ACC Looks To Be Going To The Pod System In 2023

[Wild Turkey]

Thanks. Very helpful. I always heard Auburn-Georgia (it is the second most played)

List of most-played college football series in NCAA Division I - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

In the top ten for the South is Kentucky-Tennessee and Tennessee-Vanderbilt but @Wild Turkey thinks these series are not important enough to keep based on a discussion in a separate thread about SEC Scheduling. (From pure SEC matchup standpoint, only Texas-Texas A&M, Auburn-Georgia, and the Egg Bowl has been played more than those two series).

You really don’t get it.

When Alabama vs LSU is on the chopping block which is absolutely a massive historical game the UT vs Vandy or KY games are also.

I don’t see both surviving and keeping parity in the league.

No you don't get it. You have no connections to Kentucky, Tennessee, or Vanderbilt and yet you are arguing with a Vandy alumni @WhosYourDawggy and a Tennessee Alumni, myself, about our schools and our tradition.

Tennessee-Knoxville had two other sister research institutes that I could access as a student and get periodicals or research from, they were Kentucky and Vanderbilt.

They are OUR HISTORIC rivals, even more so than Alabama, Florida, and Georgia. Robert "Bob" Neyland, the most famous Tennessee coach, was hired to beat Vanderbilt as it was stated to him by the Athletic Director (something he was very successful with).

There is no way we are dumping the in-state rivalry game with Vanderbilt or the rivalry game with our sister-state school to the North. UK fans consider Tennessee to be their greatest rival after Louisville in both basketball and football.
Sure, Tennessee has been far more successful than both of these schools historically but that doesn't mean we are NOT Rivals. Hell, Florida still considers us a rival even though we are 1-12 against them the last 13 years and Alabama fans still hate Vols with a passion even though they are undefeated against us with Saban.

Alabama-LSU is a strong rivalry but it really didn't get high importance until 2008 and it had a lot to do with Saban. Alabama-Mississippi State is a longer running series than Alabama-LSU. I am not 100% sure if Alabama will not keep the LSU rivalry but I will say Alabama will very likely keep both Auburn and Tennessee so having LSU seems less likely due to the imbalance of their schedule and perhaps the fact that Alabama may want to keep Mississippi State since it is one of the longest running series in the SEC.

In summary, I can guarantee if SEC does 3-team pods, Tennessee's three opponents will be Alabama, Kentucky, and Vanderbilt. If any of them would be at risk it would be Alabama. I will happily come eat crow if I am wrong.

Actually, we both get it. You are the one that seems willing to die on this stupid hill.

First, I want the LSU Bama rivalry to continue and I think they will try to make it so. It's been one of the best rivalries in the last 15 years.

That said, you keep minimizing the Vandy v. UT game which means you simply don't understand the nature of that rivalry. It's more aligned with AU v. UA than UA v. LSU. In-state rivalries where fans don't really like each other, yet often have divided families.

Your entire reasoning is based on the idea that the game doesn't draw eyeballs. While the no. 1 rule of conference expansion is money, rule no. 2 is tradition. It's rule no. 2 that will apply here. If rule no. 1 was the be all, end all, then you would only have the top 6 or 7 teams playing each other. We know that won't happen and that there has to be balance and guarding of tradition.

I don't know about UT v. UK, or VU v. UK, but I know for a fact that UTjr v. VU will be one of the rivalries that will be maintained.

Josh Heupel alludes to 2 permanent opponents the Vols should have in new SEC scheduling format

A to Z Sports Your On-Demand Sports Talk Show. Live Weekday Mornings at 8am in Nashville, Dallas, and Kansas City. Tennessee Vols

atozsports.com

Maybe this article will help you understand that both the UT vs Vandy and KY games are not going to survive expansion. One of them will but not both.

It won’t be shocking if it’s UT vs Vandy. I personally thought KY would survive because its KY’s biggest game and the SEC would throw them a bone but it there are discussions about trying to build KY and Mizzou into a thing. Regardless both won‘t survive.

 

[WhosYourDawggy]

Josh Heupel alludes to 2 permanent opponents the Vols should have in new SEC scheduling format

A to Z Sports Your On-Demand Sports Talk Show. Live Weekday Mornings at 8am in Nashville, Dallas, and Kansas City. Tennessee Vols

atozsports.com

Maybe this article will help you understand that both the UT vs Vandy and KY games are not going to survive expansion. One of them will but not both.

It won’t be shocking if it’s UT vs Vandy. I personally thought KY would survive because its KY’s biggest game and the SEC would throw them a bone but it there are discussions about trying to build KY and Mizzou into a thing. Regardless both won‘t survive.

It's a given that some won't survive. I've said that all along. But UTjr. v. Vandy will, and that is what the article says. The UTjr v. Ky rivalry ... not my rivalry.

 

[Wild Turkey]

It's a given that some won't survive. I've said that all along. But UTjr. v. Vandy will, and that is what the article says. The UTjr v. Ky rivalry ... not my rivalry.

That’s what I’ve been saying but UT vs Vandy is a given. It doesn’t have ratings or any real interest to support it. If it survives it is because it’s an interstate game and no other reason. Nobody watches that game.