… then we’re due for some stimulating SEC re-alignment/rescheduling talk.
Bill Connelly and Jason Kirk come up a non-divisional format.
Seth Emerson suggests sending Alabama and Auburn to the SEC East.
Both are fun reads, but I can’t help but wondering one thing after going through them: wouldn’t it just be easier for the SEC to go to a nine-game conference schedule?
Get The Picture 
Same old talk during this time of the year. Is there a UGA football game tomorrow? LOL.
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I like 8 conference games.
Move Auburn to the East and Mizzou to the West.
Ball game.
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You’ve just made the Iron Bowl into a cross-divisional game, along with UA-UT.
Not gonna happen.
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Exactly, 8 games, keep it the way it is.
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This….
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Then count me in for the three permanent opponent idea. I like that.
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Gotta keep the UGA ULM rivalry alive at all costs.
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I like Jason Kirk’s idea, but I would miss playing UT every year.
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Seems more balanced than moving Bama and AUburn but, it puts gaps in long standing annual games. The Mississippi schools and Bama are a bid deal, especially for Ole Miss and MSU. Tenn, / Kentucky is a big despite the lop sided standings. I would leave things alone and enjoy the traditions rather than go to College Station or any other school more often.
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I like it. UT has become a big rivalry, but if losing it (but still playing it every other year) meant that whole scheduling idea was adopted? I’d take it in a heartbeat.
I always love when versions of this type of scheduling surface in respectable articles. It would be absolutely amazing to be back in the same conference with all the West schools. Currently, we’re somewhere between being in a conference, and merely sharing a brand. Sadly, that brand is very valuable right now, meaning the SEC office isn’t going to change shit any time soon.
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Agreed, the ability to meet every SEC foe regularly is WHY the Conference exists. Such is the case in the “debtor” Sports! The Connally-Kirk idea is well conceived.
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No it isn’t look back on how often UGA and LSU played. The Conf. exist to make it easier to fund and officiate the athletic programs.
The 3 permanent rivals shows some promise but I think i the number would have to grow to 5 permanent rivals.
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Sorry, forgot to clue in my sarcasm with regards to why the Conference exists. With some tinkering like you suggest, I still like the thought of seeing or visiting every member more frequently than locust plagues.
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Just send aTm and Mizzou back to the Big XII. They add nothing to the conference except SEC TV money from Texas aka Northern Mexico. Neither team is in the Southeast. Then we need to kick out Arkansas. Arkansas is not the Southest. They are west of the Mississippi River and their campus is literally less than 90 miles from Kansas. I could deal with it if the campus was in West Memphis or Jonesboro. Then, we are faced with the option of kicking out USCe and going to a 9 game round robin or adding one of the North Carolina schools or VT. That would require moving Vandy to the West.
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They aren’t kicking out anyone….get over that. IF anything, they’ll add schools….
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Agreed, and like it or not the playoff will likely grow.
I think it is likely someone will jump to 16 which opens the possibility of 4 pods of 4 teams with an inner conference playoff. 3 inner pod games, 3 permanent rivals, and 2 games on rotation.
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OF those proposals, I like the first one a lot better. Seems workable to me.
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I don’t think any of us are excited about the idea of Alabama and Auburn competing with Georgia for a spot to play LSU in the Dome (because that’s the only team that would EVER win the depleted SEC West… like, ever). Still, it does make sense. Every rivalry that made the SEC what it is today is preserved. The only one that we really lose is LSU-Alabama, which should be Alabama’s permanent crossover. I don’t think anyone would weep for the loss of Florida-LSU. And we’d get Auburn-Florida back. Georgia would probably get hosed by getting stuck with someone lame like Missouri as our crossover… I don’t really know of a school in a new west that I’ve got any feelings about playing every year, though, so it’d probably be fine.
Hell, if Georgia gets to where we want it to be we’ll have to play Alabama every year in the Dome (and the new Dome) anyway. Might as well do it home and home.
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Short answer to your question: yes, nine conference games would be the easiest. And, it would be best for fans, competition, and quality football. Only possible downside would be the increased likelihood of more rematches in the title game, and that may not be bad most of the time.
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Nine games might be easiest, but take the time to see what that does to our schedule. Remember we play gators on road every year and home nd home with Tech. That leaves us with the inability to schedule a Clemson or Notre Dame in future.
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Until CBS and the WWL (or one of their competitors) write another set of big checks, I don’t see any more expansion, realignment, or additional conference games happening. Why would a coach with a sense of self-preservation want to go to 9 conference games when an SEC championship virtually guarantees a playoff spot in today’s environment? Why would an athletic director give up a cupcake at home for a conference game without additional cash for the reserve fund? Why would the conference want to add two more schools especially mid-majors for additional slices of the pie (the contracts are pretty ironclad now to make it difficult for P5 schools to change affiliation)?
$live botched the last round of expansion by adding Missouri rather than an ACC school. Why does anyone think $ankey is going to get it right if/when that day comes?
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I like the no division sbnation version.
playing UT every year isnt a big deal to me. At least we would get to play them every 2 years.
I hate that we will take 10+ years until we get to go play in some of the SEC west stadiums.
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Emerson can say the division balance is not cyclical anymore (because Nick Saban and Les Miles are going to coach forever?). But taking a longer view, the alignment he suggests groups teams in the east that have collectively won 69 SEC Championships vs teams in the east that have won 18 (with LSU accounting for 11 of those). Furthermore, of the 9 current conference members who have ever won an SEC championship, 6 would be in the East.
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Just go to a 16 game regular season, play everyone and one OOC game and with all the extra revenue they can pay the Coaches and ADs more.
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Best possible world, from a college football fan’s perspective:
8 10-team conferences
Round-robin schedules, no championship game
Conference champ enters 8-team playoff
Only conference games count toward championship, so you could play 3 big boys in your other three games.
Downside: loaded conferences with more “deserving” candidates for the playoff than some conference champs.
Answer: Tough crap. Win your conference.
2nd best part: No little sisters of the poor games
Best part: Playing everyone in your conference every year.
Likelihood: There will be another extinction event before this happens.
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