SEC Schedule In For Possible Retooling At Spring Meetings In Destin

Apr 30, 2013; Greensboro, GA, USA; South Carolina Gamecocks head football coach Steve Spurrier hits a shot during the Chick-fil-A Challenge at the Reynolds Plantation Resort. Mandatory Credit: Paul Abell/CFA-pr via USA TODAY Sports **HAND OUT PHOTO **

Since the SEC expanded to 12 teams in 1992 and adopted divisional play in an effort to create a competitive conference championship, the conference has went with a simple eight-game SEC schedule that maintained traditional rivalries and rotated cross-divisional matchups. However, with the addition of a 13th and 14th teams last season, the eight-game schedule presented problems and imbalance.

With the announcement of the SEC Network late last month and the additional teams in the league, it appears as if the SEC is tumbling towards an expanded nine-game schedule. The topic will be discussed at length next week when the conference holds its annual spring meetings in Destin, FL.

Typically a trip to Destin involves a beach house and a beer bong, but Mike Slive and the rest of the key players (football and basketball coaches will be in attendance as well as athletic directors and university presidents) will have some serious business to attend to on the Gulf Coast–although it’ll take more than an official meeting to get Steve Spurrier to stray too far from his sand wedge and an ice cold Coors.

College football is on the cusp of some major changes with all the conference realignment and the impending college football playoff set to kick off in 2014, and the SEC schedule will need some form of reorganization. Whether or not that means doing away with traditional rivalries–a scenario that means doom to great games like Georgia-Auburn and Tennessee-Alabama–and maintaining an eight-game schedule to offer a path of least resistance to the Final Four, or adopting an admittedly challenging nine-game schedule to protect games like the Third Saturday in October is yet to be determined.

(Writer’s Note: A nine-game schedule doesn’t guarantee that annual crossover rivalries will be maintained, but it’s the path that makes it most likely. Personally, I understand that college football is evolving and protecting tradition is difficult, and in most instances, I’m a progressive, but I really think you protect rivalries like Michigan-Ohio State and Tennessee-Alabama.)

Television revenue will be a linchpin of the discussion, and ESPN, who owns the SEC Network, will certainly be pushing for the additional conference game to add valuable content to the network, which also launches in the fall of 2014. Coaches, on the other hand, are decidedly against it.

The SEC schedule is already a meat-grinder, and nine conference games means–in most cases–the subtraction of a non-conference game against an inferior opponent and the addition of a battle-tested conference rival. For title contenders, that means a harder path to the championship. For middling teams, that means a more difficult path to bowl eligibility.

For that reason, it’s easy to understand their sentiment. Coaches are under an enormous amount of pressure to produce and win, and a more difficult path to success makes a hard job seem nearly impossible.

However, as a fan, it’s hard not to hope for a nine-game schedule. Auburn and Alabama may be the most contentious rivalry in the SEC, with its utter lack of civility, but Tennessee and Alabama has been the most historic and traditional rivalry in the South. And you can make a case that it has meant more to college football than any rivalry out there, with the exception of Michigan and Ohio State.

These are the two most prominent winners in the nation’s (current) most prominent conference, and I’d hate to see that rivalry and several others sacrificed for a more balanced eight-game schedule. Not to mention, if the SEC continues to play eight conference games, they’ll continue to attract doubters that think they’re gaming the system in order to pave an easier road to the playoff. Essentially, they’d be college football’s version of Bleacher Report.

I understand why the coaches are resistant to change that would make their jobs undoubtedly harder, but a nine-game SEC schedule seems like the most logical option for the conference. And while it won’t be the only topic of discussion in Destin, it will certainly dominate the agenda as well as the headlines.

Mike Slive is nothing if not fiscally responsible, and with all the additional revenue the conference stands to make from an additional conference game, expect to see a strong push for nine games this week.

Meanwhile, Steve Spurrier just hopes they wrap it up in time for his 1:30 tee time.