There has been a lot of complaining about how unfair it is that Bama has Tennessee as a permanent opponent and LSU has Florida. Bama has played Tennessee 94 times (vs 77 times against LSU) and LSU has only played 4 teams more than Florida (58 times compared vs 56 times against Arkansas, our next most frequent opponent). It makes sense when you look at historical rivalries. Looking at historical rivalries, it makes sense to split the divisions as follows: LSU/A&M/Missouri/Arkansas/Ole Miss/MSU/UK Bama/UGA/UF/UT/AU/USC/Vandy With permanent opponents as follows: UK/UT (108) Battle for the Barrel Bama/MSU (96) Battle for HWY 82 UF/LSU (58) AU/Ole Miss (37) Arkansas/USC (20) A&M/UGA (5) Missouri/Vandy (5) It would shift a lot of power to the east, but it works geographically and historically. You would gain AU/UGA (116)("The Deep South's Oldest Rivalry"), Bama/UT (94)("Third Saturday in October"), Bama/Vandy (83), AU/UF (82), Bama/UGA (65), LSU/UK (56), AU/UT (50), UK/Ole Miss (42), Bama/UF (38), UK/MSU (38), AU/Vandy (37), A&M/Missouri (13). You would lose AU/MSU (87), UK/Vandy (78) Bama/LSU (77), UK/UGA (65), UK/UF (62), Bama/Ole Miss (60), LSU/AU (43), UK/USC (23), Arkansas/Bama (22), Arkansas/AU (21). This is a net positive of 176 rivalry years. The east would have the two top funded programs (Bama & UF), five of the top seven (LSU & Arkansas representing the west at #3 and #7), and six of the top nine (adding A&M and not including UK's basketball program), with a total difference in expenditures of about $90 million.
Seems like I remember seeing this kicked around this summer. In that alignment, only Texas A&M even comes close to being able to complete with LSU in facilites. Even though other conferences seem to have no problem busting up "tradional rivalries" to improve or expand the size of their conferences, I'm afraid you won't see it here. Bama has too much sway over the SEC office, and why should Ole Miss, Miss St, Vandy and Kentucky give up their perm to take a chance on playing stronger teams from the other division? Besides, according to TerryP and Tusktimes, it's just a coincidence that most years, (especially this year and next) the permanent rivalry works in their favor since 1992.
Oh let Alabama feel good about something, they have nothing else. If not for those 2 schools that state could explode and wash off into the gulf and no one would give a fuck. Wait, no one would give a fuck anyway, nevermind.
All of this scheduling brouhaha is actually a very strong case for further SEC expansion, and I would like to see the SEC add four more teams over the next couple of years. If the conference could get schools like N.C. State, Va Tech, Okie State, and Florida State, it would be adding four schools with "athletic programs", and it would expand the SEC's reach into new markets like North Carolina, Virginia/DC, and further west. As for Florida State, I would like them because their coming into the SEC would f*ck with both Florida and Alabama in terms of recruiting. If this were to happen, you could have two nine-team divisions like this: EAST Florida Florida State Georgia Tennessee South Carolina North Carolina State Virginia Tech Kentucky Vanderbilt WEST LSU Alabama Auburn Arkansas Ole Miss Miss State Texas A&M Oklahoma State Missouri Each team's SEC schedule would simply consist of their playing the other teams in their division, and the two best teams from each division would meet in the conference championship. In other words, Alabama and Tennessee would either have to win their divisions to play each other, or they can continue the series as an "out of conference" game.
We've got to deal with them and this will only get worse if we do not. Conference Realignment? That is equivilent putting Adolph Hitler in rehab instead or prison / execution. LSU must fully remove itself and cut off the cash cow bloodflow of money those inbreds now believe they're entitled to.
Actually, Arkansas is second in resources to LSU. And this switch would improve traditional rivalries, not bust them up.
wow! talk about unbalanced divisions. everyone but USCe and Vandy has at least 15 top 10 finishes since WWII in one division. and only LSU has 15+ top 10s in the same time from the other division.
