Les Miles On The SEC Schedule

Dec 31, 2012; Atlanta, GA, USA; Louisiana State Tigers head coach Les Miles celebrates with fans during the Tigers team walk at FanFest prior to the 2012 Chick-fil-A Bowl against the Clemson Tigers at the Georgia Dome. Mandatory Credit: Joshua S. Kelly-USA TODAY Sports

LSU Tigers head coach Les Miles was among the SEC personalities to address reporters on Wednesday during the league’s post-spring teleconference. Always one to speak his mind, the take of Les Miles on the SEC schedule addresses a central problem to conference expansion.

“How the champion is decided in the finest collegiate football conference in America, it’s interesting how you would compare our schedule with others,” Miles said.

“I wonder if there should be no permanent partners,” he added, alluding to the traditional rivalries maintained during the league’s expansion to 14 teams.

“I wonder if a computer would pick a fair schedule by random draw. I wonder what other conferences require mandatory crossovers,” Miles said. “The key piece for any conference is to allow equal access to be champion. I suspect that there’s going to be some questions there.”

LSU faces a daunting SEC slate. In addition to the treacherous climb that is the West division, featuring 11-win Texas A&M and two-time defending national champion Alabama, the Tigers face the Florida Gators and Georgia Bulldogs from the East.

LSU also opens with a neutral field game against a TCU Horned Frogs team that should be much improved on its 7-6 mark last season.

“Very, very competitive and one in Dallas we’ll all look forward to,” Miles described it.

Texas A&M also draws opponents from Texas to form its non-conference schedule. However, a four-game slate of Sam Houston State, Rice, SMU and UTEP is lacking the prestige of LSU’s Cowboys Classic date.

That said, the non-conference has no bearing on determining a league champion — the conference does. And in contrast to LSU, Texas A&M sees Vanderbilt. The Commodores are much improved under head coach James Franklin, though not on the same tier as Georgia and Florida teams that won a combined 23 games in 2012.

A&M’s other divisional opponent: the Missouri Tigers, which were paired with the Aggies upon the arrival of each from the Big 12 last season. Missouri did not acclimate to the SEC in quite the manner A&M has, finishing 5-7.

Such disparities can have profound impact on a conference championship race.

Take the situation last season in the East division. The South Carolina Gamecocks thrashed the Georgia Bulldogs when the two met head-to-head. South Carolina later lost to Florida, which Georgia defeated. Now, conference championship game representation would have taken on a much different dynamic had the Gamecocks not lost a second league game, at LSU in mid-October.

By contrast, Georgia faced Ole Miss and Auburn from the West. The Rebels and Tigers won a combined 10 games — as many together as LSU won on its own.

Equal scheduling is one of the major pitfalls conference expansion causes. The league is limited in how it can slate teams, particularly with the SEC following an eight-game model. Every SEC team plays just over two-thirds of its conference. That leaves a huge percentage of teams to miss, and the chips can fall so that the percentage accounts for some pretty important opponents.

Georgia last year is the perfect example, avoiding Alabama, LSU and Texas A&M.

By contrast, the 12-team Pac-12 plays nine conference games, so a team only misses two members a year. The Big 12 adopted an all-team round robin after contracting to 10 members. This model clearly defines a champion at season’s end, for all intents and purposes, in that no conference opponent is missed.

The more members a conference has, the more counterparts a team must skip per season. That’s basic arithmetic. As a result, a conference schedule is never going to be completely fair. But the goal should be to present a docket that is as even as possible. The SEC’s is not.

Ultimately though, LSU has an outlet for recourse: winning.

“The schedule will be very demanding,” he said. “It’s one of those schedules that would challenge any team. Our football team is looking forward to it, I promise.”