LSU
Mississippi: Ole Miss, Kentucky, Auburn
Missouri: Arkansas, Oklahoma, South Carolina
Oklahoma: Texas, Missouri, Florida
South Carolina: Kentucky, Georgia, Missouri
Tennessee: Vanderbilt, Alabama, Arkansas
Texas: Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas A&M
Texas A&M: LSU, Texas, Vanderbilt
Vanderbilt: Tennessee, Ole Miss, Texas A&M
Have a better idea? Well, given that the SEC has hosted Missouri in the Eastern Division over the past decade, the conference would probably benefit from your leadership.
Blake Topmayer is an SEC columnist for the USA TODAY network. Write to him by e-mail BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @btoppmeyer. If you like Blake’s lighting, think about it digital subscription which will allow you to access it all.
