This Weekend’s SEC Slate Very Weak

How bad does Western Carolina, with its 1-9 record, playing at Alabama, 9-1, look? Not so bad by some other pathetic Southeastern Conference match-ups on the next-to-last weekend of regular season SEC play. And it stems from the league deciding a few years ago that every team had to play a game the last two weekends of the regular season.

The last weekend is not a problem. That’s when teams play their rival games in most cases. Alabama vs. Auburn, Tennessee vs. Kentucky, and even non-conference traditional rivals such as Georgia vs. Georgia Tech, Florida vs. Florida State, and South Carolina vs. Clemson.

For years, many teams had an open date before that season-ending rivalry game. So what did the SEC expect when it forced teams to have games on that next-to-last weekend? That Florida would work in a game against Ohio State and the Buckeyes would want to play the Gators the week before Florida ends with FSU and Ohio State with Michigan?

That wasn’t happening. And so you get:

Western Carolina at Alabama (11:21 a.m. CST, SEC Television Network)

Jacksonville State at Florida (1 p.m. EST, pay-per-view)

Wofford at South Carolina (1 p.m. EST, pay per view)

Alabama A&M at Auburn (1 p.m. CST, pay-per-view)

Georgia Southern at Georgia (1:30 p.m. EST, pay-per-view)

Sam Houston State at Texas A&M (2:30 p.m. CST, pay-per-view)

Samford @ Kentucky (7:30 CST, CSS)

One game doesn’t sound too bad. Syracuse is at Missouri (6 p.m. CST, ESPNU). Both teams are 5-5.

There are also three games involving SEC teams playing league games.

Arkansas is at Mississippi State (11:21 a.m. CST, SEC Network);

Ole Miss is at LSU (2:30 p.m. CST, CBS); and

Tennessee is at Vanderbilt (6 p.m. CST, ESPN2).

Enjoy.