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SEC coaches don’t want to add conference game

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OSUBasketballJunkie

OSUBasketballJunkie

Never Forget 31-0
Dispatch

6/11/06

SEC coaches don’t want to add conference game

Sunday, June 11, 2006


COX NEWS SERVICE

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ATLANTA — The Pac-10 is going to do it.

The Big 12 has talked about it.

The SEC won’t even discuss it.

The hot college-football topic these days: the idea of increasing the traditional eight-game conference football schedule by one. It might not sound like much, but if you’re an SEC coach, talk about nine conference games ranks right up there with "Coach, the NCAA is holding on line 2."

The party line from the coaches never changes: Eight SEC games — nine if you make it to the conference championship — makes it almost impossible to go undefeated and play for the national title. And you want to make it tougher?

It can’t get any tougher for Florida and coach Urban Meyer. In a five-week stretch this fall, his Gators play Tennessee, Alabama, LSU and Auburn.

Then, after a week off, comes the Georgia game.

But there’s a practical reason the SEC may someday have to consider going to a nine-game conference schedule. It would save a ton of money.

With the advent of a 12-game regular season, schools in bigger conferences are finding it tougher and more expensive to put together nonconference schedules.

Each SEC school, especially those with huge stadiums, wants to play at least three of their four nonconference games at home each season in order to maximize revenue.

To do that, SEC schools must find nonconference opponents willing to travel without expecting the SEC team to come to their stadium in the future.

"It’s getting more difficult" to find them, Tennessee athletics director Mike Hamilton said. "And those who will play at your place know they have the leverage on you."

That leverage is starting to cost SEC schools some serious money.

But to many coaches, this an athletics director problem — one they basically created by insisting on playing a 12-game schedule to improve their bottom lines.
"The coaches didn’t want the 12-game schedule in the first place," Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville said.
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I consider the SEC the single toughest league in football, from top to Vandy and Kentucky. You need to sweep your OOC schedule just to have a shot at a decent bowl game. If the coaches are mad, it ought to be at the idiot who pushed the playoff game on them.
 
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The Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC are all on even keel if you ask me. Going unbeaten in either of these conferences is extremely difficult. Even Purdue last year learned that you can miss the big two and still suck ass in conference play.

Look at the national titles since the conference championship trend began, and Florida sticks out as having the hardest schedule and still won a title. But they weren't undefeated. Losing to FSU in Tallahassee before returning the favor to Bowden in the Sugar Bowl. Many argue tOSU was just as deserving of the title that year as UF was. And honestly, I would have loved for two teams to have played for it. Cooper vs Spurrier would have been fun. Neither was a god in bowl games and likely one of them would have made a decision to cost them the game rather than win it.

The ACC is becoming a better conference now that FSU has to deal with VaTech and Miami as conference games. A couple of schools took a step backward alst year (NC State and Maryland) but Clemson improved and UNC will too.
 
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its because the sec is scared they try to claim that they are the toughest conference but they dont even want to play another game... and they are to scared to play out of conference... put them up against the big ten and lets see who wins...
 
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Yep, we're down two or three to 'Bama, one to Tennessee, but we beat LSU at home and I think tied them at their place. That's the game when Earl Bruce called out the refs, "6 good ol' boys from the South stole that game from us."
 
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cincibuck said:
I consider the SEC the single toughest league in football, from top to Vandy and Kentucky. You need to sweep your OOC schedule just to have a shot at a decent bowl game. If the coaches are mad, it ought to be at the idiot who pushed the playoff game on them.
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Exactly, thats why I was surprised that Auburn didn't get a national title shot when they went unbeaten 2 years ago. I feel that if a team goes undefeated in the SEC, they should be in the national championship game no matter who else goes unbeaten. Just because of the power of that conference.
 
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As impossible as it supposedly is to go through the SEC undefeated, four teams have done it since they added the CCG in 1992.

Teams undefeated and untied through conference play since 1992:
ACC: 7 (All FSU)
Big10: 5
Big12: 4 (since 1996)
BigEast: 8
Pac10: 4
SEC: 4
 
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Oneshot said:
Big 12 south is the toughest conference in the league right now.

Texas, Oklahoma, a TT headed in the right direction, and an Okie State that always has some kick.
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Makes sense but I disagree. They don't go deep enough. Kansas State, Nebraska, and Texas A&M have just disappeared the past few seasons, Missouri isn't going to get any better with the loss of Brad Smith.

Oklahoma and Texas is the only promising teams in the Big 12 this year at least. Oklahoma State and Texas Tech are decent but we don't know how they are.

The Big 10 is better than the Big 12 in my opinion, Ohio State, Penn State, Iowa, and scUM are all promising teams for this year, and I would say Wisconsin and Michigan State are about equal with Texas Tech and Okla State. Just saying my opinion.


1.SEC
2.Big 10
3.Big 12/ACC (close,not sure which one yet)
 
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Texas Tech and Oklahoma State are the Minnesota of the Big Ten. They play a horrid non-conference schedule, have a couple flashy games, end up choking and if they're lucky go something like 8-4 or 7-5. In no way should any of these teams go towards supporting the theory of a strong conference, unless you're comparing them to the Big 12 North.
 
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