What Would An SEC Schedule Look Like With Texas A&M;?

by Marc Torrence on Aug 12, 2025 1:59 PM EDT

[Ed: Bumped from FanPosts. An interesting idea]

Whether you believe the rumors currently swirling about a possible Texas A&M move to the SEC, it appears that change is coming. Between A&M's frustration with the Longhorn Network and the general instability of the Big 12, it almost feels inevitable that the Aggies will bolt for greener pastures, if not Sooner than later (see what I did there?).

The obvious question for SEC fans then becomes, "What happens with our schedule?" Let's take a look at what Texas A&M moving to the SEC would do to the regular season format that we've all come to know and love.

The way the divisions are set up currently, a typical SEC schedule looks something like this:

One game against each member of your division, rotating between home and away.
Two games against a member of the other division - one home, one away - on a rotating basis.
And one game against an inter-division rival. The inter-division rivals are as follows:

West	East
Alabama	Tennessee
Ole Miss	Vanderbilt
LSU	Florida
Mississippi State	Kentucky
Arkansas	South Carolina
Auburn	Georgia

That brings each team to a total of 8 conference games a year - a system that has worked with relative success since it's implementation.

Now, suppose Texas A&M joins the SEC, like everyone thinks they will. Assuming the league decides to add one more team, bringing the conference to a total of 14 teams, there are two possible scheduling scenarios that occur, both of which we'll look at individually. In each scenario we'll assume a) the league will stick with the 8-game format and b) they want to preserve traditional rivalries, both in and out of the divisions.

Scenario 1: A team from the East

Let's say the SEC decides to add an east coast team in addition to A&M. It could be Florida State; it could be Virginia Tech; it could be Clemson. For the sake of this discussion though, it doesn't matter, so we'll call them Team 14 for now.

Since the league will want to keep the inter-division rivalries, it makes the most sense to simply put A&M in the West, and Team 14 in the East and match them up as inter-division rivals, giving the league a set-up that looks like this:

West	East
Alabama	Tennessee
Ole Miss	Vanderbilt
LSU	Florida
Mississippi State	Kentucky
Arkansas	South Carolina
Auburn	Georgia
Texas A&M	Team 14

There's only one hang-up here (besides an awkward "rivalry" between Texas A&M and a team from the East), but it's relatively easy to fix. Adding a seventh member to each division gives teams 6 divisional games instead of 5, meaning a game would have to be taken away from the rotational inter-division schedule. This plan would have it's obvious flaws, such as having a season where Alabama plays Vanderbilt while LSU has to face Georgia, or something similar. However, such situations pop up even with the current inter-division system and will never be perfect.

Scenario 2: A Team From The West

Instead of Virginia Tech, Florida, or Clemson, what if the SEC decides to add a school west of the Mississippi? Possibly another Big 12 school like Oklahoma, Missouri, or Oklahoma State? (Again, these are arbitrary teams and have no bearing on scheduling. The only thing that matters here is that they are from the west. As in Scenario 1, we'll call them Team 14)

Texas A&M and Team 14 would certainly have to be in the Western Division, but that leaves the SEC with unbalanced divisions - 8 in the West and 6 in the East. At this point, it would make the most sense to put Auburn in the East, given that they are the Eastern-most team in the current Western Division. So let's take a look at the divisions we have now:

West	East
Alabama	Tennessee
Ole Miss	Vanderbilt
LSU	Florida
Mississippi State	Kentucky
Arkansas	South Carolina
Texas A&M	Georgia
Team 14	Auburn

Here's where things start to get tricky. If you took the scheduling we used in Scenario 1 (6 division games, 1 inter-division rivalry, and 1 rotational inter-division game) it raises many issues, namely with the rivalries. In order to preserve inter-division rivalries like Alabama-Tennessee and Alabama-Auburn, the conference would have to do away with the rotational inter-division game, leaving teams playing the same 8 teams every year. LSU wouldn't play Kentucky, for example, unless it was in the SEC Championship game.

A solution could be to simply rotate out a division game for a rotational inter-division game, but that leaves the possibilities of games like the Egg Bowl, or Georgia-Florida taking a year off - something college football just couldn't live with. So my solution would be to scrap the divisions. Yep. A good 'ol fashioned free-for-all, with the top two teams facing off in Atlanta for the SEC crown. Now, there is a caveat:

In order to, yep you guessed it, preserve rivalries, the league would have to come up with match-ups that would be deemed "untouchable". In-state rivalries like the Egg Bowl and Iron Bowl would certainly qualify, as would games like Georgia-Florida, Ole-Miss-LSU, and even Arkansas-Texas A&M. Once you come up with those games, simply rotate the other teams in and out, alternating between home and away, and you've got yourself a schedule.

And to make it even more fun? Make the tie-breakers for the SEC Championship as follows:

Head-to-head (obvious)
Wins in "untouchable" match-ups
Margin of victory in "untouchable" match-ups

Think things are testy now? You haven't seen anything yet.

Are either of these scenarios perfect solutions to the scheduling dilema that the SEC would face if and when Texas A&M joins the conference? Absolutely not. In fact, most of it is wishful thinking on my part. (Especially the tiebreakers. Ohhhhh the tiebreakers.) But it's something to think about, namely the second one, and an issue that will certainly pop-up should the SEC find itself with two new members.

Got ideas of your own? I'd love to hear 'em.

A FanPost gives the opinion of the fan who writes it and that fan only. That doesn't give the opinion more or less weight than any other opinion on this blog, but the post does not necessarily reflect the view of TSK's writers.

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Comments

Just going to go on the record here...

and say I’d leave for the SEC West in a heartbeat if it was the difference between keeping the Third Saturday in October or not.

by Caban on Aug 12, 2025 2:06 PM EDT reply actions

agree

But it wouldn’t help, because the only situation requiring an East team to jump over to the West is one in which Alabama has already gone East.

Also, Kentucky and Vandy would raise hell. They need to play us every year.

Heel for school, Vol for life!

Bolts, Preds, Canes (childhood team, home state team, hometown team). Canes mini-STH. Southern hockey solidarity!

by Incipient_Senescence on Aug 12, 2025 2:11 PM EDT up reply actions

FSU rumors are heating up and if that happens, no need for a shift

"Fast Eddie: No bar?
Cashier: No bar, no pinball machines, no bowling alleys, just pool... nothing else. This is Ames, mister."

From the movie--The Hustler

GET TO THE RIM HEAT (and SKY)! ATTACK THE PAINT!

by mjtig on Aug 12, 2025 2:54 PM EDT up reply actions

Caban's comment as a Vol ...

… volunteering to switch to the West if SEC adds 2 new western teams to go to 14 schools …

is a solution I’ve seen elsewhere that fits better than moving Auburn to the East.

BUT - it is SO much better to add one team from the west (A&M) and one from the East (Team 14), whether you add a conference game so that every year you play every in-division rival, or do as the original post suggested and not add a conference game.

by agulhas78 on Aug 12, 2025 2:11 PM EDT reply actions

Why leave out the option of the 9 game conference schedule?

Your scenarios only assume 8 games, as we have now, but along with realignment, we’re seeing a change towards 9 game conference schedules. The Pac 12 will do it, so will the Big XII, and the Big Ten will adopt in in so many years (2017?).

If you’re taking a look at how an SEC conference schedule would look with 14 teams, in either scenario a 9 game schedule would address the shortcomings you’ve encountered.

In either scenario, you could have 2 interdivisional rivals and two rotating games, or maintain your 1 interdivisional rival with 3 rotating games. In your second scenario, the former option would be necessary to preserve both Alabama-Tennessee and Alabama-Auburn. That is the major hiccup with moving Auburn to the East and 9 games would solve that if it included 2 interdivisional rivals.

by marktheshark on Aug 12, 2025 2:35 PM EDT reply actions

This is EXACTLY why we can't go to a 16 team conference.

Your solution works perfectly for a 14 team conference (except that it effectively kills any hope of having interesting OOC games), but there would be no salvaging the traditions if we went to a 16 team conference.

"Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that." - George Carlin

by Slice of Life on Aug 12, 2025 2:54 PM EDT up reply actions 2 recs

unless you split it into four

Heel for school, Vol for life!

Bolts, Preds, Canes (childhood team, home state team, hometown team). Canes mini-STH. Southern hockey solidarity!

by Incipient_Senescence on Aug 12, 2025 3:03 PM EDT up reply actions

At that point it isn't really a conference, IMO. It's basically an autonomous league.

Plus, it doesn’t address how the heck you’d play all those teams and still have OOC games. Either you’d have people in the same conference that you effectively never play, or you have no OOC games.

I think that you could argue that a 16 team conference is actually just two 8-team conferences that (very) rarely overlap. I hate the idea of a 16 team conference, and I hope against all hope that we manage to avoid it.

"Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that." - George Carlin

by Slice of Life on Aug 12, 2025 4:39 PM EDT up reply actions

unless you split it into four and do the old WAC rotating combinations

then it’s still a conference, imo

Heel for school, Vol for life!

Bolts, Preds, Canes (childhood team, home state team, hometown team). Canes mini-STH. Southern hockey solidarity!

by Incipient_Senescence on Aug 12, 2025 4:48 PM EDT up reply actions

The way the WAC did it....

eventually backfired on them. There were too many rivalries that got lost and so eventually the original WAC teams split off.

by AllTideUp on Aug 12, 2025 4:51 PM EDT up reply actions

it backfired on them because they screwed it up

they didn’t allow free rotation. The kept two divisions anchored and rotated the other two. So the other two never played each other. Like, ever. That’s how they lost the rivalries. Avoid that, avoid the backfire.

Heel for school, Vol for life!

Bolts, Preds, Canes (childhood team, home state team, hometown team). Canes mini-STH. Southern hockey solidarity!

by Incipient_Senescence on Aug 12, 2025 4:52 PM EDT up reply actions

LOL.

Like we have very many OOC games that are interesting.

Even as a Bama fan I can admit that our OOC if laughable except Penn State.

by Durdens Wrath on Aug 12, 2025 3:22 PM EDT up reply actions

Sure, but you can take that number from one a year to zero.

You will never see Bama vs. Penn State again, unless it is in a bowl game.

"Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that." - George Carlin

by Slice of Life on Aug 12, 2025 4:34 PM EDT up reply actions

maybe

considering that LSU is making $3M from their game against Oregon in Dallas, I wouldn’t be shocked to see more of these neutral site big games coming down the pipe. 1/2 of TV money + 1/2 of gate for a big game is worth more than full gate for a bodybag + little TV money (since no one would watch). Doing the neutral site game means that you get to keep the whole TV check rather than splitting it with your league-mates.

by cfn_ms on Aug 12, 2025 4:47 PM EDT up reply actions

Money would factor in,

but I don’t think teams would do it at the expense of title aspirations. If you’re already playing 9 SEC teams, it’s practially season suicide to schedule a huge OOC game.

"Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that." - George Carlin

by Slice of Life on Aug 12, 2025 5:40 PM EDT up reply actions

We have more than any other league in America

"Lattimore, as the kids can say, can ball, and sometimes does it to the extent one might say [he] is out of control in his balling." - Spencer Hall

by GwinnettGamecock on Aug 12, 2025 11:13 PM EDT up reply actions

I'm not so sure about that

the Pac-12 schedules well. Say what you want about their conference slate, but they schedule well outside it.

Heel for school, Vol for life!

Bolts, Preds, Canes (childhood team, home state team, hometown team). Canes mini-STH. Southern hockey solidarity!

by Incipient_Senescence on Aug 12, 2025 11:49 PM EDT up reply actions

Typo

If we had 2 and 2 or 1 and 3 from the other division with 6 divisional games, that would be 10 games. I meant to say it would be 1 and 2 or 2 and 1, keeping 3 interdivisional games instead of dropping to two while adding a divisional game. The way I have it written above would make it 10 conference games, and 10 is not equal to 9.

by marktheshark on Aug 12, 2025 3:36 PM EDT up reply actions

I like this idea the best

I like orange and I am a dog person

by goldballs on Aug 12, 2025 5:20 PM EDT up reply actions

Nice to hear.

I’ve thrown out the “scrapping the divisions” idea on a couple of blogs and haven’t gotten a response from anybody about it. I’m glad to see someone else think of it so now I know I’m not crazy.

Even if you add A&M to the West and Team 14 to the East I still think scrapping the divisional arrangement could work best. Let’s say you preserve 2 or 3 untouchable games for each team and rotate the rest of the conference games out now like you rotate the inter-divisional match ups. That way you can play all the other teams about as often as you play them now even with the new additions.

This would also keep one division from being dominant over the other. If the top 2 teams are in one division now then they can’t play each other again. The winner has to play an inferior team from the other division ( i.e. Auburn vs USC last year). I think a rematch in the championship game would be more interesting than that for everyone if the top 2 teams have played each other that year.

by AllTideUp on Aug 12, 2025 2:40 PM EDT reply actions

I still say

Regardless of where Team 14 comes from, the schedule will bump up to nine games. If Team 14 is from the East, the divisions remain the same with A&M joining the West and Team 14 joining the East. If Team 14 is from the West, you put both A&M and Team 14 into the West, move Alabama AND Auburn to the East, and move Vanderbilt to the West. The rivalries are all kept, but the balance may be a little out of whack, depending on the year.

Hit me up on Google+

by jd is legend on Aug 12, 2025 2:53 PM EDT reply actions

Of course, everyone's got to have the same number of untouchables, don't they?

Unfortunately, there are at least four schools that are going call LSU untouchable. And four or five that call Alabama untouchable.

Red Cup Rebellion - Changing the culture of Ole Miss Athletics
Destroying your traditions since [YEAR REDACTED].

by Ivory Tower on Aug 12, 2025 3:23 PM EDT reply actions

Yeah, but a reasonable compromise must be made.

Alabama gets Tennessee and Auburn. No question about that. In fact, let’s just line it up:

Alabama - Auburn, Tennessee
Arkansas - LSU, aTm
Auburn - Alabama, Georgia
Florida - FSU, Georgia
FSU/Team 14 - Florida, South Carolina
Georgia - Florida, Auburn
Kentucky - Vanderbilt, South Carolina
LSU - Arkansas, Ole Miss
Mississippi State - Ole Miss, aTm
Ole Miss - LSU, Mississippi State
South Carolina - FSU, Kentucky
Tennessee - Alabama, Vanderbilt
Texas A&M - Arkansas, Mississippi State
Vanderbilt - Kentucky, Tennessee

If Mississippi State wants to complain about losing Alabama or Ole Miss wants to complain about losing Vandy, well boo freakin’ hoo. They can feel free to join the ACC, Big XII, or the Sun Belt.

by vineyarddawg on Aug 12, 2025 3:37 PM EDT up reply actions

I think it actually works out pretty well on a two-team. Here's a proposition for you:

replace Florida State with UNC and then move some things around.
ALA - AUB, TEN
ARK - TAMU, LSU
AUB - ALA, UGA
FLA - UGA, SCAR
UGA - FLA, AUB
KEN - UNC, VAN
LSU - ARK, OM
MSU - OM, TAMU
OM - MSU, LSU
SCAR - UNC, FLA
TAMU - ARK, MSU
TENN - ALA, VAN
UNC - KEN, SCAR
VAN - TENN, KEN

Red Cup Rebellion - Changing the culture of Ole Miss Athletics
Destroying your traditions since [YEAR REDACTED].

by Ivory Tower on Aug 12, 2025 3:45 PM EDT up reply actions

Yeah, but UNC ain't coming to the SEC.

You might as well replace FSU with Oregon. :-)

by vineyarddawg on Aug 12, 2025 3:47 PM EDT up reply actions

Why ain't UNC coming to the SEC?

I’ve heard lots of people talk about their important in-state rivalries. As long as they can keep playing basketball against Duke twice a year, they’ll be fine. I promise. And they trade one basketball power rivalry for another with Kentucky.

I think UNC is the most attractive candidate in the East for the SEC.

Red Cup Rebellion - Changing the culture of Ole Miss Athletics
Destroying your traditions since [YEAR REDACTED].

by Ivory Tower on Aug 12, 2025 3:53 PM EDT up reply actions

They would be attractive to the SEC....

but the UNC people have no interest. UNC and Duke basically run the ACC and they are much more concerned with academics than most. There’s no chance they will leave the ACC.

by AllTideUp on Aug 12, 2025 3:55 PM EDT up reply actions

It's not like the SEC

Is filled with blithering idiots. That academic blather is condescending and annoying.

by Durdens Wrath on Aug 12, 2025 3:56 PM EDT up reply actions

It is annoying, but....

that’s how they feel over there. For some reason these schools and a bunch of others for that matter feel that associating with the SEC will somehow hurt them academically or at least in regards to reputation. It’s ridiculous as Vandy is one of the best schools in the country and better than most of these schools that think “so highly” of academics, but nonetheless it’s how a lot of these people think.

by AllTideUp on Aug 12, 2025 3:59 PM EDT up reply actions

It's all about the AAU

Sadly, since it’s a group you have to get voted into by the other members, most SEC schools will never get in, regardless of how good the schools actually are. Georgia should most definitely already be in, but here we are.

DawgSports/Falcaholic/Talkin' Chop

by blackertai on Aug 13, 2025 6:13 AM EDT up reply actions

And yet, the point remains...

… that UNC is like the ACC’s Texas. (Well, they’re really kind of a joint-Texas with Duke, but you get the idea.)

I just don’t think they’ll even consider moving.

by vineyarddawg on Aug 12, 2025 4:00 PM EDT up reply actions

I'm fine with that.

They can have their stupid bouncy ball.

And continue to suck in football.

by Durdens Wrath on Aug 12, 2025 4:01 PM EDT up reply actions

I might be wrong, but

it seems like similar things were said about Arkansas in 1992 and Nebraska in 2010 (not the academics part, mind you). The Hawgs and the Huskers both ventured off into rival-less territory because money is better than rivalries.

Red Cup Rebellion - Changing the culture of Ole Miss Athletics
Destroying your traditions since [YEAR REDACTED].

by Ivory Tower on Aug 12, 2025 4:03 PM EDT up reply actions

I don't think it is so much....

the rivalries as the fact that they like what they have in the ACC. It’s a basketball conference first and a lot of them have the same type of academic reputation. That and the fact that if they moved to the SEC they would not carry near the weight they do in the ACC.

by AllTideUp on Aug 12, 2025 4:05 PM EDT up reply actions

LET ME DREAM, DAMMIT!

Red Cup Rebellion - Changing the culture of Ole Miss Athletics
Destroying your traditions since [YEAR REDACTED].

by Ivory Tower on Aug 12, 2025 4:12 PM EDT up reply actions

Sorry...

lol

by AllTideUp on Aug 12, 2025 4:15 PM EDT up reply actions

Arkansas and Nebraska

The Hogs and Huskers left dying conferences. The ACC is alive and well.

Ok. It’s alive.

by NCT on Aug 12, 2025 6:44 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions

here's how I say you do the untouchables

first, make the list of truly untouchable games. Each team gets to put its biggest rival on there, and we can add any hugely culturally significant game that isn’t the biggest rival for either team. The only one that comes to mind is Georgia/Florida. (Georgia fans, if you hate Florida more than Auburn, replace this with Georgia/Auburn). This already gets some teams to three untouchable games, as you see here:

Tennessee: Bama, Kentucky, Vandy
Florida: Georgia, FSU
Georgia: Florida, Auburn, South Carolina
South Carolina: Georgia
Kentucky: Tennessee
Vanderbilt: Tennessee
FSU?: Florida
Bama: Tennessee, Auburn
Auburn: Bama, Georgia
LSU: Ole Miss
Ole Miss: LSU, Miss St
Miss St: Ole Miss
Arkansas: Texas A&M
Texas A&M: Arkansas

After that, just fill in the remaining spots as best you can in order to get each team to three untouchables. Obviously, opinions can vary on how to work this, but here’s one way:

Tennessee: Bama, Kentucky, Vandy
Florida: Georgia, FSU, Auburn
Georgia: Florida, Auburn, South Carolina
South Carolina: Georgia, Kentucky, Florida State
Kentucky: Tennessee, South Carolina, Vandy
Vanderbilt: Tennessee, Kentucky, Ole Miss
FSU?: Florida, Texas A&M, South Carolina
Bama: Tennessee, Auburn, Miss St
Auburn: Bama, Georgia, Florida
LSU: Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Arkansas
Ole Miss: LSU, Miss St, Vandy
Miss St: Ole Miss, Bama, Arkansas
Arkansas: Texas A&M, LSU, Miss St
Texas A&M: Arkansas, LSU, Florida State

Three untouchables is okay, right? And this preserves all the biggest rivalries. Problems?

Heel for school, Vol for life!

Bolts, Preds, Canes (childhood team, home state team, hometown team). Canes mini-STH. Southern hockey solidarity!

by Incipient_Senescence on Aug 12, 2025 4:47 PM EDT up reply actions

As a Georgia fan

I can tell you I don’t give a s**t about the USCe game. And I would wager most all of my friends feel the exact same way. My grandfather is a die-hard UGA man, and he lives in South Carolina, and he doesn’t even care about the game. We could lose it.

DawgSports/Falcaholic/Talkin' Chop

by blackertai on Aug 13, 2025 6:15 AM EDT up reply actions

I've said this several times

it doesn’t matter if you give a s**t about it, it matters whether they do. You think Tennessee considers Kentucky and Vanderbilt our biggest rivals after Alabama? But those games need to be protected whether or not we care about them, because its Kentucky’s biggest game of the season and Vandy’s biggest game of the season. For a rivalry to be untouchable, the ill-will doesn’t have to be balanced. You have to protect everyone’s biggest conference rivalry.

Heel for school, Vol for life!

Bolts, Preds, Canes (childhood team, home state team, hometown team). Canes mini-STH. Southern hockey solidarity!

by Incipient_Senescence on Aug 13, 2025 12:34 PM EDT up reply actions

I want to keep the Kentucky game.

We’re riding that streak all the way to triple digits, baby. ;)

by danmarcel on Aug 13, 2025 2:24 PM EDT up reply actions

oh yeah!

but if they ever beat us, we cease caring about the game for another 20 years until the streak is built back up

Heel for school, Vol for life!

Bolts, Preds, Canes (childhood team, home state team, hometown team). Canes mini-STH. Southern hockey solidarity!

by Incipient_Senescence on Aug 13, 2025 2:25 PM EDT up reply actions

yeah, Ole Miss losing Vandy, not that big a deal

since it’s not their biggest rival. But if you’re forcing a school to lose their biggest rival, I think that’s trouble.

From a Tennessee perspective, that means we’d have to have at least three untouchables.

Alabama is our biggest rival, but we’re the biggest rivals of both Kentucky and Vanderbilt. You can’t take away from Kentucky their biggest game of the season. What would they do in the offseason without the hopes of one day beating Tennessee?

Heel for school, Vol for life!

Bolts, Preds, Canes (childhood team, home state team, hometown team). Canes mini-STH. Southern hockey solidarity!

by Incipient_Senescence on Aug 12, 2025 4:28 PM EDT up reply actions

additionally

how does South Carolina feel about losing Georgia? isn’t that their biggest conference rival?

Heel for school, Vol for life!

Bolts, Preds, Canes (childhood team, home state team, hometown team). Canes mini-STH. Southern hockey solidarity!

by Incipient_Senescence on Aug 12, 2025 4:35 PM EDT up reply actions

South Carolina's biggest rival is Clemson.

The Georgia/USC rivalry used to be one that was played irregularly anyway prior to 1992, so I don’t think anyone’s going to be screaming if we go back to only playing them twice every 4 or 5 years.

Georgia has to play Auburn and Florida (and Tech) every year. Other than that, it’s negotiable. Hey, Ole Miss was a decades-long annual rival until the SEC broke that up… so very few annual rivalries are really unbreakable, as long as you continue to play every few years.

by vineyarddawg on Aug 12, 2025 4:54 PM EDT up reply actions

Ole Miss and Auburn were both decades long annual rivals for Tennessee

I was just assuming that since Georgia is South Carolina’s biggest conference rival, they’d put up a pretty big stink about losing it. And I know that Kentucky feels that way about Tennessee. I came up with a three untouchable plan (posted below) that takes those into account, and I think it works okay. Three seems like a reasonable number to me, anyways. You still have 5 games to rotate among the other ten teams (even if you only have an 8-game schedule), so you play everybody every other year. Going to 4 would be a problem, but we don’t have to.

Heel for school, Vol for life!

Bolts, Preds, Canes (childhood team, home state team, hometown team). Canes mini-STH. Southern hockey solidarity!

by Incipient_Senescence on Aug 12, 2025 4:58 PM EDT up reply actions

posted above, rather

Heel for school, Vol for life!

Bolts, Preds, Canes (childhood team, home state team, hometown team). Canes mini-STH. Southern hockey solidarity!

by Incipient_Senescence on Aug 12, 2025 4:58 PM EDT up reply actions

yeah...

I think 3 untouchable teams every year would be fine as long as we don’t move to 16 teams.

by AllTideUp on Aug 12, 2025 5:08 PM EDT up reply actions

I'd go with 3 permanent rivals...

… but the best fit for Georgia would be for the 3rd rival to be Ole Miss, not South Carolina.

by vineyarddawg on Aug 12, 2025 5:15 PM EDT up reply actions

I know

but that’s not the best fit for South Carolina. Once you get your top two rivals, I think you have to listen if someone else really wants to play you, and I think that USC would.

Tennessee’s 2nd biggest rival is historically Auburn, but we’ll have Vandy and Kentucky instead because they need to play us.

Heel for school, Vol for life!

Bolts, Preds, Canes (childhood team, home state team, hometown team). Canes mini-STH. Southern hockey solidarity!

by Incipient_Senescence on Aug 12, 2025 6:49 PM EDT up reply actions

What? Now you're just talking crazy.

How many Georgia fans cry that they don’t get to play their “rival” Ole Miss often enough? I lived many years in Georgia. I cannot think of a single Georgia fan that considered Ole Miss games as anything more than, “Gee, the Grove sure is nice to visit”.

FWIW, I live in Mississippi now. I promise you that Ole Miss fans do not consider you anything close to a rival. Maybe they don’t think you’re good enough to treat acknowledge as a rival.

"Lattimore, as the kids can say, can ball, and sometimes does it to the extent one might say [he] is out of control in his balling." - Spencer Hall

by GwinnettGamecock on Aug 12, 2025 11:21 PM EDT up reply actions

I doubt it

More likely, since the game hasn’t been played annually for over 20 years now, it’s more likely that the most recent generations have no memory of the rivalry. My grandfather’s old pin collection (he had at least one for each SEC team prior to 1992) has more Ole Miss related pins than Florida or Auburn ones.

DawgSports/Falcaholic/Talkin' Chop

by blackertai on Aug 13, 2025 6:17 AM EDT up reply actions

That's a Georgia perspective

South Carolina fans would hate to lose the Georgia game. We dislike you more than you know.

"Lattimore, as the kids can say, can ball, and sometimes does it to the extent one might say [he] is out of control in his balling." - Spencer Hall

by GwinnettGamecock on Aug 12, 2025 11:17 PM EDT up reply actions

Yeah.

I’ve watched the USC-UGA game more than any other matchup in the past 15 years.

by RjTheMetalhead on Aug 12, 2025 11:33 PM EDT up reply actions

I would imagine

That’s due to the fact that we rarely even notice you.

DawgSports/Falcaholic/Talkin' Chop

by blackertai on Aug 13, 2025 6:18 AM EDT up reply actions

If by "irregular", you mean 29 times from 1959 to 1989,

then, yes, it was pretty irregular. In the same span, you played your lost rival Clemson 24 times. Heck, we played you more often over that time frame than did Ole Miss, and they were in your conference.

This is one of the reasons we hate you btw.

"Lattimore, as the kids can say, can ball, and sometimes does it to the extent one might say [he] is out of control in his balling." - Spencer Hall

by GwinnettGamecock on Aug 12, 2025 11:45 PM EDT up reply actions

this is more how I expected the reaction to be

canceling USC/UGA is on the unacceptable list, yes?

Heel for school, Vol for life!

Bolts, Preds, Canes (childhood team, home state team, hometown team). Canes mini-STH. Southern hockey solidarity!

by Incipient_Senescence on Aug 12, 2025 11:50 PM EDT up reply actions

Yes.

Most South Carolina fans have a couple dozen experiences like this:

UGa ekes out narrow victory over us with flukey play after trailing for substantial portion of the game.

Typical Georgia fan: I knew we’d win! Y’all aren’t our rivals. Both teams have to win for it to be a rivalry! You’re not good enough to be a rival for a team like Georgia or Florida.

Carolina fan: Since we joined the SEC, we’ve beat you twice as often as you’ve beaten Florida! And we actually put up a fight in the games we lose instead of playing dead like Uga.

Georgia fan: LOL. Wut? You’re not a national power like Georgia and Florida! Blah blah blah Herschel Walker!!!

I hate Georgia.

"Lattimore, as the kids can say, can ball, and sometimes does it to the extent one might say [he] is out of control in his balling." - Spencer Hall

by GwinnettGamecock on Aug 13, 2025 1:26 AM EDT up reply actions

I went to college in South Carolina

in Clemson’s shadow, which made me good friends with the handful of Cock fans there. This sounds like the rivalry I was expecting. I really hope the powers that be don’t split any of these up. I know some third rivalries can be intense (lots of older Tennessee fans still DESPISE Auburn, and we haven’t played them regularly since 1992), but you can’t expect to keep everything. But your biggest conference rival, you should keep.

Heel for school, Vol for life!

Bolts, Preds, Canes (childhood team, home state team, hometown team). Canes mini-STH. Southern hockey solidarity!

by Incipient_Senescence on Aug 13, 2025 4:37 AM EDT up reply actions

Blah blah blah Herschel Walker.

And George Rogers’ trophy in 1980 should have been shipped to Athens, as well.

/trollface.jpg

ARP ARP.

by vineyarddawg on Aug 14, 2025 4:52 PM EDT up reply actions

Eh....

they are probably too busy thinking about basketball.

by AllTideUp on Aug 12, 2025 4:40 PM EDT up reply actions

I know we make fun of them

but seriously, offseason football discussions at Kentucky is “this is the year we beat Tennessee, this is the year we beat Tennessee.”

Heel for school, Vol for life!

Bolts, Preds, Canes (childhood team, home state team, hometown team). Canes mini-STH. Southern hockey solidarity!

by Incipient_Senescence on Aug 12, 2025 4:50 PM EDT up reply actions

They do seem to care....

about football more than some other basketball schools.

by AllTideUp on Aug 12, 2025 4:52 PM EDT up reply actions

I don't think the feeling would be mutual....

with regard to how many teams Alabama wouldn’t give up. We want Auburn, Tennessee, and if possible LSU. That’s all we would make an issue over. What Ole Miss or MSU might think of the game with Bama wouldn’t concern us really. It’s not like we wouldn’t be playing each other regularly, just not every year.

by AllTideUp on Aug 12, 2025 3:49 PM EDT up reply actions

Yes, but...

… it’s not like you wouldn’t be playing LSU regularly, either.

With a 6-game rotating schedule between 11 other teams, depending on how the rotation worked, you could be playing every team in the conference twice over a 4-year period.

by vineyarddawg on Aug 12, 2025 3:56 PM EDT up reply actions

Yeah, I agree

I would like to maintain LSU as an annual game, but I don’t think it is absolutely necessary. That’s why I said “if possible.”

by AllTideUp on Aug 12, 2025 3:57 PM EDT up reply actions

I agree with you.

And I think the same thing can be said for LSU. There many programs that want to play LSU every year. Not saying LSU necessarily calls them untouchable. For all the rivalries in the SEC, I’d say there are only 5 that are equally untouchable on both sides: Iron Bowl, Third Saturday, Cocktail Party, Egg Bowl, and Deep South’s Oldest. Every other rivalry is considered more untouchable by one party or another.

Red Cup Rebellion - Changing the culture of Ole Miss Athletics
Destroying your traditions since [YEAR REDACTED].

by Ivory Tower on Aug 12, 2025 3:59 PM EDT up reply actions

A lot of teams consider themselves rivals to Alabama.

And we only really think of Tennessee and Auburn.

And possibly more recently LSU because of the Saban Bowl.

by Durdens Wrath on Aug 12, 2025 4:02 PM EDT up reply actions

Man

LSU-‘Bama has been a big game for a long time, not just since Saban showed up, in fact I’d wager that Bama has had a longer standing rivalry with LSU than Auburn has.

by SoxStephen on Aug 12, 2025 6:35 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions

I can't believe I haven't seen the idea about simply scrapping the divisions before.

I think that’s an incredible idea. (Seriously.)

by vineyarddawg on Aug 12, 2025 3:23 PM EDT reply actions

Should have 9 conference games

6 against your division.
2 steady rivals.
1 rotational.

Currently we have
5 divisional
1 permanent
2 rotational.

So just one more game.

Replace a North Texas, Kent State or Georgia Southern and we’re golden.

by Durdens Wrath on Aug 12, 2025 3:24 PM EDT reply actions

The only problem.....

with maintaining the divisions is that you won’t be able to play all the other teams in the other division on a regular basis. As it is now, you play each team at least twice every 5 years. If you set it up so that you have a bunch a guaranteed divisional games then you will lose out on the unity of the conference. And that may be a bigger deal than some might think. It’s that type of wacky scheduling that broke up the WAC.

by AllTideUp on Aug 12, 2025 3:54 PM EDT up reply actions

It'd be once every 6 instead of twice every 5.

More like the AL and NL before intra-league play.

Would make the SEC championship that much more special.

by Durdens Wrath on Aug 12, 2025 4:21 PM EDT up reply actions

And last year

I certainly could have done without playing South Carolina.

by Durdens Wrath on Aug 12, 2025 4:22 PM EDT up reply actions

I like....

playing all the teams in the conference. The only one I don’t care at all about is Vandy.

I don’t think the SEC Championship game would be more special. Only certain teams are going to make it there with any frequency.

by AllTideUp on Aug 12, 2025 4:44 PM EDT up reply actions

It would be way more sporadic than that.

There’s no way you would do once every 6 years like that. Alternating home and away every 6 years? That’s nuts.

I take that back. It is not nuts. It is probably how it will shake out. What I should say is, “I hate this expansion crap and just want things to stay the way they are.”

"Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that." - George Carlin

by Slice of Life on Aug 12, 2025 4:44 PM EDT up reply actions

I'll second that

Things work just fine as it is now. If it ain’t broke, don’t f**k with it.

Aaron Murray for Heisman!!

by samxrm on Aug 12, 2025 8:58 PM EDT up reply actions

Wow. I appreciate all the response.

If the league added one team from the west and one team in the east like in scenario one it would be tough to come up with a good format while still keeping 8 conference games. I would hate to go to 9 games, but that might just be what happens.

Twitter: @OTFMarc: (NHL)
@MarcTorrence: (everything else).

by Marc Torrence on Aug 12, 2025 11:35 PM EDT reply actions

Nine games makes the most sense

if you go to a 14 team schedule because it’s the only way to preserve the untouchable rivalry games, many (most?) of which are date specific - e.g., UA-UT third saturda in October.

You hit on the downside - the SEC as a whole is already nationally criticized for avoiding big intersectional games in the regular season. It’s not an entirely fair criticism because the SEC starts regular season games by Game 2, while the Big 10 and the old Pac 10 (who whine the loudest about SEC scheduling) typically don’t start conference play until Game 5. Take away another “open” date from the SEC, and you diminish the chance of big out of conference games - especially for the four SEC east teams that have home-home in-state rivalries - UF/FSU, UGA/GaTech, USC/Clemson, UK/Louisville. In a 13 game season, those programs would have just three dates spread throughout the year to play at least eight home-games which is probably the minimum number to which a sane A.D. or President could agree.

I’m having trouble thinking of a positive for a nine game SEC slate other than (a) it would give CBS and ESPN more big time games to highlight, generating more tv revenue; (b) generate more fan interest, anxiety (and infarctions? as if autumn Saturdays in the fall are not stressful enough) and one extra set of traveling fans which would please our local HTR providers to no end; and ( c) forever end any debate that the SEC isn’t the most difficult guantlet in all CFB.

Here's a health, Carolina, forever to thee! UNIVERSITAS CAROLIN MERID. 1801 Emollit mores nec sinit esse feros (Ovid)

by tryptic67 on Aug 13, 2025 7:30 AM EDT up reply actions

I think the response would be simple...

If TAMU, OU, FSU and god knows who join the SEC, I would seriously doubt the credulity of anyone stupid enough to question an SEC team’s SOS. The murders row on both sides of the East/West divide would be unbearable. Imagine a possible Georgia schedule of Florida, USCe, Tennessee, Auburn, FSU, OU and THEN LSU/Bama in the Championship game! Add to that the obligatory game with Georgia Tech, and let some damn fool seriously complain about OOC scheduling.

DawgSports/Falcaholic/Talkin' Chop

by blackertai on Aug 13, 2025 8:06 AM EDT up reply actions

Divisions

In fact, the more I think about it, I don’t know how you avoid a nine game schedule and still play divisional football. Some questions:

1. Divisions are worthless if you dont play everyone in the division.

2. If the SEC scratched the division system in football, and let Birmingham decide who plays who, does the NCAA allow a championship game without divisions? No other league with a championship game does it without divisions … even the MAC, Western and Conf-USA have divisions. I don’t know the NCAA rules well enough to have an opinion. Did the other leagues simply follow the SEC blindly into divisions? So long as you get to the magic number of 12, does the NCAA care how a league puts together its championship?

3. If we keep divisional integrity (by alternating home-and-homes with each division), and Texas A&M is Team 13, then geographical integrity goes out the door unless Team 14 is a current ACC team. So that begs the question, how important is geographical integrity? I would argue it is critical if you are keeping a divisionsional format Otherwise you get the “Altantic” and “Coastal” or - worse - the monstrosity of the never-to-be-mentioned BIG divisions.

If Team 14 is from the west (e,g, Oklahoma), then Bama and Auburn would have to be moved to the East to maintain geographic intergrity and preserve Auburn-UGA (put Bama and Auburn in separate divisions, and Aubie must choose the Iron Bowl over UGA as its permanent out-of-division rival game; move both, then Bama-Auburn, Bama-UT, and Auburn-Georgia are preserved as division games, but then both could not play LSU the same season.

You can see where this is going - it becomes impossible to keep any semblance of current SEC order and have two new western teams. One must be eastern. The logical choice is resurging FSU.

Here's a health, Carolina, forever to thee! UNIVERSITAS CAROLIN MERID. 1801 Emollit mores nec sinit esse feros (Ovid)

by tryptic67 on Aug 13, 2025 8:08 AM EDT reply actions

True, but

In 1992 when Arky and USCe joined, the league was more than willing to shake things up and kill some long running series (Ole Miss/UGA to name one). Who is to say this won’t happen again?

DawgSports/Falcaholic/Talkin' Chop

by blackertai on Aug 13, 2025 8:50 AM EDT up reply actions

Interesting

but in 1992, Ole Miss was one of Georgia’s two permanent cross-division rivals (the old 5-2-1). It ceased being an annual series in 2002 when the league went to the one cross-division rival model (5-1-2).

I hate that some teams lost some old rivalries. Besides Ole Miss/UGA, however, the biggest loss (in terms of an old rivalry) by the 2002 change would have to go to Auburn-UF. Other than that match-up, I don’t know if there was a loss of a major annual rivalry. I don’t know how UK and LSU felt about losing their game.

Vandy might have breathed a sigh of relief not to have a permanent game with Bama, while Bama might wish it had that one back (though I seem to remember the Dores always playing that one hard). UT and MSU lost Arkansas and South Carolina, respectively, so no historical rivalries lost there (though as a Gamecock fan I really enjoyed our annual bouts with MSU).

Here's a health, Carolina, forever to thee! UNIVERSITAS CAROLIN MERID. 1801 Emollit mores nec sinit esse feros (Ovid)

by tryptic67 on Aug 13, 2025 9:59 AM EDT up reply actions

Tennessee and Arkansas had a fantastic series going

with lots of memorable games

Stumble and fumble in ’98
Stoerner to Lucas to knock the Vols out of the title hunt in ’99
35-0 first quarter in ’00
6 OT in ’02

That said, it still had no history, and I don’t think any of us minded losing it. The Vols five rivals before 1992 were Alabama, Auburn, Kentucky, Vandy, and Ole Miss. Alabama the biggest, Auburn next, the other three kinda in a jumble. So we lost two of them (included the second biggest) when we went to divisional play in ’92 (Auburn had rivalries with UGA, UF, and UT and had to give one up) but nothing when we switched to the 5-1-2

Heel for school, Vol for life!

Bolts, Preds, Canes (childhood team, home state team, hometown team). Canes mini-STH. Southern hockey solidarity!

by Incipient_Senescence on Aug 13, 2025 12:45 PM EDT up reply actions

Didnt realize that UGA and UF

were not as high on the Vols’ radar as UK, Vandy and Ole Miss. Obviously we all know about UT-Bama, but for nearly 20 years, the UT-UF and UT-UGA games have blurred my understand of what it was like before South Carolina joined.

Of course as a Vol fan, as much as you have missed the Aubrun rivalry, feasting on the Gamecocks for so many years must have softened the blow of dropping Aubie from the schedule. Heh.

I would love to have been a fly on the wall in ‘91 as Roy Kramer & Co. tried to figure out what rivalries were untouchable, and which could be salvaged. Has that history ever been written? Alas, most SEC histories are the Bear won that, or Archie did this, or Herschel, Bo and Peyton did x, y and z (with photos attached). Which is all cool, don’t get me wrong, but doesn’t focus on how the SEC sausage was made, which to me is equally as fascinating.

Here's a health, Carolina, forever to thee! UNIVERSITAS CAROLIN MERID. 1801 Emollit mores nec sinit esse feros (Ovid)

by tryptic67 on Aug 13, 2025 4:14 PM EDT up reply actions

don't forget about the General

but yeah, it would be interesting to get a behind the scenes picture of how that all went down.

Regarding our historical rivals, we almost never played Florida or Georgia before 1992. Florida went from blip on the radar to #2 rival pretty damn quickly though. They pretty much just took the place of Auburn in the rivalry pecking order.

Heel for school, Vol for life!

Bolts, Preds, Canes (childhood team, home state team, hometown team). Canes mini-STH. Southern hockey solidarity!

by Incipient_Senescence on Aug 13, 2025 4:59 PM EDT up reply actions

right now

the NCAA rules say you need divisions. Not sure how amenable to change they are though.

by cfn_ms on Aug 13, 2025 2:55 PM EDT up reply actions

So ...

Everyone knows the SEC is not dropping the SECCG. That means A&M and “Team 14” must find a way to fit into the division format unless Mike Slive can convince the NCAA to abandon the division requirement. Maybe he can. Maybe he can’t.

Assuming the NCAA rules stay the way they are, though, the question becomes really simple for the following schools:

Bama, Auburn and LSU - you’ve won national championships in the past ten years. You each have the staffs and facilities to contend again in the next decade. Is the extra money that A&M and FSU (?) will bring into the league enough to justify an extra league game against A&M every year? Your cups already runneth over - so are you ready for another Arkansas-type-team in your division? A&M has been up and down of late, but it will get a boost playing in the SEC. What boost do you get playing A&M?

Arkansas - you already have a great rivalry with A&M. Youve had success in the SEC, but its been hard to sustain year-in-and-year out - you know that as well as anyone. The Hogs are poised to go to the next level, but youre still not signing recruiting classes as nationally ranked as LSU, Bama and Auburn. Are you ready to play A&M every year and have it count not just to your poll ranking, but to your league standing? Is the extra money going to be worth the additional burden?

Ole Miss and Miss State. You have proud, old programs and you’ve sipped at the cup of success. Are you ready to play another team that’s going to have deeper pockets and deeper pool of in-state talent that the Magnolia State? Will you be able to tap into Texas recruiting more than you already have? Is the extra money worth the extra hurdle of playing a team the equivalent of two Arkansas games? That’s what you’d be buying into.

UGA, UT and UF. With only one recent exception, you’ve dominated the Eastern Division for as long as anyone can remember - the fight to Atlanta has been as bloody as hell, and it’s usually been decided by one special player or one or two spectacular plays. South Carolina is making noise, and while you’re confident it won’t last, you’ve still got to do a little rebuilding to get back to your former position. Each of you sees that the pieces are there, but South Carolina looks like it will have a couple more decent years too -, are you wanting to add Jimbo Fisher’s resurging Noles to the mix every year. Maybe five years ago you’d have say yes. Or even two. UF and UT have won championships lately and all three of you can contend. Are you ready to take a chance that you can beat each other, put the Gamecocks back in their place and take care of the Noles every year? Because that is your future in a 14 team SEC.

South Carolina, Kentucky and Vandy The three big boys have used and abused you for as long as you can remember. South Carolina has been able to play King of the East for a year, and it sure feels good. But you three all know that the Vols, Gators and Dawgs aren’t all going to be down forever. The bully boys all have bigger facilities, bigger recruiting budgets and more national recognition. You have to work years to build deep teams. Those guys just ring the bell and say the door is open. Each of you have been working like a turk to keep up with the Joneses. How will you fare playing a nine game conference schedule against another FSU heavyweight. Is Jimbo a flash-in-the pan? Will FSU go back to its late 2000s complacency? Even if they do, are they going to better than you? Your road just got that much harder. Is the money worth it?

Here's a health, Carolina, forever to thee! UNIVERSITAS CAROLIN MERID. 1801 Emollit mores nec sinit esse feros (Ovid)

by tryptic67 on Aug 13, 2025 5:10 PM EDT up reply actions