Should each school play every conference school at least once in four years?

Is playing every school in conference once every four years a Big Deal?


  • Total voters
    42

Redwood Forrest

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Sep 19, 2003
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Boaz, AL USA
Each time conference realignment comes up (on radio) someone always makes the point that the players deserve to play every team in their four year career. They make this a major point of contention. The same point about a nine game schedule ~ it would let every player play every conference team in his career. I wonder? Does a player think it is a big deal because he didn't get to play Vanderbilt? Or Ole Miss? Does a player at Arkansas feel cheated because he didn't get to play Kentucky? Does a player at Florida feel cheated because he didn't get to play Alabama?

I am trying to put myself in a players mindset. I came to ___________ because:

1. The money
2. I can get to the NFL from here.
3. I feel at home here. This is the best fit for me.
4. I can play right away.

....... I get to play every team in the conference before I graduate.

I just can't see how that is such a big deal as some people make out. "I came to Alabama so I can play Georgia once every four years. I came to Tennessee so I can play Miss St once every four years." Really?

What do you think?
 

B1GTide

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Apr 13, 2012
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Until someone in the media came up with this, I would bet that not a single recruit had even considered it as a selling point for a school or conference. The level of competition within a conference might, but not something as contrived as "playing every team in my conference".

Do fans care? Only fans looking to prop up their school or conference at the expense of another school or conference. I can't imagine any really talk at home about how great it is to know that they will get to see their favorite program play XXX non-rival school every 4 years.
 
Last edited:

Mystical

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Sep 28, 2009
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I think certain players want to play in certain games. I guarantee you Ohio State players look forward to the Michigan game and vice versa.
 

B1GTide

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I think certain players want to play in certain games. I guarantee you Ohio State players look forward to the Michigan game and vice versa.
But that isn't the discussion, because those traditional rivalry games are protected in every conference already.
 

B1GTide

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Nebraska Ok went away before they joined the Big. Realignment can hurt. I think it hurt both of those schools but Nebraska more.
I don't know enough about those schools to have realized that this amounted to a huge rivalry. Thanks
 

ALA2262

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Aug 4, 2007
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TUSKtimes

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Right here, Right now
It should close the gap somewhat between the two divisions in competitive balance. Right now, if Tennessee can make it passed the Alabama game with just an SEC loss, They basically just have to be sure they don't fall asleep at the wheel.

South Carolina
Kentucky
Missouri
Vandy

That's been going on in Knoxville since time indefinite. Check any team's schedule in the west going down the stretch and the difference in conference division strength is impactful.
 

ALA2262

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Aug 4, 2007
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No is my answer to the thread title question. Because, even with a 9 game conference schedule, I would not want the other 4 to be played in a 4 year period. Hate that about the current scheduling. Much, much, much prefer the successive H/H scheduling whereby the 4 would all be played H/H in an 8 year period.

The players? Give me a break! Other than the 2 or 3 rival games that are played annually anyway, why would they care?
 

Redwood Forrest

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Nebraska Ok went away before they joined the Big. Realignment can hurt. I think it hurt both of those schools but Nebraska more.
I don't believe any player ever said, "I was going to Oklahoma but now I am going to Texas because Oklahoma quit playing Nebraska."
That sounds like he ought to have committed to Nebraska to begin with and not Oklahoma.

I know playing other teams means something, I just don't think it is a BIG deal.
 

selmaborntidefan

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I don't think it's a big deal, I just think it ought to be done for balancing.

If this even enters a recruit's mind nowadays at Alabama, he wants to go to (name of place where national title game and semi-final game are being played). Most SEC stadiums have an aura about them - maybe not Vandy or perhaps Arkansas or maybe Mizzou (not knocking those schools btw) - but even Kentucky has a certain aura about it when we play there.

I do think it's more important if you're, say, a South Carolina recruit that you play in Tuscaloosa or Jordan-Hare than it is an Alabama recruit that he plays at Williams-Brice. But I also don't think those are HUGE selling points. This is not the 1970s when you got one national game per week on TV with a limit of your team being on there three times.

Side note:
Btw - this right here is why I don't think Nebraska will ever be able to attain the huge name it once had (or Notre Dame, either). Tommie Frazier, for example, was from Bradenton, Florida. What kid with Tommie Frazier's skills nowadays is going to go spend four years in miserable winters in the middle of nowhere when he can now stay at home (or close to home) at a place like UCF or USF and still be seen on TV just as much with no snow? What kid from Dallas (like Mike Rozier) is going to Lincoln when now he can just stay home with Mom and Dad and play at TCU and be on TV just as much?

My brother, as I've noted many times, is a news producer in New England. He is sharp as a tack on sports, particularly since they're in every newscast, and I get texts from him every single day about sports I don't even care about. When we played Notre Dame in 2013, he literally DID NOT KNOW that there was a time when Notre Dame was considered the be all and end all of college football. (He was born in 1985). Notre Dame had been irrelevant since he was about eight years old. Neither did anyone his age at the station. In fact, people my age (46) barely recall Notre Dame being all that great shakes - my first actual recollection is our 1980 loss to them that occurred a few weeks after I turned eleven years old.

Then they hired Gerry Faust and became a laughingstock. Then they hired Holtz and had a really good team from 1988-93......and then they tanked.

I remember HEARING about what they used to be, but even I never saw them as the 'cream of the crop.'
 

tide96

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Oct 4, 2005
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I wonder what an SEC schedule for 4 years would look like if we did away with divisions and stopped protecting any rivalries.

It would certainly be unorthodox to not play Auburn every year, but that might solve a lot of problems.
 

dvldog

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Sep 20, 2005
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It just seems to make sense that if you have a conference you would on some reasonable timeline play each other else why are you banded together. Simplistic I know.
 

81usaf92

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Apr 26, 2008
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I don't know enough about those schools to have realized that this amounted to a huge rivalry. Thanks
Nebraska's biggest rivals are Colorado, Oklahoma, and Missouri. Right now the biggest rival in their eyes now is Wisconsin, but Wisconsin doesn't see it that way. Ironically the roles are switched between them and Iowa in which Iowa treats it as a huge rivalry but Nebraska doesn't. Realignment really hurt Nebraska.
 

RollTideMang

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Oct 16, 2009
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I could see this being more of a selling point for the bottom schools in the conference. I'm sure a lot of people come to the SEC to play Alabama, Tennessee, Florida, Georgia, LSU, etc. If someone for a team like Vandy doesn't get to play any of the big names in the West before graduating, I could see it being a downside.

For the big name schools though (read: those competing for championships), I can't see this being a problem. I'm sure players don't mind skipping Florida, Georgia, Tennessee to get Vandy or Kentucky if it will help them make it to the big game.
 

KrAzY3

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Much like addressing the whole issue of cupcakes/FCS programs in a regular schedule is to play less games, the easiest way to play conference teams more often is to have less conference teams. As has been stated, it's just less and less feasible. Though, the Big 10 played a pretty sneaky trick when they just added two cupcakes (Rutgers and Maryland) to their schedule and went to a nine game conference schedule, but did that help the other teams play each other more often? Nope...
 

MN-Tide

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Jan 2, 2007
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I don't think it's a big deal for the players or for anyone else. However, from a fan's perspective, I think it would be nice to play all of the teams in the conference at least occasionally (not necessarily every four years). If you're a fan of Kentucky or Vanderbilt, you want to see Alabama come to town. I think it's a little bit like inter-league play in baseball. The fans want to see some of the great players and managers that play or manage in the other league. There are folks in Kentucky that want to see Coach Saban in person.
 

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