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Georgia and Texas A&M have not played in College Station Yet?! - A critique of SEC

Football Scheduling

by Sedric Granger

“The University of Georgia and Texas A&M University have been in the SEC together

for eleven years, I am sure that they have had many great matchups over the last decade!” This is

what most recruits would think when they sign a letter of intent to a team in the Southeastern

Conference (SEC), oftentimes citing how excited they are to play all the top teams in the league

like Alabama, Georgia, and Florida. Well some of these matchups are only hypothetical since

players can go a full five year career (4 seasons plus a redshirt season) without playing every

team in their conference. For example, although the Texas A&M Aggies joined the SEC in 2012,

they did not face the Georgia Bulldogs until 2019. Even now in 2023, the Bulldogs have never

traveled to College Station to face the Aggies. It certainly would have been cool to see a star

studded Georgia team led by Aaron Murray and Todd Gurley in 2013 facing off against a Johnny

Manziel and Mike Evans led Aggies squad.

There are other cases like UGA-TAMU in the SEC in which teams have played programs

outside of their conferences more often than teams within their own league. The SEC is not alone

in this flawed scheduling due to the Big Ten conference also having these issues. Big Ten teams

such as Ohio State and Iowa had to wait 5 whole seasons to play each other despite being in the

same conference.

Although I understand that football does not have as many games as other sports like

basketball and baseball, it should be a bare minimum for conferences to find ways for their teams

to play against each other reasonably often. College football is special because of the many
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unique traditions, venues, towns, and atmospheres that each team possesses. By having every

team in a conference play each other, all of these teams get to be exposed to the traditions of

other schools while showcasing their individual special qualities to other teams. Teams like Ole

Miss and Tennessee rarely play, but, when they do, each of these teams have had a member of

the Manning family play quarterback for their team which ties their traditions together. It is cases

like that that further emphasize why every team should play each other more frequently then they

do now. Some may question my take by stating how it is complicated to come up with logistics

for schedules. To those people, I say let us look at the suggested solutions for the expanded SEC.

“There are reportedly two SEC scheduling formats being considered the most,” writes

Carter Karels of 247 Sports, “The leading candidate, the 3-6-6 model, would give each team

three permanent opponents and nine conference games overall.”

Although the SEC has not made a final decision yet, they are considering a scheduling

model like a 3-6-6 which would include a trio of permanent rivalries for each SEC program

while rotating the other 6, ensuring that every team plays each other in a four year span. If the

Southeastern Conference wanted to do an 8 game conference slate instead of a 9 game one, a

1-7-7 model can be implemented instead. The primary downside to address with a 1-7-7 model is

that a few secondary rivalries would be played only two years.

“Call me old fashioned or whatever, I believe that the thing that makes the SEC great is

its established southern traditions,” says Missouri Head Football Coach Eli Drinkwitz in an

interview with Matt Stahl of the Columbia Daily Tribune. “It’s the passion that our fans have for

the game. It’s the passion that our fans have for family and tradition and going out on

Saturdays.”
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It is important to maintain rivalries such as the Iron Bowl and Egg Bowl; however, it is

possible to have a conference schedule that allows a program to play all of the teams in their

conference over a span of four years home and away while still competing in their annual rivalry

games. The real enigma is why have these scheduling models not been introduced in the SEC

years ago.
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‌Works Cited

“College Football Database of All-Time Records, Wins, and Statistics.” Winsipedia,

http://www.winsipedia.com/.

Karels, Carter. “Three Questions for Texas A&M, SEC before New Football Scheduling

Format Is Released.” Gigem247,

https://247sports.com/college/texas-am/Article/Texas-AM-Aggies-will-have-new-SEC-sch

eduling-format-in-2024-after-Texas-Longhorns-and-Oklahoma-Sooners-news-204525984/.

Stahl, Matt. Mizzou Coach Eli Drinkwitz on Future SEC Football Scheduling | Biloxi ...

Columbia Daily Tribune,

https://www.sunherald.com/sports/college/sec/article272952705.html.