This is what comes of being in the same division with Nick Saban and Les Miles.
If Greg Sankey had a sense of humor, he’d call up Malzahn and tell him he had some good news and some bad news: Auburn’s moving to the East, but so is Alabama. Oh, and by the way, the Tigers’ permanent cross-division rivalry game will be against LSU.
Of course, this follows in the fine Auburn tradition of Tuberville dropping FSU from the schedule as soon as he took the job. As the head coach on the Plains, if you can’t beat ’em, walk away from ’em.
Get The Picture 
NINE GAMES, PEOPLE.. NINE CONFERENCE GAMES.
I really wish that the coaches and athletic directors in our league would stop being such pantywaists. Sorry, Gus, you took the job at Auburn. That means you play LSU, Alabama, and Georgia every year. Deal with it. Sick and tired of these people trying to scuttle divisions and rivalries just to accommodate 14 teams and 8 league games. We need to play 9 SEC games. That way we can play in this bloated league and maintain the rivalries that made this league great.
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Good points, Go Dawgs..and I may also add that things can change in a hurry. The East could be the better division in a few short years..the pendulum could start it’s swing very soon. Then Gus wil want back in the West.
I think a scheduled, pre-determiined re-alignment would be a good thing, provided it’s done without bias and meddleing…build a rotation schedule and stick to it no matter what.
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Before you go to far with the nine games thing, do you really believe it fair for our Dawgs to play 4 SEC games at home and 5 on the road every year? Also probably eliminates ever playing Clemson, Notre Dame or other biggie cause that would possibly mean only 5 home games one year and that does not pay the bills.
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Eh, so what. LSU’s complaint about the unevenness of cross-division rivalry games resonates more than that does. At least every SEC team would have to deal with the same home/road divide.
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I think lake’s point is probably more related to the effect on the Cocktail Party. Theoretically, Georgia and Florida would never have 5 home games in a 9-game schedule due to the neutral site and an annual OOC rivalry game. Unless we set the home team on the years for the WLOCP based on the years we would have 5 home conference games, we could possibly have only 3 home conference games with 5 away and 1 neutral (I’m not a fan of that at all).
Something will have to give to go to a 9-game schedule: tech as an annual game, the site of the WLOCP, or our willingness to schedule home & home series with other P5 teams. No matter how much we wish, the schools aren’t going to end the cupcake scheduling practice unless Mickey makes it worth their while or the playoff rewards OOC scheduling.
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That would severely hamstring UGA, UF and South Carolina’s scheduling. I am not for it. The SECCG is a fine 9th game for the two that earn it.
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If we had gotten a real EAST team rather than Missouri in the last round of expansion, we wouldn’t be having this discussion.
To Gus, we’re sorry you haven’t been able to win consistently without a cast-off from Florida or Georgia for a QB. You have every resource at your disposal – money, an administration willing to look the other way, the biggest TV in the conference, 2nd favorite with the suits in Birmingham, etc. – so forgive me if I don’t feel like you’re the scheduling victim.
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I’m not necessarily advocating this, but, has anyone considered dropping divisional lines altogether? It works fine for basketball. Championship played by top two teams….oh, forget it…
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Brer’ Gus is just saying it’s ok to throw him in the briar patch.
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Looking at this from “somewhat” historical UGA eyes… move AU to the East and Mizzou to the West (I know Third Sat in Oct takes a hit, until 9 SEC games are scheduled), and while we’re at it, make sure AU plays UF before the Cocktail Party (it used to be that way before SOS was coach or is my memory fading?) or have AU play UTk before UGA plays UTk.
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I guarantee you Bama and UT people value the 3rd Saturday in October just like we and Auburn value the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry. You’re right about AU, UF, and UGA. We played a three-week round robin until the 1992 expansion. SOS only had the influence to get the U off the schedule annually (they played Miami, FSU, Georgia, and Auburn every year).
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Actually, from a rivalry standpoint, it makes more sense for Auburn to be in the East. Every AU fan I’ve ever talked to about this considers UF a bigger historical rival than LSU.
All snark aside, there is quite a bit of logic to putting AU in the East and Mizzou in the West.
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RSC, I completely agree with you (UF is historically a bigger rival to AU than LSU), but I guarantee that Alabama and Tennessee would never go along with this. One of the 2 (Iron Bowl or 3rd Saturday) would have to go on the ridiculous rotation of opponents for the Tide, and no way the conference’s TV partners allow the Iron Bowl to become a rotating game. Even under a 9-game schedule, it can’t be done because there aren’t going to be 2 permanent cross-division opponents.
The best solution would be for Auburn and Tennessee to trade divisions, kick out Missouri, and find a team in the actual east as a replacement.
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AU played UT too. Happy to give up Ole Miss, MSU, and sasnakrA for those two games.
…and GT.
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Cut Mizzou and Vandy AND switch Auburn to the East. 12 teams with 8 conference games is perfect.
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No way one of the original 10 is getting kicked out.
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Agree, should not even be mentioned.
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No one is cutting a charter member. Nor should that ever be in the discussion.
It would be awesome if we could walk back the addition of A&M and Mizzou.
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If you can buy your way out of the West, Auburn has a shot at making it happen.
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You know there is another option. Just create a third division. Call it the Bling Division. The Bling Division would be characterized by surface landscaping to cover the underbelly septic system that hasn’t been flushed or cleaned in 4 decades. Auburn and Tennessee are the clear front-runners for reassignment. Add Clemson and consider Tech. What do these schools share other than a collective crawl-space self-esteem that is compulsively treated with 1) purchases, 2) promises and 3) second chances? Their coaches must go through the postgraduate ‘how to whine correctly and not seem to be’ course. You must hear the quote ‘we do things the right way’ in every press conf at least once. 1) You must purchase something no other team has and then brag continuously…’largest replay screen’, largest stadium, highest SATs and graduation rates, best whatever…… or ‘purchase retained lawyers, PR firms, politicians, LEO, spin mediators, media reps to be ready to spin, bury or redirect any bad story about your school.’ Or purchase the profs that will allow a special home studies course to substitute for real coursework. The same profs surprisingly give all the FB players ‘A’s’ as in, Auburn’s Sociology scandal that affected their academic accreditation but was mysteriously reinstated within a year.
2) You must promise to the fans ‘everything will be better when the QB learns…whatever…..’ promise ‘to change the assistant coaching staff’……AND
3) you must always allow the best athletes 2nd, 3rd….chances..(call it the Da’Rick rule) unless they go to court…then the AD and coach say ‘I support him, but I told him…..’.
Auburn and UTK would have to spend 5 decades in the Bling Div to atone for their toxic emissions that are still hitting the stratosphere and depleting ozone. CFB’s Global Scamming. And Gus? He still has on training wheels. I’m not sure he is capable of the corruption required to be successful at that campus. Their AD is a Forrest Gump impersonator so it is highly likely this culture is as endemic to Auburn as grease is to bacon.
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You forgot to mention the dog-track.
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I say this all of the time. Go back to 10. Mizzou, aTm, and Arkansas are all west of the Mississippi River, ergo they are not in the Southeast. I consider Texas to be part of Mexico so aTm is doubly out. USCe is a joke and never should have been allowed in to begin with. They should have been constantly trolled like Clemson with annual calls from the SEC commissioner about “joining”. They should be forced to restart the Metropolitan Conference with GTU.
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I actually agree wholeheartedly with this, but it ain’t happening unless championship game deregulation comes along. Even then, the lawsuits would be filed before the ink were dry on the decision.
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the only thing USCe and Arky added to the SEC was the ability to hold a title game. This was a big deal, but not because of any added football power/prestige added by either. The SEC could have just as easily added East Carolina and Middle Tennessee State U and gotten the same amount of added prestige. It was strictly a cash grab, but it was entertaining. The addition of Missouri and aTm was also a cash grab, but with much less entertainment value. 14 is pretty unwieldy, and then they were threatening to go to 16? 18?
it’s all about the Benjamins, whatever BS the suits are slinging. It’s just a lot more obvious now, because there’s a LOT more cash at stake now. The avarice is so strong, and so profitable, nobody really even tries to hide it.
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While we are at it, we should go back to leather helmets, 2 PM kickoff times and no TV, EVER. 🙂 Maybe even bring back the Goat.
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I’d be willing to absorb the goat if we could get the first three. 2 pm kickoffs are what God intended. 😉
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“Gus surrenders.”
Hands over visor and Waffle House syrup KOOZIE® to Nick
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I guess Gus isn’t too good at the maths. Auburn is 2-8 the last 10 years versus UGA. One win came from having the luckiest play in SEC history. The other one came from having the most dominant player of the last 20 years (as much as it pains me to admit that). Neither seems likely to be a regular thing, does it?
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How about every SEC team play a neutral game every year in a 9-game schedule so you have 4H, 4A and 1 N?
UF/UGA – EverBank Field, Jacksonville
ATM/ARK – AT&T Stadium, Dallas
UM/Van – Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium, Memphis
LSU/AL – NRG Stadium, Houston
MSU/AU – Mercedes-Benz Superdome, New Orleans
TN/UK – Paul Brown Stadium, Cincinatti
USC/MIZZOU – Nissan Stadium, Nashville
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I would tweak your selections, but I love this idea.
WLOCP – Jax
Iron Bowl – Legion Field
USC/UT – Charlotte or Bristol
Vandy/OM – Memphis
LSU/TAM – Dallas
Mizzou/Arky – St Louis
MSU/UK – Nashville
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TAMU already plays ARK in Dallas, and you’d have a hell of a time convincing the cocks to go play in Virginia or Bristol TN.
Good luck messing with the Iron Bowl lol!
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The Iron Bowl was played at Legion Field for decades. It was actually as big of a tradition as the Cocktail Party. Playing the game on campus is actually a very recent development.
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Auburn saw Legion Field as a huge advantage for Bama. Some Georgia fans see the WLOCP in the same light. While I’m not a big fan of a home and home with UF (I like the present set-up), I do acknowledge some of the points that are made for moving it to home and home.
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Not only that, but the reason the game is called the Iron Bowl in the first place is because of its Birmingham roots and the Iron industry there.
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