The SEC Says Goodbye To Some Paycheck Rivalries

With the SEC deciding to not follow the nine-conference-game path of the other power conferences in college football, and why would they considering THEM OTHER CONFERENCES AIN’T WON ALL THEM NATIONAL TITLES, PAAAWWWLLL, all of the SEC schools will continue to have four non-conference game slots to fill on their schedules.  However, as some sort of a compromise, SEC schools will be required to schedule at least one team from the other power conferences every year, starting in 2016.

While this move could add a few games of intrigue, such as the LSU/Wisconsin game we’ll get this year, it also opens the door for games of unnecessary hot garbage, like Kentucky/Illinois or Tennessee/Kansas, as teams strive to lock up the bottom feeders of the other five power conferences before someone else does with the same vigor they apply to signing recruits.  More than likely, we’ll end up getting a steady diet of very blah games because no one wants to be called out for becoming Indiana’s new rival.

The blah games like Ole Miss/Georgia Tech (which is already on the schedule for 2017 and 2018!) aren’t necessarily a bad thing, but one major side effect of this new rule will be the end of some paycheck rivalries.  If a school has to schedule a Georgia Tech-ish team every year, that cuts out one slot for a Louisiana school not named LSU-type game, where one team is paid a large sum of money to travel and lose by four or five touchdowns (unless Houston Nutt is coaching the home team).

That means you’ll only have the the privilege of seeing Alabama squeeze the life out of a North Texas at 11:30 in the morning on the SEC Network three times a year instead of four.  And if we’re possibly losing that great rivalry, what other paycheck rivalries could we potentially be without in the coming years?

So glad you asked via my thoughts!  I went through all of the SEC teams’ schedules from 2002-2014 (the Mike Slive era) to determine the non-power conference teams who are paycheck rivals of SEC teams, which will give us a list of the rivalries that could be in danger of disappearing.

First, as you should rightfully suspect, and probably already do, there is no scientific process to this method, but I only labeled matchups rivalries if the teams played three times during the ’02-’14 period.  Many paycheck opponents played an SEC team twice, but the real separation occurred at three games.  Also, this is my show, so I make all the important decisions.

And second, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Kentucky aren’t really affected by this rule, as they already play a non-conference rivalry game against a school from one of the other five power conferences.  But, in the interest of research (and not thinking about this until I had already tallied the results), I’ve listed them below as well.  TO THE RESULTS:

Alabama
USM (5 games)
Western Carolina (4)
North Texas (3)
Hawaii (3)

Arkansas
Louisiana-Monroe (6)
Tulsa (3)
Troy (4)
Missouri State (3)

Auburn
Louisiana Tech (3)
Arkansas State (3)
Louisiana-Monroe (6)

LSU
Louisiana-Monroe (3)
North Texas (3)
Louisiana Lafayette (3)
Tulane (4)
Louisiana Tech (3)

Mississippi State
UAB (6)
Troy (3)
Middle Tennessee State (3)
Memphis (4)
Houston (4)
Tulane (5)

Ole Miss
Memphis (8; WHY DO WE SUBJECT OURSELVES TO THIS)
Louisiana-Monroe (3)
Arkansas State (3)

Texas A&M
SMU (5)
Louisiana Tech (4)

Florida
Zero three-game teams, but:
Eastern Michigan (2)
FAU (2)
UAB (2)
Troy (2)

Georgia
Georgia Southern (3)

Kentucky
Ohio (3)
Louisiana-Monroe (3)
Western Kentucky (5)
Middle Tennessee State (3)

Missouri
Arkansas State (3)
Troy (3)
Ball State (3)

South Carolina
Eastern Carolina (3)
UAB (3)
Wofford (3)
Troy (3)

Tennessee
UAB (3)
Memphis (4)

Vanderbilt
UMass (3)

What I mostly take away from this extremely scientific list is that SEC schools love them some Louisiana-Monroe, Troy, and UAB, all of which can become or still be your bitter paycheck rival for the low cost of about 2.5% of the check you get from the SEC every year.