Tyler: University of South Carolina President Harris Pastides said Sunday that the SEC will expand to a nine-game conference schedule starting next season. SEC officials, for their part, went all “nothing to see here” and said they had not even discussed changing the current eight-game format.
This would be all well and good, except Pastides’ comments were well thought out, certainly not incoherent thoughts spewing from a crazy southern gentleman’s skull. Pastides said one of three previously scheduled nonconference opponents (Wofford, East Carolina or UAB) would not play South Carolina next season. If the Gamecocks lost money by going back on their word, the SEC promised to cover it, Pastides said.
Regardless of how many conference games will be played next season, the SEC has at least considered expanding the season. Or Pastides is playing a weird joke — seems unlikely for someone who works at an institute of higher learning.
Adding a ninth conference game makes more sense because, if for no other reason, Gators fans are guaranteed at least one more quality opponent each year. Florida would have to drop one of four nonconference games next season, probably against Jacksonville State or Louisiana-Lafayette, to make room for an SEC West team.
Matt: I disagree with expanding the conference schedule to nine games, and,
like all things related to college football these days, it’s all about the money.
Adding an extra conference game to the schedule is a logistical problem, first of all. The SEC signed a 15-year, $2.25 billion contract with ESPN in 2009 and another with CBS for 15 years and $825 million.
Who knows if exceptions were built into those contracts to expand the pay rate for another SEC game? Or will the SEC simply have to bite the bullet and give the networks a game under the current money agreement?
Then, you also have to factor in the actual market value of the conference’s deal on the current landscape. Those contracts run through 2023 — smart for the networks, maybe not so smart for the SEC.
The Pac-12 signed a 12-year, $2.7 billion deal in May, already making the SEC’s contract undervalued. Now, they’re talking about adding more value in the form of another game.
Supposedly, the SEC and ESPN agreed for “look-ins” — periodic evaluations of the contract — throughout the deal, but the latest from the Worldwide Leader isn’t so promising: “They don’t reopen the deal. There’s no outs,” said Burke Magnus, a senior vice president of college sports programming in June.
Tyler: If the SEC wants to reopen the contract, ESPN will play ball. The SEC is the best conference, and ESPN can’t afford to lose it.
The conference wants its own network like that of the Big Ten, which will be generating about $333 million annually by 2015, according to the financial information firm SNL Kagan.
The SEC added Texas A&M and Missouri to bolster the future SEC Network. Really, the expansion was about picking up the St. Louis, Kansas City and Texas TV markets.
More eyeballs tied to the conference will be good for the future SEC Network, as will more conference games.
Matt: I agree that the expansion was mainly about picking up the lucrative markets you mentioned, but I’m not sold on the prospects of an SEC Network or the SEC’s sway over ESPN and their contract.
ESPN has extended its reach. They’re not as reliant on the SEC as you might think. Still, there are more money issues to this schedule expansion talk than just TV deals.
If Florida had to play another conference game during this year’s regular season, the Gators, among other SEC underachievers, would be in serious jeopardy of making it to a bowl game.
Instead of a gimme win against Furman in two weeks, Florida could be playing Texas A&M or Arkansas.
Think about that.
The Gator Bowl, a likely destination for Florida, generated $2.75 million in revenue for each team last season.
That’s a serious windfall to miss out on.
Tyler: Without a nine-game schedule, however, the SEC is flawed. Starting next season, Florida will play six games against East teams. That leaves two games against the West: One against LSU every year and one against another team.
If the SEC goes with home-and-home rules against that second West team, it will take UF about 10 years to play every conference team in the regular season.
Under the current rules, Florida fans will be waiting too long to see teams like Alabama, Arkansas and Auburn. Adding an extra conference game will make these quality matchups more frequent.
Matt: The SEC will say this is good for the fans, but what it comes down to, truly, is the conference’s bottom line.
Playing an extra game does more harm to the SEC than good, unless your name is on that new, assumably much larger check.
Contact Tyler Jett at tjett@alligator.org and Matt Watts at mwatts@alligator.org.
