(Not Official) SEC Permanent Rivals per Ross Dellenger of SI

[BigOrangeSky]

SIAP. Didn't see it.



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Not seeing UT letting Kentucky not be one of them. They tried to break up UT/UK a few years ago in BB.
That's didn't fly as UT told Birmingham - no dice. I'd project Kentucky (UT's oldest football rival), Vandy
and then Alabama. Should they do 4 divisions - UT, VU, UK and maybe Mizzou, or SCar could find their
way into a group. The school's have to agree with ESPN's wishes though, as they now run (advise) the SEC.

 

[LibertyVol]

I’ve seen several articles saying it’s gonna be Kentucky instead of SC.

It should be Kentucky. Game means a lot for both sides. Georgia and Florida are not historic rivals.

 

[LibertyVol]

Nick won't be there much longer no matter what he says , if he get his azz kicked 2 or 3 times this year he might step down.

And it could very easily happen. They have been dodging bullets the last couple of years. Refs along with Young pulled them out a couple of times last year.

 

[unfrozencvmanvol]

That's logically untrue, though, isn't it?

I mean, if the choices were, you can be smashed in the nuts every single November, or once every second November, you'd take the less frequent option, right?

As things currently stand, but including Oklahoma and Texas, let's consider this pecking order--based purely on 2022 results:

1. UGa (15-0)
2. Vols (11-2)
3. Bama (11-2)
4. LSU (10-4)
5. Miss St (9-4)
6. Ole Miss (8-5)
7. Texas (8-5)
8. USCe (8-5)
9. Arky (7-6)
10. Ky (7-6)
11. Okla (6-7)
12. FL (6-7)
13. Mizzou (6-7)
14. Auburn (5-7)
15. A&M (5-7)
16. Vandy (5-7)

You could argue Texas vs Ole Miss or Florida vs Mizzou, but that's not the purpose here; "roughly correct" is close enough for this conversation.

I think we must acknowledge that UGa and Bama are the fiercest competition we face. Call them Tier 1. Less than 50% chance of a W, probably (for now; but we're getting stronger each year).

Next tier is LSU, Miss St, Ole Miss, and Texas. We can easily beat any of these...but we can lose to them, too. They are our peer competition. Tier 2.

Tier 3 are the spoilers: USCe (who certainly spoiled things for us in 2022), Arky, Ky (ok not really Ky, but based on 2022, have to let them be in this group), Okla, and FL.

Tier 4 are the dredges: Mizzou, Auburn, A&M, and Vandy. If it were more subjective, I'd flip-flop Kentucky and A&M, but we're going by the 2022 results.

To keep this scientific, let's assign points to each tier: Tier 1 gets 5 points ... Tier 2 gets 3, Tier 3 gets 2, and Tier 4 gets 1.

So imagine two scenarios:

SCENARIO A: we play both Tier 1 teams and a Tier 2 team (say LSU) every single year. Then we play 6 of the other 12, alternating. That's 5 points + 5 points + 3 points + some combination of six 3- 2- and 1-pointers. Call it 12 points average for those 6 teams. Total of this scenario is 5+5+3+12 = 25 difficulty points.

SCENARIOR B: we play three of the four Tier 4 teams every year. Then we get one of the Tier 1s, two of the Tier 2s, and three of the remaining Tier 3 and Tier 4 teams. That's 1+1+1+5+3+3+2+2+(either 1 or 2) = 19 or 20 difficulty points.

Bottom line is, schedule difficulty IS affected by who the three annual rivals are. It is certainly easier to have Bama, Vandy, and Ky every year than, say, Bama, UGa, and Florida. Even if the ones not included are in our semi-annual rotation.

Lol, having spent 10 minutes thinking this through out loud (well, in typing), I really don't think there's much difference in schedule difficulty whether we get Bama-Vandy-Ky or Bama-Vandy-USCe. Bring either combo on. It's just a pity to lose the rival we've played more times than any other, and the "border war" that came with it.

Go Science!

Go Vols!

I think the picture is worth a thousand words, I don't see any free lunches.

Totally agree that there isn't much competitive difference between UK and Sakerlina. In fact, I think UK has beaten them more often than not in the last decade and change.

 

[LadyVolette]

I’ve seen several articles saying it’s gonna be Kentucky instead of SC.

Makes more sense

 

[NeverWe'llSever]

I can see how people would rather Kentucky than SC I guess, it is a joyful tradition to beat their butts.
But unless we get rid of Vandy game, we aren’t getting to keep Kentucky too. No way that should happen when UGA has UF and AU and OU. Or Bama has LSU AU and UT.

And SC is a football school that actually tries. Big (ugly) stadium, rabid passionate fan base, etc. They hired Joe Morris and Lou Holtz and Spurrier.

Kentucky is garbage with no way of really ever amounting to much- they have no recruiting base and their borders are Ohio State and Tennessee.


So in that light, in my opinion SC >>KY

When we dominated South Carolina in the 90’s until about 2009, we got a lot of good players from that state. It is good to beat USCjr and have a presence in that state. All we need to correct is our record in Williams Brice Toilet Bowl. We have dominated them in Neyland, but the last decade in their dump has been bad.

The state of Kentucky produces only a couple good players and most of the time they go to UK/Louisville or OSU/Bama if they’re elite. Not a very important state to be in, honestly. I’d rather play one of the Mississippi schools than UK tbh. They’re kind’ve useless except for an extra win.

 

[LibertyVol]

I think the picture is worth a thousand words, I don't see any free lunches.

Totally agree that there isn't much competitive difference between UK and Sakerlina. In fact, I think UK has beaten them more often than not in the last decade and change.

View attachment 539815

This looks pretty good. I would probably move a couple around. Maybe Ole Miss plays Arkansas instead of Missouri. I had a friend who was Ole Miss fan and they hate each other. That surprised me. A&M picks up Missouri maybe. A lot of ways you could do it. With rotations there is no easy schedule. I am in favor of keeping the rivalries.

 

[unfrozencvmanvol]

This looks pretty good. I would probably move a couple around. Maybe Ole Miss plays Arkansas instead of Missouri. I had a friend who was Ole Miss fan and they hate each other. That surprised me. A&M picks up Missouri maybe. A lot of ways you could do it. With rotations there is no easy schedule. I am in favor of keeping the rivalries.

The thing is, if you have fewer of the traditional powers in your permanents, that means your chances of getting them in your rotation is going to be higher. Everybody is going to play 4-5 traditional powers on their schedule every year. Right now, we only rotate 1 out of 8 games. We are going to be rotating 6 out of 9 on the new model, the rotation is about take on a much, much more significant role in schedule balance.

 

[unfrozencvmanvol]

I’ve seen several articles saying it’s gonna be Kentucky instead of SC.

I think it will be too, because also South Carolina has played Georgia like 30 something more times than they have played any other SEC opponent, they are going to want them as well. It's a pretty easy swap, we trade UGA the Gamecocks for the Mildcats. Whoever made up this list overthought things.

 

[LadyVolette]

That's logically untrue, though, isn't it?

I mean, if the choices were, you can be smashed in the nuts every single November, or once every second November, you'd take the less frequent option, right?

As things currently stand, but including Oklahoma and Texas, let's consider this pecking order--based purely on 2022 results:

1. UGa (15-0)
2. Vols (11-2)
3. Bama (11-2)
4. LSU (10-4)
5. Miss St (9-4)
6. Ole Miss (8-5)
7. Texas (8-5)
8. USCe (8-5)
9. Arky (7-6)
10. Ky (7-6)
11. Okla (6-7)
12. FL (6-7)
13. Mizzou (6-7)
14. Auburn (5-7)
15. A&M (5-7)
16. Vandy (5-7)

You could argue Texas vs Ole Miss or Florida vs Mizzou, but that's not the purpose here; "roughly correct" is close enough for this conversation.

I think we must acknowledge that UGa and Bama are the fiercest competition we face. Call them Tier 1. Less than 50% chance of a W, probably (for now; but we're getting stronger each year).

Next tier is LSU, Miss St, Ole Miss, and Texas. We can easily beat any of these...but we can lose to them, too. They are our peer competition. Tier 2.

Tier 3 are the spoilers: USCe (who certainly spoiled things for us in 2022), Arky, Ky (ok not really Ky, but based on 2022, have to let them be in this group), Okla, and FL.

Tier 4 are the dredges: Mizzou, Auburn, A&M, and Vandy. If it were more subjective, I'd flip-flop Kentucky and A&M, but we're going by the 2022 results.

To keep this scientific, let's assign points to each tier: Tier 1 gets 5 points ... Tier 2 gets 3, Tier 3 gets 2, and Tier 4 gets 1.

So imagine two scenarios:

SCENARIO A: we play both Tier 1 teams and a Tier 2 team (say LSU) every single year. Then we play 6 of the other 12, alternating. That's 5 points + 5 points + 3 points + some combination of six 3- 2- and 1-pointers. Call it 12 points average for those 6 teams. Total of this scenario is 5+5+3+12 = 25 difficulty points.

SCENARIOR B: we play three of the four Tier 4 teams every year. Then we get one of the Tier 1s, two of the Tier 2s, and three of the remaining Tier 3 and Tier 4 teams. That's 1+1+1+5+3+3+2+2+(either 1 or 2) = 19 or 20 difficulty points.

Bottom line is, schedule difficulty IS affected by who the three annual rivals are. It is certainly easier to have Bama, Vandy, and Ky every year than, say, Bama, UGa, and Florida. Even if the ones not included are in our semi-annual rotation.

Lol, having spent 10 minutes thinking this through out loud (well, in typing), I really don't think there's much difference in schedule difficulty whether we get Bama-Vandy-Ky or Bama-Vandy-USCe. Bring either combo on. It's just a pity to lose the rival we've played more times than any other, and the "border war" that came with it.

Go Science!

Go Vols!

Probably nobody will agree with me, but I really like this new SEC scheduling lol.. Georgia, Florida, and Bama all have to play each other at some point and we don’t play all three in a season.. much more evenly distributed

 

[unfrozencvmanvol]

Probably nobody will agree with me, but I really like this new SEC scheduling lol.. Georgia, Florida, and Bama all have to play each other at some point and we don’t play all three in a season.. much more evenly distributed

Yep, everybody plays everybody else a minimum of twice in 4 years.

 

[turbovol]

Playing bama every year is not going to help us win a national title, that's for sure--at least not in the short term.

The concept of "conferences"---as we have known them for decades, in a regional sense, is kaput--over. There will just be four maybe five at most huge collections of schools who've gathered to maximize TV revenue and earnings. They're TV/financial agglomerations, nothing more, with a computer needed to sort out all the scheduling of what will soon be 20 teams.

 

[you]

I want us to play Alabama, Florida, and Georgia every year. This whole ducking the best teams makes no sense. I say let the best play the best every year and the bottom feeders play each other every year.

i agree.

hey, did you do some draft analysis this year?

 

[Volmac2022]

I'd say Bama, Kentucky and vandy are our three permanent rival's

 

[ClearwaterVol]

I hope this is correct, but ain’t no way

 

[Jax_Vol]

I hope this is correct, but ain’t no way

I thought that was somewhat clear cut for us...?

 

[Noni]

Does anyone actually view SC as a rivalry? I mean I really don't give a crap about SC at all-other than wanting to wax their cheeks in Neyland this year to put them back in their proper place in the world.

Once that's done and that the bad juju exorcised, I will mostly forget they even exist or that they are part of the SEC. I still kinda view them as a non-tenured member anyway.

Laughed when I read this. Bad juju!! Thank you.

 

[VolFanatic27]

Kentucky’s makes no sense at all. Why would we have SC instead of UK?

 

[BigOrangeMojo]

Here is my stab at it:

Arky, OU, Texas, Mizzou

Florida, UGA, MSU, Ole Miss

Bama, Auburn, A&M, Vandy

Tenn, LSU, UK, USCe

Logic:

1. Every time schedule resets, UGA gets a double dip on the MS schools it seems

2. They will keep Bama/Auburn, OM/MSU, UF/UGA, Texas/OU together. This leaves LSU in our pod

3. I'd suspect Texas has told the SEC they don't want A&M that often. AM gets hosed by being placed with Bama.

 

[JCHateSteve]

So UK isn't going to have any permanent rivals from the states it borders? That makes no sense at all.

 

[RDU VOL#14]

So UK isn't going to have any permanent rivals from the states it borders? That makes no sense at all.

This is Dellenger’s guess. Nothing official comes out until the SEC Spring meetings.

 

[BigOrangeMojo]

So UK isn't going to have any permanent rivals from the states it borders? That makes no sense at all.

It makes plenty of sense. 8/16 SEC teams have won a football natty in the past 25 years. Those teams drive the TV ratings and $$$.

UK is just an afterthought and that makes sense for that reason...

 

[JCHateSteve]

This is Dellenger’s guess. Nothing official comes out until the SEC Spring meetings.

I get that. UKs schedule just stands out as a particularly odd guess. It makes me doubt the accuracy of his prediction.

 

[JCHateSteve]

It makes plenty of sense. 8/16 SEC teams have won a football natty in the past 25 years. Those teams drive the TV ratings and $$$.

UK is just an afterthought and that makes sense for that reason...

Tennessee is one of those 8 though. I'm pretty sure we'd like to keep a historic rival over SC. When you look at the schedules UK sticks out like a soar thumb. One of these is not like the others, as the say.

 

[Jax_Vol]

It should be Kentucky. Game means a lot for both sides. Georgia and Florida are not historic rivals.

Ding Ding Ding!!! Exactly. Vandy, Bama, Kentucky are our three historic rivals. UGA is not, and gators even less so.

Everyone seems on board with vandy and bama.

Gotta look at the picture thru Kentucky's eyes. For them, the Vols are THE big game of year. We have been kicking the crap out of them for so many decades that people forget the baby blue jealousy.