MEGA Conference Realignment and lawsuits Megathread(Its still personal)

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I thought I had read somewhere that the SEC is extremely resistant to going to a 9 game conference schedule. They're sticking with an 8 game conference schedule for 2024 and I believe getting rid of divisions.

My guess is they are going with 1 yearly opponent and play 7 one year and the other 7 in the next year so each team plays each other 2 times in 4 years. In Auburn's case, Alabama will be their yearly opponent. UGA will be played every other year like the other 13 non-Alabama teams.

Tennessee-Vandy
Auburn-Alabama
Ole Miss-Miss. State
Arkansas-Missouri
Florida-Georgia
Texas A&M-LSU
Texas-Oklahoma
Kentucky-South Carolina
 
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I thought I had read somewhere that the SEC is extremely resistant to going to a 9 game conference schedule. They're sticking with an 8 game conference schedule for 2024 and I believe getting rid of divisions.

My guess is they are going with 1 yearly opponent and play 7 one year and the other 7 in the next year so each team plays each other 2 times in 4 years. In Auburn's case, Alabama will be their yearly opponent. UGA will be played every other year like the other 13 non-Alabama teams.

Tennessee-Vandy
Auburn-Alabama
Ole Miss-Miss. State
Arkansas-Missouri
Florida-Georgia
Texas A&M-LSU
Texas-Oklahoma
Kentucky-South Carolina
The 'bottom' half of the league (Vanderbilt, Missouri, Mississippi State, etc) are extremely resistant to going to a 9 game schedule b/c they rather have an extra game that they can schedule against an easy opponent to help them get to at least 6 wins in order to make a bowl game. The 'top' half (UGA, Alabama, etc) would like the extra conference game so they can keep playing their rivals more often.

The bottom half 'won' this round (I believe it was more of a tie and the top teams decided to be nice to the bottom teams and defer), but it is expected that they will likely go to 9 games the next time this comes up.
 
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The 'bottom' half of the league (Vanderbilt, Missouri, Mississippi State, etc) are extremely resistant to going to a 9 game schedule b/c they rather have an extra game that they can schedule against an easy opponent to help them get to at least 6 wins in order to make a bowl game. The 'top' half (UGA, Alabama, etc) would like the extra conference game so they can keep playing their rivals more often.

The bottom half 'won' this round (I believe it was more of a tie and the top teams decided to be nice to the bottom teams and defer), but it is expected that they will likely go to 9 games the next time this comes up.
Yeah, that would make sense. Also, are they having difficulty getting more $$$ out of ESPN for the added game? I heard that might be an issue as well.
 
I do believe that was part of it, that ESPN hadn't actually offered more money for the extra conference game.
It will be interesting to see what happens. It seems ESPN is on the sales block so they're cutting the fat and weren't very involved in this past round of conference TV contracts with the Big XII or Big 10. If ESPN doesn't want to (or can't afford to) pay for the extra game's worth of programming, is the SEC basically made to stay at an 8 game conference schedule until ESPN is sold and can pay?
 
FSU announced it is adding Women’s lacrosse in 2025 season. That’s a big deal sport as far as BIG 10 goes. Is that related to all of this? Who knows- adding sports like that doesn’t happen overnight. But it certainly won’t hurt them if BIG10 IS in fact where they are headed
 
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