Smart says SEC schedule ‘most overrated’ debate
DESTIN, Fla. — Kirby Smart sounded ready to be done with the Southeastern Conference’s great schedule debate.
“The most overrated conversation in the world,” the Georgia coach said Tuesday.
As is tradition, the Southeastern Conference took over a resort hotel on the Florida Gulf Coast for its spring meetings this week. The hottest topic is what the nation’s toughest football conference plans to do with its schedule starting in the 2024 season when Texas and Oklahoma join to make it a 16-team league with no divisions.
The options are sticking with an eight-game slate but shifting to one annual rivalry game instead of the current two, or going to nine games with three annual rivals. The SEC has been trying to figure this out for more than a year.
“I’m a history teacher by trade,” Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz told reporters. “And every time I come to one of these meetings I’m blown away that the 13 colonies actually formed a union, but we can’t agree on an eight- or nine-game schedule.”
Either way, punting divisions fixes one big problem for the SEC: infrequent meetings between some league members.
The most glaring example: Texas A&M has played Georgia just once since joining the SEC in 2012, and the Aggies are still awaiting a visit to College Station by the Bulldogs.
“Four years, you will play everybody, home and away,” said Smart, whose team has won two straight national titles. “I get the traditional rivalries, you have three, you have two, you have one. You have this, you have that. You guys need something to write about bad when you start talking about this.”
Despite Smart’s ambivalence, the eight-or-nine conversation does matter a lot to fans.
With an eight-game schedule that protects only one annual opponent, Auburn-Georgia — the Deep South’s oldest rivalry, played 127 times — Alabama–Tennessee and maybe the renewal of the Texas-Texas A&M rivalry are among the notable matchups likely to become every-other-year games.
Aggies coach Jimbo Fisher said when the Longhorns arrive, he would like Texas A&M’s annual rival to be Texas. But that would mean shelving Texas-Oklahoma every other year.
“LSU’s become a great rivalry for us,” Fisher said. “But as you go traditional rivalries of A&M you’d say Texas.”
While LSU coach Brian Kelly stopped short of fully committing to a number of conference games, he said he wouldn’t want to give up playing Alabama every year, and the only way to do that would be with a nine-game conference schedule.
The SEC football coaches and athletic directors met separately on Tuesday and will gather together Wednesday with the hope of finally coming to a decision before meetings wrap up on Friday.
Drinkwitz is one of the few coaches to take a stand, siding with nine.
Kentucky‘s Mark Stoops is probably the most vocal supporter of sticking with eight, noting that the school’s annual in-state rivalry with Louisville of the Atlantic Coast Conference means the Wildcats are already locked into at least nine games against Power 5 opponents.
“I’m a history teacher by trade. And every time I come to one of these meetings I’m blown away that the 13 colonies actually formed a union, but we can’t agree on an eight- or nine-game schedule.”
Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz
There is no guarantee the schedule question will be settled this week. Commissioner Greg Sankey has said there is still time for more consideration. He even acknowledged the possibility of a short-term solution, landing on a model but with a commitment to it for only a year or two.
Sankey met with football coaches Tuesday to discuss a multitude of topics, including the schedule.
“I sensed a trust level in our decision-making process,” Sankey said.
Alabama coach Nick Saban has promoted playing schedules with nothing but Power 5 schools and seemed to be a supporter of nine conference games over the past year.
Now, he seems concerned about what it might mean for Alabama’s nonconference schedule in coming years. The Tide have home-and-home series with Wisconsin, Florida State, Ohio State and Notre Dame — among others — scheduled between 2024 and 2030.
“If we go to nine games, we’ll have to unwind that,” Saban said. “My deal has always been to play more SEC games because we couldn’t get more people to schedule. So now I think there are more people who are willing to schedule. So having a balance is probably most important.”
Sankey has said he would like to “land the plane” this week, but he also recalled the last time the SEC expanded. Texas A&M and Missouri were granted membership in the fall of 2011 and began playing in 2012, giving the conference less than a year to figure out the football schedule.
“So we got a lot of reserves in the wings of that airplane,” Sankey said. “But we’re going to be more timely than that.”
The final weekend of the 2024 MLB regular season is over — but wins for the Arizona Diamondbacks and New York Mets paired with an Atlanta Braves loss on Sunday means we get a bonus Monday of playoff-impacting baseball.
While those three teams battle for the final two wild-card sports, the remainder of the playoff field is set. The Los Angeles Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies have the top seeds in the National League and the Milwaukee Brewers and San Diego Padres have the next two seeds. In the American League, the New York Yankees and Cleveland Guardians have the top seeds, with the Baltimore Orioles, Houston Astros, Detroit Tigers and Kansas City Royals joining them.
Where do the current playoff matchups stand? What does the playoff schedule look like? We have everything you need to know as the regular season comes to a finish.
Watch: Mets-Braves doubleheader, starting Monday at 1 p.m. ET on ESPN2
Key links: Full MLB standings | Wild-card standings | Passan’s World Series prediction
Who will secure the final two playoff spots?
There were several potential outcomes depending on the results of Sunday’s games, but with the Braves falling to the Royals and the Mets and Diamondbacks notching wins over their respective opponents, both games of Monday’s doubleheader between Atlanta and New York will take place. The winner of the first game of the doubleheader is automatically in. If the loser of the first game wins the second, that team is in as well and the D-backs would be eliminated. However, if either the Mets or Braves are swept in the doubleheader, that team would be out and the Diamondbacks would be in.
Who is in?
Milwaukee Brewers
The Brewers clinched the season’s first playoff spot, when they secured the NL Central crown for the third time in four seasons.
New York Yankees
The Yankees clinched a playoff spot on with a win against the Seattle Mariners and followed by clinching the AL East title.
Cleveland Guardians
The Guardians clinched a playoff spot with a win over the Minnesota Twins and followed by clinching the AL Central crown.
Los Angeles Dodgers
The Dodgers clinched a playoff spot with their 20-4 blowout win over the Marlins and have won the NL West title for the 11th time in 12 years.
Philadelphia Phillies
The Phillies clinched their third straight playoff spot with a win over the Mets on Friday night. With a win over the Cubs on Monday, they clinched their first NL East title since 2011.
Houston Astros
The Astros beat the Mariners on Tuesday to clinch their fourth consecutive AL West division title.
Baltimore Orioles
With a win over the Yankees and the Twins’ loss to the Marlins, the Orioles clinched a playoff spot.
San Diego Padres
With a game-ending triple play to seal their win against the Dodgers, the Padres clinched their spot in the postseason.
Detroit Tigers
By handing the White Sox a record 121st loss, the Tigers ended their 10-year postseason drought.
Kansas City Royals
The Twins’ loss on Friday clinched the final AL playoff spot for the Royals, their first since 2015.
What are this October’s MLB playoff matchups as it stands now?
American League
Wild-card round: (6) Tigers* at (3) Astros*, (5) Royals* at (4) Orioles*
ALDS: Tigers/Astros vs. (2) Guardians*, Royals/Orioles vs. (1) Yankees*
National League
Wild-card round: (6) Mets at (3) Brewers*, (5) Braves at (4) Padres*
NLDS: Mets/Brewers vs. (2) Phillies*, Braves/Padres vs. (1) Dodgers*
* — Clinched playoff spot
Tiebreakers
If Atlanta and New York tie, the Braves currently hold the tiebreaker by virtue of a 6-5 edge in the head-to-head season series (with two games remaining).
In the event of a two-team tie involving the D-backs for the NL’s final playoff spot, the Mets and Braves both hold the tiebreaker because they won the season series.
Breaking down the AL race
The Yankees fended off the Orioles in a battle for the AL East crown — though, Baltimore also clinched a playoff berth — while the Guardians and Astros both also clinched division titles. Two more AL Central teams — the Tigers and Royals — round out the field. Here are the odds for the AL playoff squads for every round:
Breaking down the NL race
While the Atlanta Braves, New York Mets and Arizona Diamondbacks battle for the final playoff spots, the Dodgers, Phillies, Brewers and Padres prepare for October. Milwaukee clinched the NL Central crown and Philadelphia cruised to a division title in the NL East. Los Angeles beat San Diego in the final matchup of the (regular) season to clinch its 11th NL West title in the past 12 seasons, with the Padres going on to secure the 4-seed. Here are the odds for the NL playoff squads — as the playoff picture currently stands — for every round:
Playoff schedule
Wild-card series
Best of three, all games at better seed’s stadium
Game 1: Tuesday, Oct. 1
Game 2: Wednesday, Oct. 2
Game 3: Thursday, Oct. 3*
Division series
Best of five
ALDS
Game 1: Saturday, Oct. 5
Game 2: Monday, Oct. 7
Game 3: Wednesday, Oct. 9
Game 4: Thursday, Oct. 10*
Game 5: Saturday, Oct. 12*
NLDS
Game 1: Saturday, Oct. 5
Game 2: Sunday, Oct. 6
Game 3: Tuesday, Oct. 8
Game 4: Wednesday, Oct. 9*
Game 5: Friday, Oct. 11*
League championship series
Best of seven
ALCS
Game 1: Monday, Oct. 14
Game 2: Tuesday, Oct. 15
Game 3: Thursday, Oct. 17
Game 4: Friday, Oct. 18
Game 5: Saturday, Oct. 19*
Game 6: Monday, Oct. 21*
Game 7: Tuesday, Oct. 22*
NLCS
Game 1: Sunday, Oct. 13
Game 2: Monday, Oct. 14
Game 3: Wednesday, Oct. 16
Game 4: Thursday, Oct. 17
Game 5: Friday, Oct. 18*
Game 6: Sunday, Oct. 20*
Game 7: Monday, Oct. 21*
World Series
Best of seven
Game 1: Friday, Oct. 25
Game 2: Saturday, Oct. 26
Game 3: Monday, Oct. 28
Game 4: Tuesday, Oct. 29
Game 5: Wednesday, Oct. 30*
Game 6: Friday, Nov. 1*
Game 7: Saturday, Nov. 2*
Note: If both LCS end by Oct. 19 — meaning neither series lasts longer than five games — the World Series will begin on Tuesday, Oct. 22
* If necessary
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