Tramel's ScissorTales: Will Alabama's Nick Saban get his way with SEC football scheduling?
Nick Saban isn’t happy with the proposed permanent opponents for Alabama once the Southeastern Conference adds OU and Texas to form a 16-team league.
Which means an early litmus test for SEC politics.
Every major conference has its political heavyweights, billed to have unequal power in the league. Ohio State (and Michigan) in the Big Ten. OU and Texas in the Big 12 (and Nebraska in the old Big Eight). Alabama in the SEC. Southern Cal in the Pac-12.
Is such status myth or reality? Like most things, it’s probably somewhere in the middle. Overstated influence, but also not egalitarian.
The Monday ScissorTales salute Luguentz Dort and look at Oklahoma State's NCAA Tournament chances. But we start with college football and the SEC’s apparent desire to hand Alabama a demanding schedule.
I don’t claim to know anything about the boardrooms of the SEC, Big Ten or Pac-12. But in the Big 12, OU and Texas did occasionally flex their muscles, and few Big 12 legacy schools will miss the Sooners and Longhorns, except the heftier television checks they provided.
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Probably the same for Alabama in the SEC.
And we get an early glimpse of Bama’s (and Saban’s) power, with this SEC schedule.
Saban told Sports Illustrated that the SEC has selected Auburn, Tennessee and Louisiana State as the Crimson Tide’s permanent foes.
Here’s the plan. If the SEC, as expected, selects a nine-game conference schedule, each school will have three annual opponents, while the other 12 members will rotate every other year.
The difference fundamentally is this. If you draw Alabama or Georgia as an annual opponent, that means twice as many games against that particular sabretooth. And the same with Vanderbilt, the SEC’s historic weak link. Annual games against the Commodores are blessed respite from the SEC rigors.
Such a nine-game conference plan comes with three primary considerations: historic rivals, geography and parity.
And the parity is two-tiered. The traditionally less-successful SEC programs prefer an eight-game conference schedule. To swing enough votes for a nine-game schedule, the SEC office proposed two annual games for every school in its own tier.
The tiers were divided this way:
1. Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana State, OU, Florida, Texas A&M, Auburn and Texas in the top tier;
2. Tennessee, Ole Miss, Kentucky, Arkansas, Missouri, South Carolina, Mississippi State and Vanderbilt in the lower tier.
Hence Saban’s gripe. Tennessee, a tradition-rich and well-funded program but mired in a 15-year slump, rose up in 2022 and became a College Football Playoff contender. Auburn has been up-and-down in recent years, but still, a trio of Tennessee, LSU and Auburn clearly would be the league’s toughest set of annual opponents.
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“I’ve always been an advocate for playing more (SEC) games,” Saban told Sports Illustrated. “But if you play more games, I think you have to get the three fixed (foes) right. They’re giving us Tennessee, Auburn, and LSU. I don’t know how they come to that [decision].
“They said they did a 10-year whatever (study). Well, some of those years, Tennessee wasn’t as good as they’ve been in the previous 10 years, but now they are as good as they used to be before those 10 years.
“We got three teams, and two of them are in the top 10, and the other is in the top 10 a lot. Look historically over a 25-year history, and the three best teams in the East are Georgia, Tennessee and Florida. You look historically at 25 years, Alabama, LSU and Auburn are the three best teams in the West. So we’re playing them all.”
Saban has a point. Don’t you hate it when he’s right? Just because you’ve become a college football terror doesn’t mean you’re automatically wrong.
So will the SEC capitulate? Scrap the equity plan? Scrap Bama-Tennessee, one of the South’s most treasured rivalries? Start over?
Starting over could jeopardize the nine-game schedule. Staying with the SEC’s eight-game schedule is unbecoming a league of the SEC’s status, considering the weakness of most SEC non-conference slates.
If it really does mean more, why are there so many Southern Misses and Chattanoogas, Louisiana Techs and Western Kentuckys, on SEC schedules?
And the Alabama trio makes sense every way. Auburn and Tennessee are age-old rivals. Bama-LSU has become a staple, the equal of the old 49er-Cowboy series of the ‘90s, the Patriots-Colts of the ‘00s, the Chiefs-Bills of recent vintage. Rivalries born out of excellence.
It’s a bummer for Alabama, but the Crimson Tide playing Auburn, LSU and Tennessee annually is the best thing for the SEC, clearly. That’s why the SEC is proposing such a trio for the Crimson Tide.
I have no idea exactly how much influence Saban can exert. But his displeasure is an early clue on how the new-look SEC will govern.
Sports Illustrated’s Ross Dellinger, who is well-connected in the SEC, took a stab at how the permanent opponents will shake out. Here is his guess, with my observations.
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Top Tier
Oklahoma: Texas, Mizzou, Florida. The Sooners probably would have preferred Arkansas rather than Missouri — Fayetteville is half the distance to Norman that Columbia is — but no complaints. No Bama, no Georgia, no LSU. Florida runs hot and cold. The Sooners will take that.
Texas: OU, Texas A&M, Arkansas. No other SEC team would have such a historic trio. All three ancient rivals, all three bitter rivals, going back more than a century.
LSU: Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Alabama. Tough trio. But regionally-weighted. Ole Miss ranks with Tennessee as the best of the lower-tier schools. Bama ranks with Georgia as the best of the upper-tier schools. But the Tigers should like having A&M as an annual rival, in both recruiting and competition.
Texas A&M: LSU, Texas, Mississippi State. The Aggies will hold their nose and resume the Texas series. A&M likely would have preferred to keep the historic Arkansas series, but Texas drew that straw. The LSU series will be tough, but the Ags ought to like the recruiting ties.
Alabama: Auburn, Tennessee, LSU. Look at it this way. If the Volunteers dip back down, this trio isn’t nearly as daunting. I would say it’s about 50-50 whether Tennessee is back on top for good.
Auburn: Bama, Georgia, Vanderbilt. The only SEC program to get both Georgia and Bama. The Tigers had better get Vandy, to offset that duo.
Vanderbilt: Tennessee, Auburn, Mizzou. The Commodores avoid not just Alabama and Georgia, but the next line of potential conference threats — LSU, OU, Florida, etc.
Tennessee: Vanderbilt, Bama, South Carolina. I’m surprised Kentucky isn’t involved. But someone has to play the Gamecocks. South Carolina has no obvious SEC rivals, and Carolina has been in the league for 30 years.
Kentucky: Mississippi State, South Carolina, Georgia. If the Wildcats draw Georgia, that’s a bummer for Mark Stoops.
Georgia: Auburn, Florida, Kentucky. An easier road than Alabama’s. LSU trumps Florida, and Tennessee trumps Kentucky.
Florida: Georgia, South Carolina, OU. Fairly tough trio, unless Brent Venables' program's slide is more than a one-year aberration.
South Carolina: Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky. The Gamecocks should have no complaints.
Missouri: OU, Arkansas, Vanderbilt. The Tigers have to be thrilled. They keep the Razorbacks as a potential arch-rival (really hasn’t simmered yet), get OU back on the schedule while avoiding an even ferocious powerhouse, and best of all, Vandy every year.
Arkansas: Missouri, Texas, Ole Miss. The Razorbacks should be pleased. Resumption of the Texas series, which was a classic in the Southwest Conference. Then manageable border opponents in Mizzou and Mississippi.
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Dort’s versatility shines
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 38 points and made 10 of 17 shots. Santa Clara Williams scored 32 points and made 12 of 15 shots. Josh Giddey scored 24 points and made 10 of 16 shots.
Luguentz Dort scored four points and made one of nine shots. And Dort was the star of the Thunder’s 129-119 victory over Utah on Sunday night. Call it a Weekend Performance Award.
Dort, the Thunder’s defensive ace, drew the assignment of Jazz gunner Jordan Clarkson. The 6-foot-4 Clarkson finished with 18 points on 6-of-15 shooting, but Clarkson made just two of eight shots in the first half, when the Thunder took control of the game.
Dort, built like a linebacker, kept Clarkson out of the lane. Clarkson resorted to a variety of (poor) 3-point shots. He’s going to shoot, whether he’s open or not.
That’s a typical night’s work for Dort. But it wasn’t even his best defense of the two-game Jazz series that also included OKC’s 130-103 rout on Friday night.
In Game 1, Dort’s assignment was 7-foot Lauri Markkanen, an All-Star Game starter who a week earlier had torched the Thunder for 43 points.
Friday night, Markkanen scored just six first-half points, on 3-of-8 shooting, and never really got going, though he finished 6-of-14 shooting with 20 points.
So in the span of 48 hours, the 6-foot-3 Dort stymied big-time Utah scorers who are eight inches apart in height.
“It had kind of a double effect,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said of Dort stoning Markkanen. “It threw them out of rhythm a little bit, Markkanen specifically. It also gave us energy.”
In Utah on Feb. 23, the Thunder went traditional and played big men on Markkanen. It didn’t go well. Dort was different.
“He took the challenge on,” Daigneault said. “That was an adjustment we made from Utah. He was underneath that guy. Markkanen still got some damage done, but he had to rely on putbacks and really had to do a lot of dirty just to scrape 20 points, and a lot of that was Lu.”
Dort’s defensive versatility is amazing. He covers Damian Lillard one game, LeBron James the next. Dort’s a rare weapon who is quite the Thunder treasure. Even when he scores four points on 1-of-9 shooting.
But Dort gives Daigneault all kinds of defensive options. And the Utah back-to-back was a classic example.
How does a 6-foot-3 guard defend a 7-foot scoring machine?
“A lot of what Markkanen gets done is, he’s big, and if you put a bigger guy on him, he’s fluid as a mover,” Daigneault said. “He’s a really good cutter, really good roller. He can spot up and shoot. So he can drive off those closeouts.
“And we just decided to throw some physicality and some speed on him. And tried to take some of the perimeter stuff out and force him to be more of an inside player.
"He got some stuff done, but obviously, it was disruptive.”
Markkanen sat out the Sunday night game with a sore back. He deserved the night off. A night of being dogged by Lu Dort will take it out of you.
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Big 12 rankings: Cowboys have a chance
Oklahoma State basketball kept its NCAA Tournament hopes alive Saturday with a 71-68 win at Texas Tech. And over the weekend, the Cowboys even got some help on the bubble front.
North Carolina lost to Duke. Michigan lost to Indiana. Nevada lost to Nevada-Las Vegas. Arizona State lost to Southern Cal. Mississippi State lost to Vanderbilt. And though Memphis’ last-second loss to top-ranked Houston was a good loss, a loss it remains.
But other bubble teams won. Auburn beat Tennessee. Penn State beat Maryland. Wisconsin beat Minnesota. Oregon survived Stanford.
So you never know. ESPN bracketology has the Cowboys the third team out of the 68-team field. OSU needs to beat OU on Wednesday night in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament, but a third Bedlam victory likely wouldn’t lift the Cowboys safely into the field.
A victory over Texas in the quarterfinals almost certainly would lift OSU into the field.
And even if winning Bedlam elevates the Cowboys into the field, other teams will be elevating themselves, and conference-tournament underdogs could emerge to take away spots.
Here are the final Big 12 rankings:
1. Kansas (13-5, 25-6): ESPN bracketology moved the Jayhawks to the No. 1 overall seed in its projected bracket even after losing at Texas. The rationale? KU’s loss at Texas was better than Alabama’s loss at Texas A&M.
2. Texas (12-6, 23-8): Longhorns had a tremendous season, considering the drama created by now-fired coach Chris Beard.
3. Baylor (11-7, 22-9): Strange team, capped by a blowout home loss to Iowa State, which was swept by both OSU and OU.
4. Kansas State (11-7, 23-8): Not a strange team. The Wildcats are solid and could go deep in the NCAA Tournament.
5. Texas Christian (9-9, 20-11): TCU would have been in the Baylor/K-State range if not for the injury to star point guard Mike Miles Jr.
6. Iowa State (9-9, 18-12): Cyclone coach T.J. Otzelberger dismissed mercurial guard Caleb Grill, and ISU responded with its best win of the year, the rout in Waco.
7. Oklahoma State (8-10, 17-14): With all the disappointment and all the injuries and all the inconsistency, the Cowboys finished one game out of a tie for fifth.
8. West Virginia (7-11, 18-13): The Mountaineers finished strong. Dark horses to make tournament runs in Kansas City and beyond.
9. Texas Tech (5-13, 16-15): What a mess. Coach Mark Adams is suspended for using a “racially insensitive” Bible verse about slavery. Did he just give Tech an out to fire him without cause? He ought to know better, but can everyone just relax a little bit?
10. OU (5-13, 15-16): Hey, the Sooners didn’t finish in solo last place. There’s something to be said for that.
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Mailbag: Pete Maravich’s record
My ScissorTale items on Detroit Mercy’s Antione Davis threatening Pete Maravich’s NCAA basketball scoring record has drawn much response. Here’s a good one.
Chris: “I enjoyed your article regarding Pete Maravich’s scoring record. I believe that this player from Detroit Mercy is not really going to break his record. It’s one thing to play more games and another to have a freak event like the pandemic and receive an extra year of eligibility. Maravich’s record of average per game will probably never be broken.
“Let’s examine other records that have fallen. O.J. Simpson, in my mind, still holds the NFL single-season record, because his average of 143 per game is still better than anyone else. Jim Brown (1963) is second at 133 a game. Now today, not too many people are going to defend O.J.’s record because of his off-field path.
“So let’s switch to a much more endeared player: Barry Sanders. Sanders, as you know, ran for 2,628 yards in 1988 (for OSU). However, back then, the NCAA did not count bowl games in the final stats. That did not start until 2002, I believe. Sanders ran for 238.9 yards per game in 11 games. Or even 2,850 in 12 games (237.5). Someday, someone is going to break Sanders record because of the length of the season. In 2024, the 12-game playoff begins, and it’s possible to have a player play in 17 games. But will they really break the record?
“To break Sanders’ record of 2,628, a player would need to average the following yards rushing: 12 games 219.0, 13 games 202.1, 14 games 187.7, 15 games 175.2, 16 games 164.2, 17 games 154.5.
"The lower the average goes, the less impressive it is. A player that averages 154.5 is an all-American and Heisman finalist, but at 84.4 yards less per game, he won’t even be in the same stratosphere as Sanders. He’ll be lucky to wash Sanders’ car at the Heisman House.
“We could go on and on. What if Kareem (Abdul-Jabbar) could have gone straight from high school to the NBA like LeBron did? Kareem might have had a steeper learning curve than LeBron but would have had another four seasons to add to his numbers. Kareem averaged 28.8 points his rookie year.
“What if Kareem averaged 23.0 per game for his first four years and played 80 games a year. That would be another 7,360 points added on, and Lebron would not be assured of breaking his record. I’m not sure when they allowed high school kids to go straight to the NBA. I know Moses Malone and Daryl Dawkins did.
“Overall, my point is that Pete Maravich will always have a special place in the record books. Younger generations will either write him off and not understand his relevance or they will discover ‘How Did He Do That!’”
Tramel: Excellent discussions. But times and eras change.
LeBron James got a four-year jump on Jabbar, but those four years also are much more taxing on the body. Jabbar played until he was 40. Would he have done that without those four years at UCLA? Don’t know.
As for Barry Sanders, Chris is right. Sanders’ record could fall, with a deep playoff run by some team. But while a lower yards-per-game average is likely to occur, a tailback who plays a 15- or 16-game college schedule is impressive on its own. Longevity and availability are not to be downplayed.
Bottom line, the record is the record. No one has to believe, no one should believe, that Antoine Davis is a better scorer than was Pete Maravich. But Davis could end up with more points.
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The List: Bedlam coaches in Big 12 Tournament
Neither OU nor OSU has won the Big 12 Tournament in 18 years. The Sooners won three straight Big 12 Tournament titles, 2001-03, and the Cowboys won the next two, 2004-05.
Those days are long gone. Since the Big Eight went to the all-teams-in-Kansas City format in 1986, here are the OSU and OU coaches, ranked by Big 12 Tournament record:
1. Kelvin Sampson 18-9: Sampson won at least two games in the tournament in six of his 12 OU seasons.
2. Eddie Sutton 20-12: In 15 trips to the tournament, Sutton’s Cowboys averaged 1½ wins. Not bad.
3. Billy Tubbs 11-7: Tubbs won eight Big Eight Tournament games from 1988-90, the three straight years when his Sooners were No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament.
4. Sean Sutton 4-3: Sean took over for his dad in mid-season 2006, and none of his three Cowboy teams reached the NCAA Tournament. But they weren’t half bad in Kansas City.
4. Mike Boynton 4-3: Strange but true. In the 2020s, OSU has just one Kansas City loss. The Cowboys beat Iowa State in the first round of 2020, before the pandemic hit. The Cowboys reached the 2021 title game. Then OSU was ineligible for the tournament in 2022.
6. Porter Moser 1-1: Moser’s first OU team played well last season, upsetting Baylor and nearly upsetting Texas Tech.
7. Travis Ford 7-8: Ford’s OSU teams won at least one game in the Big 12 Tournament his first six seasons, though he left with a three-game tournament losing streak (2014-16).
8. Jeff Capel 3-5: Strange but true. OU’s Capel was 3-3 in the tournament without Blake Griffin, 0-2 with him.
9. Lon Kruger 3-9: Kruger was a marvelous coach in 10 Sooner seasons. His lack of success in Kansas City was puzzling.
10. Leonard Hamilton 1-4: Hamilton got past the first round of the Big Eight Tournament only in 1990, his final OSU season.
11. Brad Underwood 0-1: The 2017 Cowboys lost in the first round.
11. Paul Hansen 0-1: The 1986 Cowboys did the same.
Berry Tramel: Berry can be reached at 405-760-8080 or at btramel@oklahoman.com. He can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including FM-98.1. Support his work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Will Alabama's Nick Saban get his way with SEC football scheduling?
