SEC Scheduling

[Blaise]

One of my favorite things about the college games is the unique campus and stadiums... playing in Arlington or a pro stadium does nothing for me... I want home and homes... See Alabama go to Michigan or go to USC

 

[BGIF]

Oregon still needs to fill their 2018 Power 5 opening since A&M backed out of their home-and-home in '18 & '19. Good for Auburn for scheduling a tough Pac 12 team.

Scheduling more home and homes with travel to Big 10 or Pac 12 country is still something Auburn has not worked into their scheduling. Maybe they still just want regional games.

Only Florida travels less than Auburn. In the past 15 years AU has only ventured twice outside the lower tier of Confederate states, KU and WVU.

In '83 AU was predicated to go undefeated but they faced Texas in the second game of the season and got soundly beaten 20-7 ... not in Austin but at home. Their only loss of the season. Fans called for Dye's resignation (he was HC and AD) for stupid scheduling, "Bear would never have scheduled them."

Auburn fans don't want home and home games with powerful teams, they'd rather see 63-7 wins over Southwest Somewhere.

 

[ACamp1900]

One of my favorite things about the college games is the unique campus and stadiums... playing in Arlington or a pro stadium does nothing for me... I want home and homes... See Alabama go to Michigan or go to USC

The South only fights on their home ground,... and occasionally Pennsylvania.

 

[Legacy]

Cupcake Wars: Mid-Major Teams That Like to Play SEC Opponents

"SEC expansion is back! No, not really, and I probably shouldn't do that to all of you -- but the fact of the matter is that there are a few teams from other conferences who might as well join the SEC in 2015."

Teams: Louisiana-Monroe (Bama will be looking for their first win against the Warhawks), Western Kentucky, New Mexico State, Middle Tennessee, Troy, Florida Atlantic, Idaho.

"Four teams from other leagues will play at least two teams from our conference -- and two of those teams have done the same thing in at least three prior seasons. Another couple of teams will play at least one SEC team for a fifth consecutive year. And one would be doing so except for a couple of accidents of history."

 

[Legacy]

Here's one person's analysis using his point system: College Football: Which conference has the weakest 2015 non-conference schedule?

Of course, the ACC's SoS is strengthened by their games with SEC opponents. Then, what would the SEC's SoS be without the ACC games?

The overall SoS can be inferred from this individual team ranking: 2015 College Football Strength of Schedule – NCAA Method

Both of these use 2014 results as a basis for evaluation.

Here's Phil Steele's team SoS ranking for 2015:
WHO PLAYS THE NCAA’S TOUGHEST 2015 SCHEDULE.

 

[PANDFAN]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The National Championship is more than a month after the SEC Championship, but <a href="http://t.co/HmmbdfmXXy">http://t.co/HmmbdfmXXy</a> <a href="http://t.co/DHTUtq3y9Q">pic.twitter.com/DHTUtq3y9Q</a></p>— SB✯Nation CFB (@SBNationCFB) <a href="https://twitter.com/SBNationCFB/status/623578475765497858">July 21, 2015</a></blockquote>
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[IrishSteelhead]

SEC Scheduling

The National Championship is more than a month after the SEC Championship, but http://t.co/HmmbdfmXXy pic.twitter.com/DHTUtq3y9Q— SB✯Nation CFB (@SBNationCFB) July 21, 2015

Typical. This reminds me of a college roommate I had who was in the school of engineering. He would constantly complain that he had way more work than me (school of education), and it was way harder work than mine, but would never acknowledge one day he would make 100k a year and I would make 50k.

*if you want the benefit of being in the SEC come playoff time, then quit bitching about how much harder it is to make the playoffs leading up to them.

 

[Legacy]

Now Malzahn?

Now Malzahn?

This makes no sense unless it is another poor excuse. They've stuck with an eight game conference schedule rather than adding a ninth SEC team who would be a cross-division team. Their non-conference schedules of four teams are the weakest of all conferences. Their twelfth week has effectively built in bye weeks when most teams play their FCS teams prior to the last week of the season. That rests the starters.

A month's rest is not enough to recover from a "grueling" conference schedule? Will some SEC coach just stand up and say they lost a bowl game because the other team was better?
SEC fans don't believe this junk, do they?

 

[T Town Tommy]

This makes no sense unless it is another poor excuse. They've stuck with an eight game conference schedule rather than adding a ninth SEC team who would be a cross-division team. Their non-conference schedules of four teams are the weakest of all conferences. Their twelfth week has effectively built in bye weeks when most teams play their FCS teams prior to the last week of the season. That rests the starters.

A month's rest is not enough to recover from a "grueling" conference schedule? Will some SEC coach just stand up and say they lost a bowl game because the other team was better?
SEC fans don't believe this junk, do they?

I don't think most SEC fans believe that. Most of the power SEC teams expect to win every game they play. I also think most favor going to a nine game conference schedule. Saban pushed for it and was shot down.

With that, if you look at my team's schedule versus your team's schedule, I believe Bama has a much more grueling schedule. Bama plays eight opponents in the top 30 of the consensus preseason polls. Notre Dame plays half that many at four teams in the top 30. Bama's opponents W/L record from last season is 96-58 (62.34%) for 4th place versus Notre Dame's opponents W/L record of 82-71 (53.59) which ties them for 61st. Bama plays four teams ranked 50th or lower in the preseason consensus poll; Notre Dame plays six. Furthermore, if Bama makes the CCG, they will probably be facing the consensus #6 ranked team in Ga. Notre Dame doesn't have a CCG.

At face value, it appears Bama has the more demanding schedule. Preseason polls are what they are. A good indicator of schedule strength but not precise. Some teams end higher, some teams lower. I would expect that opponents for both Bama and Notre Dame to move along that scale as well. Given all that, at the end of the day I would love to swap schedules with the Irish this year AND not have to play a conference championship game. I would like my chances much better.

 

[Cackalacky]

There really isn't much difference between the lower ranked teams on Bama's schedule than the Irish's schedule. There is, however, a fairly significant difference with the upper ranked teams. I would swap schedules in a heartbeat.

Lol. Charleston Southern is a pee wee team compared to Alabama. Just lol.




Lol





Lol

 

[T Town Tommy]

Lol. Charleston Southern is a pee wee team compared to Alabama. Just lol.




Lol





Lol

And yet they would probably beat UMass. Again, schedule to schedule I don't think you can argue. The Irish schedule is more... pop warner level.

 

[woolybug25]

And yet they would probably beat UMass. Again, schedule to schedule I don't think you can argue. The Irish schedule is more... pop warner level.

You're joking, right? UMass would dog walk Charleston Southern 10 out 10 times. There's less than a handful of guys from Charleston Southern that could make the team for UMass.

I always try to give you support, homie. But this argument is pure bull.

 

[Cackalacky]

You're joking, right? UMass would dog walk Charleston Southern 10 out 10 times. There's less than a handful of guys from Charleston Southern that could make the team for UMass.

I always try to give you support, homie. But this argument is pure bull.

Ditto...The Irish's schedule this year is down from previous one's but CS is a glorified HS football team. Its pathetic that any DIV I pays them $1 mil for a guaranteed win.

 

[Blaise]

You're joking, right? UMass would dog walk Charleston Southern 10 out 10 times. There's less than a handful of guys from Charleston Southern that could make the team for UMass.

I always try to give you support, homie. But this argument is pure bull.

UMASS would win by 30..... I wish the NCAA would outlaw scheduling against Non DIV 1 teams..... No Reason Charleston Southern is on anyone's schedule

 

[IrishLion]

And yet they would probably beat UMass. Again, schedule to schedule I don't think you can argue. The Irish schedule is more... pop warner level.

POP WARNER LEVEL?????

Come on TTown.

Texas
Virginia
Georgia Tech
UMass
Clemson
Navy
USC

as opposed to:

Wisconsin
Mid Tenn State
Ole Miss
UL Monroe
Georgia
Arkansas
Texas A&M


Alabama gets two glorified bye-weeks between big opponents... ND gets one.

Alabama doesn't have to worry about taking cut blocks every play from Arkansas a week after playing Georgia and a week before the A&M game. Not to mention, Ole Miss being credited as a top 15 team is a joke, as is all the love Arkansas is getting. Yeah, they run the ball well... but they won 7 games last year lol.

I'd rather see ND play Georgia/Arkansas/A&M to end their opening 7 game stretch than Clemson/Navy/USC. If you rank that group of 6, Navy might be the "worst," but I can understand how an SEC fan might not be able to look past the service academy name when considering all angles of its impact on the schedule and the difficulty they present, ESPECIALLY sandwiched between two teams that are better than Arkansas and A&M.

 

[IrishLion]

Stanford is better than Arkansas.

USC is better than A&M.

Clemson is better than Ole Miss/Mississippi State/Tennessee.

Bama has Auburn and potentially LSU to fall back on as the toughest opponents when comparing both schedules, but thank god they play CHARLESTON F*CKING SOUTHERN before Gus makes Nick's hair fall out.

 

[Veritate Duce Progredi]

I don't think most SEC fans believe that. Most of the power SEC teams expect to win every game they play. I also think most favor going to a nine game conference schedule. Saban pushed for it and was shot down.

With that, if you look at my team's schedule versus your team's schedule, I believe Bama has a much more grueling schedule. Bama plays eight opponents in the top 30 of the consensus preseason polls. Notre Dame plays half that many at four teams in the top 30. Bama's opponents W/L record from last season is 96-58 (62.34%) for 4th place versus Notre Dame's opponents W/L record of 82-71 (53.59) which ties them for 61st. Bama plays four teams ranked 50th or lower in the preseason consensus poll; Notre Dame plays six. Furthermore, if Bama makes the CCG, they will probably be facing the consensus #6 ranked team in Ga. Notre Dame doesn't have a CCG.

At face value, it appears Bama has the more demanding schedule. Preseason polls are what they are. A good indicator of schedule strength but not precise. Some teams end higher, some teams lower. I would expect that opponents for both Bama and Notre Dame to move along that scale as well. Given all that, at the end of the day I would love to swap schedules with the Irish this year AND not have to play a conference championship game. I would like my chances much better.

Calling our schedule Pop Warner in your above statement is a bit...incendiary but I'll keep my flame-proof pants on for this one. At this point, there is no doubt your schedule is tougher. Just like I would've said our schedule was tougher last year in the pre-season and possibly the year before? Omitting a championship game is a nice break for the Irish and Bama would appear to have a more daunting 13 game stretch, should they make it that far.

People often lump conferences or teams into certain "styles of play". SEC is physical, B10 is SEC-light (supposedly), PAC-12 is finesse (outside of Stanford), ACC is....a hodgepodge. I'd say we'll have a good idea about what styles of play the Irish can handle given that we play a wide swath of teams from various conferences.

We're less than 60 days away from knowing what kind of teams we have. Excited for all this pre-season conjecture to die down and the teams to rise up. Hope we catch you in the playoffs TTT, that'd be an ideal scenario for both of us.

 

[Irish YJ]

Stanford is better than Arkansas.

USC is better than A&M.

Clemson is better than Ole Miss/Mississippi State/Tennessee.

Bama has Auburn and potentially LSU to fall back on as the toughest opponents when comparing both schedules, but thank god they play CHARLESTON F*CKING SOUTHERN before Gus makes Nick's hair fall out.

Ark will be better than Stanford this year. Clemson is better than anything in Mississippi IMO if their young D can mature quickly. Tenn will surprise this year.

 

[IrishLion]

Ark will be better than Stanford this year. Clemson is better than anything in Mississippi IMO if their young D can mature quickly. Tenn will surprise this year.

Arkansas will be decent, because it will be a standard Bert Bielema jam-it-down-your-throat team. HOWEVER, the rest of the big bad SEC shouldn't have trouble stopping that with their Man-Ball defenses, should they???

But truthfully, I would expect Stanford to make a big jump this year, just like Arkansas will. Right now, I'd put my money on Stanford because they can diversify their offense a bit more than Arkansas will... but I'm rooting for Arkansas to crush the rest of the SEC west in time. I love Bielema because this:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Bielema calls <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Arkansas?src=hash">#Arkansas</a>' rout of Texas in the bowl where Ark kneeled on the ball near the UT goaline to end the blowout "borderline erotic"</p>— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) <a href="https://twitter.com/BruceFeldmanCFB/status/621416395084070912">July 15, 2015</a></blockquote>
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I agree Tennessee will surprise, but I don't think they should be hyped as part of the "SEC Gauntlet" just yet.

 

[Cackalacky]

And yet they would probably beat UMass. Again, schedule to schedule I don't think you can argue. The Irish schedule is more... pop warner level.

This is bordering on insane. C'mon TTT you are better than this. Just admit it that Alabama is paying CS for a guaranteed win and we can all not have to rehash the transitive property of CFB. Because we certainly don't won't to have to bring up what GT did to a former #1 SEC West Team... Or What TCU did to a former top 4 SEC West Team.... or what ND did to LSU....or who beat Mizzou... or that the entire SEC east was shit last year.... or...screw it.

 

[IrishLion]

This is bordering on insane. C'mon TTT you are better than this. Just admit it that Alabama is paying CS for a guaranteed win and we can all not have to rehash the transitive property of CFB. Because we certainly don't won't to have to bring up what GT did to a former #1 SEC West Team... Or What TCU did to a former #1 Team.... or what ND did to LSU....or who beat Mizzou... or that the entire SEC east was shit last year.... or...screw it.

FIFY.

Don't forget how much love Ole Miss got for navigating the early SEC-gauntlet lol.

 

[Irish#1]

You woke the sleeping bear TTT! lol

Mike North was discussing SEC schedules versus ND's on the radio yesterday. He also believes Navy is a much tougher opponent than most of the cupcakes the SEC schedules. He pointed out how Navy came close to beating the Buckeyes a couple of years ago and had beaten IU. He said people should quit throwing Navy in the "easy win" category, because it never is for anyone.

 

[greyhammer90]

And yet they would probably beat UMass. Again, schedule to schedule I don't think you can argue. The Irish schedule is more... pop warner level.

Troll post.

 

[Legacy]

Troll post.

We need a definition, in my mind.

"Troll - One who posts a deliberately provocative message to a newsgroup or message board with the intention of causing maximum disruption and argument "(from Urban Dictionary)

Of course, greyhammer made the distinction between a troll post and a continuing behavior.

Sticking with your "pop warner" comment, Tommy?

 

[theclassickiller]

While this is a good thing as far as fans are concerned, there is a negative to it as well. Gone will be the payday these schools receive to help them pay the bills. But in this dog eat dog world we live in, so be it. Maybe the autonomy the Big 5 seek will include a provision to help these other schools out financially. But I know that ain't gonna happen.

Now Nick.... don't be scheduling the lower level teams from the Big 5 conferences. I don't want to see Kansas, BC, Indiana, or some other lower level Big 5 school. USC was a good start. Now, go get Oregon, Stanford, Ohio State, Fla State, Clemson, Wisconsin, etc.

edit: Notre Dame too

This is kind of funny in hindsight...

BC won @USC
Indiana won @Mizzou

 

[MNIrishman]

You woke the sleeping bear TTT! lol

Mike North was discussing SEC schedules versus ND's on the radio yesterday. He also believes Navy is a much tougher opponent than most of the cupcakes the SEC schedules. He pointed out how Navy came close to beating the Buckeyes a couple of years ago and had beaten IU. He said people should quit throwing Navy in the "easy win" category, because it never is for anyone.

In 2011, South Carolina, then ranked #10 because of sec inflation, needed a miracle to beat an unranked Navy team at home.

 

[theclassickiller]

And yet they would probably beat UMass. Again, schedule to schedule I don't think you can argue. The Irish schedule is more... pop warner level.

Just catching up in this thread... I thought he was serious about the schedules until I saw this. Now I know he's just pulling our collective leg. Or he simply knows zilch about *insert any team but an SEC team*.

 

[theclassickiller]

C'mon guys, the SEC East is just down these last few years.

I'd take a down year in the SEC over a good year outside of it!

 

[IrishLion]

No it has been TWO down years. That Big XII team came in and really took advantage of the other SEC East teams just not being interested in 2013 and 2014.

Hopefully the rest of the division can refocus and will actually care about the games moving forward.

 

[Irish YJ]

Arkansas will be decent, because it will be a standard Bert Bielema jam-it-down-your-throat team. HOWEVER, the rest of the big bad SEC shouldn't have trouble stopping that with their Man-Ball defenses, should they???

But truthfully, I would expect Stanford to make a big jump this year, just like Arkansas will. Right now, I'd put my money on Stanford because they can diversify their offense a bit more than Arkansas will... but I'm rooting for Arkansas to crush the rest of the SEC west in time. I love Bielema because this:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Bielema calls <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Arkansas?src=hash">#Arkansas</a>' rout of Texas in the bowl where Ark kneeled on the ball near the UT goaline to end the blowout "borderline erotic"</p>— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) <a href="https://twitter.com/BruceFeldmanCFB/status/621416395084070912">July 15, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

I agree Tennessee will surprise, but I don't think they should be hyped as part of the "SEC Gauntlet" just yet.

Coaching and recruiting are catching up at Tenn. Between Dooly and Kiffy, they were decimated. They've been very close the last couple years under the new regime. Just a matter of time. Still very, very young. A billion Vbucks says they beat UGA.

I think Stanford actually takes a step back this year. And will take a few more steps back in the next 3-4 years. They will be a tough out, but not the Tree that we're used to.