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The SEC is always looking for ways to improve its product, and schedule regulation is one of the easiest ways to do so.
While killing time this offseason, we mulled over a few ways the SEC could change its scheduling procedures that might benefit the conference in the long-run down the road. Some proposals seemed easy enough to employ; others were a bit out of the ordinary. Nevertheless, each proposal had its own reasoning and justification.
With that in mind, here are five suggested changes to how SEC schedules are formed:
1. Ban FCS foes from future schedules. I’ve already written about this in the past, so I won’t spend too long discussing the first point on this list. Ultimately, it’s an insult to college football fans to have to waste a precious weekend of SEC football watching a national powerhouse trounce a school we’ve never heard of before. These teams only have to play 12 games, they’ve given the benefit of a bye week, and they’re permitted to schedule up to three games against the very weakest teams in the FBS. There’s no excuse to dip lower than that. Do teams in the NBA schedule games against the D-league? No. Why? Because the mismatch is unsatisfying. Learn this principle, SEC, and do away with games that are primarily a waste of time and a major injury risk for the stars of the conference.
2. Mandate scheduling power conference opponents in the first and last weeks of the season. A number of SEC schedules already fit this mold, so this wouldn’t be difficult to achieve. SEC teams have eight conference games plus a ninth mandatory game against a fellow power conference foe. Four SEC East teams end the season with games against in-state ACC rivals, taking care of the new power conference scheduling requirement (Florida, Georgia, Kentucky and South Carolina). Those four division rivals can play one another in Week 1, satisfying the proposal to start and end each season with respectable power conference opponents. For the teams who end the season with in-conference rivalries (pretty much everyone but the four aforementioned East teams), force them to schedule their other power conference opponent for Week 1. A lot of hoopla surrounds how teams begin and end the season, and mandating quality opponents for those two weeks would significantly raise the entertainment level throughout the conference.
3. Mandate at least one non-power conference foe be an in-state rival. So if SEC teams schedule eight conference games and a ninth against another power conference foe, that still leaves three games to be scheduled against the weaker half of the FBS. Those three games deserve a place on the schedule, but it’s not hard to understand why they fail to captivate fans the 99 percent of the time in which an upset does not occur. Thus, why not spice up this portion of the schedule by forcing SEC teams to schedule an in-state foe for one of their “weak weeks.” This could be tough for teams like Ole Miss and Mississippi State, who’d both need to schedule Southern Miss to satisfy the requirement, or Kentucky, who’d have to schedule Western Kentucky every year in addition to facing Louisville every year. Nevertheless, these games make the most of a unexciting situation.
4. Maintain bye weeks in the middle-five weeks of the season. The SEC season lasts 13 weeks with 12 games and an open date along the way. That bye week is critical for teams to rest and recuperate for the stretch run of the season, but bye weeks haven’t always been given in a fair and even manner. Some teams will get a bye in the first month of the season when they don’t need one. Others have to wait most of the season for theirs, and by then it may be too late. Thus, all 14 SEC teams should get to enjoy their bye week sometime in the middle-third of the season, ensuring each teams plays at least four games both before and after their bye. This would certainly level the playing field as far as scheduling is concerned.
5. Keep at least three SEC games scheduled on every weekend of the season. Last season there were weeks where we didn’t have enough eyeballs and televisions to keep up with all the exciting SEC action happening at once. There were also weeks when all 14 teams either took a bye or took on a lackluster FBS or FCS opponent. In an effort to balance out all the exciting SEC action over the course of a season, the SEC should mandate that at least three in-conference games are scheduled for each of the season’s 13 weeks, ensuring there are quality games every week and also ensuring those quality games are spread out enough to sustain us for 13 weeks. It might take a few years before this rule change could take affect, but the wait would be worth it.
A former newspaper reporter who has roamed the southeastern United States for years covering football and eating way too many barbecue ribs, if there is such a thing.
