It came out of nowhere.
Surprising almost everyone in college athletics, Oklahoma and Texas made the next big move in the realignment puzzle, announcing a departure for the Big 12 for the Southeastern Conference.
This obviously shakes the college football scene dramatically. The SEC's brand, already extremely strong, just got even stronger. They'll hold tremendous clout in CFP discussions and the television contracts will be through the roof. It was a bold, impressive move by both sides to pull this off, especially in how quiet they kept talks for months until the last 10 days of blitzkrieg movement.
The question now is how the SEC rearranges their scheduling. Eight conference games simply won't be enough for a 16-team league. Also, with the playoff expanding to 12 teams, the SEC has the opportunity to put multiple teams into the playoff, which means that they have to create a system that will set them up to seize this opportunity year after year. So, here are the options (ranked from most to least likely).
Four-team pods — Creating pods of four, where there are three permanent opponents and six rotating conference opponents per year seems to have had momentum with fans from the beginning. This system would allow everyone in the conference to play each other within two years and every senior to have played each team home and away during their time on campus. Also, given the chance to put four teams in the playoff, creating pods and sending the champion of each pod to the playoff seems to be a good move for the conference.
The drawback? Drawing the pods up geographically (which is the way to do it) will definitely have some pods stronger than others. Given power shifts happen, this can be overcome, but there will be grumblings early on. Also, the possibility of adding another game to create a mini-playoff to determine a conference champion might not go over well with coaches.
Divisions — Move Alabama and Auburn to the East and Missouri, Texas, and Oklahoma to the West, creating two divisions of eight. Teams play their divisional slate and have no permanent cross-division opponents, allowing a senior to play everyone at least once during their time on campus. The conference is used to the divisions and it creates the least hassle of the options. Furthermore, it provides the easiest, least costly way to travel during a pandemic or any other situation, as the teams are sorted geographically.
The drawback? The desire for teams to play their entire conference twice, so that every senior gets to play once on every campus is one. The other is that divisions can get large in size and if the conference wants to continue to expand, it can create divisions that are basically conferences within a conference, whereas the pod system makes expansion easier.
No divisions — Let all the teams play with no divisions or pods, sending the top two teams to the conference title. This one is popular for those who don't like the shifts of divisional power, as the conference championship often didn't have the two best teams because one division could have the two, or often times, three best teams within it.
However, this system can create mass chaos. It could force an extremely elaborate tiebreaker system for the conference championship. It could allow for a geographical nightmare, where a school could play several teams that are hundreds of miles away while not getting to play teams nearby. The system works in basketball, as the schools all play each other as there's a lot more than 12 games in a hoops system. But creating this system in football would be a complete and utter mess.
Time will tell as to what the SEC decides to do. But make no mistake: the entire college athletic world will be watching.
August 12, 2021
Anthony Brancato:
There shouldn’t be 16-team conferences. There should be 15-team conferences, with three five-team divisions in each conference, allowing every team to play their four division rivals every year (alternating who gets to play at home each year) and each of their 10 non-division opponents every other year.
Then the three division winners and one wild-card team qualify for a new conference semifinal playoff, with the top seed hosting the wild card and the second seed hosting the third seed - unless the top seed and the wild card are from the same division, in which case the top seed hosts the third seed and the second seed hosts the wild card.
The conference championship games, however, would continue to be held at a pre-determined site.
If two teams tie for a division title, whoever won the head-to-head game between them wins the division. If two second-place teams tie for the wild card and there was a head-to-head game between them, the winner of that game gets the wild card; if they did not play each other, record against common opponents (conference games only) decides.
If two teams tie for second place in one division, and also with a second-place team in one of the other two divisions, the division tie is broken first (by head-to-head), then the winner therein is matched up on tie-breakers against the other second-place team with the same record to determine the wild card.
If all three second-place teams are tied and one of them played and beat both of the others, that team gets the wild card. If this was not the case, head-to-head is still applicable so long as all three teams had at least one opportunity to play one of the others; i.e., if A, B and C are tied and A was 1-0 among the three teams, B was 1-1, and C was 0-1, A gets the wild card. However, if C had played neither A nor B (or if none of the three teams had played each other), head-to-head cannot be applied.
August 13, 2021
southernboisb:
A 6 perm-3 rotating format saves ALL rivalries (since it’s impossible to keep these & only put 4 teams in a pod), lets you see everybody in 3 years (full H/A in 6), instantly sorts 2 groups of 8 teams to tell who the SECCG teams are (withOUT need of tiebreakers nor extra games.
Only extra requirement for this to work is pair up the pods & rotate yearly.
Y1: AB winner vrs. CD winner = SECCG teams
Y2: AC winner vrs. BD winner = SECCG teams
Y3: AD winner vrs. BC winner = SECCG teams
This works by playing the other 3 members in your pod, 1 perm rival in each of the other pods, & then the 3 other members in the paired pod for that year.
example;
Team A1’s schedule
Y1 - A2, A3, A4, B1 (pod B perm rival), B2, B3, B4, C1 (pod C perm rival), D1 (pod D perm rival)
Y2 - A2, A3, A4, B1 (pod B perm rival), C1 (pod C perm rival), C2, C3, C4, D1 (pod D perm rival)
Y3 - A2, A3, A4, B1 (pod B perm rival), C1 (pod C perm rival), D1 (pod D perm rival), D2, D3, D4
Y4 - Y1 sites flipped
Y5 - Y2 sites flipped
Y6 - Y3 sites flipped
Unfortunately, there is NO WAY to keep ALL annual rivalries & must play games via the proposals in the article. Annual rivalries are NOT going to be treated as an out-of-conf. game just to be played (these are conference members, therefore they’re CONFERENCE games).
Also, going to 10 conf. games isn’t an option either because that puts 4 schools (Georgia, Florida, SC, & Kentucky) with their 11th game against their in-state ACC rival, & 12th free for anybody…..while the rest of the SEC has 2 open slots on their schedule.
August 15, 2021
Anthony Brancato:
southernboisb: No matter what you do, please don’t call them “pods” - unless of course you don’t mind the “pod” into which Alabama is slotted getting referred to as “The Tide Pod”! LOL
But if you have 16-team conferences, there would have to be four 4-team divisions - but if this is done, seeding, and giving the higher seeds home-field advantage - certainly in the new conference semifinals, and quite possibly in the conference title game as well - is essential (no way does some mediocre team that went 4-5 within the conference go into the conference playoffs on an equal footing with a team that went 9-0 within the conference. That would be both unfair and anti-competitive).
So far as scheduling goes: Since every team would play the other three teams in their own division once a year, and every team from the other three divisions every other year, each team playing the two teams from a given division that they didn’t play in Year 1 in Year 2 - and the non-division matchups can be drawn up in such a way as to maximize the number of common opponents that every pair of teams not from the same division play, since record against common opponents would decide seeding between two division winners who finish with the same record (within the conference) and had not played each other during the regular season.
August 19, 2021
southernboisb:
#1 - They’re called “pods” because if you’re going to use “divisions” people are going to think of:
ACC Atlantic/ACC Coastal,
B10 East/B10 West
C-USA East/C-USA West
MAC East/MAC West
MW Mountain/MW West
PAC-12 North/PAC-12 South
SEC East/SEC West
Sunbelt Group A/Sunbelt Group B
(which is a WHOLE different collection of schools).
#2 - With my plan, you have 8 schools playing every year & therefore DON’T NEED tie-breakers nor extra games to determine CG members.
#3 - Per your last paragraph, please tell me how you’re going to arrange teams for the following ANNUAL games to occur:
Iron Bowl (Alabama/Auburn)
Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry (Georgia/Auburn)
World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party (Georgia/Florida)
Third Saturday In October (Alabama/Tennessee)
So, to keep ALL these games yearly, your pod would have to consist of: Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, Florida, & Tennessee.
On top of that, you also have Tennessee/Vanderbilt & Mississippi/MSU yearly matchups.
Therefore, Tennessee & Vandy have to be in the same pod as well as Mississippi & MSU in the same pod.
As I stated, these ANNUAL RIVALRY games ARE NOT going to be played every other year nor as “out of conference” just to have them played. They are traditional games that will be kept on the yearly schedules for these schools.
August 21, 2021
Anthony Brancato:
southerboisb: While I understand your position, as the saying goes, if you try to please everybody, nobody will like it.
And did you know that 40 years ago, the SEC had 10 teams, and its teams played only six conference games - making it perfectly possible for two (or more) teams to tie for the conference title, without having played each other during the season!
But with three five-team divisions, Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, Florida and Tennessee can be placed in the same division - but that is going to be one tough division year after year, and even with a wild card team joining the three division winners in the new semifinal playoff, at least one or even two deserving teams won’t make it.
These conferences should have thought about this before they overexpanded.
August 23, 2021
southernboisb:
Anthony Brancato:
southerboisb: While I understand your position, as the saying goes, if you try to please everybody, nobody will like it.
And did you know that 40 years ago, the SEC had 10 teams, and its teams played only six conference games - making it perfectly possible for two (or more) teams to tie for the conference title, without having played each other during the season!
But with three five-team divisions, Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, Florida and Tennessee can be placed in the same division - but that is going to be one tough division year after year, and even with a wild card team joining the three division winners in the new semifinal playoff, at least one or even two deserving teams won’t make it.
These conferences should have thought about this before they overexpanded.
It’s 16 teams, so 4 groups of 4. It’s going to be interesting to see what they come up with. HOPEFULLY they’ll figure it out BEFORE Tx. & Ok. start. I sure hope we DON’T get the same “format” we have now (& many people don’t like it). The + is that almost all those rivalries will be kept. Downside is 4/8 years to go through the other group just once (8/16 full H/A).
As to “over expanding”, I think that’s where it’s headed. As you said, “You can’t please everybody”…..but they want smaller conferences, yet they don’t want MORE conferences (which would be the result of smaller conferences).
August 24, 2021
Anthony Brancato:
southernboisb:
I’d love to see them bring back the old Southwest Conference, with as many of its original teams returning as possible (Houston, Rice, SMU, Baylor,TCU and Texas Tech). And if the Big 12 does break up, Kansas, Kansas State, and Oklahoma State can be invited as well. Then to bring the number to 12, thereby allowing divisional play, three worthy teams can be delivered from mid-major purgatory to make it an even dozen.
The SWC, restored in this manner, can even have three divisions of four teams each, with each team playing their three division rivals once each, plus three of the four teams from both of the other divisions - not only allowing for a wild card team to join the three division winners in the new conference semifinals, but also enabling the use of record against common opponents to break a tie for the wild card in case the two tied teams did not play each other.