The chaos theory

[News Bot]

I’m getting a headache and it has nothing to do with staying up too late to watch the Braves crumble or trying to cram in five days of work into four since we’re traveling Friday.
Instead, it’s because I have been reading a lot of blogs about Texas A&M’s SEC schedule next year.
Apparently, we’re heading for a different kind of chaos if A&M comes to the SEC and nobody comes with them. That could very well happen, even if it’s only for a year.
My friend Clay Travis at outkickthecoverage.com swears that it’s mathematically impossible for the SEC West teams to play everybody in the West and still have everybody play an eight-game conference schedule.
Cecil Hurt of the Tuscaloosa News wrote this week that it is possible and outlined how it would work. But several of his readers pointed out that “NCAA Bylaw 17.9.5.2-c that requires ‘round-robin’ regular-season competition, though, could require two additional West games, resulting in an unbalanced total (i.e., four teams in the West playing nine SEC games.)” Otherwise, no SEC Championship Game.
Crazy, huh? Everything I’ve read has Florida being one of the East teams playing A&M and, as a result, not starting the home-and-home with Ole Miss which is next on the rotation.
So it appears the SEC has several options:
1. Have an unbalanced schedule where some teams play one more game than the others.
2. Eliminate divisions and have a 13-team league.
3. Get that NCAA by-law amended.
4. Add a 14th team before next season.
Which way do you think the league will go?

Source: GatorSports.com - Dooley's Desk

 

[DRU2012]

Well, so many things depend on do many OTHER things in this "house-of-cards" they call "realignment", "Chaos Theory" is an apt title for any discussion of its practical implications ANYWHERE:
With regard to the SEC alone (or as close to that as is possible here), the "expert prognosticators" are currently claiming the SEC is in "no hurry" to expand to 14 teams right away, once A&M comes over to the West, the assumption being that Missouri will eventually come over perhaps a season later. Even THAT, the delay AND the move, has to do with the situation viv-a-vis the Big 12: IF it DOES survive in some form, as now seems possible (Or Likely? Depends on what DAY it is!), Missouri it is rumored, though still intending to make the "agreed-in-principle" move to the SEC West (with Auburn then moving over to the East, balancing the Conference--sort of...EIGHT teams on each side works much better, for a number of arithmetical reasons), would then wait to allow the Big 12 to make whatever arrangements it is no doubt already working to achieve with other programs. The idea here is that in this way they all get to do things in a relatively organized, NON-chaotic manner (although whether or why ANYONE is worried about that at THIS late date are questions worth asking, along with whether it is even POSSIBLE by now).
As I (and many others) have noted, 8 teams in each division works better than 7, and we can expect 2 more teams to be added down the line. The way that this all keeps "getting away" from any logical, orderly attempt to plan it all out ahead, it might be best for "responsible parties representing SEC-Member-interests" to begin the actual process of selecting and approaching the handful of programs that'd be (for US) best suited as the last 2 members added (beyond the assumed addition of TAMU and MO). Otherwise our options could be restricted by unforeseen circumstances--in fact, do nothing and we can COUNT on that. With an eventual set-up of 16 teams in 4 Super Conferences, there are 64 places:
It's a warped game of "musical chairs", and when the music stops, you REALLY don't want ANY of the handful of spaces to be in YOUR Conference!

 

[CaliZona_Gator]

We need to have an even number. We just need to. In football, your conference needs a championship game, and if the SEC loses its championship game, it loses a lot of credibility. Well, unless we got to a playoff system...... but that's another discussion.

 

[DRU2012]

We need to have an even number. We just need to. In football, your conference needs a championship game, and if the SEC loses its championship game, it loses a lot of credibility. Well, unless we got to a playoff system...... but that's another discussion.

Oh yeah--we HAVE to keep the SEC Championship game, canNOT lose that, even if it means playing a weird unbalanced schedule for a year...have to believe Slive and the rest will manage to avoid that, though. In fact, I expect this whole process to be one of maneuver and finesse; in contrast to the bluster and panic in the Big 12 and the aggressive-then-back-off "push/pull" of the PAC Whatever, the SEC's path has been and I predict will continue to be one marked by a low key, back-channel smoothness.

 

[CaliZona_Gator]

I just hope that the lack of panic put forth by the SEC is not just a front. I hope the SEC really does feel comfortable. I think others do see us as the premiere conference, so if you know what hits the fan, then we will be able to pull in good teams while the rest of the country is in a frenzy.

 

[DRU2012]

We have no reason to "panic". Never mind the second-guessers out there (particularly in the media--and you can expect them to get louder), the truth is that there are only a rather limited, finite number of programs that would "fit", and we will choose and GET 3 of THOSE--first one to balance TAMU, and eventually another 2--when the time is right.