I'm strictly talking in terms of how they build their schedule. It is a combination of permanent divisional opponents, rotating opponents from other divisions, and a handful of games based on the prior season's results.
So hypothetically, what if you had this model:
16 teams in 4 pods of 4, as has been discussed at length today
9 conference games (seems unavoidable if we are adding four teams to the league and expanding the playoff).
3 games every year against the teams in your pod (allows you to preserve most of the annual rivalries)
4 games against every team from one of the other pods, on a rotating basis (You are guaranteed to play each school in the conference at least once every three years)
2 games every year against the team who finished in the same spot as you in their pod's standings the previous year (1st place teams play 1st place teams, last place teams play last place teams, etc.)
To me this tries to create as much parity as possible and allows teams who normally have no chance to be a contender an opportunity to contend for Atlanta every so often. It also minimizes the amount of Bama vs. Vandy type games where the result is more of a formality than anything else, and seemingly gives you more interesting games on a yearly basis. The problem, of course, is that unlike the NFL where parity seems to be the goal, I don't think the bluebloods in this league have any interest in a model that creates more parity. Alabama could potentially have a year where they play Georgia, Florida, LSU, and Oklahoma in the regular season and they would absolutely lose their minds over it.
Any thoughts from those of you who are familiar with the NFL model?
So hypothetically, what if you had this model:
16 teams in 4 pods of 4, as has been discussed at length today
9 conference games (seems unavoidable if we are adding four teams to the league and expanding the playoff).
3 games every year against the teams in your pod (allows you to preserve most of the annual rivalries)
4 games against every team from one of the other pods, on a rotating basis (You are guaranteed to play each school in the conference at least once every three years)
2 games every year against the team who finished in the same spot as you in their pod's standings the previous year (1st place teams play 1st place teams, last place teams play last place teams, etc.)
To me this tries to create as much parity as possible and allows teams who normally have no chance to be a contender an opportunity to contend for Atlanta every so often. It also minimizes the amount of Bama vs. Vandy type games where the result is more of a formality than anything else, and seemingly gives you more interesting games on a yearly basis. The problem, of course, is that unlike the NFL where parity seems to be the goal, I don't think the bluebloods in this league have any interest in a model that creates more parity. Alabama could potentially have a year where they play Georgia, Florida, LSU, and Oklahoma in the regular season and they would absolutely lose their minds over it.
Any thoughts from those of you who are familiar with the NFL model?
