They’ve literally announced this week that they’re going to start ensuring that they review the entirety of a team’s performance against schedule. I don’t know why it took this long, but we’re moving there now.
One thing we haven’t discussed but it was clear to me listening to Finebaum’s interview with Sankey yesterday, is that these guys have numbers now that are beyond compelling directionally. It’s obvious, but for some reason it hasn’t been to everyone. Big games and big matchups drive interest and value. Of course.
Beyond that, however, is the opposite, and that’s getting really understood for the first time. The shit games against shit opponents devalue brands and discourage interest. There were more than 10 SEC vs FCS games last year with under 100,000 viewers allegedly. The only reason to have those was for schedule manipulation that the league supported. They’re no longer going to support that.
I’m not saying there will be a mandate, there might be, but there will be ramifications at every level. If Texas is 9-3 with an OOC loss at Notre Dame and ATM is 10-2 with OOC wins against bumfuck u, stumblefuck u and last chance u, and worse losses in conference, ATM isn’t going to get any friendly pushes. That’s where Sankey thinks this is rapidly heading and he’s admittedly driving it there.
He flat out said he wants every P4 scheduling other OOC games against P4s, which is why the SEC created their own mandate. They’re looking at adding some other conferences and teams as “preferred” in another tier as well, per his own words. They see the light now. Bigger games lead to bigger dollars, every week of the season.