No SEC?

[GreatGolson]

I know weve played Tennessee recently but other than that, why doesn't notre dame play more teams from the SEC, im not saying we need to play Alabama every year, but i'd like to play SC or Arkansas or maybe Ole Miss sometimes. Any ideas as to why this almost never occurs? Much appreciated!

 

[NDinLA is a TROLL]

SEC teams mostly schedule D-2 schools because of the strength of the conference. Look at their non conference games and only a handful play teams with any credibility.

SEC is also has that huge contract with CBS with conflicts with ND and NBC. ND tv numbers have been dwindling due to mediocre performances and would be a lose lose for any SEC team.

 

[KPENN]

SEC teams mostly schedule D-2 schools because of the strength of the conference. Look at their non conference games and only a handful play teams with any credibility.

SEC is also has that huge contract with CBS with conflicts with ND and NBC. ND tv numbers have been dwindling due to mediocre performances and would be a lose lose for any SEC team.

Umm Notre Dame plays games on CBS. And the CBS and SEC contract is for conference games I believe so that wouldn't be a problem. And to your ratings point Notre Dame still draws better ratings then most of if not the rest of the country.

It's just a matter if they want to play each other or not. We might wanna play an sec school. Sec schools might not wanna play us or it could be mutual.

 

[BGIF]

I know weve played Tennessee recently but other than that, why doesn't notre dame play more teams from the SEC, im not saying we need to play Alabama every year, but i'd like to play SC or Arkansas or maybe Ole Miss sometimes. Any ideas as to why this almost never occurs? Much appreciated!

For the most part they're not interested. Seriously.

In 1991 Roy Kramer became the Commissioner of the SEC. Within 7 month he expanded the conference adding Arkansas and South Carolina, split into 2 divisions, announced the first Division 1A Conference Championship Game, and negotiated multi-year bowl tie-ins for the conference. Kramer also implemented "creative scheduling" to ensure that at least one SEC team would be a position to play for the National Championship every year.

When the SEC went to two division so they could play a championship game they purposely watered down their scheduling to position their champion to play for the NC and to ensure enough bowl eligible conference teams to fill all those contractural bowl slots.

First they "balanced" the two divisions so the power teams would have an equal shot at winning with minimal losses. Then they watered down the out of conference schedule. Back in the 80's Bama played ND and PSU. After the creation of the Divisions those series were terminated. The phrase "Directional School" was made famous by the SEC playing Southeast Louisiana, Northeast Louisiana, etc. Add in a liberal dose of The Citadel, Tennessee Chatanooga, UAB, Troy, Western Carolina, Middle Tennesse St, North Texas,
Northwestern St, Samford, Arkansas St, Murray St, VMI, Idaho St, Maine, Jacksonville St, Gardner Webb, etc

Before the SEC went to a Two Division format there was an axiom that "No team can win the SEC with 2 losses." Since the SEC went to the Division format a team can not only win the SEC with 2 losses but also win a National Championship.

By no coincidence Roy Kramer also became the Czar of the BCS and was instrumental in developing AND revising the BCS Selection Process.

There's the groundwork.

Now add in that teams use to play schedules that were roughly half home and half away. Florida under Spurrier in the early 90's went to an unbalanced schedule 7-4-1 format playing 7 games in Gainesville and a "neutral" game with Georgia in Jacksonville. Formerly known as "The World's Largest Cocktail Party" when UF and UGA play in Jacksonville FL, it's actually UGA's "home" game. When UF is the host they play in Gainsville.

I asked some connected Gator fans back then about stacking the deck with "buyout" home games. With straight faces they responded that UF neeed the revenue to pay off the debt from the stadium expansion. Actually they played a maybe 3 "good" opponents and 4 "bum of the week" opponents. The purpose was building "W"s.

Gator fans will tell of the tough schedule playing in-state foes, Miami, FSU, FIU, UCF, USF, and/or FAMU. They neglect to mention they don't play Miami and FSU every year and when they do they play in-state. Check Florida's schedules over the years. The longest trip they make is Kentucky. Florida does NOT play outside the South.

Tennessee does, Bama will, Vanderbilt, will, Auburn has a couple of time with Texas and USC and got buried each time. They like to stay home now as well with the likes of Louisiana Monroe.

ND had a home and home scheduled for the mid 2000's. When Bama went on probation and lost scholarships, Bama AD Mal Moore immediately contacted ND and asked out of that contracted series. ND agreed with no penalties, no buyout. Bama then replaced ND with Hawaii, which they advertised as a "bowl trip to reward our loyal fans" and some other cannon fodder opponent. Now that Bama is back to strength they talking to ND. BTW, Bama AD Mal Moore has good connections at ND, he was an assistant coach there under Holtz.

Most of the SEC teams today don't want to play ND. They cite travel distance, weather, AND that ND doesn't want a game on the road. ND wants to play in Baton Rouge, Tuscaloosa, and Gainsville but they expect a return game in South Bend. UF and UGA want no part of that. About 5 years ago the Atlanta Journal Constitution did a Sunday feature story about UGA playing ND in a home and home. Fans were complaining about the cannon fodder opponents, the resulting no shows were hurting the revenue, and demanding opponents like ND. The AJC noted that ND like to travel for the fan base and recruiting BUT UGA only wanted a game in Athens.


Getting the picture.

BTW, the 7-4-1 schedule format that ND AD White proposed gets blasted by ND alumni has been a staple of Florida scheduling for almost 20 years. When the NCAA allowed a 12 game to be scheduled regularly the SEC could have scheduled teams like ND but they didn't. Most SEC teams didn't add BSC out of conference opponents. Most of them didn't even schedule NON BCS Div 1 oppponents. They padded the schedule with 1AA teams.

 

[Riddickulous]

The SEC won't schedule the "inferior" teams. Gotta be worthy.

 

[GreatGolson]

uhh BGIF, you can close this thread, my question is COMPLETELY answered

 

[usadmr5]

Why dont we play the Texas Longhorns

 

[NDinL.A.]

Damn BGIF...you need to be writing for B&G or UND; thanks for the great post!

 

[Rocket89]

Good stuff BGIF.

Have you ever noticed how the big programs like to schedule top programs that are down, and bottom programs that are up?

It gives those teams good PR, but usually backfires.

For instance, it seemed like everyone wanted to schedule Oregon back in the mid-to-late 1990's because they were struggling. That way, a school could say they played a big-time program and still kick the crap out of them.

Problem is, Oregon got really good really fast and handed a whole lot of teams a bunch of OOC losses.

It works the other way. I bet you anything there are dozens of teams knocking down the door to try to play Cincinnati right now.

That way they can say, "hey we scheduled this team just months after they went undefeated!"

Only to easily handle them once they've gone back to 6 and 7 loss seasons without Kelly three or four years down the road.

 

[GEORGIA DOMER]

hate to be a stick in the mud but i think florida has played florida st ever year since 1958 and the series against UGA has been in jacksonville every year since 1933. but totally agree with what BGIF is saying

 

[BGIF]

hate to be a stick in the mud but i think florida has played florida st ever year since 1958 and the series against UGA has been in jacksonville every year since 1933. but totally agree with what BGIF is saying

You're not a stick in the mud. I was either unclear or wrong on both points. Thanks for the corrections.

My sentence was not well constructed regarded playing Miami and FSU every year. I wrote,

Gator fans will tell of the tough schedule playing in-state foes, Miami, FSU, FIU, UCF, USF, and/or FAMU. They neglect to mention they don't play Miami and FSU every year and when they do they play in-state.

Gator fans make it sound like they play BOTH Miami and FSU every year. My point was they don't play them both annually. In reality they only play FSU on a annual basis.

As for the UF/UGA series I actually checked the location on CollegeDateWarehouse and clearly read it WRONG. Since 1933 all the games have been in Jacksonville with the exception of '94 in Gainsville and '95 in Athens when the Jacksonville Stadium was being rebuilt. I'd like to say I only looked at the '94 and '95 years but that's not so. Mea culpa!

 

[NDinLA is a TROLL]

Umm Notre Dame plays games on CBS. And the CBS and SEC contract is for conference games I believe so that wouldn't be a problem. And to your ratings point Notre Dame still draws better ratings then most of if not the rest of the country.

It's just a matter if they want to play each other or not. We might wanna play an sec school. Sec schools might not wanna play us or it could be mutual.

SEC gets the best ratings of any tv contract due to its competitive conference. ND puts up ratings because they are shown nationally every week and the huge fan base. But for a game with the magnitude like ALA vs ND, ND would have to show a consistent level of BCS caliber competitiveness. Nobody wants to watch a 6-6 ND vs a 12-0 ALA because we would know the outcome.n It is all about getting those other fans of college football to watch your team. ND has the biggest fan base but it pales in comparison to the entire fan base of college football.

The Ohio St vs U$C game 1 two years ago was the highest watched game on ESPN and got BCS like numbers because both teams were shown to have great teams. I believe both teams were in the BCS NC in the past four years thus getting a Nielsen rating of around 10.

For an SEC top tier team to risk a game like this, the numbers better be huge. ALA is playing Penn St this year which is probably one of the most hyped games this year. I know I will be watching that one like most of the fans of college football. But if Penn St ends up being crappy, I might be hesitant to watch it. UCLA is playing Texas which I might consider watching but we all know the probably outcome of Texas blowing them out.

I am strictly speaking for top tier SEC schools. For teams like Vandy and Kentucky I am sure they would schedule it, but on ND's end, it is no incentive to sign that. Once ND puts up 10 wins consistently, they will be an attractive opponent for many teams, including the SEC.

 

[KPENN]

SEC gets the best ratings of any tv contract due to its competitive conference. ND puts up ratings because they are shown nationally every week and the huge fan base. But for a game with the magnitude like ALA vs ND, ND would have to show a consistent level of BCS caliber competitiveness. Nobody wants to watch a 6-6 ND vs a 12-0 ALA because we would know the outcome.n It is all about getting those other fans of college football to watch your team. ND has the biggest fan base but it pales in comparison to the entire fan base of college football.

The Ohio St vs U$C game 1 two years ago was the highest watched game on ESPN and got BCS like numbers because both teams were shown to have great teams. I believe both teams were in the BCS NC in the past four years thus getting a Nielsen rating of around 10.

For an SEC top tier team to risk a game like this, the numbers better be huge. ALA is playing Penn St this year which is probably one of the most hyped games this year. I know I will be watching that one like most of the fans of college football. But if Penn St ends up being crappy, I might be hesitant to watch it. UCLA is playing Texas which I might consider watching but we all know the probably outcome of Texas blowing them out.

I am strictly speaking for top tier SEC schools. For teams like Vandy and Kentucky I am sure they would schedule it, but on ND's end, it is no incentive to sign that. Once ND puts up 10 wins consistently, they will be an attractive opponent for many teams, including the SEC.

First off the you make the case that Notre Dame only gets good ratings because they are constantly on TV. HELLO the SEC games are shown on ESPN and CBS. No matter what Notre Dames record was people would tune in to watch a Notre Dame vs Florida or a Notre Dame vs Bama. If Notre Dame was 0-11 at the time of the game casual or neutral fans would tune in to watch Notre Dame get their ass kicked. If Notre Dame was 11-0 they would match because of the names and because of the names.

The UCLA and Penn St. examples are sort of bad ones. While the teams are pretty popular they are more regionally popular where as Notre Dame is nation wide.

And that USC vs Ohio St. game would have gotten great ratings nno matter what the records were, because of the names and the brand.

 

[NDinLA is a TROLL]

"And that USC vs Ohio St. game would have gotten great ratings nno matter what the records were, because of the names and the brand."

I disagree. If they were not having winning seasons and were crappy in previous seasons, the ratings would not have been significant. Casual fans want to watch good teams play a game against another good team because it could eventually have some impact on the team at the end of the season. Which would you rather watch? FSU vs MIA or Ohio St vs FLA.

Think Michigan and ND, two teams right now that a struggling in their program standards and have the potential to get huge tv numbers. But in 2006 there was so much hype in that game because they were both BCS bound that the numbers speak for themselves.

What I am getting at is that because of the way the SEC is structured and with the competitiveness within the conference, that if they were to choose one of their three non conference games to be a tough one, it better get huge rankings, especially for programs that have something to lose like ALA, FLA, and LSU.