University of South Carolina president says league schedules are hard enough
University of South Carolina President Harris Pastides said moving from an eight-game to a nine-game Southeastern Conference schedule has not garnered support from the league.
Pastides told The Daily Gamecock he has “never heard one person inside the conference” support adding one more SEC game to each team’s schedule. After the additions of Missouri and Texas A&M, the league kept an eight-game conference play format, creating two open dates per team instead.
“We already play some of the toughest schedules in the country, and why would you want to add one more?” Pastides said. “It’s bruising and competitive. There’s no weak team in the conference.
“The question is if your competition – the ones who are going to be ranked at the end of the year – get to play one extra softer game, why shouldn’t we give the players an opportunity to heal a little bit when they need?”