If Either Oregon or Alabama lose the opening round, we will have missed seeing a single contest between the PAC and the SEC. I don't see how a single college football fan could find this acceptable.

the SEC doesn't like to leave its neck of the woods, and traveling eastward and losing time sucks for PAC teams, making regular season matchups problematic. Part of that issue may be the PAC's poor bowl tie-ins. I hope Las Vegas builds a new stadium, and that the SEC is contracted for that bowl to face the PAC.

Not a lot of mutual history plus the travel issue means the PAC would rather play the B1G and B12

but I know there will be at least one match up next season when A&M opens with ASU in Reliant Stadium in Houston

(12-22-2014 12:58 PM)jrj84105 Wrote:  If Either Oregon or Alabama lose the opening round, we will have missed seeing a single contest between the PAC and the SEC. I don't see how a single college football fan could find this acceptable.

the SEC doesn't like to leave its neck of the woods, and traveling eastward and losing time sucks for PAC teams, making regular season matchups problematic. Part of that issue may be the PAC's poor bowl tie-ins. I hope Las Vegas builds a new stadium, and that the SEC is contracted for that bowl to face the PAC.

Don't you think that's a little over the top? I've been a college football fan for more than sixty years, and I don't have a problem with it at all. I've also been an ACC fan for more than 40 years, but I don't consider the fact that our teams will have played 4 out of 67 OOC games this year against the PAC anything but an interesting factoid. I'm sure there have been years when we played fewer. But why should it matter?

I'm all for every conference having to play every other conference somehow, some way. I've got a model drawn up on how to do it, but I'm too lazy to share it. Anyhow, point is deciding who the better conference is or isn't should be decided on the field. Period. Leave the pollsters, committees, and talking heads out of it.

(12-22-2014 03:30 PM)Rabbit_in_Red Wrote:  I'm all for every conference having to play every other conference somehow, some way. I've got a model drawn up on how to do it, but I'm too lazy to share it. Anyhow, point is deciding who the better conference is or isn't should be decided on the field. Period. Leave the pollsters, committees, and talking heads out of it.

Last time I looked, only schools meet on the field, not conferences. Random interconference games don't tell us much, if anything.

Sure, but if every ACC team is playing SEC teams and the win margin favors the ACC schools...one can reasonably deduce. Or PAC vs. B1G...

(12-22-2014 05:39 PM)Rabbit_in_Red Wrote:  Sure, but if every ACC team is playing SEC teams and the win margin favors the ACC schools...one can reasonably deduce. Or PAC vs. B1G...

One can deduce, but not reasonably. There's a lot of that around here.

Strange that USC and BC can play home and home, and Oregon and Virginia can do it, but no SEC teams (which are all closer to the West Coast than BC and UVA) can...

Meh. The PAC made it clear they would rather expand and play an extra conference game against regional rivals than go across the country to play some "East Coast school" like LSU that no one in California cares about. And the SEC would always rather play their OOC games against Big 12 and AAC regional rivals. I'm fine with that.

Local rivalries are what make college football fun. You're not going to convince Utah and South Carolina that they should play each other instead of BYU and Clemson.

(12-22-2014 09:53 PM)Captain Bearcat Wrote:  Meh. The PAC made it clear they would rather expand and play an extra conference game against regional rivals than go across the country to play some "East Coast school" like LSU that no one in California cares about. And the SEC would always rather play their OOC games against Big 12 and AAC regional rivals. I'm fine with that.

Local rivalries are what make college football fun. You're not going to convince Utah and South Carolina that they should play each other instead of BYU and Clemson.

We don't play BYU. We dropped them, in the case of this year and next, for Michigan.

(12-22-2014 12:58 PM)jrj84105 Wrote:  the SEC doesn't like to leave its neck of the woods

(12-22-2014 02:26 PM)10thMountain Wrote:  but I know there will be at least one match up next season when A&M opens with ASU in Reliant Stadium in Houston

That just confirms the OP's point. Another confirmation is that USC is playing Alabama -- but only in Texas, not as a home/home series -- in 2016.

The last time Florida played a non-conference road game outside the state of Florida was in 1991.

(12-22-2014 09:37 PM)Hokie Mark Wrote:  Strange that USC and BC can play home and home, and Oregon and Virginia can do it, but no SEC teams (which are all closer to the West Coast than BC and UVA) can...

Red Herring. Auburn finished a home and home with Washington State last season. And while it doesn't every year L.S.U. had Oregon, Tennessee has had U.C.L.A., L.S.U. has had Washington, and so on and so forth. In 2002 & 3 losses to U.S.C. hurt an undefeated Auburn team's chances of getting in the BCS in 2004. The SEC has played those games and against some of their best teams. WAZU wasn't so bad when they were scheduled for Auburn. But to refresh some people's recent memories there was a scheduling accord signed between the SEC and Big 12 because when we were playing PAC schools everyone griped and whined about us not playing the Big 12. Well now instead of playing Washington State Auburn plays Kansas State, Alabama plays West Virginia, Tennessee plays Oklahoma, L.S.U. played T.C.U. a year ago and Wisconsin this year so spare me the typical we don't play anybody crap. For the foreseeable future many SEC West teams will play Big 12 opponents and the East teams will continue to play the football first schools of the ACC. The SEC plays 9 P5 schools per school per year. This year Mississippi State didn't, but they played Okie State last year. Ole Miss didn't, but they played a home and home with Texas the last two years. Those scheduling blips will go away by conference mandate.

The games with PAC schools produce poor visiting crowds and poor traveling crowds. The games with closer ACC and Big 12 schools don't, and they are cheaper to play. End of the damned story!

(12-23-2014 12:20 AM)Wedge Wrote:  

(12-22-2014 12:58 PM)jrj84105 Wrote:  the SEC doesn't like to leave its neck of the woods

(12-22-2014 02:26 PM)10thMountain Wrote:  but I know there will be at least one match up next season when A&M opens with ASU in Reliant Stadium in Houston

That just confirms the OP's point. Another confirmation is that USC is playing Alabama -- but only in Texas, not as a home/home series -- in 2016.

The last time Florida played a non-conference road game outside the state of Florida was in 1991.

That's because the 9th P5 game of the Gators is an annual with Florida State. They occasionally have a 10th with Miami. Why should they travel out of the state of Florida? Huh? Pick another talking point. Just because they play in state doesn't make them all home games. So they have 4 conference home games a year and every other year a 5th against the Noles and sometimes a 5th against the Canes. Then they play the usual body bag games we all hope will go away, but no more than played by the Big 10, or ACC. The Big 12 has 1 less. I do give kudos to the PAC for scheduling better fare, but then they need to in order to get the TV numbers up and the home fan interest maxed. We are in two different worlds. Personally I long for the day we all have to play 12 P5 games and everyone has 6 home and 6 away unless a neutral site is agreed upon.

(12-23-2014 12:41 AM)JRsec Wrote:  

(12-22-2014 09:37 PM)Hokie Mark Wrote:  Strange that USC and BC can play home and home, and Oregon and Virginia can do it, but no SEC teams (which are all closer to the West Coast than BC and UVA) can...

Red Herring. Auburn finished a home and home with Washington State last season. And while it doesn't every year L.S.U. had Oregon, Tennessee has had U.C.L.A., L.S.U. has had Washington, and so on and so forth. In 2002 & 3 losses to U.S.C. hurt an undefeated Auburn team's chances of getting in the BCS in 2004. The SEC has played those games and against some of their best teams. WAZU wasn't so bad when they were scheduled for Auburn. But to refresh some people's recent memories there was a scheduling accord signed between the SEC and Big 12 because when we were playing PAC schools everyone griped and whined about us not playing the Big 12. Well now instead of playing Washington State Auburn plays Kansas State, Alabama plays West Virginia, Tennessee plays Oklahoma, L.S.U. played T.C.U. a year ago and Wisconsin this year so spare me the typical we don't play anybody crap. For the foreseeable future many SEC West teams will play Big 12 opponents and the East teams will continue to play the football first schools of the ACC. The SEC plays 9 P5 schools per school per year. This year Mississippi State didn't, but they played Okie State last year. Ole Miss didn't, but they played a home and home with Texas the last two years. Those scheduling blips will go away by conference mandate.

The games with PAC schools produce poor visiting crowds and poor traveling crowds. The games with closer ACC and Big 12 schools don't, and they are cheaper to play. End of the damned story!

Pfft. SEC teams readily sell out when they play Pac-12 teams. Because SEC teams rarely play Pac-12 teams, there are not many data points, but here are a few that I found:

August 30, 2003, USC at Auburn -- attendance 86,063

September 2, 2006, California at Tennessee -- attendance 106,009

September 8, 2012, Washington at LSU -- attendance 92,804

(12-23-2014 03:13 AM)Wedge Wrote:  

(12-23-2014 12:41 AM)JRsec Wrote:  

(12-22-2014 09:37 PM)Hokie Mark Wrote:  Strange that USC and BC can play home and home, and Oregon and Virginia can do it, but no SEC teams (which are all closer to the West Coast than BC and UVA) can...

Red Herring. Auburn finished a home and home with Washington State last season. And while it doesn't every year L.S.U. had Oregon, Tennessee has had U.C.L.A., L.S.U. has had Washington, and so on and so forth. In 2002 & 3 losses to U.S.C. hurt an undefeated Auburn team's chances of getting in the BCS in 2004. The SEC has played those games and against some of their best teams. WAZU wasn't so bad when they were scheduled for Auburn. But to refresh some people's recent memories there was a scheduling accord signed between the SEC and Big 12 because when we were playing PAC schools everyone griped and whined about us not playing the Big 12. Well now instead of playing Washington State Auburn plays Kansas State, Alabama plays West Virginia, Tennessee plays Oklahoma, L.S.U. played T.C.U. a year ago and Wisconsin this year so spare me the typical we don't play anybody crap. For the foreseeable future many SEC West teams will play Big 12 opponents and the East teams will continue to play the football first schools of the ACC. The SEC plays 9 P5 schools per school per year. This year Mississippi State didn't, but they played Okie State last year. Ole Miss didn't, but they played a home and home with Texas the last two years. Those scheduling blips will go away by conference mandate.

The games with PAC schools produce poor visiting crowds and poor traveling crowds. The games with closer ACC and Big 12 schools don't, and they are cheaper to play. End of the damned story!

Pfft. SEC teams readily sell out when they play Pac-12 teams. Because SEC teams rarely play Pac-12 teams, there are not many data points, but here are a few that I found:

August 30, 2003, USC at Auburn -- attendance 86,063

September 2, 2006, California at Tennessee -- attendance 106,009

September 8, 2012, Washington at LSU -- attendance 92,804

Wedge the issue is travel size. You can fill Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, or Jordan Hare in Auburn, but if it is done with local fans the Hotels, Restaurants, and Local Businesses don't get the same boost as when 15,000 A&M fans, or Clemson fans come and spend the night. I doubt that Corvallis or Pullman get a big hospitality boost when SEC teams come to town. The airlines do well, but not really that much else. So attendance figures for schools in the SEC don't necessarily reflect the difference in economic impact of scheduling since we tend to sell out no matter what.

A secondary point is this. Auburn athletic donations are made for the privilege of buying away tickets. When road games are against Florida State, or Clemson, or a Texas school, or to a a destination game like South Carolina playing UCF in Orlando a couple of years ago then the demand for away tickets goes up. The pool of tickets is usually small (15,000) so for a popular away game the athletic department gleans more in donations from those who really want to go. We don't get that buzz out of PAC games.

The ASU series is at Reliant because ASU was willing to play a one game neutral site series with us because the game in Houston is a safety valve in case the final phase of the Kyle Field expansion (started Monday) runs long and they need another week to get it ready.

But we do have a home and home scheduled with UCLA after that in 2016 and will be playing in LA in 2017.

(12-23-2014 12:20 AM)Wedge Wrote:  

(12-22-2014 12:58 PM)jrj84105 Wrote:  the SEC doesn't like to leave its neck of the woods

(12-22-2014 02:26 PM)10thMountain Wrote:  but I know there will be at least one match up next season when A&M opens with ASU in Reliant Stadium in Houston

That just confirms the OP's point. Another confirmation is that USC is playing Alabama -- but only in Texas, not as a home/home series -- in 2016.

The last time Florida played a non-conference road game outside the state of Florida was in 1991.

...against Syracuse and they've been too afraid to leave Florida since

(12-23-2014 12:46 AM)JRsec Wrote:  

(12-23-2014 12:20 AM)Wedge Wrote:  

(12-22-2014 12:58 PM)jrj84105 Wrote:  the SEC doesn't like to leave its neck of the woods

(12-22-2014 02:26 PM)10thMountain Wrote:  but I know there will be at least one match up next season when A&M opens with ASU in Reliant Stadium in Houston

That just confirms the OP's point. Another confirmation is that USC is playing Alabama -- but only in Texas, not as a home/home series -- in 2016.

The last time Florida played a non-conference road game outside the state of Florida was in 1991.

That's because the 9th P5 game of the Gators is an annual with Florida State. They occasionally have a 10th with Miami. Why should they travel out of the state of Florida? Huh? Pick another talking point. Just because they play in state doesn't make them all home games. So they have 4 conference home games a year and every other year a 5th against the Noles and sometimes a 5th against the Canes. Then they play the usual body bag games we all hope will go away, but no more than played by the Big 10, or ACC. The Big 12 has 1 less. I do give kudos to the PAC for scheduling better fare, but then they need to in order to get the TV numbers up and the home fan interest maxed. We are in two different worlds. Personally I long for the day we all have to play 12 P5 games and everyone has 6 home and 6 away unless a neutral site is agreed upon.

-Also, we're waiting for them...

The money is in SEC/Big10 matchups anyways.