I’m a little surprised Gus Malzahn didn’t smack this suggestion down more forcefully.
It’s possible Auburn and Georgia could agree to a non-conference game if the cross-divisional match-up is removed from the schedule, but the schools have not entertained that option.
“You know, we haven’t gotten that far but that’s very important to our fan base and Georgia’s,” Malzahn said.
Okay, that’s not a “yes”, but that’s also not a card you want to concede could be played until you don’t have any other option left.
A “non-conference” conference game is oxymoronic. In today’s SEC, there’s no reason to volunteer a course of action that lets others dispense with the oxy.
Get The Picture 
No way Auburn does this.
They currently have every other year’s schedule set up for a national championship run.
No reason to change it unless they get the OOC UGA game at home.
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McGarity has to agree to it as well…. I don’t see that happening.
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Not so sure…
UGA could see this as a way for their fans in west Georgia to see their team play every year. 😉
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As much as I don’t want to give up this series, not sure I want the OOC game plan. Our schedule would surely be locked forever then… 8 SEC games, Auburn and Tech and 2 garbage games. I would like to once in a while play Clemson or maybe Notre Dame or Ohio State or FSU or someone like that.
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We will play those teams in the playoffs or national champ game…
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Theoretically, would the OOC game with Auburn serve as a tie breaker for the East title? If we win the AU game it would give us a higher win percentage than other East teams. Of course, the Barn has to look at that from a negative perspective as they would lose tie breaker, that may be the way Malzahn is thinking. So the question is: can an OOC game against a conference opponent count in the conference standings? I can see a valid argument on both sides but it could serve as a reason to schedule better games and make more money so I am for it.
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Would not count as a conference game. Would still have the opportunity to play other teams as Auburn would be on the SEC schedule 2 out of every seven years.
Also note that Auburn probably needs it more than us to help with recruiting in GA and to keep alums in GA happy.
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As someone pointed out earlier in the week, trading AU for Missouri SUCKS.
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Why can’t they just realign the conference GEOGRAPHICALLY????????
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South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, Auburn…trying to think “east to west” who’s next? I know it ain’t Missouri.
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Kentucky – Lexington is in the eastern time zone
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It was split geographically, the line is drawn from Northwest to Southeast.
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No way should we play them in a non-conference game if it comes to that. The other 12 schools would reap the benefit of the game in the TV package because the schools couldn’t market it separately. We are getting ready to pay for the greed of SEC expansion.
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That should be a simple fix. Structure the money payout to schools so that teams that play an extra BCS level game get a slightly larger share.
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I don’t understand not giving your customers what they want. The SEC and cfb in general is being run by a bunch of crazy people.
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When 2 SEC teams play in the regular season, it’s a conference game. Anything else is just stupid, IMO.
Things are screwy enough lately, and getting moreso. Let’s don’t pile the nonsense on and screw things up even more.
I’m starting to lean to a 9-game schedule, even if it does put us at a disadvantage. Keep Auburn and drop Tech, if that 10th BCS game bothers us so much. But I don’t see why we couldn’t do it, especially with our home schedule perpetually screwed up and lousy.
We’d still have two cupcakes, and really 3 cupcakes just kills the home schedule most years. And McGarity thinks it’s tough to keep people flocking into the stadium now …….
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I don’t mind the 9-game schedule with Tech. Given what the conference decided to do, this is the best solution that keeps the traditional rivalries in place, provides the best content for the networks, and allows for the best rotation of cross-division opponents. I wish there were a way to realign the divisions or get rid of the divisions to solve all of this especially to get Missouri out of the East.
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Geographically, swap Missouri for Auburn. Then we’d have 3 games vs. various West teams every year. Sure would make an interesting schedule, however brutal it might be some years.
But things cycle around. It wasn’t very long ago that the West was weak, and the East was the powerhouse division. Georgia had some of the toughest schedules in the country around 2007-8-9, IIRC.
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Are you suggesting Auburn and Alabama go cross-divisional? I don’t think that would fly.
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That doesn’t fly unless you go to 9 conference games because of AU and UT in the East. No offense to our friends in Columbia West, but their admission to the league pretty much messed everything up. There had to be a better eastern school available to balance the divisions like USCe and Arkansas did.
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FSU was the only option that would have been better, FSU has been split internally on going to the SEC. Slive and the SEC did not publicly pursue FSU. Adding FSU would have given the SEC an even stong hold on the Florida talent north of the greater Miami area as well as South Georgia/Alabama. FSU was also National Brand. Mizzou nothing against them brings 2 decent TV markets and not nearly as much talent.
Yes the SEC has UF for presence in Florida but FSU adds competition giving Clemson and other ACC schools presence in the area.
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FSU would have been a good addition. I still think Va Tech, UNC, NC State, or WVU would have been a better fit than Missouri due to geographic balance. Honestly, the whole thing was blown by the failure to plan for the entry of TAMU with a more appropriate eastern school.
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Probably not. Interesting though, that geographically Auburn is further east than Nashville, and Nashville is further East than Tuscaloosa.
I guess it’d screw up the Alabama-Auburn rivalry, or Alabama-Tennessee. Couldn’t have two dedicated cross-division games.
Of course, they don’t mind screwing up Auburn-Georgia to get something done here, and that is the oldest, most traditional, and you could argue, overall, the best rivalry in the South.
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This routinely happens in baseball. UGA and Bama played non conference games recently as the sec rotation in baseball doesn’t allow all teams to play every year.
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That’s true but 64 teams also get into the baseball tournament where RPI/SOS play a big role in getting into the tournament.
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As an OOC game it would be weird that it wouldn’t have the history and meaning that so many games have played in the past. But if the option is OOC or not playing them each year, I’d vote OOC. It would make for a tougher schedule each year, playing 9 SEC compared to others 8, but you get the benefit of a stronger OOC “schedule”, don’t have to travel far like say Colorado or Arizona St and they replace a cupcake like Southern or North Texas making a more attractive home schedule every other year. Just my .02
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I would vote for OOC if that is the only way to keep it. However, I am firmly in the 6-1-1 camp and it doesn’t matter to me if it takes longer to play everyone in the SEC, that was the tradition before ’92. I do not like the 9 game SEC schedule, it would likely kill OOC scheduling, and at the same time not more SEC teams out of the playoff. Ultimately the SEC championship is about putting SEC teams in a position to win national titles.
It would also have the benefit of being able to schedule those unique distant games like Colorado, Az State, Oregon, and ND.
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It doesn’t matter what we do, Auburn will still be slack-jawed in this discussion similar to their dropped game with FSU after agreeing to pay $1M not to play them. Pride at Auburn is in a bag of kitty litter.
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