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The original was posted on /r/cfb by /u/PolloMagnifico on 2024-10-25 13:58:11+00:00.

It’s a conspiracy! Or a mathematical inevitability, I don’t know, I’m not a mathemagician.

Short version: through the power of advanced autism and GAA (Generalized Aggie Anxiety) I have reverse engineered the SEC schedule and come to a startling conclusion: the real Pod Schedule was the rivalries we made along the way. Also, the SEC Schedule is a modified Pod Schedule.

This is not a “oh the schedule should be…” post. This is hard factual statistical analysis and good old fashioned effort to determine that this is the way things is.

You’re probably going to want to check my work, so here is all the basic data gathered up into one place. We’ll start with the core rules I was able to identify.

  • Four pods, containing four teams each.
  • Each team within the pod plays each other one time.
  • Each time plays five additional games outside of their pod.
  • Each pod plays one (1) pod eight (8) times in total.
  • Each pod plays two (2) pods six (6) times in total.
  • Pods that play each other eight times are separated into two different divisions.

With those rules in place, here’s how the current schedule breaks down.

Division 1 - Pod 1: Kentucky - Florida - UGA - Tennessee

Division 1 - Pod 2: Texas - Arkansas - MSST - TAMU

Division 2 - Pod 3: LSU - OU - OleMiss - SCAR

Division 2 - Pod 4: Alabama - Auburn - Mizzou - Vandy

And here’s a list of the cross-pod games

Pod 1 vs Pod 2: Intradivisional - Eight Games

Kentucky-Texas, Florida-MSST, Florida-TAMU, Florida-Texas, UGA-MSST, UGA-Texas, Tennessee-Arkansas, Tennessee-MSST

Pod 1 vs Pod 3: Cross Divisional - Six Games

Kentucky-OleMiss, Kentucky-SCAR, Florida-LSU, Florida-OleMiss, UGA-OleMiss, Tennessee-Oklahoma,

Pod 1 vs Pod 4: Cross Divisional - Six Games

Kentucky-Auburn, Kentucky-Vandy, UGA-Bama, UGA-Auburn, Tenn-Alabama, Tenn-Vandy

Pod 2 vs Pod 3: Cross Divisional - Six Games

Texas-Oklahoma, Arkansas-LSU, Arkansas-OleMiss, MSST-OleMiss, TAMU-LSU, TAMU-SCAR

Pod 2 vs Pod 4: Cross Divisional - Six Games

Texas-Vandy, Arkansas-Auburn, Arkansas-Mizzou, MSST-Mizzou, TAMU-Auburn, TAMU-Mizzou

Pod 3 vs Pod 4: Intradicisional - Eight Games

LSU-Bama, LSU-Vandy, OU-Bama, OU-Auburn, OU-Mizzou, SCAR-Bama, SCAR-Mizzou, SCAR-Vandy

Lots of raw data, I know, let’s do some fun things with it as a sort of payoff for all our hard work.

Current Pod Standings

Pod 1

  • Kentucky: 0-2
  • UGA: 1-0
  • Tenn: 1-0
  • Florida: 1-1

Pod 2

  • TAMU: 2-0
  • Texas: 1-0
  • Arky: 0-1
  • MSST: 0-2

Pod 3

  • LSU: 2-0
  • Ole Miss: 1-1
  • SCAR: 1-2
  • OU: 0-1

Pod 4

  • Mizzou: 2-0
  • Vandy: 1-1
  • Auburn: 0-1
  • Bama: 0-1

Here’s a matrix of current cross-pod games. Matrices are fun… right guys?

Cross Pod Standings Pod 1 vs Pod 2 vs Pod 3 vs Pod 4 vs
vs Pod 1 x 3-3 1-2 2-2
vs Pod 2 3-3 x 1-1 0-2
vs Pod 3 2-1 1-1 x 1-1
vs Pod 4 2-2 2-0 1-1 x

And from here we can infer that Division 1 is 6-4 vs Division 2. Go division 1!

Notable Games This Week

Intra-Pod Games.

  • Oklahoma @ OleMiss (Pod 3)
  • Arkansas @ MSST (Pod 2)
  • Mizzou @ Alabama (Pod 4)

Intra-Divisional Games

  • None this week.

Cross-Divisional Games

  • Texas @ Vandy (2 vs 4)
  • LSU @ TAMU (3 vs 2)
  • Auburn @ Kentucky (4 vs 1)

Additional fun facts!

  • The “weakest link” is Auburn, who has lost three extrapodal games, followed by MSST who has lost two, both remain winless in conference.
  • UGA is the only team that has played four extrapodal games so far, and has won three of them making them the largest contributor to their pods extrapodal success.
  • Ole Miss and Vandy have both only played one extrapodal game thus far, both against Kentucky. Vanderbilt won while Ole Miss… did not.
  • Florida (Pod 1), Ole Miss (Pod 3), and Mizzou (Pod 4) are the only three teams who don’t play a game against an opponent from every pod.
    • Florida does not play a Pod 4 team
    • Ole Miss does not play a Pod 4 team
      • Ole Miss is the only team that does not play an intradivisional cross-pod game.
    • Mizzou does not play a Pod 1 team
  • SCAR is the only team to complete their intrapodal schedule with a losing record of 1-2. and is guaranteed to fall behind LSU, the only Pod 3 team with two wins so far.