New SEC football scheduling format

The selection committee can easily nudge the SEC into a nine-game conference schedule by not allowing the cupcake games to be considered in the selection process.

 

Playing cupcakes is one thing, but I think schools who play the teams that were Division II or whatever they're calling Division I-AA (FBS?) should be penalized in a way that a school that is hoping to contend for a national title or a top bowl wouldn't think of doing it.

 

If the Pac-12 really things "everybody should play by the same rules," they need to rip on the Big 12 for not having a conference title game.

 

The Big 12 doesn't need a championship game because it plays a complete round-robin. A true champion is determined in the regular season because everyone has played exactly the same opponents and in case of a tie the head-to-head determines the champ.

Of course, the NCAA also prohibits conferences from playing a championship game unless it has 12 members. But the Pac-12 coaches make nice straw men.

The real USC has done this for decades. If Georgia played nine SEC games, Georgia Tech, Georgia State and Troy State and if South Carolina played nine SEC games, Clemson, Furman and Southern Miss no one would say boo about their schedules.

 

I guess. But frankly, I'd rather see South Carolina play North Carolina than, say, Mississippi State just to get another SEC team on the schedule. Just more interesting.

 

SEC fans should be happy they can keep getting intriguing matchups like Auburn vs. Alabama A&M, Missouri facing Southeast Missouri, Florida against Western Carolina, LSU against Southeastern Louisiana and Alabama versus Chattanooga.

 

When Furman is available as a fourth non-conference game, the Gamecocks aren't scheduling the Tar Heels. It'd be great if the SEC went to nine conference games and a team like South Carolina had a cemented non-conference slate that included Clemson, North Carolina and East Carolina, but that's not the reality in which we live.

 

Can you imagine how great college football would be if they made every school in the top conferences only play each other? You do the six former BCS conferences, the MWC, Notre Dame and the service academies and maybe a few others and tell schools, "Find three non-conference games from this group."

It would be great.

 

I'd settle for the 129 (I believe that's the number with four teams transitioning in 2014) Division I FBS teams playing only other FBS teams and leave the 200 FCS schools free to play each other.

 

I hope that happens. That's more realistic than my suggestion. You would think a few of the higher-profile losses to these schools (Florida, Michigan etc...) would be enough of a deterrent to not play these schools anymore. The coaches and the players don't take these games seriously and that's why upsets can happen.

I used to cover a major Division I program and I know for a fact they did ZERO preparation for the teams they played first two games of the season. The coach was asked about the QB at one of the schools and it became very clear he didn't know anything about him. One of the players told me way after the fact that they spend the first two weeks of the season preparing for their Week 3 game, which was against one of their rivals.

 

I'd also like to see, in addition to FBS schools only playing other FBS schools, that you have to play at least one in-state school, if available. That would mean Arkansas would have to play Arkansas State every year and Ohio State would play a rotation of Cincinnati, Ohio, Akron and Kent State each season. UCF and USF would get regular cracks at Miami, Florida State and Florida. UAB would play Auburn and/or Alabama. The annual FBS matchups in the state of Texas would be fun with 10 FBS programs and hopefully reignite the Texas-Texas A&M rivalry. Illinois would have to play NIU, Navy and Maryland playing each season. This would be so great for the fans and for college football in general.

 

That needs to happen. It also needs to be set up as a schedule that rotates games into different regions so certain teams in a certain conference don't go a whole season without leaving their region.