Just going to point out your post is flawed as far as A&M. We don't have 4 home easy non conference games with a 8 game SEC schedule. We have a power 5 home and home game.

Our schedule strength will either stay the same or get easier from what we have played the past 12 years.

We will keep 3 home non conference easy games. If we go to 9 sec games, we will drop the extra power 5 game.

The problem with DelConti leaking that stuff is there are several SEC teams that don't want a 9 game SEC schedule. Teams that have rivalry non conference games being one.

Does this mean there will be 4 team pods or not?

LB12Diamond said:

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The problem with DelConti leaking that stuff is there are several SEC teams that don't want a 9 game SEC schedule. Teams that have rivalry non conference games being one.

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The other problem with the leak is that adding a 9th conference game is a bargaining chip to increase revenues in the next TV contract...

HowdyAgs03 said:

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LB12Diamond said:

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The problem with DelConti leaking that stuff is there are several SEC teams that don't want a 9 game SEC schedule. Teams that have rivalry non conference games being one.

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The other problem with the leak is that adding a 9th conference game is a bargaining chip to increase revenues in the next TV contract...

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On3 might want to slow down reporting stuff from him after his 3rd martini. ESPN is probably paying the sips money under the table to push for the 9th game without getting proper money for it. Sips only caring about sips as always. Worst conference teammate ever. I'm curious if Sankey ever wakes up. Who knows, he might also be a ESPN puppet.

Chris Del Conte ***** slaps the snake and the sips haven't even played a game yet. Snakey used to live in Texas so he can't say he didn't know what he was getting. Somebody should start a pool on the first school to leave the SEC. Maybe next time they'll have the Manning family make the announcement.

aggiepaintrain said:

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Does this mean there will be 4 team pods or not?

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It's a little more complicated. Each school will have three permanent rivals, but it won't be pods of 4. So we would have t.u., State, and LSU while t.u. has TAMU, Arky, OU. Alabama will have Auburn, UT, and LSU while Auburn gets Alabama, Georgia, and Vandy.

All of this is conjecture, at this point, but that's the general idea.

Speaking of sipping too many martinis.

Quote:

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. ESPN is probably paying the sips money under the table to push for the 9th game without getting proper money for it.

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9 game conference schedule was always inevitable after tu and OU joined SEC and B16 moved to 9 games.

Quote:

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Does this mean there will be 4 team pods or not?

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Most reporting has been that there won't be "pods" but the 3 permanent rivals for each team.

The 9 game conference schedule does not have to happen. It might but it's not a forgone conclusion.

LB12Diamond said:

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Just going to point out your post is flawed as far as A&M. We don't have 4 home easy non conference games with a 8 game SEC schedule. We have a power 5 home and home game.

Our schedule strength will either stay the same or get easier from what we have played the past 12 years.

We will keep 3 home non conference easy games. If we go to 9 sec games, we will drop the extra power 5 game.

The problem with DelConti leaking that stuff is there are several SEC teams that don't want a 9 game SEC schedule. Teams that have rivalry non conference games being one.

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I think we will still keep the extra nonconference Power 5 game, and I would like 10 games against Power 5 teams per year. A 9-game conference schedule means an uneven number of home and away conference games, but that can be mitigated. In years we have 5 away conference games, we can get an extra home game against a Power 5 nonconference opponent. Likewise, in the years we have 5 home conference games, we can play a Power 5 nonconference opponent on the road or at a neutral site. Either way, I would like 5 home games against Power 5 teams every year, which would mean 2 cupcake games instead of 3 for season ticket holders.

I hate how the SEC schedules cupcake games in the second to last week of the regular season. I understand that the SEC schedules these games to rest for rivalry week, but that often means a cupcake is the final home game for us and other SEC schools. For example, we played Western Carolina in 2015, New Mexico in 2017 Prairie View A&M in 2021, and Abilene Chirstian in 2023 as our final home games. Assuming we play Texas in Austin in our 2025 season finale, our final home game will be against Tarleton State on 11/22/2025. The cupcake games should be played before November because we should play a conference opponent in our final home game every year.

The first Saban card to fall after retirement. Saban opposed a nine game schedule especially with a 12 team playoff.
Who ever hobbles to the finish line wins, this is going to cause more players to leave for the NFL early.

LincolnBorglum79 said:

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The 9 conference game plan is likely coming even faster than 2026. I expect it to happen for the 2025 season too. Otherwise the tsips will play ou plus the 7 sec teams they don't play in 2024. We will not play tu in 2025 without a 9 game 3-6-6 model in place.

tu in 2025 without the 9 game schedule will play Bama, LSU, Auburn, Ole Miss, Tenn, S Car, Mizzu and ou. They really don't want to lose the Texas Aggie game or the Arky game but they will for 1 Year.

We will play Bama; Miss, Vandy, Kentucky, ou, Georgia, Tenn and LSU in 2025 as it stands right now.

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I think if the 9 game is coming in 2026 then they'll use another "one-off" schedule for 2025 that will have us playing the sips and LSu again

then they will start a fresh rotation with the 2026 schedule and use that rotation going forward for all teams.

hopefully such a rotation does not have us playing the sips and lsu at home in the same year and then both away the next year.

those two games need to be one home, one away every year.


I also think we might keep the extra p5 non conference game, at least initially, but I don't think we wil lcontinue to schedule anymore of them after the ones we already have locked in.


we have notre dame for 25 and 25, then Arizona st for 26 and 27 then louisville for 28 and 29

I bet swe stop scheduling p5 teams past 29 or we continue to schedulke mid to lower tier p5 teams like AZ st and louisville types rather than notre dame or clemson types.

NowhereMan said:

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The first Saban card to fall after retirement. Saban opposed a nine game schedule especially with a 12 team playoff.
Who ever hobbles to the finish line wins, this is going to cause more players to leave for the NFL early.

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Saban was for a 9 game schedule, he just did not like that Alabama drew the toughest proposed 3 rivals. He was against a schedule that screwed Alabama, but generally in favor of increasing conference games.

The Vols and LSU had just beat Saban. Auburn had hired Freeze. Saban did not like the schedule of his 3 permanent games all of sudden all being difficult.

The SEC does not have to move to 9 games. It just makes a rotational schedule easier to set up in advance.

Myself, I prefer some flexibility and playing schools from other conferences so would like to stay with 8. We go to 9 SEC, all three non conference games will be home games (home games make too much money for the school to give up) so no power 5 home and home.

I wish we would do pod scheduling, and be in the same pod with LSU, MSU, and OM. You'd have a perm from every pod, and rotate pod pairs every two years. Two pods make a division, making your division change every two years, but your pod stays the same. You'd see everyone twice every 6 years.

It would be 9 games: 3 (pod) + 4 (partner pod) + 2 (perms from the other two pods.

Pods could be: A&M, LSU, OM, MSU; tu, OU, MU, Arky; UF, UGA, USC, Auburn; UK, Tenn, Vandy, Bama.

I like the idea of the 9 game SEC schedule

The nine game schedule will happen, the question is whether the move to the 9 game schedule will include a pay raise for the league. Seems like ESPN has plans for Sankey to become the commissioner of college football and in return, he will let ESPN get a price break on the SEC.

Seems likely there are moving pieces we aren't aware of
9 games seems likely add tu and OU staying at 8 games does not increase inventory of games that the networks want

LB12Diamond said:

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HowdyAgs03 said:

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LB12Diamond said:

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The problem with DelConti leaking that stuff is there are several SEC teams that don't want a 9 game SEC schedule. Teams that have rivalry non conference games being one.

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The other problem with the leak is that adding a 9th conference game is a bargaining chip to increase revenues in the next TV contract...

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On3 might want to slow down reporting stuff from him after his 3rd martini. ESPN is probably paying the sips money under the table to push for the 9th game without getting proper money for it. Sips only caring about sips as always. Worst conference teammate ever. I'm curious if Sankey ever wakes up. Who knows, he might also be a ESPN puppet.

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There is no question about it, Sankey is definitely an ESPN puppet.

TMartin said:

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Chris Del Conte ***** slaps the snake and the sips haven't even played a game yet. Snakey used to live in Texas so he can't say he didn't know what he was getting. Somebody should start a pool on the first school to leave the SEC. Maybe next time they'll have the Manning family make the announcement.

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Sankey was a tu homer the whole time he lived in Texas and was working for Southland.

I don't understand how anyone wants to argue to keep 3 cupcake games. Those are equivalent to preseason games. Find a way to get rid of one of those!

Detmersdislocatedshoulder said:

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Alex Delarge said:

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NEW: Texas AD Chris Del Conte confirmed the SEC is progressing to a 9-game conference schedule by the 2026 season🔥

(h/t @InsideTexas)

Read: https://t.co/ImC4j7xQCq pic.twitter.com/XxZgPikWQH

— On3 (@On3sports) February 14, 2024

Surely the SEC offices aren't happy that a (non)member is leaking this already.

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well they better get used to it that's how the sips roll.

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The Jones' are back.

whoop_99 said:

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I don't understand how anyone wants to argue to keep 3 cupcake games. Those are equivalent to preseason games. Find a way to get rid of one of those!

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I agree with you. I think we should play 10 games against Power 5 teams and 2 games against cupcake teams. They argue in favor of keeping 3 cupcake games because they think the playoff selection will still favor overall record over strength of schedule by the widest of margins. Thus, they think it's better to have one more easy win against a cupcake opponent than risk one more loss against a Power 5 opponent.

No one is going to care about those three games. No one
I don't remember anyone talking about them for Bama or Georgia or LSU.

The only thing that's going to matter moving forward is making the 12 team playoffs on a consistent basis.

Besides the money aspect that is a very important one.

The Chicken Ranch said:

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I wish we would do pod scheduling, and be in the same pod with LSU, MSU, and OM. You'd have a perm from every pod, and rotate pod pairs every two years. Two pods make a division, making your division change every two years, but your pod stays the same. You'd see everyone twice every 6 years.

It would be 9 games: 3 (pod) + 4 (partner pod) + 2 (perms from the other two pods.

Pods could be: A&M, LSU, OM, MSU; tu, OU, MU, Arky; UF, UGA, USC, Auburn; UK, Tenn, Vandy, Bama.

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I was liking the pod scenario back when sip and blowU were first announced coming over. Other than a favored team getting in a pod with 3 other historically weak teams, the pods system would even out the relative strength of schedule if done right. I don't like the permanent rivals outside of a pod because that could be used to manipulate strength of schedule.
My idea would be this:
Four pods A, B, C, and D.
First 2 years, Pod A is paired with Pod B and Pod C is paired with Pod D.
Paired Pods play 3 in Pod and 4 from paired Pod for the first 7 games.
Then, half the teams from each Pod play half the teams from a third Pod. In this case, assume A and C and B and D do the split pod match ups. The best record of the paired Pods play in CCG.
This would mean for each paired Pods, all 8 teams would have 7 common opponents and four sets of 2 teams would have all 9 common opponents. They would all do a home-and-home in the 2 years.

Years 3 and 4, the paired Pods would change to Pod A vs Pod D and Pod B vs Pod C and the half pod pairings between A and C and B and D would swap.

This would mean everybody plays everybody home-and-home in 4 years and would force everyone to play either a historically strong or weak pod over the course of 4 years. And with the balanced strength of schedule within the pod pairs, it would mean nobody would get a free pass to the CCG because they faced a far easier schedule.

****ing sips.

And so it begins.

Did anyone ask our overlords in Bristol and Burbank? I am against going to a 9 SEC Schedule unless ESPN is willing to pay for the loss of the 1/2 of a home game revenue. I agree it sense to play 9 games, especially if the Big 10 plays a nine game conference schedule. And I agree the 8 additional conference games will be more valuable than 16 cupcakes games, but it they are, the SEC should get paid for these, especially since these could include games like A&M/Texas, Alabama/Tennessee, and Auburn/Georgia.

Also Greg Byrne needs to tell Del that in the SEC, all announcement such as schedules only come from the conference office and that no school is bigger than the conference. If you don't like it, I'm sure that the B1G would be happy to take you. Enjoy those early April baseball games and late November football games in Minneapolis/St Paul.

Sips having to play another team that is not entirely 3-stars can only be good for us. Lol

whoop_99 said:

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I don't understand how anyone wants to argue to keep 3 cupcake games. Those are equivalent to preseason games. Find a way to get rid of one of those!

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Thats funny. Your goal is to be entertained for your money spent at Kyle. You don't mind multiple games a year with yell practice at the end.

I want to maximize the odds of a playoff appearance every year.

We are not the same

Georgia's OOC in 2023: UT Martin, Ball State, UAB, Georgia Tech
Michigan's OOC in 2023: East Carolina, UNLV, Bowling Green

Again, some teams are committed to championship opportunities, some want to present the toughest possible road to greatness. It's amazing how many fans of Texas A&M don't understand this.

Bonfire.1996 said:

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whoop_99 said:

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I don't understand how anyone wants to argue to keep 3 cupcake games. Those are equivalent to preseason games. Find a way to get rid of one of those!

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Thats funny. Your goal is to be entertained for your money spent at Kyle. You don't mind multiple games a year with yell practice at the end.

I want to maximize the odds of a playoff appearance every year.

We are not the same

Georgia's OOC in 2023: UT Martin, Ball State, UAB, Georgia Tech
Michigan's OOC in 2023: East Carolina, UNLV, Bowling Green

Again, some teams are committed to championship opportunities, some want to present the toughest possible road to greatness. It's amazing how many fans of Texas A&M don't understand this.

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Georgia usually plays an additional nonconference Power 5 opponent besides Georgia Tech for 10 games against Power teams. They played Clemson in 2012, 2013, and 2021, Notre Dame in 2017 and 2019, North Carolina in 2016, and Oregon in 2022.

Since 2016, each Big 10 team has played 9 conference games. On top of those conference games, Michigan usually plays one nonconference Power 5 opponent. They played Colorado in 2016, Florida in 2017, Notre Dame in 2018 and 2019, and Washington in 2021. They did not play a nonconference Power 5 the last 2 years, but they will play Texas in 2024.

Washington played a road game at Michigan State, and Texas played a road game at Alabama. They both played 9 conference games and 10 regular season games against Power 5 opponents.

Ima wait for SEC Shorts to confirm it.

Reno Hightower said:

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Del Conte will get whatever he wants in the SEC. He and Sankey seem to work well together, behind closed doors.

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Like the first game with us at A&M.
Baseball tourney staying in Hoover.
They have stated they want the game with us on Thanksgiving. Now that one I hope they don't get their way. That would suck.

I don't understand all the whining. With 16 teams, having 9 conference games needs to happen. Playing 3 cupcakes per year is embarrassing. The other conferences play 9 conference games. Everyone knows the SEC is working on going to 9 conference games. The only thing standing in the way is getting more money out of ESPN. Del Conte didn't say anything that is a surprise.

I couldn't see those three cupcakes on Bama Georgia and LSU when they were lifting that NC trophy!