Bye Week Woes: Is Alabama Stuck With Their SEC Schedule?

For quite some time now Alabama athletic director Mal Moore, and head football coach Nick Saban have been trying to get the SEC to alleviate the burden of their final six conference games.  South Carolina, Ole Miss, Tennessee, LSU, Mississippi State, and Auburn, are all taking a week off before challenging the 2009 national championship team. 

This "Issue" was first brought to the attention of the SEC in December, 2009 by athletic director Mal Moore.  The only hopeful word from SEC commissioner Mike Slive since then was this statement:

"In a recent meeting of our athletic directors, it was agreed to add a scheduling principal to make every effort to have no more than three of four open dates before conference games, if at all possible, beginning with the 2012 schedule, which begins the next 10-year scheduling cycle. In the meantime, the conference is making every effort to see if changes can be made in the 2010-11 schedules to reduce the number of open dates before games with Alabama." 

Regardless of the outcome, Nick Saban has made it clear that there will be no excuses for his team on this matter.  It is an issue that needs to be addressed, but Alabama will not sit and make excuses for any close calls or potential losses.  If you want my opinion, there will be no schedule change this year, and Alabama will have to navigate this one doing what they do best. 

Here is how I think these final six SEC games will play out: Bama at SC-Tide rolls 35-15; Ole Miss visiting-Bama wins by 14; Tide at Vols-Tide wins 21-14; Alabama in Death Valley—a close one but Bama wins by three; Miss. St. comes to T-Town-UGLY! Crimson by 28; Auburn almost always takes a week off before the Iron Bowl, but this year is the same as the last...Auburn loses!

Signing off and Roll Tide,

Derek Smith