Tough schedules in the future.

An AAC school as your cupcake is much better than a MAC, Sun Belt or FCS.

Doesn’t matter to me. Bama proved in 2020 they could play an All Power 5 schedule and destroy everyone.

USF in current form, is a fringe top 25 FCS caliber team. Plus you guys only have 11 games scheduled at this point. That FCS game will be added at some point.
 
USF in current form, is a fringe top 25 FCS caliber team. Plus you guys only have 11 games scheduled at this point. That FCS game will be added at some point.
SEC will go to 9games with OU/Texas
 
I'm just wondering where we will be in 2024, and how it will be set up.

Have no idea if it will be pods or divisions, or who we will play.
Some of our future OOC are SEC teams so that will change.


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I'd bet pods, yours being UT, Arky and Mizzou. I would think you would like that.

Then you get half of AU, UA, UGA, UF, LSU, ATM every other year. So, AU, UA and LSU in one year, UGA, UF and ATM the next.

Then you rotate through the lesser teams - half of OM, MSU, Vandy, UK, USCjr, UTjr - every other year. So, OM, Vandy, UTjr in one year, MSU, UK and USCjr the next.

IC:
UT, Arky, Mizzou, AU, UA, LSU, OM, Vandy, UK, and UTjr.
UT, Arky, Missou, UGA, UF, ATM, MSU, UK, and USCjr.

Basically, 3 pod teams, 3 high level teams, 3 mediocre/easy teams.
 
I'd bet pods, yours being UT, Arky and Mizzou. I would think you would like that.

Then you get half of AU, UA, UGA, UF, LSU, ATM every other year. So, AU, UA and LSU in one year, UGA, UF and ATM the next.

Then you rotate through the lesser teams - half of OM, MSU, Vandy, UK, USCjr, UTjr - every other year. So, OM, Vandy, UTjr in one year, MSU, UK and USCjr the next.

IC:
UT, Arky, Mizzou, AU, UA, LSU, OM, Vandy, UK, and UTjr.
UT, Arky, Missou, UGA, UF, ATM, MSU, UK, and USCjr.

Basically, 3 pod teams, 3 high level teams, 3 mediocre/easy teams.
word is that there will also be permanent cross over games too. Like between UT and aggy. LSU and Bama, FL and TN, ou and Tulsa, etc etc
 
word is that there will also be permanent cross over games too. Like between UT and aggy. LSU and Bama, FL and TN, ou and Tulsa, etc etc
Maybe ... depends on how they do it. Ours would likely be Auburn - pod of UF, USCjr and Ky, with a permanent rival of Auburn. The only reason I don't like that is because it means we don't play each team every other year. And I like that a lot. It means we play each team twice every 5 years.
 
Maybe ... depends on how they do it. Ours would likely be Auburn - pod of UF, USCjr and Ky, with a permanent rival of Auburn. The only reason I don't like that is because it means we don't play each team every other year. And I like that a lot. It means we play each team twice every 5 years.
3 permanent inter pod games
1 permanent cross pod game
5 random cross pod games

doesn't that guarantee matchups every 4 years?
 
3 permanent inter pod games
1 permanent cross pod game
5 random cross pod games

doesn't that guarantee matchups every 4 years?
The cross pod game messes it up:

Let's say UGA plays UF, USCjr and UK. Then AU as our cross pod. That's 4 games, leaving 5 to make a 9 game schedule. There are 16 teams, minus ourselves leaves 15, 4 of which we would play each year. That leaves 11 to play every other year. But we can only play 5. So, we play 5 year 1, 5 year 2, then we have the 1 left over in year 3 with 4 that we played in year 1.

If we only play UF, USCjr and UK, that means we have 6 games to play to get to the 9 IC games. 16 teams, minus us is 15. Minus the 3 we play each year gets us to 12. With 6 games each year to get to 9, 12/6 = 2 years, exactly.

The reason it is important is that (1) the schedule is very regular and set which is good for TV and fans; and (2) every player who stays 4 years is guaranteed to play an away game in each stadium.
 
3 permanent inter pod games
1 permanent cross pod game
5 random cross pod games

doesn't that guarantee matchups every 4 years?
In theory but the SEC has shown that they will intentionally mess with schedules in order to protect the bigger teams from cross Division games against each other. Nothing to stop them from continuing that practice. “Oh it just is random and it just so happens that Alabama and Georgia aren’t going to play each other during the regular season for another 18 years.”
 
In theory but the SEC has shown that they will intentionally mess with schedules in order to protect the bigger teams from cross Division games against each other. Nothing to stop them from continuing that practice. “Oh it just is random and it just so happens that Alabama and Georgia aren’t going to play each other during the regular season for another 18 years.”
And with the ups and downs of the quality of teams depending on the year, there is absolutely no way to avoid "unbalanced" schedules. Even with 12-14 member conferences, there have been many, many examples of teams that benefitted from easier schedules. As you point out, some may be intentional, others just the luck of the draw.
 
The cross pod game messes it up:

Let's say UGA plays UF, USCjr and UK. Then AU as our cross pod. That's 4 games, leaving 5 to make a 9 game schedule. There are 16 teams, minus ourselves leaves 15, 4 of which we would play each year. That leaves 11 to play every other year. But we can only play 5. So, we play 5 year 1, 5 year 2, then we have the 1 left over in year 3 with 4 that we played in year 1.

If we only play UF, USCjr and UK, that means we have 6 games to play to get to the 9 IC games. 16 teams, minus us is 15. Minus the 3 we play each year gets us to 12. With 6 games each year to get to 9, 12/6 = 2 years, exactly.

The reason it is important is that (1) the schedule is very regular and set which is good for TV and fans; and (2) every player who stays 4 years is guaranteed to play an away game in each stadium.
if they really wanted to keep the home and home games in a 4 year cycle.. they needed to stay at 12 lol. But I think the pods with one permanent crossover game is fine. Sure some kids may miss out playing in Death Valley or in Austin, or Gainesville but it is what it is.
 
And with the ups and downs of the quality of teams depending on the year, there is absolutely no way to avoid "unbalanced" schedules. Even with 12-14 member conferences, there have been many, many examples of teams that benefitted from easier schedules. As you point out, some may be intentional, others just the luck of the draw.
but let's be honest here, even with only 12 school conferences, it's like that as well. Only conference that isn't like that is the post 2011 Big12 conference where you play everyone and have a rematch in the CCG.

Kansas going 12-1 or so back in 2007 had a lot to do with avoiding certain schools in the south division that season. I don't think it's a coincidence that FPI had Nebraska as the odds on favorites to win the BiG West title, and that they avoid tosu.
 
In theory but the SEC has shown that they will intentionally mess with schedules in order to protect the bigger teams from cross Division games against each other. Nothing to stop them from continuing that practice. “Oh it just is random and it just so happens that Alabama and Georgia aren’t going to play each other during the regular season for another 18 years.”
This isn't remotely true. We've known what our SEC schedule was going to be from 2012 - 2024 since 2012. It only changed in 2020 for COVID reasons. Otherwise, we will have played Bama twice in that 12 year period, exactly when we were supposed to.

Now, you can fairly criticize that we only played 8 IC games, and that resulted in us playing West teams once every 6 years. That's fair, and it appears they are going to fix that by going to 9 games and playing every other year. But no one is randomly protecting UGA or Bama ... it's been set in stone since we brought Mizzou and ATm into the conference.
 
And with the ups and downs of the quality of teams depending on the year, there is absolutely no way to avoid "unbalanced" schedules. Even with 12-14 member conferences, there have been many, many examples of teams that benefitted from easier schedules. As you point out, some may be intentional, others just the luck of the draw.
As I pointed out, it's nonsense that they SEC is protecting Bama or UGA ... the schedules were set in 2012 and haven't changed except for Covid 2020. If they go to 9 games, play everyone every 2 years, the imbalance largely goes away. It's the pods that could become imbalanced, IMO.
 
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