Just a news update. The Athletic has a paywall so I can’t post the link. This is really no surprise; the Athletic is merely reporting what has been rumored since it was announced that OU and Texas were joining the league. There is no final decision yet (at least not publicly), nor is there a final decision of how the scheduling will work. The rumor is that they will go to 4 pods of 4 teams each where you play your pod members every year and the other members twice every 4 years. It’s real easy to do; you just create two columns of two pods each and it looks like two 8 team divisions. You play everyone in your column in year one, but then the pods move around year to year. You basically “change” divisions with this movement. I created a way to do this with 14 teams when I sent my proposed ACC structure in 2014. This does not mean that you actually have division winners; as of now, this is just for scheduling and the rumor is that the two best teams play for the champ, no matter which column they are in. We don’t know yet.
There is some pushback within the conference as it creates a harder path to get into the playoff. But that issue can be handled with an expanded playoff system. And frankly, any plan announced in two weeks is subject to change once the new playoff system is created.
Unlike the ACC proposal to go to the 3-5-5 system, the SEC is working with ESPN now to figure out how it works…..and the financial benefits of going to 9 games vs. 8. SEC commish Sankey is pretty good at getting what he wants. He has not publicly announced his preference. (The ACC 3-5-5 plan doesn’t really create a pod where 4 teams all play each other every year. Clemson, Miami and FSU all play each other every year …but Clemson also plays GT every year…and FSU will play ###### as a third team)
If this comes to pass, the ACC will be the only P5 conference that plays only 8 conference games. I am not sure that that is an issue, but ESPN has gone on record a few years ago that it thinks the ACC should play a 9 game schedule. Swofford agreed to it but Clemson and FSU pushed back because they have annual games with in state SEC schools that make a 9 game conference schedule problematic, especially in years in which they also play ND. This push back led to a compromise where each ACC member was required to play at least one OOC game every year against a P5 team. This led to the additional “compromise” where UNC wanted its “OOC” game to be against Wake Forest in years in which they weren’t scheduled to play a conference game. It was roundly ridiculed by the media and new commish Phillips won’t allow that kind of nonsense anymore. But it should have given him a good optic to the Tobacco Road mentality. But what is driving FSU to be playing ###### every year in the proposed 3-5-5 system?
As for FSU, our annual game with UF is played under a 4 year contract that has always been renewed. There is no state law that requires it. We will have to see what UF says if the 9 game conference schedule is approved. If it is a 9 game schedule and if UF wants to keep its game with FSU, it will leave UF with only two OOC slots to work with. Not sure how they view that. As a reminder, it was only urban legend that Bobby steered the selection committee to choose the ACC over the SEC in 1991 (in spite of his comments that he made after it was official). When he first heard about the committee being serious about the ACC, he told them that he would refuse to sign off on it unless the annual games with UF and UM could be maintained. He wasn’t sure that could happen if all three were in three different conferences.
Those games were maintained and now the FSU-Miami is locked in when UM left the Big East for the ACC. But there are “sacred” in state rivalries that have stopped because of realignment and its related issues (PSU-Pitt;Texas-Aggies) and various cross state annual rivalries have ended as well (Pitt-WVU; Nebraska-OU:UGA-Clemson)
And as an additional issue, adding a 9th SEC game requires ESPN to find time slots to handle its additional inventory.
Nothing is sacred. There are many changes coming soon, and it’s getting more and more difficult to figure out the collateral consequences.
There is some pushback within the conference as it creates a harder path to get into the playoff. But that issue can be handled with an expanded playoff system. And frankly, any plan announced in two weeks is subject to change once the new playoff system is created.
Unlike the ACC proposal to go to the 3-5-5 system, the SEC is working with ESPN now to figure out how it works…..and the financial benefits of going to 9 games vs. 8. SEC commish Sankey is pretty good at getting what he wants. He has not publicly announced his preference. (The ACC 3-5-5 plan doesn’t really create a pod where 4 teams all play each other every year. Clemson, Miami and FSU all play each other every year …but Clemson also plays GT every year…and FSU will play ###### as a third team)
If this comes to pass, the ACC will be the only P5 conference that plays only 8 conference games. I am not sure that that is an issue, but ESPN has gone on record a few years ago that it thinks the ACC should play a 9 game schedule. Swofford agreed to it but Clemson and FSU pushed back because they have annual games with in state SEC schools that make a 9 game conference schedule problematic, especially in years in which they also play ND. This push back led to a compromise where each ACC member was required to play at least one OOC game every year against a P5 team. This led to the additional “compromise” where UNC wanted its “OOC” game to be against Wake Forest in years in which they weren’t scheduled to play a conference game. It was roundly ridiculed by the media and new commish Phillips won’t allow that kind of nonsense anymore. But it should have given him a good optic to the Tobacco Road mentality. But what is driving FSU to be playing ###### every year in the proposed 3-5-5 system?
As for FSU, our annual game with UF is played under a 4 year contract that has always been renewed. There is no state law that requires it. We will have to see what UF says if the 9 game conference schedule is approved. If it is a 9 game schedule and if UF wants to keep its game with FSU, it will leave UF with only two OOC slots to work with. Not sure how they view that. As a reminder, it was only urban legend that Bobby steered the selection committee to choose the ACC over the SEC in 1991 (in spite of his comments that he made after it was official). When he first heard about the committee being serious about the ACC, he told them that he would refuse to sign off on it unless the annual games with UF and UM could be maintained. He wasn’t sure that could happen if all three were in three different conferences.
Those games were maintained and now the FSU-Miami is locked in when UM left the Big East for the ACC. But there are “sacred” in state rivalries that have stopped because of realignment and its related issues (PSU-Pitt;Texas-Aggies) and various cross state annual rivalries have ended as well (Pitt-WVU; Nebraska-OU:UGA-Clemson)
And as an additional issue, adding a 9th SEC game requires ESPN to find time slots to handle its additional inventory.
Nothing is sacred. There are many changes coming soon, and it’s getting more and more difficult to figure out the collateral consequences.
