Swanny's Take: Should a ten-game conference schedule become the norm?

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Yesterday afternoon the SEC put out their conference schedules. With that in mind, it’s time to react to what the Power Five have decided to do from a scheduling standpoint during the COVID-19 Era of college football. 

While several schedules are still coming together, the Big 12’s adoption of a 9 Plus-1 model created a scenario for at least some crossover games between the ACC and Big 12. Unfortunately, after the ACC’s schedule release this week, it looks like that’s all but done as Clemson and North Carolina are the only teams needing to fill a game. All the other Plus-1 games in the league are against lower-level opponents. 

One team still hoping to hook up with a Big 12 squad is former Clemson co-offensive coordinator Jeff Scott. His USF team is scheduled to play Texas, but we haven’t heard if that’s been finalized. I’d be willing to bet Coach Scott jumped on the phone as soon as the Big 12 broke the news that they were going to play a Plus-1 model. 

So here’s how it stacks up.

Big Ten: 10 Conference Games 

Pac-12: 10 Conference Games

ACC: 10 Conference Games + 1 (Single Division)

SEC: 10 Conference Games

Big 12: 9 Conference Games +1 (Single Division)

The lack of a “Plus 1” in the Big Ten, Pac-12, and SEC are disappointing for sure, but could we be heading towards a bigger trend with the new look schedules? 

It’s all meat. No cupcakes. No games that you know before it starts that you can leave before half time. These conference games will give fans monster games every weekend. It’s just unfortunate that the games like Ohio State vs. Oregon and LSU vs. Texas had to die this season. 

Speaking of dying this season, did you see Arkansas’ new schedule? Holy cow. The schedule was so demanding, after adding two games against Florida and Georgia, their athletic director took to social media to address it.

As for moving to ten game conference schedules, here’s what we know. In a regular year, a move like this would lead to several things happening.

First, better attendance across the board as fans would rarely skip going in the stadium to keep partying in the parking lot. That can’t be said for some games. When The Citadel comes into town, the vast majority of fans don’t even make it into Memorial Stadium.

Secondly, viewership on a week by week and national level would increase. There’s nothing like the third weekend in November when the SEC feasts on a slate of teams that couldn’t collectively take down the Crimson Tide. Clear that off the schedule and schedules become intense from September through the end of the season. 

Lastly, there is a lot of criticism around the country about teams who schedule poorly out-of-conference. Clemson is one of the few teams, partially because of the perception of the ACC, that schedules at least one mammoth non-conference game every season. The Tigers have future home-and-home series set with Georgia, Oklahoma, and LSU. While schools like Alabama and Florida are notorious for playing either neutral site games or games in their own backyard.

The Tide and Gators are two SEC teams that don’t like to venture into someone else’s territory for big games unless they have to. To their credit, they have both started to improve their schedules in that respect, but a ten-game conference schedule forces those teams to play some additional beefy road matchups during the season. However, the SEC is catching some flack for the notion that they might have protected Alabama (added Kentucky and Missouri) and LSU (added Missouri and Vanderbilt) with the new schedule.

One major negative I see from a ten-game conference schedule is what teams’ records will look like at the end of the year. With a lack of “extra wins” on the schedule, the 1-9 or 2-8 resumes are going to stick out like a sore thumb. Expand to 12 games only against Power Five foes, and now you are 1-11...yikes, 3-9 never looked so good!

If a conference has three or four power teams, the bottom half of the league is going to be a train wreck.

The other negative I saw this week was pointed out by Stewart Mandel in an article on The Athletic:

That is another excellent point and one that was lost on me at first. Mandel is right if you think it’s tough to sell fans on rolling into Death Valley to watch the Tigers face Presbyterian on a 96-degree day in September, wait until you have to do it after a schedule with no fluff. That’s going to be hard, folks. 

The last note I’ll make, and I think it’s very valid as well. We often talk about the “grind” of the season and not increasing the playoff because playing 16 games would be too much for college kids. In this model, you get rid of some games that are mostly exhibitions, and that could allow for an extended playoff down the road. If we play ten conference games in some format, plus a conference championship, there is room for an eight-team playoff, and only the last two teams would play a 14-game season. If you mix in an out-of-conference Plus-1, we are right back to 15 games for two teams, but we’ve trimmed the fat from the schedules. 

I would also argue that the Group of Five teams should take this season as an opportunity to create their own National Championship and begin their quest for hardware. The gap is clear, and while I commend the American Athletic Conference for trying to make a push to become a Power Six team, it’s time to flush those dreams. Move to the spring and dominate the television market on Saturdays from January-April. 

The Group of Five would then play for their own title, and no one will be dismissive of it. The players, coaches, fans, and students at those schools deserve more than mythical titles. Let them earn it on the field of play. We are talking about actual hardware! 

2020 hasn’t been a great year, but it’s given us a chance to rethink some ideas from the past. I’ll be honest; these adjustments aren’t too bad.