Snapping Some Judgments – Quick Thoughts on 2012 SEC Schedule

The 2012 SEC schedule is officially out, and it turns out the rumors are true:  Craig James DID kill a bunch of coeds back in the 1980s.  Allegedly.

No, no, not that – the other rumors, the ones that assert UGA and Bama are pulling the strings at the SEC home office down in Birmingham.

Consider the following:

Each western division team has to face at least 4 teams ranked in the 2011 final BCS rankings (poor Ole Miss has to play FIVE).

*Except for Bama, that is, which only has to play THREE.

On the eastern side of things, each team has to play at least three teams ranked in the 2011 final BCS rankings.

*Except for Georgia, which only has to play TWO – one of which (Auburn) was ranked 25th (last).

Georgia will end the 2012 campaign having played almost four full years of conference ball without facing LSU or Alabama.

Good deal, if you can get it.

As for South Carolina, the schedule is a mixed bag.  We get to open college football nationally on a Thursday night against Vandy, but we have to face what is arguably the toughest three game stretch in the conference with Oct. 6 Georgia, Oct. 13 at LSU, and Oct. 20 at Florida.  We also don’t get an open date until the first week of November (prior to facing Arkansas at home on Nov. 10).

Obviously we will spend the offseason alternately shouting “Win Anyway!” and “”We Got Screwed!” and be right on both counts.  But the question that begs to be answered is why some schools seem to be on the inside, and some (Ole Miss, Carolina) seem to be out?  Is it our administrations apparent benign approach to conference negotiations, or is it something more sinister?

Maybe Craig James is innocent, I don’t know.  But UGa and Bama sure look guilty.