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If the SEC did expand again and did so from the ACC who should we take and why?
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jhawkmvp Offline
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Post: #134
RE: If the SEC did expand again and did so from the ACC who should we take and why?
(09-25-2014 12:25 AM)He1nousOne Wrote:  
(09-24-2014 11:32 PM)jhawkmvp Wrote:  I see and understand your point JRSec; however, I agree with H1 about Tennessee dying in that division. It is getting to the point that current recruits don't even remember a strong Tennessee squad as the Fulmer years fade in the rear view mirror. The strongest SEC schools since 2000 are all in that south division, and all their MNC the last couple decades, except LSU and their 2 MNC. That division would be by far the strongest and most cutthroat in CFB. They would beat each other senseless and one or two schools are going to become mostly mediocre (or worse) and likely Tennessee would never recover it's former glory. I think those schools would actually end up not wanting to be in that division together due to it being hard to maintain the level of success they are used to, but if the rivalries are that important, more power to them. That division should get it's own TV contract if it happened!!

OU dropped NU and that was arguably the most significant rivalry in CFB in the 70's and 80's because they thought keeping that game and playing in the B12 south division would be too difficult. If conferences are going to realign properly and fairly some schools will have to let go of the past. If OU/NU, KU/MU, UT/A&M, and WVU/Pitt could all end then I think some of those schools would be okay with playing each other every few years. At least the rivalry would not be dead. I could be completely wrong though. I don't live in SEC country.

The north division is weak and reminds me of the B12 north division. The west is really competitive and good though. Maybe break it like this:

East
Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, North Carolina, Duke

Central
Alabama, Auburn, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Kentucky, MSU

West (same as yours)
LSU, Arkansas, Texas A&M, Baylor, Missouri, Mississippi

I'd just keep one protected rivalry game, if it was a deal breaker. Sometimes you have to compromise to make things fair and competitive. Say 5 games versus your division, 3 versus one of the other divisions and 1 protect rivalry. That way you would play each school in the other divisions at least once every 4 years and in 8 years a full cycle of home/home. I think those divisions give the SEC the best chance to have its best 4 schools (3 division winners and 1 at large in its conference semis) and the networks would be happy because the biggest names would likely continue to have great success to drive their ratings. You could always switch MU or Arkansas to keep the Mississippi schools together too if you did not keep a rivalry game out of division.

Divisions that are competitive and fair are hard to design as you get bigger, if nobody lets go of some annual rivalries. This one of the problems with B12 expansion back to 12. Nobody wants the old north south split because it resulted in one being the best football division in CFB and the other being the weakest in CFB. Also nobody wants to let go of annual UT and OU games for games with schools that are addable currently.

This is why I love this SEC board. Lot of interesting discussion with lots of different viewpoints (the PAC is weakly represented though), usually with some rational for why they think that way, and it usually stays very civil, unlike the main realignment board.

I see what you are saying but applying what failed for the Big 12 and it's two divisions to the idea of a four team conference tournament is faulty logic my friend.

Having a two division and one championship game conference means you Need parity. The Big 12 realized that the hard way.

You don't need parity though when you have four teams in your conference tournament. Who cares if one of your divisions generally provides the #4 ranked team? Actually if I am a conference or Network official, I love that because that means more often than not, the #1 team gets an easier route to the conference championship game. In the Era of the National Playoff. You WANT that very very badly. Parity in a 3 or 4 division conference that has a conference tournament, it isn't exactly a good thing. The more subtle a manipulation is, the more effective it is. You manipulate this situation by not having parity in the divisions. You cant control what happens on the field but you can control everything else.

Lastly, in your scenario, I am pretty sure Ole Miss would get themselves into the Central division and Miss State would get pushed West.

The B12 comment was just a observation on how difficult it is to design divisions and keep the schools happy. Not a direct comparison to the SEC in this case though there are some parallels between the two like having a division which is a gauntlet and another that is a cakewalk. Divisions as you add more schools are a pain in the butt to keep everyone somewhat satisfied. Look at the SEC and the discontent by some schools with their designated rivals or the west B1G schools getting to play UM, OSU, and PSU less now, and the PAC schools all wanting maximum CA exposure. It is one of the big reasons nobody in the B12 is that interested in going past 10 schools (besides the lack of good expansion candidates).

The problem with all those big draws (Bama, Auburn, UGA, Florida, maybe Tenn if they can get competitive again) in one division is they will hang multiple losses on each other oftentimes and might rarely get the at large bid since it would be so cutthroat. I think the networks would rather have 2-3 of those schools usually in the SEC semis (by splitting them between 2 divisions) than 1 and sometimes 2 most years (with them in a stacked division). I can see your point about trying to get the #1 school the easiest path; however, if there is only one big draw that year in the semis and they get knocked off you are taking a ratings hit. If you have them divided up more fairly you are more likely to have multiple big draws get to the semis, so the networks are more likely to get one of the biggest draws into the national playoff IMO. The SEC schools and networks can work it out, if this ever comes to pass. I'd just rather see Florida and Alabama, UGA and Auburn square off much more in the semis than the regular season and a stacked division is going to make this happen less often. But in the end it is not up to me.

I just took JRSec's placement on the MS schools. I don't know which would be a better placement for them, so just went with his original placements.
(This post was last modified: 09-26-2014 02:41 AM by jhawkmvp.)
09-26-2014 02:28 AM
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Messages In This Thread
RE: If the SEC did expand again and did so from the ACC who should we take and why? - jhawkmvp - 09-26-2014 02:28 AM
RE: - Transic_nyc - 05-05-2020, 09:48 PM
ok - Transic_nyc - 05-06-2020, 12:30 AM
RE: - Transic_nyc - 05-13-2020, 11:50 PM
RE: If ... - Transic_nyc - 05-14-2020, 02:00 AM



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