“I don’t know why (Fisher) is mad at Saban.”

I don’t know if Steve Spurrier misses the grind of coaching (I strongly doubt he misses the grind of recruiting, that’s for sure), but, judging from this, it sure sounds like he misses being in the mix as a SEC head coach.

Spurrier, famous for wise-cracking gamesmanship that often rattled and distracted opponents, seemed to side with Saban in what has become one of the most polarizing public exchanges in college football history.

“I don’t think Saban told any lies in there, so I don’t know what he was mad about,” said Spurrier, who is still the most recent SEC East Division coach to beat Saban in a regular-season game, back in 2010 while coaching South Carolina.

“Since (Fisher) beat him last year, I guess he can talk now,” Spurrier said, referring to Fisher becoming the first former Saban assistant to beat the legendary coach last season.

“He hasn’t beat much of anybody, but he beat Saban last year. But they haven’t won the division or anything since he’s been there.”

I mean, that’s about as close to saying “you can’t spell Citrus without UT” without mentioning Phil Fulmer as you can get.  Maybe Sankey ought to give him a fifteen-minute speaking slot at SEC Media Days for old times’ sake.

Advertisement

Eh, what’s in a rivalry?

I mentioned the other day in discussing where the SEC goes with conference scheduling once it becomes a sixteen-team affair that no matter which way Greg Sankey goes — sticking with a divisional format, pods, division-less with three permanent foes, etc. — there will be tradeoffs.

If the SEC ditches divisions, the question you should be pondering, Georgia fans, is which schools are designated as the Dawgs’ permanent opponents.  There’s more to think about than you might expect ($$).

No league has featured greater scheduling variety — or dealt with greater scheduling shock — than the SEC. Until 1991, the teams played their rivals and set up individual games without league interference. Before expansion, Auburn’s biggest rivals were Georgia, Florida, Tennessee and Alabama. Three of those teams went to the East, while Auburn was placed in the West with Alabama.

To alleviate some of the expansion fallout, the SEC increased its annual games from seven to eight. Each team played five divisional foes plus two permanent cross-divisional opponents. The Tigers ended up with Florida and Georgia. Auburn and Tennessee, which had battled 36 years in a row before divisional play, since have met 11 times over the last 30 years with two taking place in the SEC title game.

Along with historical rival Alabama, Tennessee linked up annually with newcomer Arkansas. They played 11 consecutive years through 2002, then the SEC dropped to one annual crossover. The Vols and Razorbacks since have competed only four times in the last 20 years. On the flip side, Tennessee faced Georgia and Florida only 21 and 19 times, respectively, before they became East Division foes. They since have played 30 consecutive years.

The only reason why the SEC has any permanent non-divisional games is because of Alabama-Tennessee and Auburn-Georgia.

Okay, so what would a mad scramble to arrange permanent opponents look like?  Here’s one example:

Sure, Auburn-Georgia and Florida-Georgia are no brainers, but after that, where do you rank South Carolina or Tennessee, for example?  (For that matter, historically speaking, Georgia’s played both Kentucky and Vandy roughly twice as often as it has the Vols.  Should that matter?)

And that’s just Georgia to consider.  Multiply that by fifteen.  And then duck (probably, if you’re Sankey).

Leave Nick alone!

Junior, if you don’t mind me saying so, your suck up is showing just a little bit here.

Lay off the 🐐 ⁦@DeionSanders⁩ 😂 https://t.co/UrEL6zVWur

— Lane Kiffin (@Lane_Kiffin) May 19, 2022