| NEWS Opinion: LSU has easiest cross-division schedule: S.C., Mizzou, Vandy were 13-23 and 7-17 - Glenn Guilbeau: Lafayette Daily Advertiser

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SEC Sports



BATON ROUGE - Who made this new Southeastern Conference football schedule?

James Carville?

Carville, a LSU alum and brilliant political strategist who helped get Bill Clinton elected president in 1992 and 1996, went off on the SEC on ESPN's GameDay before the LSU-Alabama game in 2018 concerning the suspension for the first half of that game of top linebacker Devin White.

“I trust the Saudi government more than I trust the SEC. He’s our best player. No reason he shouldn't be playing," Carville said.

Actually, if you read the rule and watch the replay, White did target Mississippi State quarterback Nick Fitzgerald. It was at least close, and the rule said if it's close, it's a penalty. The rule calls for a suspension in the second half if it happens in the first half, and the first half of the next game if it happens in the second half of the previous game. Alabama was LSU's next game, and all hell broke loose.

Carville pricked a passion point in all LSU fans - the belief that the SEC office, located 55 miles north of the Alabama campus - is biased toward Alabama. It isn't. In fact, it was the SEC office that was at the forefront of an investigation of Alabama cornerback Antonio Langham's eligibility in 1993 that put the Tide on probation. Alabama has just been the best team in the league most of the time.

Alabama beat LSU in 2018, 29-0, so White would not have made a difference. That was Alabama's eighth straight win over LSU - a streak that was continuing to grate Carville and most LSU fans to the point of hallucinatory conspiracy theories about officiating and grassy knolls at Tiger Stadium and Bryant-Denny Stadium.

That all went away last year when LSU won the national championship with a 15-0 record, including a 46-41 win at Alabama that was more dominant than the score indicated. LSU coach Ed Orgeron, who believed in the conspiracies, called it the best officiated game he could remember as virtually every close call went LSU's way, and the Tigers got a couple they maybe should not have.


Alabama finished 11-2, suffering its most losses in a season since 2014. Carville was strangely quiet all year.

The SEC gift wrapped the lagniappe part of its new SEC-only football schedule for 2020 by basically serving the Tigers a double Sazerac.

The league bestowed upon the Tigers another trip to Vanderbilt - basically a vacation resort throughout SEC history where the Tigers won 66-38 last year - and a home game against Missouri - basically an ill-briefed tourist gazing at tall buildings and saying "Mug me," since entering the league in 2012 with two winning SEC seasons out of the last eight.

Vanderbilt finished 3-9 overall and 1-7 in the SEC for last in the East last season. Missouri was 6-6 and 3-5. Vanderbilt has had six straight overall losing seasons now and has not had a winning SEC season since 2012. Missouri is 30-32 overall and 14-26 in the SEC since 2015.

SEC Network studio announcer Dari Nowkhah said over and over to focus on the whole 10-game schedule and all three cross-division opponents - not the just two additions - during the live broadcast. This made sense, but he was shilling a bit much and could not quite explain away LSU's Christmas in August.

LSU already had on its schedule home East opponent South Carolina, which is another gift at 4-8 and 3-5 last season. The Gamecocks have not had winning SEC campaigns in five of their last six seasons. Since 2014, South Carolina is 36-40 overall.

OK, LSU did have the No. 2 toughest schedule in the nation last season, but its rotating East opponent was Vanderbilt. Yes, LSU's permanent East opponent is Florida, which has been the SEC's best East team since the first expansion to divisions in 1992. But still, what a cushion around the Gators!

LSU's three cross-division opponents for 2020 were a combined 13-23 and 7-17 in the SEC last season - easily the easiest trio of opponents anyone got Friday.

Alabama, meanwhile, got Mizzou, too, and Kentucky, which was 8-5 and 3-5 last season. The Wildcats had been improving under Coach Mark Stoops as they were 10-3 for their third straight overall winning season and were 5-3 in the SEC in 2018, marking the third straight non-losing season in the league.

And Alabama's already scheduled East team remains SEC East champ Georgia, which was 12-2 and 7-1 last season. The Bulldogs are 36-7 overall and 21-3 in the SEC the last three seasons with a national championship game appearance in the 2017 season.

Auburn also got a nice draw with Tennessee (8-5, 5-3) and South Carolina (4-8, 3-5) to go with previous scheduled East foe Kentucky (8-5, 3-5). Florida got the prize of the West in Arkansas (2-10, 0-8) to go with average Texas A&M (8-5, 4-4) and defending national champion LSU (15-0, 8-0). Georgia also got the prized pigs from Arkansas along with mediocre Mississippi State (6-7, 3-5) to balance out previously scheduled Alabama.

In the end, the SEC did not just plug in the 2021 and '22 rotations or the 2024 and '25 rotations, which were the media's popular scenarios. The SEC tried to contend it used strength of schedule.

"We made every effort to create a schedule that is as competitive as possible and builds on the existing eight conference games that had already been scheduled for 2020," commissioner Greg Sankey said.

No, the SEC mixed and matched according to strength of team - not schedule. The SEC preserved its more powerful teams like LSU, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and Auburn, Thus, it gave itself the best chance of a SEC representative or representatives reaching the College Football Playoff - if we make it that far in the pandemic asterisk season.

The SEC expertly combined socialism with capitalism. All SEC teams have always received equal shares of the millions upon millions dispersed after each sports calendar year. Vanderbilt and Arkansas get as much as LSU and Alabama, regardless of the fact that Vanderbilt and Arkansas have been contributing far less than LSU and Alabama in the way of postseason or television money.

The SEC schedule assures that the powers stay powerful by feeding them the weaker. But the weaker will still get the same share if the stronger win it all. They just have to be eaten.

Vanderbilt gets the reigning national champion in LSU. Arkansas, which already plays LSU, gets Georgia and Florida added. Missouri gets Alabama and LSU.

The SEC is saying, "Look, Arkansas and Vanderbilt are going to lose big anyway. Why not just make them lose really big?"

"We now own the most challenging schedule in the history of college football,” he said.

Maybe, but Arkansas has the ability to make any schedule look very difficult. It did lose to San Jose State last year and to Colorado State the year before.

And maybe LSU deserves a scheduling break. Carville and the Tiger National surely think so. And it will be nice not to hear conspiracy-concocted complaining for a second straight year.
 
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And maybe LSU deserves a scheduling break. Carville and the Tiger National surely think so. And it will be nice not to hear conspiracy-concocted complaining for a second straight year.
 
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