The SEC’s Future Configuration

Once Texas and Oklahoma decided to abandon their Big 12 brethren for more greenbacks, speculation has run rampant as to how the SEC would adapt to its schedule with 16 teams.

There appears to be consensus on one important point:  The number of conference games will increase from 8 to 9.

Many speculative references to “pods” brought back images of Woody Allen in “Sleeper”.  Option #1 would result in 4 pods, as follows:

POD #1:   Georgia, Florida, Kentucky and South Carolina

POD #2:   Alabama, Auburn, Vanderbilt and Tennessee

POD #3:   Ole Miss, Mississippi State, LSU and Texas A&M

POD #4:   Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri

You would play the other teams in your Pod annually.  In a 4-year period, you would each team in the other pods twice.  The Pod approach would address one complaint in the current 14-team format: One rarely plays most teams in the other division.  The Odyssey finds this Pod feature to be quite attractive.  However, there would be winners and losers in such construction.

Before we go into our deep dive, we believe Texas A&M and Missouri could be interchanged.  Texas and Texas A&M should play each other annually.

WINNERS of this POD Approach:

Arkansas:  Renewing its rivalry with Texas and starting a rivalry with neighboring Oklahoma is spicy.  Nor will the Razorbacks mind not having to play Alabama every year.

Auburn and Alabama:  You get Vandy each year, which means a fun trip to Nashville every other year for your fans.

Florida and LSU:  No longer would they be each other’s  annual crossover opponent.  Most years, that will ease their schedule relative to others.

LOSERS of this POD approach:

Ole Miss:  No more annual game with Vandy?  Boo hoo.

Kentucky:  Losing its two neighbors in Tennessee will badly hurt.  The lost tradition in the Tennessee-Kentucky rivalry would be painful.  Nobody in their Pod is an easy drive from Lexington.

Tradition:  In addition to Texas-Texas A&M and Tennessee-Kentucky, several other traditional rivalries would no longer be played annually:  The Deep South’s oldest rivalry, Auburn vs Georgia would no longer be annual event.  The two SEC schools closest to each other, Alabama and Mississippi State, would not play annually.  OUCH!

Conference title game:  In some years,  the Pod approach will be less straight forward than the Division format in determining who plays in Atlanta.

OPTION #2 would do much better at preserving traditional rivalries by retaining the two-division approach, as follows:

EAST:  Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee and Vanderbilt.

WEST:  Ole Miss, Mississippi State, LSU, Arkansas, Missouri, Texas, Texas A&M and Oklahoma

In Option #2, only 2 crossover games would be played.  Meaning that in any 8-year cycle, you would play members of the other division only twice.

Since the Odyssey is a staunch believer in tradition, we have some preference for Option #2.  Option #2 is also more equitable than being in a Pod which turns out to be unusually strong or weak in a given year.

Please let the Odyssey know what you think.  We will be happy to forward all comments to the SEC.