Manhattan Buckeye;1323197 wrote:Logic also dictates that they (i) get more or less a bye week right before the end of the year, and (ii) since end of the year losses tend to count more in polls than beginning of the year losses, it is a HUGH benefit for the SEC. It isn't stupid to recognize this.

That's still not a good argument, because Ohio State had an ACTUAL bye week last week.

ts1227;1323092 wrote:Keep in mind the MAC had one of their best years in recent memory this year (just ask the bottom half of the B1G that lost to them at least once), instead of lumping them with 1-AA schools

Don't bother trying to bring logic in.

Of course, on a related note, the Sun Belt also has had one of their best years against the SEC, if not their best year, defeated a lolTop10lol Arkansas (the perfect example of how the SEC gets overrated in preseason polls), scared the shit out of Florida and also beat the conference's own FCS team in Kentucky.

If it's such a benefit, why don't all conferences do it? It's not like some super secret formula as we're sitting here with a 2-page thread about it.

Again, it comes down to semantics too. The SEC STILL plays a 8-game conference schedule. I wish they played a 9-gamer, given the expansion. Until then, it only makes sense to save a cupcake game for the end of the year.

The CBS contract also plays into this as well. They ALWAYS have Florida/Tennessee the 3rd week in September. This generally means the conference schedule is going to start at least a week before other leagues, and will have to be made up with a cupcake or OOC game sometime later.

Mulva;1323320 wrote:That's still not a good argument, because Ohio State had an ACTUAL bye week last week.

Then schedule a bye and play your games earlier, I'm not sure what's wrong with the argument, it is a guaranteed late season win...is that difficult to understand?

"The CBS contract also plays into this as well. They ALWAYS have Florida/Tennessee the 3rd week in September. This generally means the conference schedule is going to start at least a week before other leagues, and will have to be made up with a cupcake or OOC game sometime later."

Fine, just play it before November. The reason why other conferences don't do it is they don't take advantage of loopholes like some SEC teams do. Ohio St. isn't going to subject their fans to a crappy November 15 home game against Youngstown St. just to get an easy win. The closest they came to this was against New Mexico St. that was on October 31, and IIRC that was due to a scheduling snafu that had them trying to fit any game in.

Again, I don't care if people are SEC homers, it is damn obvious that SEC teams do this for a reason. I can't believe the OP, Believer and I are being the illogical ones here.

What "loopholes" are they taking advantage of? LMAO @ the obsessed homers on here. 'You play a cupcake in Nov.' waaaaah. SEC also plays top ooc teams in Nov. like Clemson and FSU. Deal with it.

It'd be so much better for college football if teams would play all their cupcakes at the last 4 games of the season!

That's what I don't get. What is this "loophole?" The NCAA doesn't mandate any of this stuff. They don't necessarily care what the conferences do with their schedule. Am I arguing that it doesn't have its advantages? No. However, what is stopping everyone else from doing it? Again, this is a conference decision with their scheduling. It's the same with an 8-game conference schedule vs 9-games. It's the same with conferences like the B1G deciding who doesn't play who each year. Same with the Pac 12 and ACC, as they have certain teams that only meet every few years. It's the same as NCAA basketball teams who have been known to manipulate the RPI formula to play out to their advantage, without actually playing a tougher schedule than other teams.

It's called ethics, responsibility, academic success, and integrity; something the SEC lacks.

Manhattan Buckeye;1324224 wrote:Then schedule a bye and play your games earlier, I'm not sure what's wrong with the argument, it is a guaranteed late season win...is that difficult to understand?

It's a guaranteed early season win too, so who cares? It's infinitely more likely to lose to a 1-AA opponent than to lose during a bye week, so the "late season losses count more" argument doesn't apply either.

You said getting "more or less of a bye week right near the end of the year" was a HUGH (sic) benefit for the SEC. How is it more of a benefit than getting an actual bye week?

It's a nonsensical argument to me.

Mulva;1324438 wrote:It's a guaranteed early season win too, so who cares? It's infinitely more likely to lose to a 1-AA opponent than to lose during a bye week, so the "late season losses count more" argument doesn't apply either.

You said getting "more or less of a bye week right near the end of the year" was a HUGH (sic) benefit for the SEC. How is it more of a benefit than getting an actual bye week?

It's a nonsensical argument to me.

Because a loss at the beginning of the year is different than the end of the year.

sleeper;1324388 wrote:It's called ethics, responsibility, academic success, and integrity; something the SEC lacks.

In many ways, you are correct. The SEC is behind in certain instances. The topic of this thread, unfortunately, is NOT one of them.

Conference play starting early, cupcakes in November and academic success. I fail to see the link, and I got my degree from a fine B1G institution

sleeper;1324440 wrote:Because a loss at the beginning of the year is different than the end of the year.

I'm saying if the options are having a bye in September/October and a 1-AA opponent in November, or a 1-AA opponent in September/October and a bye in November then how is it any advantage?

1-AA or not, the team actually playing a game in November is the only one of the two with a chance of losing. If losing that game would hurt more, how is it any benefit to the team playing that game?

Edit to add example:

Georgia had a bye on October 13th. If they instead played Georgia Southern on October 13 and took a bye this weekend, their odds of losing later in the season go DOWN (however small the odds of losing yesterday were), not up. You can't lose when you don't play. Where's the advantage?

It doesnt necessarily help the SEC playing a cupcake late in the year. Look at USCe for example. They dropped out of the top 10 in the BCS this week, even though they won. You wanna be moving up at the end of the year when it matters.

Put it this way. If the ACC or Big East did this on a regular basis, nobody would care, because rarely does a team from one of those conferences ever get into the title game discussion...

Is it bad that the SEC does this, or is it stupid that the B1G and other conferense are stubborn and wont do this???

If its to the advantage of the SEC, why wouldnt they do it???

Laley23;1324487 wrote:Is it bad that the SEC does this, or is it stupid that the B1G and other conferense are stubborn and wont do this???

If its to the advantage of the SEC, why wouldnt they do it???

Take the Pac 12 for example. They chose to expand to 12 teams. By doing so, they kept their 9-game league schedule and added a Pac 12 title game. Their flexibility in scheduling takes a big hit by doing that, but that's the trade off...

The ACC and SEC could easily go to a 9-game conference schedule, but guess what? Given that these schools want guaranteed $$$, the game sacrificed in most cases would be the "in-state rivalries." They would still keep their 2-3 cupcake, guaranteed cash flow games. That's just the nature of the beast in today's game. It's all about optimal dosing of revenue and fan-pleasing.

Laley23;1324487 wrote:Is it bad that the SEC does this, or is it stupid that the B1G and other conferense are stubborn and wont do this???

If its to the advantage of the SEC, why wouldnt they do it???

Same reason why they didn't oversign when many SEC teams were making it a common occurrence. Respect for their fans, for the game? I don't know. The Big 10 had a rule for years that no game could be played at night past October 31. The NCAA didn't mandate it, the league did it.

I do know I don't want to see another LSU-Alabama snoozefest. Or another team as pathetic as LSU last year in the title game.

Azubuike24;1324463 wrote:Put it this way. If the ACC or Big East did this on a regular basis, nobody would care, because rarely does a team from one of those conferences ever get into the title game discussion...

Nor does Kentucky. Play Eastern Kentucky next year for all anyone cares.

But to answer your point, I do think it has more to do with respect for the fans, and for the fan base to respect the game a bit more. If Virginia schedules James Madison that late in the season, the fans would go nuts even if they weren't anywhere close to the title hunt.

It is just another SEC football win at all costs production, and it is truly lame. Just like last year's title game.

I can see the oversigning thing though. That's legit. How is this "disrespecting the fans?"

Check the attendance for this weekend's SEC games. Didn't look like the fans were too upset. In-fact, I'd bet that South Carolina fans didn't mind playing Wofford before Clemson. Florida before getting FSU. Georgia before getting Georgia Tech. And so on.

Show me where the disrespect to the fans is and I'll agree. There's nothing here though...comparing this to oversigning is ridiculous.

Manhattan Buckeye;1324523 wrote:Same reason why they didn't oversign when many SEC teams were making it a common occurrence. Respect for their fans, for the game? I don't know. The Big 10 had a rule for years that no game could be played at night past October 31. The NCAA didn't mandate it, the league did it.

I do know I don't want to see another LSU-Alabama snoozefest. Or another team as pathetic as LSU last year in the title game.

I didn't watch the title game last year because it was a fraud but I do know one of the worst games I ever watched was LSU/Bama. It was essentially bad offense and missed field goals construed as tough defense. What a fraud.

LOL at the SEC apologists on this thread. There IS no excuse for this tomfoolery. Gotta love the SEC fans. Maybe they can explain to us why Arkansas was ranked in the top ten before the season started.

Bowl season will soon be here...and the great and powerful Oz conference will stay true to form and lose half their games inspite of enjoying home field advantage.

And then next year, the pollsters will have 6 of these schools ranked in the top 12 once again. Right now, the rankings should be...

1. ND
2. Oregon
3. K State

Why should Alabama get a pass after....for the second year on a row....lose a conference game at home?

Oregon also lost at home and KSU lost to fucking Baylor. Footwedge, you continually make such asinine predictions ad statements. When will the insanity end? Or are you actually that big of an idiot?

It's funny how similar the losses by Oregon and Alabama both were. It's not like either team they lost to, despite it being at home, are that bad (both are top 10 and possible BCS teams).

Kansas State on the other hand, got clocked by a team that was 4-5. They didn't just lose in a nail biter like Alabama or Oregon, they got rolled by 4 TD's...

Azubuike24;1325391 wrote:It's funny how similar the losses by Oregon and Alabama both were. It's not like either team they lost to, despite it being at home, are that bad (both are top 10 and possible BCS teams).

Kansas State on the other hand, got clocked by a team that was 4-5. They didn't just lose in a nail biter like Alabama or Oregon, they got rolled by 4 TD's...

A 4-5 team on an epic losing streak, too. Because Baylor did start out 3-0 or 4-0 and was in the 20-25 part of the rankings early on after getting past that one Louisiana Sun Belt team that'd been the bane of the SEC early in the year.