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Meh, not really. You still have 161 teams to choose from.

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It will be a lot harder than you think with 14 SEC teams going after the same opponents in the 90-175 range. These teams will also jack up their guarantee because the "demand" from the SEC will give them a lot more leverage.

I agree w the sentiment, but this rule really handcuffs the SEC teams in the timing and logistics of scheduling. This rule in essence removes the pool of potential opponents by 50%.

I'm also curious how the league will enforce such a rule.

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I have always wondered why the SEC doesn't do the same thing in football and basketball go to these mid level schools and make a contract with them to play 1 or 2 in football and maybe 2 or 3 basketball preseason games with SEC opponents at some guaranteed price. Then the individual SEC teams could figure out which team would work better instead of all SEC schools trying to make individual contracts.

Some more thoughts from Mike Tranghese:

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"The league is capable of doing so much more than it did this year," Tranghese said.

Tranghese has some ideas to make it happen. It starts with scheduling games against better competition and winning more of those key, non-conference matchups. But Tranghese also wants coaches to work together to expand the SEC brand.

They are planning to televise a weekly basketball show on the SEC Network, and Tranghese encouraged them to embrace (instead of complain about) late games on television and use football as a recruiting tool.

"You've got to use it in your favor," Tranghese said. "If I'm bringing a recruit in, do I want to bring him in the weekend of the Tennessee-Alabama football game versus somebody who doesn't have football? You bet your life I do. Because you have the best football league in the country doesn't mean you can't be good in basketball. That's an excuse.

"Get rid of all those negative perceptions. ... Because you're better than they are at football, kids shouldn't come here? It's illogical. If fact, I would argue you should come here. It's something to do on fall weekends, something really good to do on fall weekends."

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"If you can't beat decent people, you don't deserve to be in the tournament anyway," Tranghese said. "So play them. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Everything."

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http://www.leaderherald.com/page/content.detail/id/1180708/SEC-turns-to-Tranghese-to-bolster-league-s-hoops-profile.html?isap=1&nav=5029