Breaking: TX, OU Reach Agreement to Join SEC in 2024

[Dadof2Vols]

If you rank each team’s difficult schedule using this chart with a rating of 1 – 3 with 3 being the most difficult I would say it works out like this:

Alabama – 2

Arkansas – 1

Auburn – 3

Florida – 2

Georgia – 2

Kentucky – 1

LSU – 2

Mississippi State – 2

Missouri – 1

Oklahoma – 2

Ole Miss – 1

South Carolina – 2

Tennessee – 1

Texas – 2

Texas A&M – 2

Vanderbilt – 1

So, I’d say that Auburn is getting hosed here while Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Ole Miss, Tennessee and Vanderbilt are making out like bandits.

Using your fancy modeling it would be interesting to assume Satan leaves and Alabama drops to middle of pack and Auburn under frozen and UT under CJH rise to the top 30% how that would affect the strength of schedule.

The SEC is about to see some changing of the guard. Satan won’t be around long….

 

[ksgovols]

Posted it before I'll post it again

No Divisions
3 permanent and rotate 6 a year

UT: Bama, UF, UK
UF: UT, LSU, UGA
AUB: Bama, UGA, Miss St
Bama: UT, LSU, AUB
LSU: Bama, UF, Ole Miss
UGA: UF, AUB, SCar
UK: Vandy, UT, SCar
SCar: UGA, UK, Arkansas
Mizzou: Arkansas, A&M, OU
Vandy: Ole Miss, UK, Miss St
Ole Miss: Vandy, Miss St, LSU
Miss St: Ole Miss, Vandy, AUB
Arkansas: Mizzou, Texas, SCar
A&M: Texas, OU, Mizzou
Texas: OU, A&M, Arkansas
OU: Texas, Mizzou, A&M

Another option would be:
Move Bama and Auburn to the East
Move Mizzou, Texas, OU to the West

This will never happen. TN/Vandy is in state and may be the 2nd oldest rivalry in the SEC behind TN/KY and AUB/UGA. Florida has only been a rival since 1992. 25% of the conference lifespan. It's not that much of a rivalry. I do agree it will be a 3-6 arrangement, but FL and UGA are going to a 4 year rotation.

 

[Vol865]

The current head football coach at the University of Tennessee seems to disagree.

"Obviously, there are some that have been historic for a long time – inside of our own state, and with Alabama.” - Josh Heuple

Look. I like Heupel. That doesn't mean he gets to pick what the rivalries are.

 

[Vol865]

This will never happen. TN/Vandy is in state and may be the 2nd oldest rivalry in the SEC behind TN/KY and AUB/UGA. Florida has only been a rival since 1992. 25% of the conference lifespan. It's not that much of a rivalry. I do agree it will be a 3-6 arrangement, but FL and UGA are going to a 4 year rotation.

Oldest or not, we lead the series by 46 games. That hasn't been a rivalry since the 1920s

 

[ksgovols]

Oldest or not, we lead the series by 46 games. That hasn't been a rivalry since the 1920s

By that logic, why in the hell would UT play Bama, UF or UGA? Or who would Vandy ever find to play as a permanent rival? It's not just UT that's been beating them.

Here's a list of each SEC schools 'most played games'. There are games some schools count and the other doesn't (usually during war years, etc.) For the record, the Vols have played UK, Vandy, Bama, Ole Miss and Auburn the most.

Your team and who it has the "most history" with in the current SEC | SEC Rant

 

[youcancallmeAl]

We need to play football games in Nashville for recruiting purposes. It's why we're playing VA there to open the 23 season. So we have plenty of reason to want Vandy beyond the automatic win. Vandy may differ, I don't know.

 

[Illinoisvolfan2]

Which SEC away venue are we hitting up first? I want to go to Norman, but Austin would be a hell of a weekend trip

I went to Norman for the game in 2014. Nice place and the stadium was great. I’d go back. But I want to go to Austin too

 

[LWSVOL]

You think that the SEC is done adding teams with the inclusion of Tx and Ok ... or could we see more teams come in in 2024 as well???

don't see anything happening at this juncture. Money has dictated all the moves that continue to happen Certainly could dictate adding teams in the future.

 

[LWSVOL]

I thought I read somewhere there would not be pods, but I am unsure how that would work.

it will be 6 and 3. 3 permanent opponents and the other 6 rotate. Lot of thoughts that You would play 6 in 2024 and then play the other 6 in 2025. Go back to the first 6 in 2026 just flipping who is the home team. Then flip home teams and play the 2025 teams in 2027.

Most projections have UTs permanents as Bama, Vandy and Kentucky.

 

[VOLINVONORE]

it will be 6 and 3. 3 permanent opponents and the other 6 rotate. Lot of thoughts that You would play 6 in 2024 and then play the other 6 in 2025. Go back to the first 6 in 2026 just flipping who is the home team. Then flip home teams and play the 2025 teams in 2027.

Most projections have UTs permanents as Bama, Vandy and Kentucky.

I do think this is the best format.

 

[Vol865]

By that logic, why in the hell would UT play Bama, UF or UGA? Or who would Vandy ever find to play as a permanent rival? It's not just UT that's been beating them.

Here's a list of each SEC schools 'most played games'. There are games some schools count and the other doesn't (usually during war years, etc.) For the record, the Vols have played UK, Vandy, Bama, Ole Miss and Auburn the most.

Your team and who it has the "most history" with in the current SEC | SEC Rant

Because we have actually been competitive with those schools more than once every 30-40 years. I get you want an almost guaranteed win but if you get excited about playing the worst team in the conference, there's a problem. I'm not a proponent of the 1 rivalry game because that pretty much kills a lot of real rivalries. Don't care who Vandy finds to play. I want to keep our big games against rivals. I don't care if they've been rivals for 10 years or 100 years. Florida and Bama are more important rivalries than Vandy every day of the week.

 

[unfrozencvmanvol]

This will never happen. TN/Vandy is in state and may be the 2nd oldest rivalry in the SEC behind TN/KY and AUB/UGA. Florida has only been a rival since 1992. 25% of the conference lifespan. It's not that much of a rivalry. I do agree it will be a 3-6 arrangement, but FL and UGA are going to a 4 year rotation.

We'll play UGA and UF every other year under either the 3/6/6 or the 1/7/7. We will visit the Swamp and Sanford every 4 years and they will each visit Neyland during that period.

 

[turbovol]

A 16-team conference is absolutely ridiculous. Schedules will never be fair year to year. Greed is clearly ruining college athletics, but now
that's it such a big industry there's no putting the genie back in the bottle. Just keeps getting worse.

 

[Boston Vol]

you have nailed it.
this preserves and resurrects all the necessary rivalries.
well done

I still wouldn’t be surprised if the conference throws a curve ball or two. I know that a lot are people are saying that Auburn and Florida are going to be matched up, but that would give Auburn a trio of Bama, UF, and UGA. I think the conference will try to avoid giving one team three tough permanent opponents.

On the other hand, a lot of opposing fan bases would say that Tennessee getting Vandy and KY would be a little too light. But based on geography and historical rivalries, it makes the most sense.

 

[chattavol420]

This could be incredible for us so long as we get in the right pod. We definitely are disadvantaged by having to play both bama and uga every year. If we could end up with something like bama, Uk, and vandy as our permanents that would be great for us. I’d rather play bama annually than uga. Uga seems like they’ve supplanted bama atop cfb and Saban is eventually going to hang ‘em up

 

[VOLnMiami]

It’s UT vs UTX. We are the real UT. Without the Volunteers, TX would be part of Mexico.

Yeah I've heard that story about 4 million times...Thanks for reminding me

 

[normbland]

I think Nashville was at its peak from 2005-2015.

I think it peaked 1979-1983

 

[Namorto1]

Posted it before I'll post it again

No Divisions
3 permanent and rotate 6 a year

UT: Bama, UF, UK
UF: UT, LSU, UGA
AUB: Bama, UGA, Miss St
Bama: UT, LSU, AUB
LSU: Bama, UF, Ole Miss
UGA: UF, AUB, SCar
UK: Vandy, UT, SCar
SCar: UGA, UK, Arkansas
Mizzou: Arkansas, A&M, OU
Vandy: Ole Miss, UK, Miss St
Ole Miss: Vandy, Miss St, LSU
Miss St: Ole Miss, Vandy, AUB
Arkansas: Mizzou, Texas, SCar
A&M: Texas, OU, Mizzou
Texas: OU, A&M, Arkansas
OU: Texas, Mizzou, A&M

Another option would be:
Move Bama and Auburn to the East
Move Mizzou, Texas, OU to the West

Whomever is in the respective pods, this format does make the most sense. 9 game conference schedule is ideal and will generate more money for league. Every team will schedule 3 gimme wins non-conference and we may see an end to some non-conference rivalries however.

 

[Namorto1]

Not likely to happen but I would rather play Alabama/Vandy/South Carolina every year vs Kentucky. South Carolina is better recruiting territory. It would be brutal for South Carolina however as they will likely get both Georgia and Florida every year. + UT won’t happen.

 

[Voltopia]

Schools in the same state or close region should keep those games; it makes little sense to not have UT-Vandy, the Iron Bowl, or the Egg Bowl (and Texas vs. A&M, if we look ahead). Don't get me wrong, I know Vandy is more or less a pushover, but that's the in-state rivalry for Tennessee and it deserves to survive.

At the same time, Tennessee-Alabama also needs to survive. We're the oldest, most bitter foes in the conference. That has to stay. So that's two. The third slot is tough. UT-UK is lopsided but it is a geographically informed rivalry. UT-UF exists as a rivalry mainly because of Steve Spurrier and he's long gone. UT-UGA has never been an important rivalry to our fans. South Carolina hasn't been here long enough or done anything to warrant special treatment. And by this same logic, Missouri is definitely off the list. That keeps bringing me back to UK, lopsided as it is.

 

[youcancallmeAl]

I think I'd like to see Ole Miss as one of our three rather than Kentucky, mainly for recruiting in Memphis. The game could be played in Memphis each year. I think we'd benefit more from that than playing Kentucky every year.

 

[airvols]

If we play Bama every year we are stupid. We need to rotate that game with the rest or we will be at a disadvantage with other teams. Top two teams to the conference championship.

 

[Boston Vol]

If we play Bama every year we are stupid. We need to rotate that game with the rest or we will be at a disadvantage with other teams. Top two teams to the conference championship.

It’s not Tennessee choice to make. I’m sure they’ve been a given a chance to voice their opinion, but the conference has the final say. The two crossover games between Tennessee vs Alabama and UGA vs Auburn is the reason that the conference schedule has been so screwy since they split into divisions. There’s no chance that those two games aren’t played on an annual basis going forward.

 

[JT3]

Assuming we do 3-6 format. As long as we get Bama, Vandy, and Kentucky I'm happy.

Any scenario that doesn't include Vandy and Kentucky is trash lol.

I'm a huge fan of keeping the 3rd Saturday of October. I hate Bama with a passion, to me, that's our only true rival (Vandy don't count, we should never lose to them is how I view them). When Saban retires that series will swing back in our favor and while he still here i believe we win our share going foward. Hell we were 3-2 against them when I was in school in the mid 2000s. They don't scare me.

 

[ksgovols]

We'll play UGA and UF every other year under either the 3/6/6 or the 1/7/7. We will visit the Swamp and Sanford every 4 years and they will each visit Neyland during that period.

Ok. That's not the discussion. Is the Florida game more important than Vandy and UK historically?