Apparently, some SEC coaches are complaining that favoritism was shown towards top teams like Alabama and LSU, protecting their national prospects by assigning them soft extra opponents. Of course the complainers are almost surely coaches of teams that got assigned tough extra games.

What this reminds me of is why the P5 will always want the G5 around and will not separate: Coaches want soft opponents to pad their records. NOBODY wants to play Ohio State, Alabama, or Clemson every week, that's a recipe for a very short coaching career.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/st...-opponents

I don't see the benefit of making LSU and Alabama's cross-divisional schedule as weak as possible.

It's better for TV to have UGA and Florida play LSU and Alabama in the west, and if there are bowl games there's fewer SEC teams that will get bids if their schedule is tougher.

(08-15-2020 09:08 AM)EigenEagle Wrote:  I don't see the benefit of making LSU and Alabama's cross-divisional schedule as weak as possible.

It's better for TV to have UGA and Florida play LSU and Alabama in the west, and if there are bowl games there's fewer SEC teams that will get bids if their schedule is tougher.

Well, first, the SEC doesn't need to go out of its way to create TV games, they have enough of those naturally as it is. And heck, without PAC and especially B1G games to compete against, virtually any SEC game, even Ole Miss vs Vandy, is going to draw better than usual ratings. There will be a supply shortage of football this fall.

And I can see the desire by the conference brass to give schools like UGA, Alabama, and LSU easy extra games, as they are the top contenders for possible playoff spots. You don't want all your top teams to end up 10-2 and out of the playoffs.

Overall, I can't see much to complain about. So Alabama got games vs Kentucky and Missouri? They were already playing Georgia, TAMU, LSU and Auburn to begin with. That's pretty tough.

But then again, I'm not the coach of Missouri, trying to rebuild a program, and I just got assigned extra games vs LSU and Alabama.

This is why I will always like and respect college basketball more than college football. The CFP Selection Committee can talk all they want about strength of schedule but no one buys it when a two loss Big Ten champion gets passed over in favor over a one loss SEC loser and the second loss was a "good loss" vs. Oklahoma. In men's basketball, they have a Champion's Classic every season between Duke, Kentucky, Kansas, and Michigan State. Two of them lose at least once. They don't care. In the major conferences most of the time when some teams play twice and others play just once they usually set it up so the stronger teams play twice because it's better for TV. Duke isn't playing Clemson twice most seasons. Sure they play North Carolina twice because they're rivals. But usually the other teams they play twice are usually teams expected to contend for the ACC regular season title. If the ACC scheduled basketball like the SEC scheduled football, Duke and North Carolina would play Clemson twice. It isn't just men's basketball. The UConn women usually play many of the top women's teams in non conference play. I also remember following Penn State's women's volleyball team when I was there and they were nationally ranked. They'd play top teams in non conference play.

Only in football are teams chickens. Apparently not only does that hold in non conference play but it does in conference play now. I'm sure if Alabama had its way they'd never play Georgia or Florida (or LSU for that matter but they're stuck in the same division). Who wants to see Alabama beat up on a bunch of FCS schools, Mississippi schools, and Arkansas? Count me out.

It sure looked to me like they were picking easier opponents for Alabama, LSU, Georgia and Florida.

(08-15-2020 10:22 AM)bullet Wrote:  It sure looked to me like they were picking easier opponents for Alabama, LSU, Georgia and Florida.

To be fair, there wasn't much choice when it comes to Alabama. They were already playing Georgia and Tennessee. The only way they could have avoided getting an easy slate from the east would be if they got Florida too.

Besides, it Kentucky and Missouri. It's not like they got Vandy and South Carolina.

You can bet Mark Stoops is one of the coaching complaining. He traded 7 Homes, with 2 games against The MAC and 1 against the OVC, for 5 SEC homes with another SEC game against The Ole Miss Rebels.

They also traded a trip to Louisville for a trip to Tuscaloosa to play the Alabama Crimson Tide.

Most Kentucky fans I know are praying football gets shutdown because they don’t expect to win 3 games if they play out their new schedule.

See you can find a positive with Covid if you look long enough.

(08-15-2020 08:48 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  Apparently, some SEC coaches are complaining that favoritism was shown towards top teams like Alabama and LSU, protecting their national prospects by assigning them soft extra opponents. Of course the complainers are almost surely coaches of teams that got assigned tough extra games.

What this reminds me of is why the P5 will always want the G5 around and will not separate: Coaches want soft opponents to pad their records. NOBODY wants to play Ohio State, Alabama, or Clemson every week, that's a recipe for a very short coaching career.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/st...-opponents

Or the top 20 football programs breaking away from the rest. Nobody in that group wants to be the next Miami, Nebraska and Tennessee.

Even in the P5, you still need mid-level to bad programs to pad those records. That’s why I laugh when somebody creates a thread on a best of the best conference or getting rid of the G5.

What would Clemson’s record be without the weak ACC teams they face? It’s not their fault the programs they play are mostly mediocre but would the record still be the same in a best of the rest conference or even the SEC?

(08-15-2020 08:48 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  Apparently, some SEC coaches are complaining that favoritism was shown towards top teams like Alabama and LSU, protecting their national prospects by assigning them soft extra opponents. Of course the complainers are almost surely coaches of teams that got assigned tough extra games.

What this reminds me of is why the P5 will always want the G5 around and will not separate: Coaches want soft opponents to pad their records. NOBODY wants to play Ohio State, Alabama, or Clemson every week, that's a recipe for a very short coaching career.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/st...-opponents

Look at Alabama and L.S.U.'s schedules and you will see why they weren't assigned the toughest games for their 2 additional conference opponents. Coaches always gripe and complain.

Any West Division leader already plays a tough schedule; Alabama and L.S.U. have each other, Auburn, Texas A&M and the Mississippi schools physically beat you up because they are always strong on bug linemen and weak at the skill positions and in depth. Alabama plays Georgia this year and L.S.U. has Florida.

So who the hell else were they going to get? The AD's met with Saneky and they decided to base the two opponents on a S.O.S. priority. Remember each East and West team already plays two from the other division. So those two games were not redone. Alabama had Tennessee as their annual. Auburn has Georgia. L.S.U. has Florida. Nobody is dodging anyone.

So there were only 4 schools from the other divisions left to pick from for the top schools in the West. Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Missouri, South Carolina. Auburn has Kentucky on rotation this year. So Auburn got Tennessee and South Carolina. A team that finished middle of the pack last year in the West got two middle of the pack schools from the East to play.

The only story here is that Arkansas and Missouri stunk in the West and Vanderbilt stunk in the East and in a balanced SOS they wind up with top schools which have the highest S.O.S. to start with.

That's the end of the story.

The only issue here for Vanderbilt, Arkansas, and Missouri is that they lose 3 buy games and an OOC opponent and replace those 4 games with 2 more conference games. That part is brutal for these schools which are struggling to get to mid tier. They are essentially swapping 3 potential wins and an easier P game for 2 more losses. Of course they are grousing.