SEC athletic directors discuss scheduling

Scott Rabalais—Advocate sportswriter

“The only way around that is to try to maintain the old rivalries and come up with a solution  for those who don’t have them.  There’s a fine line to doing that.” Joe Alleva, LSU athletic director

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The 14 athletic directors of the newly expanded Southeastern Conference and conference officials met here Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss future scheduling in a variety of sports, though the primary focus and attention was on football. No firm decisions were made and none of the half-dozen or so proposals were thrown out, said SEC Commissioner Mike Slive. The athletic directors will resume their meetings next week at the SEC men’s basketball tournament in New Orleans. “It was a collegial and productive session,” Slive said, “I think the first of several. There are a lot of different positions and a lot of discussion of pros and cons.” What must eventually be hammered out is a long-term football scheduling format that will accommodate the SEC’s two new members, Texas A&M and Missouri, for 2013 and beyond. The conference has already cobbled together a temporary scheduling plan for the 2012 season only. The effect of that plan on LSU has been to replace the Tigers’ previously scheduled road game at Kentucky with one at Texas A&M. The Southeastern Conference has been using a 5-1-2 scheduling format under which a team played all five teams in its division, one permanent opponent from the other division and two more teams from the opposite division on a rotating basis.

LSU’s permanent opponent has been Florida, and athletic director Joe Alleva said both schools are interested in ending that scheduling staple. Other schools are eager to preserve permanent opponents to preserve cross-divisional rivalries like Alabama-Tennessee and Georgia-Auburn, and Alleva said he thought there was momentum among the athletic directors to maintaining that. “The only way around that is to try to maintain the old rivalries and come up with a solution for those who don’t have them,” Alleva said. “There’s a fine line to doing that.” Alleva is also in favor of maintaining an eight-game conference schedule as opposed to expanding to nine, which he said the majority of athletic directors favor. “The preponderance of A.D.s feel eight games is the way to go,” he said. “There’s still more to discuss, but that probably seems to be the best way.” Despite the fact football schedules are often made years in advance, Slive said time isn’t pressing on the SEC yet to come up with a permanent football schedule. “We have designed a discussion schedule in such a way as to provide more than enough time without having to rush,” he said. “There is no date we have to have it, not at all.”

While the meeting in New Orleans was previously scheduled, this meeting on the eve of the SEC women’s basketball tournament was called to help get the scheduling ball rolling in a number of sports. Alleva is hopeful that the New Orleans meeting will result in more definitive ideas about football scheduling, “though I don’t think we’ll have a total decision there either.” SEC officials also discussed scheduling in a number of other sports, Slive said, including basketball, softball, volleyball, gymnastics, tennis and swimming. “Everybody has some things to think about,” Slive said, “and just like in any endeavor there are pros in cons in whatever you decide to do. You have to weigh all those. “One of the great things about this league is when we put 14 A.D.s in a room they are very focused and the First Amendment is alive and well,” Slive said.

 

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