Closer Look: How Unfair is the SEC Schedule?

We've been teasing LSU fans for the past few years cause of all the"THE SEC IS SO UNFAIR" talk and honestly it has gotten quite annoying. LSU points to their schedule, looks at Bama's (and our titles) and claim the system is unfair. They say playing UF every year is a disadvantage while Alabama getting Tennessee means Alabama has the easier road. This may be true for the last 8 years but Florida hasn't always been Florida and that is certainly true this year.

Let's tackle the cross divisional argument first...

Complaining that you have to play Florida every year isn't a valid argument. During the 80's, UF's record was 76–38–3 (.662). Not bad but certainly not great. If you want to go back one more decade we can — in the 70's UF went 58–53–3 (.522). I fully admit Florida has been one of the elite teams in the SEC over the last 20+ years but LSU fans act like Florida has always been the class of the SEC, which simply isn't true.

Even if you look at LSU since 1971, playing UF every year certainly had little to no effect on their chances of winning the SEC and/or playing for a National Title. It wasn't until the early 2000's when this became a point of contention among the LSU faithful. Wonder what changed?

Tennessee admittedly has been a dumpster fire for the last 7 years but was certainly one of the top teams in all of college football for much of the 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's and early part of the 00's. LSU, and many other media pundits looking for page views, love to point to the downward spiral that has been UT football since 2008 but seemingly forget from 2000-20007 Tennessee went 11-2, 8-5, 10-3, 10-3, 5-6, 9-4, 10-4 respectively.

And as of right now, neither Florida nor Tennessee look all that impressive and UF very well could be in the middle of another coaching change in the coming months. So moving forward, unless Florida pulls themselves out of their current gutter, I would say playing Florida every year should be considered a competitive advantage..

But before we can draw any real conclusions I think it's best to remove our gump for a minute and at least try to understand their (LSU's) position..

Les Miles:

"A key piece to every conference is that we'd be able to describe the path to a championship in an equal and direct manner," Miles said. "Scheduling should not in any way decide championships repeatedly or throughout."

"We play Georgia and Florida for the seventh time this year," Miles said. There's some other schools that have not played Georgia and Florida in the same year," Miles said. "I'd have to say there's a repeated scheduling advantage and disadvantage for certain teams in this conference based on tradition and traditional matchups."

"I'd have to say there's a repeated scheduling advantage and disadvantage for certain teams in this conference based on tradition and traditional matchups. I'll give you an example. Auburn played Florida and Georgia 19 times since 2000. That makes a heck of a difference. Now, how many times has the West gone through each opponent? How many times have they played them? Not that many times."

This was handed out by LSU at the 2013 SEC Media Days

Steve Spurrier:

"I think we've all seen how much it pays off when you don't have to play the top teams from the other division," said Spurrier, who has voiced his concerns to several in the media this week.

"I'm all for Alabama and Tennessee playing every year. We can still play eight, and that would be their ninth game every year. It just won't count in their conference records unless that's the year they're supposed to play in the league. I'm sure Tennessee would love that."

"Coach Saban doesn't have a big rival out of conference he plays every year, and I understand it's hard for them to get (nonconference) games," Spurrier said. "So let them and Tennessee play every year. That's what we ought to do.

"Maybe Alabama can pick a fight with Texas. Texas doesn't play Texas A&M anymore, and they need somebody to play out of conference."

Then don't play Clemson every year...Solves that problem, right Coach? Oh, the Clemson game is important to you? How about that....

From ATVS (I asked them to give me their thoughts on the scheduling issue):

SEC scheduling is a particular sore spot for LSU fans, as the Tigers routinely play one of the hardest schedules in the country. Here are LSU's SOS by Brian Freamau's ratings by year:

2012: 4

2011: 1

2010: 3

2009: 4

2008: 4

2007: 17

Try and guess which year LSU won the national title. The funny thing about that is that the Schedule Gods certainly came through in 2007, as LSU became the first 2-loss national champion largely due to its tough schedule and the fact the top one-loss contender lost to LSU out-of-conference by 41 points. So it's not like a tough schedule hasn't had its benefits. LSU almost certainly won the 2007 title due to its OOC schedule, and the good fortune of everyone else losing and having actually beaten the other top contender head to head.

2008 and 2009 had little to no impact on LSU's title hopes as LSU had little to no shot of winning the title with the teams they did field. Though 2009 is an odd case as LSU was one of only three teams in the SEC to post a winning conference record, and LSU had to play Florida and Georgia (and Vandy, to be fair) cross-divisionally. Schedule also didn't really come into play in 2010, as LSU would have won the West had it just beaten Auburn.

So really, LSU's SEC schedule complaints focus on the last three seasons. And the complaint is not that LSU has to play Florida every year. The complaint is that LSU has been playing brutal cross-divisionally schedules whil Bama has been playing exceedingly weak ones, yet getting credit for playing a tough schedule.

In 2011, LSU played 3 of the top 5 teams in the country, beating all of them. LSU beat two other ACQ conference champions, both away from Tiger Stadium. Meanwhile, Alabama beat three teams with a winning record prior to the bowl season. Bama's second best win was likely Auburn, which was LSU's sixth best win. LSU beat Alabama head to head, had to play an extra game in Atlanta, yet Bama was actually rewarded for losing and got a rematch. It's not the fact that there was a rematch that was so galling, it was that Alabama didn't play a very tough schedule to earn that rematch. It was as if Bama got credit for LSU's brutal schedule.

But 2012 was even worse. That was the first time the SEC was decided by schedule. The top three contenders in the West all went 1-1 against one another and were 5-1 versus the division. The title was decided by schedule: the team with the easiest schedule was rewarded. There were three elite teams in the East that year, LSU played two of them and went 1-1, A&M played one and went 0-1, and Bama played none of them. Playing a much tougher schedule cost both LSU and A&M, and gave Alabama the divisional title.

2013 promised a similarly disproportionate schedule, but LSU made it a bit of a moot point by choking against Ole Miss. But the worst thing about the last two seasons is that the schedules have NOT been random. There has been no "luck of the draw". The SEC had to make bridge schedule due to expansion, so it made these schedules with the full knowledge of the relative strengths of the teams. And the league office gave Bama an easy schedule and LSU a tough one. That, above all else, is the source of LSU's frustrations. This was not just bad luck, this was a conscious decision.

Well then...

Okay, for starters the 2011 argument is quite silly. You can't use your divisional schedule to prove the unfairness of your over-all schedule. LSU played Tennessee and Kentucky from the East that year (Bama got Florida and Vandy) but LSU scheduled, on their own mind you, Oregon and WVU..That's on them, not the SEC.

Forgetting the annual match-up with UF, LSU has played UGA three times since 2008 and USCe twice. But how quickly they forget that over that same time frame Alabama played UGA once, Florida twice and USCe twice.

3+2 = 5 and 1+2+2 = 5, right?

Now, since 2008 Alabama has played Vandy and Kentucky more times than LSU, though not by that wide of a margin (LSU 3, Bama 4).

So, this really is about the permanent cross divisional rivals and not the natural scheduling rotation, huh..

The point ATVS made about the last two seasons being random, and not part of a designed mathematical equation, is quite damning, in my opinion. You have to wonder why the SEC gave Alabama such a lenient schedule in 2012 and 2013 while LSU was given UGA and USC yet again.

However, starting in 2014, Florida rotates in for Alabama and LSU picks up Kentucky. So, is that unfair for Alabama or from LSU's perspective, just sweet justice?

To give ourselves one last view point on the matter, here are the schedules for LSU, Florida, Georgia and Alabama since 2007. I included only these four teams because of their consistency since 2008. (Sorry, Auburn) I excluded the divisional games and only included cross divisional/ OOC games. My reasoning here is that you can't complain about a schedule with-in your own division, unless you want to realign the divisions, which I won't be debating today..

LSU

2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014
Florida	Florida	Florida	Florida	Florida	Florida	Florida	Florida
USC	USC	Vandy	Vandy	Tennessee	USC	UGA	Kentucky
Kentucky	UGA	UGA	Tennessee	Kentucky
Virginia Tech	Troy	Washington	UNC	Oregon	Idaho	UAB	ULM
MTSU	North Texas	Louisiana-Lafayette	WVU	Northwestern St	Townson	Kent St	Sam Houston
La Tech	Tulane	Tulane	McNeese St	WVU	Washington	Furman	New Mexico
Tulane	Troy	La Tech	ULM	Western K	North Texas	TCU	Wisconsin

Georgia

2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014
Auburn	Auburn	Auburn	Auburn	Auburn	Auburn	Auburn	Auburn
Alabama	Alabama	Arkansas	Arkansas	Ole Miss	Ole Miss	LSU	Arkansas
Ole Miss	LSU	LSU	MSU	MSU
Okie St	Ga Southern	Okie St	Louisiana-Lafayette	Boise St	FAU	App St	Troy
Western Carolina	Central Mich	Arizona St	Colorado St	Coast Carolina	Ga Southern	Clemson	Clemson
Troy	Arizona St	Tenn Tech	Idaho	New Mexico	Buffalo	North Texas	Charlston Southern
Georgia Tech	Georgia Tech	Georgia Tech	Georgia Tech	Georgia Tech	Georgia Tech	Georgia Tech	Georgia Tech

Florida

2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014
LSU	LSU	LSU	LSU	LSU	LSU	LSU	LSU
Auburn	Ole Miss	MSU	Alabama	Alabama	A&M	Arkansas	Alabama
Ole Miss	Arkansas	Arkansas	MSU	Auburn
Western Kentucky	Hawaii	Charleston S	Miami Ohio	FAU	Louisiana-Lafayette	Miami	Eastern Kentucky
Troy	Miami	Troy	USF	UAB	Jacksonville St	Georgia Southern	Eastern Michigan
FIU	Citadel	FIU	App St	Furman	Bowling Green	Toledo	Idaho
FSU	FSU	FSU	FSU	FSU	FSU	FSU	FSU

Alabama

2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014
Tennessee	Tennessee	Tennessee	Tennessee	Tennessee	Tennessee	Tennessee	Tennessee
UGA	UGA	USC	Florida	Florida	Mizzou	Kentucky	Florida
Vandy	Kentucky	Kentucky	USC	Vandy
ULM	Clemson	Virginia Tech	Penn St	Penn St	Western Kentuck	Colorado St	Western Carolina
FSU	Western Kentucky	FIU	San Jose St	Kent St	FAU	Georgia St	?
Houston	Tulane	Noth Texas	Duke	North Texas	Western Carolina	Chattanooga	?
Western Carolina	Arkansas St	Chattanooga	Georgia St	Georgia Southern	Michigan	Virginia Tech	WVU

Year by Year, West vs East Comparison

*BCS Champion

2007	ALABAMA	LSU*		FLORIDA	UGA
	Tennessee	Florida		LSU	Auburn
	UGA	USC		Auburn	Alabama
	Vandy	Kentucky		Ole Miss	Ole Miss
	ULM	Virginia Tech		Western Kentucky	Okie St
	FSU	MTSU		Troy	Western Carolina
	Houston	La Tech		FIU	Troy
	Western Carolina	Tulane		FSU	Georgia Tech

2008	ALABAMA	LSU		FLORIDA*	UGA
	Tennessee	Florida		LSU	Auburn
	UGA	USC		Ole Miss	Alabama
	Kentucky	UGA		Arkansas	LSU
	Clemson	Troy		Hawaii	Ga Southern
	Western Kentucky	North Texas		Miami	Central Mich
	Tulane	Tulane		Citadel	Arizona St
	Arkansas St	Troy		FSU	Georgia Tech

2009	ALABAMA*	LSU		FLORIDA	UGA
	Tennessee	Florida		LSU	Auburn
	USC	Vandy		MSU	Arkansas
	Kentucky	UGA		Arkansas	LSU
	Virginia Tech	Washington		Charleston S	Okie St
	FIU	Louisiana-Lafayette		Troy	Arizona St
	Noth Texas	Tulane		FIU	Tenn Tech
	Chattanooga	La Tech		FSU	Georgia Tech

2010	ALABAMA	LSU		FLORIDA	UGA
	Tennessee	Florida		LSU	Auburn
	Florida	Vandy		Alabama	Arkansas
	USC	Tennessee		MSU	MSU
	Penn St	UNC		Miami Ohio	Louisiana-Lafayette
	San Jose St	WVU		USF	Colorado St
	Duke	McNeese St		App St	Idaho
	Georgia St	ULM		FSU	Georgia Tech

2011	ALABAMA*	LSU		FLORIDA	UGA
	Tennessee	Florida		LSU	Auburn
	Florida	Tennessee		Alabama	Ole Miss
	Vandy	Kentucky		Auburn	MSU
	Penn St	Oregon		FAU	Boise St
	Kent St	Northwestern St		UAB	Coast Carolina
	North Texas	WVU		Furman	New Mexico
	Georgia Southern	Western K		FSU	Georgia Tech

2012	ALABAMA*	LSU		FLORIDA	UGA
	Tennessee	Florida		LSU	Auburn
	Mizzou	USC		A&M	Ole Miss
	Western Kentuck	Idaho		Louisiana-Lafayette	FAU
	FAU	Townson		Jacksonville St	Ga Southern
	Western Carolina	Washington		Bowling Green	Buffalo
	Michigan	North Texas		FSU	Georgia Tech

2013	ALABAMA	LSU		FLORIDA	UGA
	Tennessee	Florida		LSU	Auburn
	Kentucky	UGA		Arkansas	LSU
	Colorado St	UAB		Miami	App St
	Georgia St	Kent St		Georgia Southern	Clemson
	Chattanooga	Furman		Toledo	North Texas
	Virginia Tech	TCU		FSU	Georgia Tech

2014	ALABAMA	LSU		FLORIDA	UGA
	Tennessee	Florida		LSU	Auburn
	Florida	Kentucky		Alabama	Arkansas
	Western Carolina	ULM		Eastern Kentucky	Troy
	?	Sam Houston		Eastern Michigan	Clemson
	?	New Mexico		Idaho	Charlston Southern
	WVU	Wisconsin		FSU	Georgia Tech

Only a true gump could deny Alabama has had the easier path of the four but UGA does comes in as a close 2nd. I truly believe this is the last year we'll hear about how unfair the SEC schedule is, at least from LSU fans. I'm sure Spurrier will pick up where Miles left off but the OBC is only here for entertainment purposes, right?

I do believe that the permanent cross divisional rivalries are a thing of the past and will be done away with when the SEC goes to a nine game conference schedule. That is unless Florida falls head first in the gutter and LSU sees no logical reason to take them off their permanent schedule..

Roll Tide