Tramel: Why a nine-game SEC football schedule is no sure thing when OU, Texas join
Berry TramelOklahoman
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Arkansas or Missouri? Florida or Louisiana State? Any way to get Vanderbilt? Any way to avoid Alabama?
Lots of questions, lots of angst, over the Southeastern Conference schedule as OU and Texas prepare to join the league in 16 months. Three permanent football opponents for each school will be necessary if the SEC adopts a nine-game conference schedule.
And the nine-game format has been cast as the likely SEC decision. But hold your Boomer and Sooner.
Both OU and Texas sources say the eight-game schedule could emerge as the SEC decision.
“I don’t think we’ll have a definitive direction until we go to those meetings and figure out specifics,” UT athletic director Chris Del Conte said of SEC spring meetings, which come in May at Destin, Florida.
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey confirmed that belief with his comments Friday in Nashville, during the SEC basketball tournament.
Sankey said the debate revolves around fairness and balance. Not all rivalries are equal. The SEC will consider eliminating the likes of Alabama-Tennessee and Georgia-Auburn in the name of equity.
“There are a number of factors,” Sankey said. “One certainly is competitive. We want to be respectful there.”
The decision will have massive ramifications for both the Sooners and Longhorns.
Mainly this. Instead of four SEC home games each year, OU and Texas would alternately have three or four home games each season, thanks to their century-long tradition of playing each other in Dallas every October.
Seven SEC home games, instead of eight, over each two-year period is no small thing.
An enhanced home schedule is the second-biggest reason behind the SEC’s allure. The lucrative television contract is No. 1; the season-ticket value is No. 2.
“You want more teams coming to your place,” Del Conte said. “You should want variety.”
