New SEC Divisions

[NeverWe'llSever]

Am I the only one who totally loves it? F*** Florida! They have been nothing but a curse upon our program. Get rid of them, bring on the Barn! At least we know we can beat them.

 

[VolsSportsFan]

Am I the only one who totally loves it? F*** Florida! They have been nothing but a curse upon our program. Get rid of them, bring on the Barn! At least we know we can beat them.

I wouldn't shed a tear much. It's been a very one sided series and honestly the rivalry was always forced to me. The "rivalry" peaked in 2001.

 

[s1216]

I say two divisions.

The first is the original 10 and called SEC

The other 6 will be in another division called "The Bitches"

 

[NeverWe'llSever]

I wouldn't shed a tear much. It's been a very one sided series and honestly the rivalry was always forced to me. The "rivalry" peaked in 2001.

They’re not a traditional rival. They are Georgia’s rival. Bama, Auburn and Vandy all are traditional Tennessee rivals. It’s a perfect pod to me.

Plus, I’m just tired of the cruel and unusual punishment I have had to endure with the Florida games. I mean how many disgusting endings can you think of? Alex Brown, Gaffney, Tebow 4th and 1, 4th and 14, Hail Mary….enough already.

 

[HuntlandVolinColo]

While the nostalgic part of me would love to see the annual Tennessee-Auburn series return, overall this would blow for Tennessee imo. I'd rather switch places with Georgia.

View attachment 382590

I like this one better:

East Aub, FL, GA, SC
Central: KY, Mizzou, TN, Vandy
South: bama, LSU, Ole Miss, Miss St
West: Arky, aTm, OK, TX

3 Division Games
3 games with rivals (EX TN: bama from South, FL from East, Arky from West)
3 games with rotating division (non-rivals). Ex TN: Year 1 East (GA, Aub, SC), Year 2 South (LSU, Ole Miss, Miss St), Year 3 West (OK, aTm, TX)

one extra conference game required

Every three years you play all other SEC teams.

1st ranked division winner plays 4th ranked, 2nd vs 3rd. Winners play for SECCG. That's two extra high revenue earning divisional games for conference.

 

[fossilfiction]

I'd rather go 9 SEC games. Probably won't happen though.

I will do you one better, all conference games. If we are headed to super conferences then why not. Normally it's 3 cupcakes and a mediocre team. Make them all matter.

 

[HuntlandVolinColo]

I say two divisions.

The first is the original 10 and called SEC

The other 6 will be in another division called "The Bitches"

I believe the "Original SEC" would include Sewanee, GA Tech and Tulane.

 

[NeverWe'llSever]

I like this one better:

East Aub, FL, GA, SC
Central: KY, Mizzou, TN, Vandy
South: bama, LSU, Ole Miss, Miss St
West: Arky, aTm, OK, TX

3 Division Games
3 games with rivals (EX TN: bama from South, FL from East, Arky from West)
3 games with rotating division (non-rivals). Ex TN: Year 1 East (GA, Aub, SC), Year 2 South (LSU, Ole Miss, Miss St), Year 3 West (OK, aTm, TX)

one extra conference game required

Every three years you play all other SEC teams.

1st ranked division winner plays 4th ranked, 2nd vs 3rd. Winners play for SECCG. That's two extra high revenue earning divisional games for conference.

SEC would never allow us to have that cake walk.

 

[HuntlandVolinColo]

SEC would never allow us to have that cake walk.

Yeah but we would still get hammered on the rivalry games.

 

[NeverWe'llSever]

Yeah but we would still get hammered on the rivalry games.

True, but division games carry the most weight and I think Mizzou would really be the only challenge. If we ever get rolling again, they wouldn’t be a challenge either. Heck, Pruitt was 2-1 against them.

 

[Orange And Garnet]

Am I the only one who totally loves it? F*** Florida! They have been nothing but a curse upon our program. Get rid of them, bring on the Barn! At least we know we can beat them.

I agree. We are going to have to play Bama regardless. To me, Auburn is more inconsistent than Florida and Georgia. I’d rather play them annually. The only thing that would really suck here is how they do the two rotating opponents annually. Getting Florida and Georgia in the same year would be brutal. Not to mention the possibility of getting OU, Texas, LSU and A&M all in the same year. Surely they’d come up with a formula for it to be more even

 

[NeverWe'llSever]

I agree. We are going to have to play Bama regardless. To me, Auburn is more inconsistent than Florida and Georgia. I’d rather play them annually. The only thing that would really suck here is how they do the two rotating opponents annually. Getting Florida and Georgia in the same year would be brutal. Not to mention the possibility of getting OU, Texas, LSU and A&M all in the same year. Surely they’d come up with a formula for it to be more even

I would guess they pick one easy team and one hard team from each division. So the slate could look like something like this:

Alabama
@Auburn
Vandy
@kentucky
UGA
@Texas A&M
Miss State
@Mizzou
Texas

 

[Orange And Garnet]

I would guess they pick one easy team and one hard team from each division. So the slate could look like something like this:

Alabama
@Auburn
Vandy
@kentucky
UGA
@Texas A&M
Miss State
@Mizzou
Texas

Which is no harder than what we currently do with a tough OOC game for all of you saying this will kill any chance we have returning to relevance.

 

[NeverWe'llSever]

Which is no harder than what we currently do with a tough OOC game for all of you saying this will kill any chance we have returning to relevance.

It really isn’t. And those pods are the most balanced I’ve seen across the inter webs. Nobody really has a problem with them from lurking on some other team’s boards.

 

[piratelifeforme]

3 games with rivals (EX TN: bama from South, FL from East, Arky from West)

Why in the world does everyone want to keep playing Bama every regular season? The game has sucked for 13 years. It is totally a disadvantage to play them when Florida and UGA do not have to play them each year. We start the season with 1 loss - say what you want to about manning up and playing the game, they have gone undefeated how many times??? Kids these days have never seen us beat them or even really come close.

If the 4 divisions with 4 teams is gonna happen with each division winner playing in an SEC playoff - then let us at least win the division before we play them. forget the 9 game schedule and allow a semi final game between the 4 division winners.

4 divisions with 4 teams - play the three teams in your division and then rotate the other 5 games so we get to play everyone more often.

each division winner plays in the SEC semi finals

the winners of that game play in the SEC title game.


If there are 4 conferences that do the same thing - That would start a 16 team playoff system.

 

[Lawrence Wright]

Switch us with Georgia and Vandy with S. Carolina and it's perfect for us.

I agree.

 

[St. JohnVolCactus]

So much handwringing from the faint of heart. Sack up, stop whining, beat the best on their best day.

 

[Orange And Garnet]

So much handwringing from the faint of heart. Sack up, stop whining, beat the best on their best day.

This is it

 

[Devo182]

So much handwringing from the faint of heart. Sack up, stop whining, beat the best on their best day.

As long as everyone has to, no problemo. But that's the problem - total imbalance. SEC you play 7 ranked teams a year and OSU/Clemson might play 1 or 2. That's just silly for a sport to accept and won't last long.

 

[IluvdoubleD's]

OMG poor vandy, I almost feel sorry for them. As far as the groupings go, the best thing that can happen to The Real UT is being connected with Alabama by history. We need each other.

 

[Johnnyreb#VFL]

While the nostalgic part of me would love to see the annual Tennessee-Auburn series return, overall this would blow for Tennessee imo. I'd rather switch places with Georgia.

View attachment 382590

Idk if I would want Florida in our pod either. If you think about it, in the last 17 years, Tennessee has beaten Alabama the exact same amount of times as it has beaten Florida in the same span, which is only twice. (04 16 fl, 04 06 al)

 

[unfrozencvmanvol]

Idk if I would want Florida in our pod either. If you think about it, in the last 17 years, Tennessee has beaten Alabama the exact same amount of times as it has beaten Florida in the same span, which is only twice. (04 16 fl, 04 06 al)

Well, we haven't beaten alot of people in 17 years and Florida is much less formidable than Alabama.

 

[OrangeEtBlanc]

I agree. We are going to have to play Bama regardless. To me, Auburn is more inconsistent than Florida and Georgia. I’d rather play them annually. The only thing that would really suck here is how they do the two rotating opponents annually. Getting Florida and Georgia in the same year would be brutal. Not to mention the possibility of getting OU, Texas, LSU and A&M all in the same year. Surely they’d come up with a formula for it to be more even

I agree with you about Auburn. Even in our bad years we tend to sneak up on them. Take 2018, for instance: We beat them at Jordan-Hare ranked #21 with our rather terrible squad. They didn’t exactly destroy us last year, either, as bad as we were. One play would have completely changed that game.

I think a Tennessee, Vandy, Alabama, and Auburn pod isn’t too bad. We play Bama every year anyway, so losing Georgia & Florida annually would actually be a plus.

The Third Saturday in October looks bad for now, but things will turn around for the Vols soon and make it competitive again.

This pod gives us an elite opponent, a team that can either be elite or mediocre from season to season in Auburn, and a perennial bottom-dweller in Vandy.

Plus, the Tigers are also bringing in a new head coach in Bryan Harsin, so we’re both going through another transition period in our programs.

I’d rather play Auburn & Alabama every year than Georgia, Florida, and Alabama every season.

Going to the pod system would probably eliminate us playing ‘Bama, UGA, & UF every season, as we’d likely only be scheduled to play one of Georgia or Florida in a particular year. We’d likely play Georgia & Kentucky or Florida & South Carolina (or something like that) in a given season, instead. That is, if they do the 9-game schedule of pod + 2 rotating opponents from every other pod.

Year 1
Alabama
Auburn
Vandy

Georgia
Kentucky

Arkansas
Texas

Ole Miss
Texas A&M

Year 2
Alabama
Auburn
Vandy

Florida
South Carolina

Oklahoma
Mizzou

LSU
Miss St

That doesn’t look too bad and is MUCH better than just 2 divisions.

Let’s bring it on.

 

[NeverWe'llSever]

Well, we haven't beaten alot of people in 17 years and Florida is much less formidable than Alabama.

Since Saban got there. When he goes, we’ll start beating them. Florida has cursed us. Even when we were elite, they’d beat us regularly. We used to punk Alabama.

 

[unfrozencvmanvol]

Since Saban got there. When he goes, we’ll start beating them. Florida has cursed us. Even when we were elite, they’d beat us regularly. We used to punk Alabama.

Alabama is not going to go away when Saban leaves which is probably 5+ years in the future. Florida has been beating us for the last dozen or so years because we were that bad, not because they were that good. We've got a puncher's chance against them this year, we have virtually no chance against Alabama.