OU/TX Hot Take

[RutherfordBHayes]

I’ve heard several talking heads say that this TX/OU thing just makes it so much harder on MSU/OM.

Help me with this.

IF we go to a 4 division conference and our division includes MSU/OM/LSU/AR, we essentially trade permanent games with BAMA, Aub, A&M for a rotation of those 3 with UK, SC, Vandy, UF, TN, TX, OU, Mizzou, and UGa.

Some years it will be brutal, but most years it’ll be easier than the current Western Division.

 

[Apoplectic_Objurgator]

With 4 pods - how will the conference champ be determined

 

[CochiseCowbell]

With 4 pods - how will the conference champ be determined

 

[IBleedMaroonDawg]

I'm waiting for them to put us in the pod with Texas, OU, and Bama.

 

[ckDOG]

We're a 6-8 win team before and will remain so after.

I think most of our fan base understands that. Technically a championship becomes more difficult but if you weren't competing for them in the first place, why argue that it's a net bad? Take care of our OOC. Get a few in conference. Go to a bowl have fun and repeat. Hell, if anything we now have a better chance at ruining the season of someone that believes they should be competitive. There's entertainment value in that also...

 

[thatsbaseball]

Depends on how many conference games we have to play.

 

[Apoplectic_Objurgator]

Depends on how many conference games we have to play.

Probably going to 9

 

[Smoked Toag]

Pods are a bad idea, bottom line. Don't lock anyone together unless they are either an already established rivalry that wants to continue, or an in-state school. Then you obviously pick based on geographic proximity to the extent practical. 2-3 permanent opponents and roll on.

I guess I'm alright with a championship game if you have to do it. Pick the top 2 records, if there are ties, have a tie-breaker system. It's that easy.

Problem is, you're getting up there towards 16 games possibly there. Maybe drop the regular season down to 11 games.

 

[Dawgg]

I guess I'm alright with a championship game if you have to do it. Pick the top 2 records, if there are ties, have a tie-breaker system. It's that easy.

What do you propose for a tie-breaker system? Head to head, then what?

The Big 12 consistently shot themselves in the foot with their tiebreakers (or lack thereof).

 

[patdog]

I've been hearing that for close to 20 years. It may be a little more likely now, but there's no real reason why adding 2 teams will make any difference in the number of games we play.

 

[patdog]

Record vs common opponents, strength of schedule, points scored less given up, highest ranked team. There's no shortage of ways to break a tie. What shot the Big 12 in the foot wasn't tiebreakers, it was the general weakness of the conference.

 

[notoriousD_O_G]

If we go to the pod model where we play teams at least every other year, we would play Vandy minimum 5 times a decade instead of 2. Also we will be more competitive with SC, Mizzou, and UT who we will now play more often than with TAMU, Bama, Auburn, and LSU and we will not be playing a couple of those as much.

 

[Smoked Toag]

Record vs common opponents, strength of schedule, points scored less given up, highest ranked team. There's no shortage of ways to break a tie. What shot the Big 12 in the foot wasn't tiebreakers, it was the general weakness of the conference.

Yep, and since they played a round robin, they were guaranteed a rematch in the championship game. Turrrrrible planning. Yes, it can happen and did happen in the SEC at times, but at least it's not guaranteed.

 

[UpTheMiddlex3Punt]

Let's do something really stupid and have a Swiss-style tournament. We won't even know our schedule a week ahead of time.

 

[Miketice]

I laughed

asdf

 

[Seinfeld]

I don’t really understand the point of the pod theory either. Unless pod winners get an auto-bid to a 4 team conference playoff, there’s nothing gained from it that can’t be accomplished by simply assigning permanents to each team. It’s time to kill divisions

 

[Dawgg]

Let's do something really stupid and have a Swiss-style tournament. We won't even know our schedule a week ahead of time.

I think we should literally just put each conference team's name in a hopper and have a rep from each team pull them out a week ahead of time. Just rotate who gets first pick. ***

 

[Ralph Cramden]

Being in a pod of four teams is the same thing as bring assigned permanent opponents. The teams in your "pod" are your permanent opponents. The rest of your games rotate. Maybe instead of pods, all the teams will rotate constantly ?

 

[Dawgg]

Being in a pod of four teams is the same thing as bring assigned permanent opponents. The teams in your "pod" are your permanent opponents. The rest of your games rotate. Maybe instead of pods, all the teams will rotate constantly ?

You have to have some permanent opponents. There is no way ESPN is paying a **** ton of money to NOT have the Iron Bowl every year.

 

[patdog]

The difference is in a pod system every team in the pod has the same permanent opponents. In a single conference system, our permanent opponents might be Mississippi, A&M, LSU and Auburn, but none of them would have the same permanent opponents as us.

 

[garddog]

Being in a pod of four teams is the same thing as bring assigned permanent opponents. The teams in your "pod" are your permanent opponents. The rest of your games rotate. Maybe instead of pods, all the teams will rotate constantly ?

This is not true. If you have 3 permanent, no pods, then you can keep everyone's 2 biggest rivals. Pods will not work. 3 permanent, then rotate the other 12 through, 6 per year,, home and away every 3 years.

 

[Apoplectic_Objurgator]

If we eliminate the CG then that would guarantee more teams in the playoff

 

[Nunya.sixpack]

With 4 pods - how will the conference champ be determined

Bama claims it. If anyone beats them, then we look at tiebreaker with bama to see if they still win it.

 

[Smoked Toag]

If we eliminate the CG then that would guarantee more teams in the playoff

View attachment 21182

 

[RutherfordBHayes]

I'm waiting for them to put us in the pod with Texas, OU, and Bama.

We chose the wrench.

 

[GhostOfJackie]

If you think about it, over the past decade we have owned Arkansas/Kentucky, been pretty even with Ole Miss/A&M, been Competitive with Auburn/LSU, and terrible against BAMA (who isn't). We've never been close to an SEC championship since the late 90's, so adding a few more teams isn't going to change anything really. Same with Ole Miss, who we share a lot more in common with than we think. By the way, we are going to need to team up with them on a few things moving forward in this expanded SEC, so we better learn how to get along.

I think more than half of the past decade we were actually better than Texas. Bring on that check baby and let's build a better campus and college town!

 

[o_dawgnabit]

Our fans said the same thing when A&M came in. And we have had more athletic success since then than any other stretch. Our fan base is wired in a way to think we are always about to be screwed.

 

[GloryDawg]

It's hard to believe that we voluntary played Bama all those years we played them before the divisions. It's amazing that we have played them more than their two named rivals. It's amazing we have played them more than any other schools. What were they thinking?

 

[garddog]

It's hard to believe that we voluntary played Bama all those years we played them before the divisions. It's amazing that we have played them more than their two named rivals. It's amazing we have played them more than any other schools. What were they thinking?

90 miles, easy trip. Back in the first 70 years of college football, those were always the considerations. Even when the games were played in Jackson, it was an easy cheap bus ride.

Growing up in East Central MS, Alabama has always been just as big as Ole Miss.

 

[dog12]

Pods are a bad idea, bottom line. Don't lock anyone together unless they are either an already established rivalry that wants to continue, or an in-state school. Then you obviously pick based on geographic proximity to the extent practical. 2-3 permanent opponents and roll on.

I guess I'm alright with a championship game if you have to do it. Pick the top 2 records, if there are ties, have a tie-breaker system. It's that easy.

Problem is, you're getting up there towards 16 games possibly there. Maybe drop the regular season down to 11 games.

I don't like the idea of 4 pods either. ("Pod" . . . that sounds like we should be shelling purple-hull peas or formulating a plan for space travel.)

After deeply thinking about it for a good 5 or 10 minutes, here's my opinion of how to structure the SEC:
- 2 divisions (East and West).

East Division: Alabama; Auburn; Georgia; Florida; Vanderbilt; Tennessee; Kentucky; and South Carolina.

West Division: Mississippi State; Ole Miss; LSU; Arkansas; Texas A&M; Missouri; Oklahoma; and Texas.

Geographically, these divisions make sense. Also, based upon my plan for football scheduling set forth below, it keeps almost every traditional football rivalry game. (The only "rivalry" game that it omits is LSU-Florida.)

For football scheduling, play 9 conference games every season: play everyone in your Division, along with 2 "rotating" opponents from the other Division. The 2 "rotating" opponents change every season, which will permit everyone to play every school from the other Division once every 4 years. For the "rotating" opponents from the other Division, we will alternate the location of the game every time we play (so that everyone gets an equal number of "home" games in the head-to-head series moving forward).

For the SEC football championship, it remains the same: East Division champ meets West Division champ.

In the bigger picture of the college football playoffs, I foresee the playoffs going to 16 teams . . . which would mean an additional 4 football games for the National Champion.

Thus, in the context of SEC football scheduling for every season, we should limit the total number of "regular season" games to 11. This would mean everyone plays 9 conference games and 2 non-conference games each season. Additionally, those SEC football teams that get a bowl game would have one more game for a total of 12.

I think that's a good setup for SEC football.

Concerning all other SEC sports, I could work out those schedules too with another 5 or 10 minutes of deep thought and analysis.