We're starting a week later than we have in the past couple of seasons and will have one less bye week. Is there a major pro to doing it this way?

If anything, I would want to start the season earlier and always kickoff with a huge SEC matchup weekend. Specifically, I would matchup your most likely CFP contenders so that half of them can get that loss out of the way in August and it can be forgiven in December.

UGA @ Bama
LSU @ Ole Miss (obvious reasons)
A&M @ OU
tu @ UT

Get 4 of the inevitable losses out of the way for your CFP candidates early.

Then in week 2, half of us play our big non-conference games while half play cupcakes and then flip those teams in week 3.

I'm pretty sure first week is normally Labor Day weekend. And this next season Labor Day is later.

Our bye week is the first week.

Sure! I enjoy 11:00AM games last week in August against Northeast Louisiana St. Gives me one last time to work on my suntan !!

Oh wait! Make it against OU. 10:00am those Sooners won't be use to the humidity. If we don't beat them, at least we'll send them to the hospital!

Because they caught grief for playing cupcakes as byes before rivalry week.

It has to do with the timing of Labor Day, and the SEC schedule makers have no input in the timing of Labor Day.

Sankey'd

SunrayAg said:

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It has to do with the timing of Labor Day, and the SEC schedule makers have no input in the timing of Labor Day.

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You'd think that as good as we are about manipulating things behind closed doors that we'd have a grasp on that by now

Alpha Texan said:

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We're starting a week later than we have in the past couple of seasons and will have one less bye week. Is there a major pro to doing it this way?

If anything, I would want to start the season earlier and always kickoff with a huge SEC matchup weekend. Specifically, I would matchup your most likely CFP contenders so that half of them can get that loss out of the way in August and it can be forgiven in December.

UGA @ Bama
LSU @ Ole Miss (obvious reasons)
A&M @ OU
tu @ UT

Get 4 of the inevitable losses out of the way for your CFP candidates early.

Then in week 2, half of us play our big non-conference games while half play cupcakes and then flip those teams in week 3.

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I feel like it would have to be OU for every team...



If you're saying it needs to be 1 week ... Sooner...






I'll show myself out.

We are starting a week later because Week 1 is on the Thursday before Labor Day, and week 0 is the preceding Saturday. In 2026, Labor Day is 9/7, which is the latest possible date for Labor Day. FBS teams are reverting to one bye week because there will be 13 Saturdays between Labor Day and Thanksgiving weekends to play 12 regular season games as usual. Most FBS teams had two bye weeks in 2024 and 2025 because there were 14 Saturdays between Labor Day and Thanksgiving weekends. Before 2024, the last time we had a 2+ bye weeks outside of 2020 was 2019 and before that 2013 and 2014. The extra bye week happens when there is an unusual combination of early Labor Day and late Thanksgiving.

Just to add to that, by NCAA rule, week one begins the Thursday before Labor Day, and week zero is the preceding Saturday. So, until the rule changes, the schools are stuck with that calendar.

Phatbob said:

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Alpha Texan said:

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We're starting a week later than we have in the past couple of seasons and will have one less bye week. Is there a major pro to doing it this way?

If anything, I would want to start the season earlier and always kickoff with a huge SEC matchup weekend. Specifically, I would matchup your most likely CFP contenders so that half of them can get that loss out of the way in August and it can be forgiven in December.

UGA @ Bama
LSU @ Ole Miss (obvious reasons)
A&M @ OU
tu @ UT

Get 4 of the inevitable losses out of the way for your CFP candidates early.

Then in week 2, half of us play our big non-conference games while half play cupcakes and then flip those teams in week 3.

---

I feel like it would have to be OU for every team...



If you're saying it needs to be 1 week ... Sooner...






I'll show myself out.

---

I hate playing a big game opening weekend, specially a conference game

No preseason, team needs to get its feet wet before playing a tough opponent

NyAggie said:

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Phatbob said:

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Alpha Texan said:

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We're starting a week later than we have in the past couple of seasons and will have one less bye week. Is there a major pro to doing it this way?

If anything, I would want to start the season earlier and always kickoff with a huge SEC matchup weekend. Specifically, I would matchup your most likely CFP contenders so that half of them can get that loss out of the way in August and it can be forgiven in December.

UGA @ Bama
LSU @ Ole Miss (obvious reasons)
A&M @ OU
tu @ UT

Get 4 of the inevitable losses out of the way for your CFP candidates early.

Then in week 2, half of us play our big non-conference games while half play cupcakes and then flip those teams in week 3.

---

I feel like it would have to be OU for every team...



If you're saying it needs to be 1 week ... Sooner...






I'll show myself out.

---

I hate playing a big game opening weekend, specially a conference game

No preseason, team needs to get its feet wet before playing a tough opponent

---

We could try being less feeble and giving our teams fewer excuses…

greg.w.h said:

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NyAggie said:

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Phatbob said:

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Alpha Texan said:

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We're starting a week later than we have in the past couple of seasons and will have one less bye week. Is there a major pro to doing it this way?

If anything, I would want to start the season earlier and always kickoff with a huge SEC matchup weekend. Specifically, I would matchup your most likely CFP contenders so that half of them can get that loss out of the way in August and it can be forgiven in December.

UGA @ Bama
LSU @ Ole Miss (obvious reasons)
A&M @ OU
tu @ UT

Get 4 of the inevitable losses out of the way for your CFP candidates early.

Then in week 2, half of us play our big non-conference games while half play cupcakes and then flip those teams in week 3.

---

I feel like it would have to be OU for every team...



If you're saying it needs to be 1 week ... Sooner...






I'll show myself out.

---

I hate playing a big game opening weekend, specially a conference game

No preseason, team needs to get its feet wet before playing a tough opponent

---

We could try being less feeble and giving our teams fewer excuses…

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Not excuses, just hate playing a big game week 1