(08-28-2022 07:37 PM)AllTideUp Wrote:  

(08-28-2022 02:24 PM)Crayton Wrote:  

(08-19-2022 07:20 PM)AllTideUp Wrote:  What are some negatives?

1. Perceived weakness.

2. The possibility of making other SEC full members envious of the special deal. There is great potential here for a sloppy wet slippery slope.

3. An inability to fully govern an important member. Not that Notre Dame is known for rebellious antics, but if everyone is not on the same team so to speak then there is potential for dissension on important issues that could not necessarily be handled in-house.

With conferences now able to pit any teams in their CCGs, I think scheduling can become a LOT more flexible. You could give ALL 17 teams a hybrid conference/independent schedule, so no team is "envious" of Notre Dame's deal.

Notre Dame can opt out of sharing media rights to football games and voluntary exclude themselves from the CCG race, but I think that need be the only difference between them and Alabama or South Carolina.

In the old days, there wasn't a uniform scheduling policy. The schools basically scheduled themselves like they would for non-conference schedules.

I think as long as you played 6 conference games, it didn't matter who. That's why the SEC has this weird history where a lot of long time schools haven't played other long time schools nearly as much as others.

I don't know that anything like that would be healthy if employed again, but maybe there are some creative ways to go about it. If the SEC took these "Magnolia" schools as I've proposed then maybe there's a way to incorporate that as well.

There are a few reasons for top-down scheduling.

1: consistent media value. The SEC will sell 10 Gator games just about every year, guaranteed.

2: access to the big brands. If Vandy never plays Bama, they will suffer at the gate. A conference schedule makes that happen (okay, well, not these past 12 years).

3: same number of games. It is prickly to choose between a 6-1 team and a 7-1 team, whether as champion or as CCG participant.

Modifications for hybrid independent/conference schedule:

1. Mandate 10+ power opponents, 5+ at home. A pair of UF-MSU games may be dropped, but over 2 years a UF-Miami and MSU-Houston game will be added to what the SEC can sell.

2. The conference can still control 4 games (2 home, 2 away) on each team's schedule. After ADs schedule 8 (at least 6 of which are vs SEC/nonSEC Power Opponents), the Conference will fill the gaps (and maybe level schedule strength) to ensure teams see each other more often than twice every decade. This can probably be accomplished by withholding less than 4 games too.

3. If teams are playing 10+ power opponents, just make the conference race based on all 12 games. Have an objective, quasi-SOS tie-breaker (power wins by power opponents) to reward strong scheduling and you should satisfy all parties.