DESTIN, Fla. – LSU head coach Brian Kelly summed up the conversations surrounding the current state of college athletics with one phrase: “It’s Getting Crazy”.
Coming out of the second day of SEC spring meetings, I would say that the Tigers coach is not wrong about where we are at right now, with a lot of different moving parts.
But, there does seem to be one interesting aspect of the conversations on Tuesday that could allow college football fans to breathe a sigh of relief regarding the regular season. IF the SEC and Big Ten can come together to get this ‘alliance’ over the top, maybe the schools can do fans a favor and bring more interesting non-conference games to the schedule.
On Tuesday, Brian Kelly, along with Arkansas coach Sam Pittman, discussed a potential change to how the SEC puts together a schedule.
Could we end up seeing an SEC versus Big Ten challenge every season, just like you see in college basketball between conferences? There’s at least a chance this could happen moving forward, and it could also solve the SEC’s nine-conference game problem at the same time.
There is a problem right now in college football, and it all relates to fan engagement being put aside for the almighty dollar. It’s time for the SEC to give its fans non-conference matchups that they can actually look forward to every season, and stop wasting it on some FCS school that is used for a win on their overall record.
Give the fans their money’s worth with season tickets, and schedule a non-conference game that would excite fans, while also helping you out with the strength of schedule. Sure, not every SEC and Big Ten school is going to be the greatest matchup, but that’s not the point. If you start scheduling these games, more intriguing opponents will follow down the road.
Set up a home-and-home with both conferences, and rotate the teams every two years. This isn’t as difficult as some want to make it out to be. For LSU’s Brian Kelly, he understands that at the moment, the Big Ten is king, with back-to-back national championships.
“We want to play in the regular season. Yeah, we would like to. We think one would do it for us to add to our schedule. We want to compete against the Big Ten,” Brian Kelly said on Wednesday. “Look, the Big Ten right now holds it on the SEC. They’ve won the last two national championships. Okay, that’s the reality of it.
“We want to get challenged in that regard, and we’d like to be able to get that done. That is up to our commissioner and the AD’s to see if that can happen. But that’s the wish of the room.”
This Comes Down To College Football Playoff Selection, And Money
There are numerous factors that will play into how this shakes out moving forward, and money will be a driving force. Are schools willing to take the chance of potentially adding another loss to their schedule by adding a conference game?
Sure they are, but they also have to be assured that this will help them come the end of November, when college football playoff selections are made. These coaches understand that there is so much on the line when it comes to a potential spot in the postseason, that some are nervous to add another conference game. Is the solution having that ninth game come against a Big Ten school?
LSU head coach Brian Kelly meets with the media at SEC Spring meetings Via: Trey Wallace
Possibly, but a school like South Carolina is already playing Clemson on a yearly basis. Do you think Florida wants to get rid of its annual game against Florida State? Absolutely not, which is why playing a yearly game against a Big Ten school is not the smartest idea for some coaches. But, once again, it could help them with strength of schedule when December rolls around.
“The coaches, as a group, we wanna do what will allow the most opportunities for our teams to get into the playoffs,” Brian Kelly mentioned. “So, whether that’s eight or nine, the athletic directors are looking at it from a number of different perspectives, like revenue is part of this, maybe potentially another game at home. Some in the room are like we don’t wanna play another game, it’s a potential loss, we’re playing SEC teams. Others are like, let’s go down this road because maybe there are some opportunities for the selection committee to look at this a bit differently than in the right-hand column.
“We can’t sit there in a vacuum because we don’t want another loss because the selection committee looks at losses.”
As the coaches headed towards the private airport that would take them back to their campuses, it was clear that they had given Greg Sankey a piece of their mind regarding what the future could look like.
But if we’re honest, these coaches are more worried about upcoming recruiting visits compared to the arguing over who they will play in five years. And trust me, they couldn’t get out of the hotel quick enough after the past two days.
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