2017 We will lose cross-division Rivalries

[ImportedVoL]

Here is my prediction..

They have already made the decision for the 2016 season.. but for 2017 we will pretty much be forced to go to a 9 game schedule. And do away with any permanent cross-division opponents.

So here is the only way they will be able to keep the two best rivalries in CFB(IMO)

Vandy and Mizzou will be headed west.. Bama and Auburn will be coming over to the east. I just don't see any other way they can keep all the rivalries in place.. Bama/UT Bama/Auburn and UGA/Auburn.

By this time, by all indications UT will be back to being a contender at this time.

My question to everyone is this.. Do you think this will even out the divisions to where they are pretty equal as far as strength of schedule goes...

OR.. will the east take over as the harder(top) division??

AND.. Do you think this will be a good thing for UT specifically? or will this make it just an impossible task to put the Vols on top of the division again?

Will ANY team be able to dominate the east? Even the SEC's current powers? Or will this move hurt all the programs involved by making it just too hard for any team to make it through an east schedule with enough of a record to make the playoff's?

 

[Souce]

Yes.

 

[AboveAllNations]

Here is my prediction..

They have already made the decision for the 2016 season.. but for 2017 we will pretty much be forced to go to a 9 game schedule. And do away with any permanent cross-division opponents.

So here is the only way they will be able to keep the two best rivalries in CFB(IMO)

Vandy and Mizzou will be headed west.. Bama and Auburn will be coming over to the east. I just don't see any other way they can keep all the rivalries in place.. Bama/UT Bama/Auburn and UGA/Auburn.

By this time, by all indications UT will be back to being a contender at this time.

My question to everyone is this.. Do you think this will even out the divisions to where they are pretty equal as far as strength of schedule goes...

OR.. will the east take over as the harder(top) division??

AND.. Do you think this will be a good thing for UT specifically? or will this make it just an impossible task to put the Vols on top of the division again?

Will ANY team be able to dominate the east? Even the SEC's current powers? Or will this move hurt all the programs involved by making it just too hard for any team to make it through an east schedule with enough of a record to make the playoff's?

Alabama, Auburn, and all of the SEC East universities would never agree to realign the conference that way, even if it meant losing cross-divisional rivalries. That unbalanced realignment would simply be ridiculous.

I hope we continue to resist the 9-game SEC schedule. A 9-game SEC schedule would destroy any incentive to schedule tough non-conference opponents like Va Tech, Oklahoma, Oregon, and be really unfair for teams like Florida or South Carolina with tough ACC rivalry games.

 

[ImportedVoL]

Yes.

LOL, I would love a tiny bit more then a yes. Trying to get a good conversation going on how these changes will end up effecting our beloved school.

 

[DiderotsGhost]

Bama and Auburn in the East would be terrible for parity between the SEC East and West. That would put five superpower programs in the East (six if you count S. Carolina now) and only two (LSU, A&M) in the west.

 

[Biopsyman]

There is no good answer so F it

 

[ImportedVoL]

Alabama, Auburn, and all of the SEC East universities would never agree to realign the conference that way, even if it meant losing cross-divisional rivalries. That unbalanced realignment would simply be ridiculous.

I hope we continue to resist the 9-game SEC schedule. A 9-game SEC schedule would destroy any incentive to schedule tough non-conference opponents like Va Tech, Oklahoma, Oregon, and be really unfair for teams like Florida or South Carolina with tough ACC rivalry games.

So from this answer I am assuming you are saying it would make the east waaayyyy stronger then the west.. even though they still have.. LSU.. A&M.. mizzou who are all excellent programs.. it also looks as if perennial doormats like Ole miss and miss st are building up to be much stronger programs then they have been lately.

as far as the 9 game thing goes.. I just don't see how long we can resist the rest of the country on this.. we have already heard some pretty heated comments from coaches from other conferences condemning the current decision.

All that is needed now is for the selection committee to come out and say that this will factor into their decisions. And the SEC will have no choice but to cave on the 8 game schedule.

 

[VolFan4Life87]

So that would shake out to the following...

SEC East
Alabama
Tennessee
Florida
Georgia
Auburn
South Carolina
Kentucky

SEC West
LSU
Texas A&M
Missouri
Arkansas
Ole Miss
Miss. State
Vanderbilt

This is great in theory, but in practice (IMHO) the east would be ridiculously stacked. You'd have LSU, TAMU, and Mizzou as your only perennial SEC contenders from the west and 5-6 contenders from the east.

 

[VolFan4Life87]

So from this answer I am assuming you are saying it would make the east waaayyyy stronger then the west.. even though they still have.. LSU.. A&M.. mizzou who are all excellent programs.. it also looks as if perennial doormats like Ole miss and miss st are building up to be much stronger programs then they have been lately.

as far as the 9 game thing goes.. I just don't see how long we can resist the rest of the country on this.. we have already heard some pretty heated comments from coaches from other conferences condemning the current decision.

All that is needed now is for the selection committee to come out and say that this will factor into their decisions. And the SEC will have no choice but to cave on the 8 game schedule.

These programs are building up and have had sporadic success in the past (especially Arkansas which wasn't mentioned), but they're historically not sustained SEC contenders.

 

[99gator]

the problem i have with the premise is that i believe part of the reason the sec would cave to a 9 game schedule is to keep the cross division rival, not get rid of it.

you keep the rival and rotate 2 more from the other division.

 

[ImportedVoL]

Bama and Auburn in the East would be terrible for parity between the SEC East and West. That would put five superpower programs in the East (six if you count S. Carolina now) and only two (LSU, A&M) in the west.

I would counter with saying, it would not be too hard to put mizzou as a top team IF.. and I do mean IF.. they can keep up their current winning ways..

also the Mississippi schools are trending up at the moment.

I can easily see this making the divisions close to even..But of course it could go the other way in a hurry also and make the west a joke..

 

[99gator]

i have said before....in a perfect world.....

auburn should be in the east. mizzou should be in the west.

problem is....alabama would lose a rivalry with either tennessee or auburn in that scenario. but, that is the only flaw.

everything else about that situation would be perfect.

 

[VOLfrombama]

the problem i have with the premise is that i believe part of the reason the sec would cave to a 9 game schedule is to keep the cross division rival, not get rid of it.

you keep the rival and rotate 2 more from the other division.

yep

 

[ImportedVoL]

the problem i have with the premise is that i believe part of the reason the sec would cave to a 9 game schedule is to keep the cross division rival, not get rid of it.

you keep the rival and rotate 2 more from the other division.

This could be a possibility.. The only thing is, is we barely kept the rivalries in this last vote.. was very very close to going the other way from what I understand thanks to schools like LSU, Mizzou, A&m.. the Miss scools because they really have no rivals so therefor it makes no sense to make them participate all for the sake of essentially 3 schools out of 12.

But I do know for a fact that the commish and the powers behind the SEC network desperately want to keep these rivalries alive as it makes for great television. So therefor equals money for every school in the conference..

and money makes the world go round...

 

[RedskinVol1]

Nothing wrong with the eight game schedule.If the UT/UA game is gone it would only help Tennessee.Tradition is a great thing but being fair to all universities is a better idea.I want to see Tennessee on top sooner rather than later and having Miss st and Arkansas more often instead of say Alabama and Texas AM gets us there quicker.Go Vols and HTTR!!

 

[ImportedVoL]

i have said before....in a perfect world.....

auburn should be in the east. mizzou should be in the west.

problem is....alabama would lose a rivalry with either tennessee or auburn in that scenario. but, that is the only flaw.

everything else about that situation would be perfect.

what happens if at the same time we expand to 16? If that happens, in order to keep the rivalries we would most definitely be forced to put all teams involved in same division.. unless they go 8-1.. with only one cross-division game a year, which would be the permanent opponents..

 

[99gator]

This could be a possibility.. The only thing is, is we barely kept the rivalries in this last vote.. was very very close to going the other way from what I understand thanks to schools like LSU, Mizzou, A&m.. the Miss scools because they really have no rivals so therefor it makes no sense to make them participate all for the sake of essentially 3 schools out of 12.

But I do know for a fact that the commish and the powers behind the SEC network desperately want to keep these rivalries alive as it makes for great television. So therefor equals money for every school in the conference..

and money makes the world go round...

yeah, but you are adding a game.

the threat came from adding schools to the league, but not adding league games.

with the addition of mizzou and a&m, everyone added a divisional game and lost a game from the other division.

that was the problem.

adding an extra game fixes that.

 

[VOLfrombama]

i would be much happier to play Bammer annually in the SEC championship game

 

[lonelawyer]

Until we start getting a lot of players that like crab legs and crawfish, I don't care if we ever play Bama again.

 

[bamawriter]

The SEC isn't going to nine games AND dropping the cross-division rivalries. They may drop them in a few years if we stay at eight games, but if this recent vote is any indication, the majority of the league wants to keep the cross-divisional rivalries. I don't see that changing.

 

[99gator]

i'm still ticked off that florida lost its rivalry with auburn.

so, i have no stake in this cross divisional stuff.

the problem for tennessee is that most schools are in the same boat. most schools have no stake in the cross divisional thing. so, that could influence their vote because it doesn't matter to them.

 

[ImportedVoL]

yeah, but you are adding a game.

the threat came from adding schools to the league, but not adding league games.

with the addition of mizzou and a&m, everyone added a divisional game and lost a game from the other division.

that was the problem.

adding an extra game fixes that.

Ya, I was confused when the decision came down and this did not end up being the case. But I still think the alabama schools make sense in the east, geographically and for the sake of CFB's oldest rivalries

 

[ImportedVoL]

i'm still ticked off that florida lost its rivalry with auburn.

so, i have no stake in this cross divisional stuff.

the problem for tennessee is that most schools are in the same boat. most schools have no stake in the cross divisional thing. so, that could influence their vote because it doesn't matter to them.

I agree,, that was a good rivalry IMO..

But my thought of them coming to the east would also fix that, and bring that game back.

SO, UF could have more at stake in this decision then most think. :good!:

 

[rickyb712]

why not a north and south division

 

[AboveAllNations]

So from this answer I am assuming you are saying it would make the east waaayyyy stronger then the west.. even though they still have.. LSU.. A&M.. mizzou who are all excellent programs.. it also looks as if perennial doormats like Ole miss and miss st are building up to be much stronger programs then they have been lately.

as far as the 9 game thing goes.. I just don't see how long we can resist the rest of the country on this.. we have already heard some pretty heated comments from coaches from other conferences condemning the current decision.

All that is needed now is for the selection committee to come out and say that this will factor into their decisions. And the SEC will have no choice but to cave on the 8 game schedule.

Pac-12 coaches don't coach in a league with 5 different teams that have won a BCS National Championship game, so who cares what they think. The SEC is indisputably the strongest conference in the country, so we don't need a 9-game schedule to have at least two strong playoff candidates every year.

The SEC is now mandating that every team play at least one non-conference game against a "power" non-conference team. That's the equivalent of a 9-game conference schedule, so what's the big deal? Moving to 9 game SEC schedule would risk eliminating historic non-conference rivalry games like Florida-FSU and South Carolina-Clemson.