The SEC Might Finally Be Fixing Its Atrocious Football Scheduling Model

If this ends up coming to fruition and it's done properly, this is some of the best news regarding SEC football in recent memory. I wrote back in July about how the reset college football experienced in 2020 and the resulting 10-game, SEC-only season we saw was a perfect chance for the league to fix its terrible scheduling model.

Definitely go read what I said in that blog, because it all still applies now. If the SEC is serious about scheduling fairly, the solution is very simple. Have every team play three permanent opponents and five of the other 10 teams every year. This way, every team is playing every league opponent at least once every other season and no school would go more than four years without a trip to every stadium in the conference.

As it stands now with the East and West divisions and permanent cross-division opponents, Tennessee gets the privilege of having its teeth kicked in by Alabama every year while Georgia and Florida only have to see the Tide once every five or six years. Not that it would have mattered in the last few years, but in a season like 2016 when the Vols were competing for an SEC East title, it would be nice for at least one of the teams they're competing with to also have to play Bama.

But however the league chooses to change the schedule, almost anything would be better than the way we do it now. Other than your permanent opponent, fans don't even see teams from the other division often enough to remember what teams are in it. It's nearly two different conferences.

I officially have my hopes up that we're moving to the pod model. I'm probably giving the SEC way too much credit and it won't end up being that at all, but if this does come to fruition, it would be a massive win for pretty much every team in the league.