08-09-2017, 03:30 PM
I'm going to assume we get a 9 game schedule for one. It'll be hard not to go that way.
Let's also say we split into pods and the divisions line up like this...
West: Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Arkansas, Missouri
South: Texas A&M, LSU, Ole Miss, Mississippi State
Central: Alabama, Auburn, Tennessee, Vanderbilt
East: Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Kentucky
You play everyone in your pod annually = 3 games
You play one permanent opponent from each of the other 3 pods = 3 games
You play one rotating opponent from each of the other 3 pods = 3 games
That's 9 total. You also rotate through everyone at least once every 3 years and twice every 6 years. That's a pretty good clip and much better than what we've got now.
Now, here's the problem with 9 games. Someone is getting 4 home games while someone else is getting 5. As competitive as we all are in this league, the moaning and gnashing of teeth would be endless unless we do something to make the system more equitable.
We could go to 10 conference games so that everyone gets 5 and 5. That's fair, right? Yes, but it also means extra losses and teams have to give up extra home games in non-conference. Now one of these days we're going to end up playing nothing but Power schools for all 12 games, but that might still be some distance away.
How about conference semis? Each grouping of 4 gets a participant in the semis so we get our needed 9th conference game and in a way we get that 10th game, but it doesn't cost everyone an arm and a leg on and off the field. We get the best of the both worlds in a way. Necessary here is to assure that each grouping gets the same number of home and away games in a single season.
So let's say in Year 1, the West and South get 5 home games while the Central and East get 5 home games in Year 2. It rotates every year obviously. No one gets an advantage over your pod mates in determining who gets into the conference semis. At the end of the regular season, we play semis and every division winner has an equal chance at the conference championship. There's additionally more money in the coffers for those extra games at that.
Let's also say we split into pods and the divisions line up like this...
West: Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Arkansas, Missouri
South: Texas A&M, LSU, Ole Miss, Mississippi State
Central: Alabama, Auburn, Tennessee, Vanderbilt
East: Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Kentucky
You play everyone in your pod annually = 3 games
You play one permanent opponent from each of the other 3 pods = 3 games
You play one rotating opponent from each of the other 3 pods = 3 games
That's 9 total. You also rotate through everyone at least once every 3 years and twice every 6 years. That's a pretty good clip and much better than what we've got now.
Now, here's the problem with 9 games. Someone is getting 4 home games while someone else is getting 5. As competitive as we all are in this league, the moaning and gnashing of teeth would be endless unless we do something to make the system more equitable.
We could go to 10 conference games so that everyone gets 5 and 5. That's fair, right? Yes, but it also means extra losses and teams have to give up extra home games in non-conference. Now one of these days we're going to end up playing nothing but Power schools for all 12 games, but that might still be some distance away.
How about conference semis? Each grouping of 4 gets a participant in the semis so we get our needed 9th conference game and in a way we get that 10th game, but it doesn't cost everyone an arm and a leg on and off the field. We get the best of the both worlds in a way. Necessary here is to assure that each grouping gets the same number of home and away games in a single season.
So let's say in Year 1, the West and South get 5 home games while the Central and East get 5 home games in Year 2. It rotates every year obviously. No one gets an advantage over your pod mates in determining who gets into the conference semis. At the end of the regular season, we play semis and every division winner has an equal chance at the conference championship. There's additionally more money in the coffers for those extra games at that.