Column: The 10-Game SEC Schedule is Ingenious, Should Continue Past 2020
Promo photo credit: Southeastern Conference
If you haven't heard yet, the SEC released its full 10-game, conference only schedule on Monday night. In Florida's case, they ended up with a pretty tough draw, but still avoided the likes of Alabama and Auburn from the West.
For the SEC, it will be an opportunity to once again prove its dominance in the realm of college football. The SEC will take the shortened 2020 season to continuously beat up on each other, as each team will play against each team in their respective division and will also add two more cross-divisional games for a total of 10 conference games. The SEC decided to eliminate each out-of-conference game due to COVID-19 concerns, so it will strictly be SEC football this autumn. In fact, the SEC doesn't need any out-of-conference games to prove its dominance, as that normally occurs in the postseason.
Since 2000, the Southeastern Conference has accounted for 11 national championships from four schools which include Alabama, Auburn, Florida, and LSU.
No matter who comes out on top on December 19th, they should be in prime position to take home the national title for 2020. Playing SEC competition is unlike playing in any other conference, as the SEC is, bar none, the best recruiter and best developer of talent among any college football conference.
When sending talent to the NFL, the SEC laps any of the conferences with ease, breaking their own records every few years.
Just for proof, the SEC provided these statistics after this past year's 2020 draft.
- For the ninth time in the last 10 years, the SEC once again led the nation in first-round NFL Draft selections, as the league produced a record 15 opening-round draft picks.
- During the last 14 NFL Drafts, the SEC has a nation-leading 135 players taken in the opening round, an average of nearly 10 per season.
- Former LSU QB Joe Burrow is the SEC's seventh No. 1 overall pick since 2004 and first since 2017.
- The SEC set an NFL Draft record with six of the first 10 selections. The SEC's previous high was five Top-10 picks in 2011.
- The SEC became the first conference in the modern Draft era with two quarterbacks selected in the Top 5.
- The SEC now has an impressive 111 first round NFL Draft selections since 2010.
- Since 2010, the SEC has over double (111) the total amount of first-round selections than the next closest conference (ACC: 54).
- Six different SEC teams (Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, LSU, South Carolina) had a player taken in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft.
- The SEC now has 40 Top-10 picks since 2009 and 46 since 2007.
- Since 2009, Top 10 NFL picks by league: SEC (40); Big 12 (20); ACC (19); Pac-12 (18); B1G (12), Notre Dame (4), MAC (3); AAC (2), Mountain West (1), BYU (1).
That's some pretty damning evidence of the SEC's dominance. Now all SEC fans will get to enjoy the constant competition throughout 2020 with a gauntlet of top SEC teams slugging it out, week in and week out.
Just for 2020, notable matchups include
Week 1 (9/26): Kentucky @ Auburn, Mississippi State @ LSU, Tennessee @ South Carolina, Florida @ Ole Miss
W2 (10/3): Texas A&M @ Alabama , Auburn @ Georgia
W3 (10/10): Florida @ Texas A&M, Tennessee @ Georgia,
W4 (10/17): Georgia @ Alabama, LSU @ Florida, Texas A&M @ Mississippi State
W5 (10/24): Alabama @ Tennessee, Auburn @ Mississippi
W6 (10/31): LSU @ Auburn, Mississippi State @ Alabama,
W7 (11/7): Florida vs Georgia (In Jacksonville), Texas A&M @ South Carolina
W8 (11/14): Alabama @ LSU, Georgia @ Missouri, Auburn @ Mississippi State
W9 (11/21): Tennessee @ Auburn, Missouri @ South Carolina, Mississippi @ Texas A&M
W10 (11/28): Mississippi vs Mississippi State, Georgia @ South Carolina, LSU @ Texas A&M
W11 (12/5): Texas A&M @ Auburn, Florida @ Tennessee, South Carolina @ Auburn
via @SEC
If the season does end up happening, it will likely go down as the best season to be played in SEC history. Even though the talent in the league may not jump off the paper as overly impressive this year compared to some years past, this was due to a mass exile of talent in the league to the 2020 Draft. Regardless, the SEC and its ace recruiters should reload with no problems and will continue to pump out some of the best prospects to the next level.
The league will introduce four new coaches, including a pair of personalities in Lane Kiffin at Ole Miss and Mike Leach at Mississippi State, both programs struggling as of late and looking for innovation on the offensive side of the ball with these hirings.
If done correctly, continuing the 10 game SEC schedule would be best for everyone involved. Consistently playing the highest level of competition is great for development, which could lead more players to move on to the NFL. The fans of SEC schools would love to watch their team face reputable competition twice more compared to their favorite team playing an out-of-conference "cupcake". And finally, the athletic directors and their programs would continue to roll around in profits generated from more highly-anticipated matchups.
There are undoubtedly some flaws in this argument, but the SEC would be foolish to not adopt this model past the COVID-19-stricken 2020 season. With a ten-game conference schedule, teams would still have leniency to schedule their own out of conference matchups provided the two games left to fill in a normal year, such as in-state rivals or home-and-homes with other notable opponents.
One major flaw, which the coronavirus could have done away with in the first place, is the protection and funding of the smaller, non-P5 teams that end up being used as a tune-up before competition runs rampant. Many times the home teams will pay high amounts of money for these schools to come in and take a beating, oftentimes paying out over a million dollars, which the small schools use to fund entire seasons and athletic programs.
There are some kinks to be worked out, but adding two conference games to the full schedule would cause greater contention among the divisions, causing even more suspense and hype around each SEC game, if there wasn't enough already. It would allow for old rivalries to be renewed and games to be played across divisions more than once every seven years.
Bottom line, who wouldn't want more SEC football?
All things considered, it is a no-brainer to eventually move toward an extended conference schedule in the near future.
