We like to come up with these phrases when talking college football. There are “sandwich games,” “trap games.” “sleeper games,” “purpose games.”
Lately, the venacular has supplied us with this.
The Swing Games.
Every team has one, the game that’s something of a toss-up that will either slingshot a team to greatness or act like buzzkill for the season.
In the SEC, here are the swing games:
Alabama — at Arkansas, Sept. 25. The Tide has to win this game to make the Florida game the following week matter.
Arkansas — at Georgia, Sept. 18. The first test for the Razorbacks is going to tell us a lot about where they are headed.
Auburn — LSU, Oct. 23. We’ll know a lot about these teams by the time they play and much more after this game.
Florida — at Alabama, Oct. 2. Win this game and you are a national title contender.
Georgia –Arkansas, Sept. 18. The SEC landscape will be drastically changed.
Kentucky — At Ole Miss, Oct. 2. Winnable game for team trying to get to a bowl game.
LSU — North Carolina, Sept. 4. Face it, a loss here could make for a long season for Les Miles.
Mississippi — Kentucky, Oct. 2. The Rebels could be 5-0 with a win heading into the tough part of schedule.
Mississippi State — Auburn, Sept. 9. This is the first of a difficult three-game stretch for the Bulldogs.
South Carolina — at Auburn, Sept. 25. Georgia is a big game but this is the swing game.
Tennessee — at South Carolina, Oct. 30. If the Vols are going to finish at .500, they need this one.
Vanderbilt — There are no swing games for Vandy.
Seems like SCar./Georgia has got to be bigger.
Agree re Vandy. As for Bama, the game, UF is a NC contender after that one, win or lose, as long as they don’t lose again.
What I find interesting is that no swing game mentioned is actually the swing game for both teams. That would only intensify the focus and importance of such a game.
Vernacular shows up in spell check – it’s this really cool tool in MS Word that helps you check to see if you’re spelling is accurate. There’s also a grammar tool that will help you correctly match nouns with pronouns, e.g., teams that (rather than teams who). Just having fun, as I can tell you do on your blog.
Also, agree with Patrick’s comment – I think. Is it possible to have a 12-team conference with each team playing 8 conference games without a matchup that is a swing game for both? If so, the probability has to be amazingly small – so you’ve created what could be a near impossibility.
Suggest taking this to the UF’s academic professors of statistics for an answer. Give their senior-level students something to work on. Could be interesting or very boring.
Patrick –
I’d say that the LSU / Auburn game is a swing game for both teams. That could shape the race in the West for challenging ‘Bama.