LSU officials aren’t holding back from expressing their opinion about the Southeastern Conference’s decision to maintain the permanent cross-division opponent.
Both LSU coach Les Miles and LSU Athletic Director Joe Alleva publicly condemned the decision, with Alleva telling NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune the 10-4 vote was made in the “self interest” of individual schools rather than the competitive fairness of the conference overall.
“I’m disappointed in the fact that the leadership of our conference doesn’t understand the competitive advantage permanent partners give to certain institutions,” Alleva told NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune. “… In our league we share the money and expenses equally but we don’t share our opponents equally.”
The current system requires each SEC Eastern or Western Division team to play a designated team from the opposite division. LSU has been playing Florida every season since 1971.
Miles told The Advocate that he, Alleva and LSU President F. King Alexander are all united against the decision.
“We play the toughest schedule in America in our conference, and then we have the bias of the permanent partner,” Miles told The Advocate on Monday.
The bulk of the criticism stems from LSU having to play Florida every season as the Tigers’ permanent opponent, while Ole Miss and Mississippi State play Vanderbilt and Kentucky each year, respectively.
Florida won two National Championships during the BCS era and seven conference championships since the SEC began playing a championship game in 1992. Alabama’s cross-division opponent is Tennessee on “The Third Saturday in October” while Auburn and Georgia play in the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry in the conference.
“I understand Alabama-Tennessee and Auburn-Georgia for the history, but that’s only four schools,” Alleva told NOLA.com. “The rest were voting in their own self-interest. They could have kept those games and the rest of us rotated. That was brought up but voted down. … I’m not pushing for the self-interest of LSU. I’m pushing for the equity.”
SEC Commissioner Mike Slive said in a news release the decision was made with the goal of preserving the deep-rooted traditions of the SEC.
“Tradition matters in the SEC, and there is no denying that tradition was a significant factor in this decision because it protects several long-standing cross-division conference rivalries,” Slive said. “It has been a hallmark of the SEC over our history to be able to make continued progress while also maintaining traditions important to our institutions.”
The SEC also voted to maintain the current eight-game conference schedule, which leaves the SEC, Atlantic Coast Conference and the Big 10 Conference as the only remaining power-five leagues to not move up to a nine-game system.
Slive did announce a new addition to the league’s scheduling system following Sunday’s vote. All SEC institutions will be required to schedule at least one opponent from the ACC, Big 12, Big 10 or Pac 12 each season.
LSU already has a home-and-home series scheduled with Wisconsin and Syracuse through the 2017 season. But the Tigers have a gap from 2018-20 where no games are scheduled before series with UCLA and Arizona State start up from 2021-24.
Alleva also said in a letter posted on LSUsports.net that he spoke with Slive about protecting the tradition of Saturday night in Death Valley.
“Through these conversations there has developed an understanding that CBS, ESPN and all its platforms will recognize the importance of LSU home night games in their scheduling process with assurances that every effort will be made to maximize the number of LSU home games at night,” Alleva said.
Alleva also wrote that CBS agreed to limit the number of games played in its afternoon timeslot, and the upcoming SEC Network will enhance the ability to preserve night games.