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Pac-12 Coaches Upset With SEC's 8-Game Conference Schedule, Shaw: 'Don't Back Down From Playing Your Own Conference'

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The Pac-12 is not happy with the SEC's scheduling and Stanford's head football coach David Shaw was the loudest voice in the room.

According to ESPN, the Pac-12 coaches held their spring teleconference Thursday and voted to maintain their nine-game conference schedule. The SEC coaches voted last week to maintain their eight-game conference schedule.

"I've been saying this for three years now: I think if we're going to go into a playoff and feed into one playoff system, we all need to play by the same rules," Shaw said on the teleconference. "Play your conference. Don't back down from playing your own conference. It's one thing to back down from playing somebody else. But don't back down from playing your own conference."

The Big 12 plays a nine-game conference schedule and the Big Ten is set to do so in 2016, while the ACC will have its spring teleconference later this month. They have an eight-game conference schedule, but could vote to change it.

"I would like to see everybody operate under the same set of rules or restrictions or regulations or whatever word you want to throw in there," said UCLA coach Jim Mora. "I think the Pac-12 is an incredibly competitive conference. I look at the teams that make up this conference and I think anybody can beat anybody on any given week. I think the same can be said for the SEC. And yet we play nine games against each other. I like that."

The Pac-12 coaches agreed that playing less conference games gives teams in the SEC an advantage at the end of the year. Since their conference is as competitive as anyone, one less conference game means multiple teams stand to have a better record. With the four-team playoff system in place, the SEC could end up with an extra team in the playoff.

"There's no taking away anything that LSU and Alabama and Auburn recently have accomplished," Shaw said. "They've been phenomenal. My take is to say, 'OK, the rest of us are playing our conference. We're playing nine out of 12 teams in our conference. Why can't you do the same thing?'"

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