8 Game SEC schedule likely to stick

[Political Hack]

for the time being. Personally I think it'll be good to keep it at 8. No need to go to 9 unless the conference goes to 20.

[War Machine Dawg]

Thank God. Going to 9 hurts everyone but the Big 6/7.

[BulldogBear]

Was there something new out about this. I'm good either way. To be honest, I think 9 makes more sense in many ways, not the least of which is scheduling. But the problem is it hurts us much more than usual upper division suspects as WMD pointed out.

[bluelightstar]

I thought I saw a tweet where it looked like the plan gathering support currently was 8 + a non conference game against a Big 5 team.

[thf24]

Thank God. Going to 9 hurts everyone but the Big 6/7.

I think it actually would have been ok for us if we had gotten Kentucky and Vandy as our permanent east opponents as was rumored, at least in the short run. If Vandy were to get back to the level Franklin had them in a few years, not quite as comfortable. All hypothetical now though.

[War Machine Dawg]

I think it actually would have been ok for us if we had gotten Kentucky and Vandy as our permanent east opponents as was rumored, at least in the short run. If Vandy were to get back to the level Franklin had them in a few years, not quite as comfortable. All hypothetical now though.

There is no way in hell we'd have gotten that lucky. You forget, that useless pile of monkey poo named LT is in charge of scheduling for the SEC. He'd have found a way to screw us.

[Todd4State]

I thought I saw a tweet where it looked like the plan gathering support currently was 8 + a non conference game against a Big 5 team.

Gee, I wonder who that rule is aimed at?**

If that's the case, I hope we don't schedule someone like Wake Forest 5-6 years out only to have them have their best team in 50 years. Wait until the very last minute and then schedule someone that is rebuilding.

[BulldogBear]

Gee, I wonder who that rule is aimed at?**

If that's the case, I hope we don't schedule someone like Wake Forest 5-6 years out only to have them have their best team in 50 years. Wait until the very last minute and then schedule someone that is rebuilding.

Recently,

Bears went 0-2 vs. Wyoming
Bears went 0-2 vs. Wake Forest
Bears went 0-2 vs. Mizzou (nonconf)

ahhhh, not all the same opponent but enjoyed the memory. Let's not let this happen in Starkpatch

[Jack Lambert]

There is no way in hell we'd have gotten that lucky. You forget, that useless pile of monkey poo named LT is in charge of scheduling for the SEC. He'd have found a way to screw us.

I think if they ever do go to 9 games there will either be no permanent teams or there would be two permanent teams. I say that because you have LSU complaining they have to play Florida ever year and school like MSU and Ole Miss do not. There is no way in hell they would make the school like Vandy, KY permanent oponets to LSU if that was the only permanent game. Wheres the money for the conference? The big TV rating games are when the big boys play each other. I could see Vany being a permanent team with LSU if LSU still had Florida. That goes the same for MSU and Ole Miss. I find it amazing that we had SC and KY as our permanent games back in the 90's. Sc was not all that good back then and KY has never really been good.

[Martianlander]

Florida, South Carolina, and Georgia are against nine because they already have tough non-conference games each year. Florida-Florida State
South Carolina-Clemson
Georgia-Georgia Tech

[QuadrupleOption]

Gee, I wonder who that rule is aimed at?**

If that's the case, I hope we don't schedule someone like Wake Forest 5-6 years out only to have them have their best team in 50 years. Wait until the very last minute and then schedule someone that is rebuilding.

Would scheduling Memphis or Tulane qualify as a 'quality' OOC opponent? They are both members of the new AAC (primarily composed of former Big East schools I think).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Athletic_Conference

There are several pretty good possibilities out of that conference that I think would work well for us. I'd also like to see us reach out to some of the mid-level ACC or Big12 schools to see if they'd be interested in a home-and-home.

Unfortunately, memories of West Virginia and Georgia Tech keep creeping into my head. Programs that sucked when we scheduled them but had turned it around by the time we got around to playing.

[BulldogBear]

Would scheduling Memphis or Tulane qualify as a 'quality' OOC opponent? They are both members of the new AAC (primarily composed of former Big East schools I think).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Athletic_Conference

Not quality no. But may still look better than South Alabama, MTSU, ULM, etc.

[maroonmania]

I just don't like the unbalanced schedule that 9 forces. Doesn't lend itself to fairness to have one team win the SEC West of East because they had 5 home games as opposed to the runner up who had 4. Almost seems like if we move from 8 we should go to 10 but that's likely too many and would REALLY impact the bowl situation. Its bad enough now that you play a different set of teams out of the other division but not having the same number of home and away makes it even worse.

[Pollodawg]

Which reminds me: Why are we doing to South Alabama this season. What kind of crap is that?

[Goat Holder]

This has been explained ad nauseum. Think for a minute and I bet you can figure it out. Troy, Louisiana Tech, UAB, Memphis, etc. Theoretically you get an easier game and you don't have to pay for it.

Going to places like USA, UAB, Memphis and Tulane are great ideas. Troy, Louisiana Tech, USM, not so much. All accomplish the same in terms of money. So if we're going to do it, play in cities where we can get the most exposure, like B'ham/Mobile/Memphis/New Orleans. Going to Troy, Hattiesburg or Ruston is just asking to get upset in a sleepy small town college atmosphere where they will be on fire and we will be asleep, 99 times out of 100.

[M.Fillmore]

Only expand to 9 SEC games if we add UAB and Ark State to the SEC and make our three permanent foes UAB, Ark State and Kentucky. Then add Oklahoma and Oklahoma State to the SEC and give them to the Plantation as permanent opponents.

Otherwise leave it as an 8 game SEC schedule. It would improve matters for LSU and OM to swap permanent SEC East opponents. Lester Miles would approve.