Re: AD Byrne - We Need Some Quality OOC Home and Homes
Who has the capacity to make it worth our while? Per the 2015 Sporting News, here's your stadiums:
1) Michigan
2) Penn St
3) Ohio St
4) Tennessee
5) LSU
6) Alabama
7) Texas
8) USC
9) Georgia
10) UCLA
11) Florida
12) Auburn
13) Clemson
14) ATM
15) FSU
16) Oklahoma
17) Notre Dame
18) Wisconsin
19) South Carolina
20) Miami
21) Michigan St
22) Washington
23) Arkansas
24) Arizona St
So let's eliminate those we already play at most years or on rotational basis (and BDS, of course)
1) Michigan
2) Penn St
3) Ohio St
7) Texas
8) USC
10) UCLA
13) Clemson
15) FSU
16) Oklahoma
17) Notre Dame
18) Wisconsin
20) Miami
21) Michigan St
22) Washington
24) Arizona St
Now we ask - what's in it for us? At this point, you can eliminate the West Coast. That takes out four more (the Pac 12 teams). We're now down to basically 11 opponents with stadiums big enough to hold us and them and make it worthwhile.
In recent years, we've axe murdered Michigan, Penn State, Texas, Notre Dame, Wisconsin, and Michigan St (of the 11 left) in neutral site games.
Do you REALLY think these teams want TWO consecutive years of facing us right now?
That leaves us with FIVE opponents we could schedule games with: Miami, OU, FSU, Clemson, and Ohio State.
Three of those five have beaten us in the last five years...two by the skin of their teeth and another in a game that meant nothing to us and everything to them.
I get what you're saying, I honestly do. I grew up with the annual Penn St-Alabama gentleman's rivalry. I remember it being a big deal when we beat Notre Dame in 1986 - it was a big deal when we played ATM in both 1985 and 1988. But too much has changed since then.
In 1986, Alabama played SIX SEC games in a ten-team conference. We also played Ohio State in the Kickoff Classic, Notre Dame, Penn State (who won the title that year), and Temple (who had a Heisman candidate in Paul Palmer). It was a murderous slate and probably had a lot to do with what I thought was a legit Tide team winding up in the Sun Bowl when one score against LSU puts us back in New Orleans for the first time post-Bryant.
In 2002, an extra game was added. So now you play thirteen PLUS the conference title game PLUS two rounds of playoffs if you're lucky.
You have to play the eight SEC games...then you have to remember that the other conferences play NINE conference title games. That means THEY have one less open date than do we. How many wish to add Alabama for real? Keep in mind we've had some legit openers since Saban arrived. We have replaced the likes of the Mike Shula schedule (to be fair, Franchione dumped some games because of the sanctions) openers with Clemson, Va Tech (twice), Michigan, WVA, Wisconsin, USC, and FSU. We've had two 'cush' openers - in 2010 and 2011 - and we did have Penn State in the second game both of those years. (I would add that it was probably the best of all worlds for Saban to face his alma mater in the first game after the tornadoes).
In 2015, Alabama played a schedule that posted a winning percentage of .693. The so-called greatest team of all-time, Nebraska 1995, faced a schedule that had a winning pct of .547. To face a schedule as challenging as that Alabama team did, Nebraska would have to face opponents with a combined record of 65-0 just to make it even.
That 2015 team played Wisky at a neutral site here in Dallas.
What would have been gained by going to Camp Randall to play it - and then have to face them the next year?