Georgia and Alabama are meeting in the 2024 regular season, only the 5th time they’ve done so in 20 years.
That, in a nutshell, is what’s wrong with the SEC’s scheduling models.
I’m not sure I really understand the Big Ten’s new schedule model for 2024 and 2025, and I’m not convinced it will last beyond 2025, but at least every team in the conference will see every other team in that two-year period.
But at least Texas and Texas A&M will meet for the first time since 2011, along with other classic rivalries like Texas-Oklahoma and Alabama-Auburn. And all SEC teams will face either Oklahoma or Texas in 2024.
Hit the nail on the head … 8 league games, ducking the big opponents in league, the FCS foes and bye weeks before rivalry games, few if any P5 games on the road (never in November) … the SEC has had it good under the B(C)S and CFB Playoff model and they’ve had no incentive to avoid creampuffs because they’ll still get two of the four spots unless something crazy happens.
But with 12 teams, strength of schedule will play a bigger role - hopefully that will lead to more big non-conference games and more clashes in the league since one loss won’t be an eliminator anymore.
Someone in the SEC Home Office is probably getting fired over that mistake of having Bama/UGa meet before Atlanta in December though
Whatever scheduling model takes hold in 26 and beyond, the basic principle of each school playing every other school twice in four years will likely survive. I have a bit more faith that the flex model may survive as it accomplishes that principle while preserving historic (and a few not so historic) rivalries. It may get tweaked as too what rivalry game go coward but the principles I think will survive.
True … will be interesting to see how the Big Ten fits in SC’s traditional October visit to South Bend and November visit from the Evil Empire into the schedule.
But you also don’t see Ohio State and Michigan taking a bye week or playing an FCS team the week before the Big Game.
I’d love to see the Big Ten get a little more creative in spreading out their big games to maybe allow for some November NC clashes or at least not backload the prime time events. Obviously The Big Game and UCLA/SC need to be end of the year. But they could move a few others to late September and early October. They’re pushing PSU/OSU a bit earlier it seems, so that’s a step in the right direction.
That being said, if SC has to come to the Big House or Happy Valley, I want it to be later in the year and I want SNOW!!!
Looking at the history of the ND-USC series on winspedia, it looks like when the game is in California it is in November, but when it is in South Bend it is in October.
From the time the series began in 1926 through 1959, the game was always at the end of the season, regardless of the location. SC then began bitching, and insisted that the South Bend games be moved to October. So, since 1961, that’s the way it’s been.
From the time the series began in 1926 through 1959, the game was always at the end of the season, regardless of the location. SC then began bitching, and insisted that the South Bend games be moved to October. So, since 1961, that’s the way it’s been.
It’ll be interesting to see how much UCLA and USC whine when they have to travel east in November. And it gets hotter in the central US in the early part of the season than it does in LA, too.
This is what they signed up for! Longer trips for away games, and generally lousier weather than it will be at home or even at the other Pac 12 schools
The Southern California trip for everyone else is also what the current BT schools signed up for as well
Nebraska’s introduction to the Big Ten was like a pie in the face, or maybe a brick, it’ll be interesting to see if they handle the new kids on the block the same way.
This article notes that Georgia hasn’t made a trip to Kyle Field to play Texas A&M since the Aggies joined the SEC in 2012. And it won’t happen in 2024, either.
