Why SEC football fans can stop whining about the schedule in 2024 | Goodbread
No more whining.
If you're looking for a reason to like the convergence of a 12-team College Football Playoff and the Southeastern Conference's revamped schedule format, made necessary by the additions of Texas and Oklahoma, look no further than that.
Complaining about how tough your school's permanent SEC opponents are versus another's has been a fan-favorite source of outrage since 1992, when the SEC first went to a divisional format. Back then, every school played two permanent opponents in the opposite division, and which two were assigned to which schools created some pretty fantastic conspiracy theories, along with a lot of teeth-gnashing. Heck, even head coaches and administrators have been known to cry unbecoming tears on this subject (looking at you, LSU).
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Those grievances have always fallen on fairly deaf ears.
Going forward, they don't even deserve oxygen.
The protests will hopefully end starting in 2024, when the 12-team playoff and the SEC's new format both kick in. The 12-team playoff will make room for two-loss teams, and probably even three-loss teams, especially those that reside in what will unquestionably be the toughest league in the sport. And if the CFP selection committee is doing its job right, tougher schedules will be rewarded. Weaker schedules will be penalized. So your school had to play against Georgia and lost, while another SEC school also vying for the last playoff spot beat Vanderbilt instead? That inequity is going to be baked into the committee's decision. So beat Georgia, or don't whine.
The league will grow to 16 schools with the additions of Texas and Oklahoma, and is widely expected to expand its schedule from eight games to nine, thereby increasing inventory for its television partners. With a nine-game schedule, the most sensible format would have each school play three permanent opponents and rotate six games among the other 12 schools. That would allow each school to play every team in the league at least once every two years, and every team both home and away every four years.
Mathematically, it's perfect.
What's imperfect is this: permanent opponents can't be distributed with equity. Somebody has to swallow the Georgia pill every year (brace yourself, Florida, and probably Auburn too), while someone else (think orange) will get to feast annually on the Commodores. Maintaining rivalries, which typically generate the best TV ratings, will be and should be the SEC's foremost concern.
If schedule equality even has a seat at the table, it'll be a toddler's highchair.
And hopefully, it'll come with a pacifier.
Reach Chase Goodbread at cgoodbread@gannett.com. Follow on Twitter @chasegoodbread.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Why SEC football fans can stop whining about the schedule in 2024
