When Nebraska canceled a home-and-home series with Tennessee for 2026 and 2027, both sides gave their reasons. Then Nebraska coach Matt Rhule told the truth.
In Rhule’s interview on The Triple Option podcast, Urban Meyer brought up his concerns about how nonconference schedules will look in the new age of the expanded College Football Playoff, which could include as many as eight automatic bids split between the Big Ten and SEC. Rhule’s reply was rather blunt, considering what you typically get from a coach in interviews.
“Why would you ever play those games?” Rhule asked. “If we’re being completely honest. Coach Meyer, I’m at the point in my career where, in my fourth job and getting fired in the NFL, I kind of say what I feel nowadays. I could[n’t] care less.
“Why in the world would a Big Ten team who is already playing nine conference games,” he continued, “why would you ever play one of those games?”
The man has a point! If the College Football Playoff gives automatic bids, there’s no real need for Big Ten and SEC teams to play these “résumé” games. It’s one of the reasons I don’t like the idea, but as I’ve written previously, there are some positive side effects to the new proposal. One of which would be the SEC finally expanding its conference schedule from eight to nine games.
But why stop there? Why not go to 10 conference games?
There have been a lot of changes in college football in recent seasons, and few of them have been good for fans. We’ve seen conferences torn apart, and while the transfer portal and NIL have been great for players (and long overdue), they have frayed the threads of the relationship between players and fans. We’re also seeing programs go away from spring games, which have often been one of the best…
Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/if-big-ten-sec-programs-want-to-keep-fans-engaged-they-should-move-to-10-game-conference-schedules/
Author : Tom Fornelli
Publish date : 2025-03-06 17:50:00
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