MIRAMAR BEACH, Fla. – LSU coach Brian Kelly strongly endorsed a rumored scheduling alliance between the Big Ten and SEC on Wednesday.
And he isn’t alone.
“Our first goal would be wanting to play Big Ten teams as coaches,” Kelly said Wednesday. “I can speak for the room. We want to play Big Ten teams but you’ve got to get a partner. You’ve got to get a partner who says we’re in for that, too. So we’ve made our voice clear, our athletic directors know that as well that we would like that. Our commissioner obviously heard us well. The rest will be up to what gets negotiated.”
Kelly said the reasons for wanting to play the Big Ten annually in the regular season are quite simple.
“The Big Ten right now holds it on the SEC,” Kelly said. “They’ve won the last two national championships, that’s the reality of it. We want to get challenged in that regard and we’d like to be able to get that done. That’s up to the commissioner and the ADs, but that’s the wish of the room.”
The LSU coach said the SEC football coaches want nine conference games plus an annual Big Ten game. However, Arkansas coach Sam Pittman later said he would actually prefer eight conference games and maintain the status quo, but if he had to add a ninth game his preference was for it to be a Big Ten opponent.
“The fans would enjoy seeing the SEC and Big Ten playing in a play-in type game or playing a ninth game each year,” Pittman said. “I think that was another option Coach Kelly was talking about other than playing nine SEC games. I think the league wants us to go to nine so either we go to nine ourselves or maybe invite another conference to play us.”
Despite Kelly saying he spoke for the room, Pittman’s preference for eight SEC games plus a Big Ten scheduling agreement is the actual preference for a majority of SEC coaches, according to sources familiar with the discussion. In their annual SEC spring meetings this week, the league’s coaches supported keeping eight conference games and moving to a 5 + 11 College Football Playoff format if it expands to 16 teams rather than the conference receiving multiple automatic bids, according to sources.
Of course, the coaches don’t make those decisions. SEC ADs have been much more gung-ho about moving to nine conference games, recognizing there is additional money to be made at time when every athletic department is looking for extra revenue to pay for the impending $20.5 million cap with the House settlement.
There would also be inherent challenges with scheduling an alliance with the Big Ten if both conferences don’t have the same amount of conference games. (The Big Ten already schedules nine conference contests.)
Preserving rivalries
Another factor are the SEC schools that have non-conference annual rivalry games. South Carolina (Clemson), Kentucky (Louisville), Florida (Florida State) and Georgia (Georgia Tech) already have nine Power Four games scheduled each year before adding a possible 10th with another SEC game or even an 11th with a Big Ten scheduling agreement.
Florida coach Billy Napier said this week the Florida State rivalry game isn’t going anywhere while South Carolina’s Shane Beamer told CBS Sports this spring he has zero interest in losing the Clemson rivalry game.
Beamer told CBS Sports on Wednesday he’s OK with moving to nine conference games and adding in a Big Ten game, but that he would want to see his SEC peers do the same.
“I’m worried about South Carolina, but Texas, OK, you play a Big Ten team that’s great, that’s nine SEC games, a Big Ten team and then if you wanted to schedule two FCS teams, you could,” Beamer said. “Ours is different because we’re saying nine plus Clemson plus a Big Ten alliance. Great I’m all for it, but it’d be like the Kansas City Chiefs playing the Green Bay Packers in an 18th regular season game when the other teams aren’t. I don’t know if that makes a lot of sense.”
Read the full article here