SEC Schedule Likely To Stay At Eight Games, Per Mike Slive

July 17, 2012; Hoover, AL, USA; SEC commissioner Mike Slive speaks at a press conference during the 2012 SEC media days event at the Wynfrey Hotel. Mandatory Credit: Kelly Lambert-USA TODAY Sports

The white sand beaches of Destin, FL were invaded with SEC brass as the conference’s annual spring meetings kicked off on Tuesday afternoon, and the SEC schedule was the first thing on the agenda.

Between the additions of the Missouri Tigers and the Texas A&M Aggies last season and the SEC Network set to launch in August of 2014, it was figured that the debate between an eight and nine-game SEC schedule and whether or not the conference continued annual crossover rivalries would take center stage on the Gulf Coast. After 12 hours of discussions, it appears as if that was the case.

SEC commissioner Mike Slive came away from the first day of spring meetings virtually certain that the SEC would maintain an eight-game schedule through 2014 and likely 2015, as well. As for the structure, the conference also seems content on continuing with the 6-1-1 model, per this tweet by SEC PR man Chuck Dunlap.

What that means is that each SEC team would play six divisional opponents, one annual crossover rival (a la Tennessee vs. Alabama) and a rotating crossover game. However, don’t necessarily expect that to be the model of the future.

In a 14-team SEC, having an eight game schedule under that model creates some rather significant imbalance. We saw that come into play last season with LSU, Texas A&M and Alabama all slugging it out in the SEC West.

The Alabama Crimson Tide ultimately would go on to win the division, the SEC and the BCS title in 2012. However, that’s thanks in large part to a lucky draw in crossover play. Alabama played two SEC East opponents with losing records (Tennessee and Missouri), while LSU was forced to play both Florida and South Carolina, and Texas A&M drew a tough SEC opener against the Gators.

Traditional rivalries have come under assault as the source of the perceived imbalance, and while it does make scheduling more difficult, the preservation of some of these rivalries should be extremely important to Mike Slive and the SEC. Tennessee and Alabama is one of the most historic rivalries in college football, as is Georgia-Auburn.

Meanwhile, LSU-Florida has been one of the most competitive crossover games of the last decade and it almost always takes on national significance. Keeping these rivalries intact isn’t an easy proposition with an eight-game schedule in a 14-team league, which is why many people believe a nine-game SEC schedule may be on the horizon.

ESPN would be all for an additional conference game with the SEC Network coming in 2014. However, Mike Slive seems content to wait it out for the next couple of years while the new college football playoff is implemented.

For obvious reasons, all SEC coaches–with the exception of Nick Saban–are staunchly against a nine-game SEC schedule. And while the 6-1-1 model means that someone will almost certainly have an easier path to the SEC title than others in a given year, they’ll likely take that in contrast to nine conference games that will undoubtedly make their lives hell.

Personally, I’d like to do something radical that allows the SEC’s crossover rivalries to stay while still maintaining relative fairness. The easiest way to do that is to not count crossover games on the conference record.

The whole point of the regular season conference schedule is to determine the best team in each division and pit them against each other in the SEC championship. So why do crossover games count in the first place?

Whether it’s a 12 or 14-team league, the SEC schedule was never truly balanced. Teams got lucky based on the draw, and divisional titles were won and lost based on who teams drew in crossover play.

My proposal, which I pined for Tuesday night on “Football Time on Tennessee Sports Radio” (I come on 12 minutes into Hour Two on the link), would be to play either an eight or nine-game SEC schedule in either the 6-1-1 or 6-1-2 format, but only the divisional games would count towards crowning a divisional champion. You’d still maintain rivalries like the Third Saturday in October, and teams would still have the luxury of visiting iconic stadiums from the other division, and in a four-team playoff where the regular season is still paramount, those games would still be significant.

Meanwhile, everybody is playing a fair schedule on their way to selecting a divisional champion, and teams like Alabama won’t have an advantage over teams like LSU when they draw Missouri and Tennessee in a given year.

For now, the current SEC schedule is sticking with its 6-1-1 model, but with so much changing in the SEC and in college football as a whole, I suppose we’ll see some sort of change in the next few years. However, I’m not sure anything will be decided this week in Destin.