toughest schedule in country

[aubiefifty 16,695]

 

[AUwent 3,747]

Sick of this. This is completely unfair.

Edited May 4, 2022 by AUwent

[Tiger1992 999]

1 hour ago, AUwent said:

Sick of this. This is completely unfair.

Like I tell my kids, "The fair comes in September".

The SEC West is pretty strong right now. UGA is at an all-time high. One strong OOC game, Penn St. Can't overlook WKU, that's a trap game and then some.

I'm not sure what's unfair. Just bad timing with the strength of our conference opponents.

[AUwent 3,747]

8 minutes ago, Tiger1992 said:

Like I tell my kids, "The fair comes in September".

The SEC West is pretty strong right now. UGA is at an all-time high. One strong OOC game, Penn St. Can't overlook WKU, that's a trap game and then some.

I'm not sure what's unfair. Just bad timing with the strength of our conference opponents.

If it’s just one year, fine. But it’s not. The way the cross division scheduling has been set up since 2014 has been outrageous.

Edited May 4, 2022 by AUwent

[jj3jordan 2,039]

We have to play bammer, and we don't ever get to play us. Thats why we have the toughest and bammer never will.

[AUwent 3,747]

7 minutes ago, jj3jordan said:

We have to play bammer, and we don't ever get to play us. Thats why we have the toughest and bammer never will.

 

If they could just figure out how to do a conference championship under this format, it would be as near-perfect a setup as you could ask for.

Edited May 4, 2022 by AUwent

[gr82be 14,401]

It's on us to get better. We've always played Georgia and we used to win our share. The West is tough. Time for Auburn to get tougher. 

[AUwent 3,747]

8 minutes ago, gr82be said:

It's on us to get better. We've always played Georgia and we used to win our share. The West is tough. Time for Auburn to get tougher. 

They have never been anywhere near as good as they are now. Get real. Because of our schedule setup, it actively makes us less attractive as a coaching job. 9 wins will be the absolute ceiling if we keep getting this raw deal.

Edited May 4, 2022 by AUwent

[gr82be 14,401]

Just now, AUwent said:

They have never been anywhere near as good as they are now. Get real.

If anyone wants an easier schedule then pick another team in another conference. Auburn needs to get better. Mike Shula isn't coming back and Smart isn't going anywhere. 

[AUwent 3,747]

4 minutes ago, gr82be said:

If anyone wants an easier schedule then pick another team in another conference. Auburn needs to get better. Mike Shula isn't coming back and Smart isn't going anywhere. 

That's my point exactly, dude. People keep bringing up "but we don't want to be left out because our schedule was too easy!" as if the SEC is ever going to be in the same galaxy's reach as soft as it was in 2004 anytime in the next 20 years. Why do you think us and Tennessee have such a unique difficulty in finding good coaches?

Edited May 4, 2022 by AUwent

[gr82be 14,401]

Just now, AUwent said:

That's my point exactly, dude.

No, your earlier point was whining about the schedule being unfair. Go ahead and facepalm again. That's a good look for you. 

[AUwent 3,747]

12 minutes ago, gr82be said:

No, your earlier point was whining about the schedule being unfair. Go ahead and facepalm again. That's a good look for you. 

If the league still had its schedules as they were in the aughts, it would be better. Everyone went to everyone at least once within five years.

If there were signs that UAT or UGA were about to slip back into mediocrity, I'd be cool with it. But the fact is that it ain't the same league anymore as it was in the year that made everyone obsessed with having as tough a schedule as possible.

And if the SEC does something like, I don't know, put the newbies in opposite divisions and keep everything as is (forcing us to play all our current slate PLUS a resurgent Texas and occasionally PLUS either FL or OK PLUS the OOC up-and-comer we always seem to run into), we would absolutely be better off in the Big 12.

Edited May 4, 2022 by AUwent

[e808 3,020]

The things is Auburn strength of schedule has been taken into account. They would have been the first two loss team in. The blueprint is there. Auburn just has to execute

[AUwent 3,747]

8 minutes ago, e808 said:

The things is Auburn strength of schedule has been taken into account. They would have been the first two loss team in. The blueprint is there. Auburn just has to execute

But we weren't the first two loss team in. Because the fact is when you play that tough a schedule, injuries tend to happen.

To get the UAT-level of talent needed to actually get through that schedule, you need to have an elite coach. And what coach that can get that level of talent is going to want to come here when we have to play the toughest schedule in the country every year? We couldn't even get a guy from UL-Lafayette or a defensive coordinator (both of whom took HC jobs a year later, need I remind you). I swear, I was ready to see Gus gone but you guys are making me wonder if he really was the absolute best we could get.

Edited May 4, 2022 by AUwent

[e808 3,020]

40 minutes ago, AUwent said:

But we weren't the first two loss team in. Because the fact is when you play that tough a schedule, injuries tend to happen.

To get the UAT-level of talent needed to actually get through that schedule, you need to have an elite coach. And what coach that can get that level of talent is going to want to come here when we have to play the toughest schedule in the country every year? We couldn't even get a guy from UL-Lafayette or a defensive coordinator (both of whom took HC jobs a year later, need I remind you). I swear, I was ready to see Gus gone but you guys are making me wonder if he really was the absolute best we could get.

For the record I have been a so called Gus apologist. I thought he did a decent job considering the circumstances. Had he made a few tweaks I believe Auburn would have been right in the thick of things Year in and out. That’s neither here nor there. Just gotta see if CBH way is a better way to get there.

Edited May 5, 2022 by e808

[Tiger1992 999]

12 hours ago, AUwent said:

They have never been anywhere near as good as they are now. Get real. Because of our schedule setup, it actively makes us less attractive as a coaching job. 9 wins will be the absolute ceiling if we keep getting this raw deal.

We'll just have to agree to disagree, but I don't see why you think our schedule is unfair just because Georgia is better than they ever have been. Was it unfair when the series was even? Or in 2013? Or any year we beat them?

And I agree, they will have to go to a pod system once UT and OU  come in. So the current status quo will likely only be a couple more years.

[Win4AU 4,052]

No way to know this till the games are played.  Just an off-season article to fill time before the season.

[stealthyfan 124]

14 hours ago, Tiger1992 said:

Like I tell my kids, "The fair comes in September".

The SEC West is pretty strong right now. UGA is at an all-time high. One strong OOC game, Penn St. Can't overlook WKU, that's a trap game and then some.

I'm not sure what's unfair. Just bad timing with the strength of our conference opponents.

. . . And being an unproven - some would say weak - team. It’s only the most difficult schedule based on last year’s results. That’s the last beauty of college football that hasn’t been professionalized. 

 

Or has it.

[AUwent 3,747]

8 hours ago, Tiger1992 said:

We'll just have to agree to disagree, but I don't see why you think our schedule is unfair just because Georgia is better than they ever have been. Was it unfair when the series was even? Or in 2013? Or any year we beat them?

Pre-playoff era, no. But let’s quit acting like times haven’t changed. If you think Georgia is going to go 8-5 anytime in the next decade I have swampland in Arizona to sell you.

So, sink or swim. Your second paragraph at least makes me glad that you acknowledge changes to the scheduling will have to be made.

@stealthyfan: Again, if it were just a one year thing, whatever. But we were saying the literal same thing last year, and almost every other damn year since the playoff began. You all might say “we just gotta get better!” But to do that you need to be able to attract the right people, and the right people are far less likely to come if you have a needlessly harder path to success, especially when we fired a guy for winning 8 games a year consistently.

Edited May 5, 2022 by AUwent

[Tiger1992 999]

15 hours ago, AUwent said:

 

 Your second paragraph at least makes me glad that you acknowledge changes to the scheduling will have to be made.

 

This has nothing to do with "fairness". Again, there is nothing unfair about our schedule just because Georgia's program has improved significantly the last few years and our program has not.  However, with what will be 16 teams, I think a pod system works best just so each team can play every other team within a four-year period and not have to wait a dozen years to play a team.

[AUwent 3,747]

34 minutes ago, Tiger1992 said:

This has nothing to do with "fairness". Again, there is nothing unfair about our schedule just because Georgia's program has improved significantly the last few years and our program has not.  However, with what will be 16 teams, I think a pod system works best just so each team can play every other team within a four-year period and not have to wait a dozen years to play a team.

Yes it does. Teams not having to see Georgia for six years absolutely is unfair. This is why it’s important for there to be plenty of variation among scheduling, which there has been so little of since 2014.

Edited May 6, 2022 by AUwent

[ChristoThor 70]

To be honest, I would like to see the pod schedule be put together. Its not to get away from Georgia though. I would like to see Alabama in our pod and then I think there should be a cross pod rival in each of the 3 pods that are guaranteed every year and Georgia should be one of them. We have been playing Georgia for so long I would hate to see that get thrown away out of "fairness" or pod scheduling.

[AUwent 3,747]

8 hours ago, ChristoThor said:

To be honest, I would like to see the pod schedule be put together. Its not to get away from Georgia though. I would like to see Alabama in our pod and then I think there should be a cross pod rival in each of the 3 pods that are guaranteed every year and Georgia should be one of them. We have been playing Georgia for so long I would hate to see that get thrown away out of "fairness" or pod scheduling.

That may be needed to have the conference championship (so pods can pair up). But oh boy, I don’t think people realize how tough picking those games would be:

Auburn-Georgia, Texas-Texas A&M, UAT-LSU, Missouri-USCe…you’re gonna need 20 other matchups.

***
What irritates me is that some of these same people (not naming names) who insist on keeping DSOR are often the same people who aren’t satisfied/don’t care about the postseason unless we’re in the semifinals. Which newsflash, is almost certainly not going to happen if we have a much harder path than everyone else every year. Like, pick one.

Edited May 6, 2022 by AUwent

[AUwent 3,747]

Sorry to double post but here’s what a perma crossover game with each pod would look like logistically. It would work in serving its purpose for sure, just demonstrating that much thought will have to be put in who plays who:

AvB—Florida v ?, Georgia v Auburn, Kentucky v ?, USCe v ?

AvC—Florida v ?, Georgia v ?, Kentucky v ?, USCe v ?

AvD—Florida v ?, Georgia v ?, Kentucky v ?, USCe v Missouri

BvC—Alabama v LSU, Auburn v ?, Tennessee v ?, Vanderbilt v ?

BvD—Alabama v ?, Auburn v ?, Tennessee v ?, Vanderbilt v ?

CvD—LSU v ?, Mississippi v ?, MSU v ?, Texas A&M v Texas

[JDUBB4AU 5,102]

On 5/4/2022 at 5:59 PM, gr82be said:

If anyone wants an easier schedule then pick another team in another conference. Auburn needs to get better. Mike Shula isn't coming back and Smart isn't going anywhere. 

AU needs to get better in every possible area. Couldn’t agree more with this. The schedule has zero to do with it. This conference is a bloodbath and has been for well over a decade. Every year no matter what side you play on is strong. Figure it out AU..