Hello -- Longtime lurker and former poster at agtimes.
I see much talk about pod system or 3 permanent rivals type scheduling. This will inherently favor some teams aka traditional powers and conference favorites. There is a too much chance for pod loading and sos mismatches. The most fair alignment would be a 2 division system of 9 conference games. 7 games within division and rotating 2 crossdivision. everyone plays each other every 4 years. Furthermore rank the divisions based on historical performance 1-8 and have the 2 cross division games "seeded" so that someone from the west doesnt play bama and georgia in the same season.
something like this:
1 bama
2 georgia
3 auburn
4 gator
4 vols
3 cocks
2 uk
1 vandy
1 lsu
2 A&M
3 land thieves
4 rebels
4 tu
3 state
2 arky
1 mizzou
Debate the ranking to your liking but in this scenario lsu and mizzou would play bama and vandy in year one. then in year two it would rotate georgia and kentucky. etc etc. this would keep cross division matchups interesting and level out sos to a degree. At the end of year 4 the home away location would flip. At the end of year 8 adjustments could be made.
I believe the only notable permanent game that isnt retained in this system in lsu - fla. not sure how much real history is there or if its a more recent thing.
Biggest concern is avoiding a system that has some teams playing completely softer schedules in a pod such as lsu, arky, rebel, state - which basically gives lsu an advantage. It will be hard to get it right in a pod or three permanent game scenerio without benefitting someone. And guess what ---- it wont be us!!!
Fire away
I see much talk about pod system or 3 permanent rivals type scheduling. This will inherently favor some teams aka traditional powers and conference favorites. There is a too much chance for pod loading and sos mismatches. The most fair alignment would be a 2 division system of 9 conference games. 7 games within division and rotating 2 crossdivision. everyone plays each other every 4 years. Furthermore rank the divisions based on historical performance 1-8 and have the 2 cross division games "seeded" so that someone from the west doesnt play bama and georgia in the same season.
something like this:
1 bama
2 georgia
3 auburn
4 gator
4 vols
3 cocks
2 uk
1 vandy
1 lsu
2 A&M
3 land thieves
4 rebels
4 tu
3 state
2 arky
1 mizzou
Debate the ranking to your liking but in this scenario lsu and mizzou would play bama and vandy in year one. then in year two it would rotate georgia and kentucky. etc etc. this would keep cross division matchups interesting and level out sos to a degree. At the end of year 4 the home away location would flip. At the end of year 8 adjustments could be made.
I believe the only notable permanent game that isnt retained in this system in lsu - fla. not sure how much real history is there or if its a more recent thing.
Biggest concern is avoiding a system that has some teams playing completely softer schedules in a pod such as lsu, arky, rebel, state - which basically gives lsu an advantage. It will be hard to get it right in a pod or three permanent game scenerio without benefitting someone. And guess what ---- it wont be us!!!
Fire away