Sources – SEC football coaches irked by added opponents

A conference call with SEC football coaches on Thursday came to a head when the issue came up over how the two additional opponents of each team were decided for this season, multiple sources confirmed to ESPN.

The SEC pivoted to a 10-game, conference-only schedule in July. The additional two cross-division opposites were announced last week without a detailed explanation from the league for how they were selected. Half of the league coaches expressed, either on the call or to ESPN in private, their frustration and / or anger over how the two additional games were chosen, with several coaches telling ESPN that the SEC himself open song to the critique of the whole process appears “corrupt.”

The conference call with coaches and SEC officials turned controversial after one coach asked for specifications on how the league selected the opponents, sources told ESPN. Unsatisfied with the response, sources said as many as four other coaches chimed in with their own concerns.

At one point, a coach claimed, “Favoritism was played.” Another coach asked if the league would be willing to release the formula to the press, “because we’re dealing with all these questions about the press and we have no answers, and we were told, ‘No, to ‘there was no formula.’

“That’s why so many coaches piss.”

Another coach said: “There just wasn’t a lot of clarity and transparency about how they got to where they were at the two extra games, and that rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. … The call went pretty wild. It would have been a good piece of reality TV. “

Several coaches told ESPN that they were led to believe, at least in the first instance, that they would simply play the rotating divisive enemies on their 2021 and 2022 schedules, but that the league decided against that option because some teams were potentially against each other playing each other in back-to-back seasons.

“They told us they were trying to balance the totality of the scheme, but what was already on our schedules should not have mattered. That was a given. That has nothing to do with anything,” a coach told ESPN. “Again, they did not give us many answers, so this is what they get.”

Yahoo Sports was the first to report on Friday that the meeting was content-driven.

Defending national champion LSU, which Florida considers its annual enemy of division, added a home game against Missouri and a dike game at Vanderbilt. Meanwhile, Alabama, who were already planning to play Georgia, grabbed a home game against Kentucky and a dike game at Missouri. Georgia, who already played SEC West’s Alabama and Auburn, will play Mississippi State and Arkansas at home along the way.

The SEC’s first-year coaches were particularly hard hit by the extra two cross-division games. Arkansas will play six teams in the preseason coaches’ interview in the first season of Sam Pittman; new team of Mississippi State coach Mike Leach will play five, including road games at Alabama, Georgia and LSU; Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin’s first year team will also play five; and Eli Drinkwitz’s Missouri team will put four teams – Alabama, Florida, Georgia and LSU – in the top eight of the coaches’ demand.

One coach had to say that if the Alabama and Florida league tried to keep playing in back-to-back years – that would have been the case if the rotating enemies were moved from 2021 to this season – then why is Arkansas, for example, should do this season Georgia play as one of the added opponents and then turn around and play the Bulldogs in 2021? “The irregularity of everything makes it clear that they are protecting some teams and not others,” the coach said.

An SEC official said the league would not respond to the call and referred back to Commissioner Greg Sankey’s statement last week, emphasizing the full schedule of each team and not just the two additional games.

A league source told ESPN, “If we’re still arguing and playing football over these two months, I’m all for it.”