*** OFFICIAL *** daboman opinion of 14 team schedule

On the one hand, as a supporter of a school that isn't even in the SEC yet, I should keep my mouth shut about scheduling. On the other hand, as an outsider, I have no dog in this fight. Reading numerous threads on this board it is apparent to me that Bama, LSU, and Auburn fans will never come to a peaceful settlement in terms of scheduling. As an outsider (until July 2012), this scheduling concept is me imposing peace on the rest of you. The teams that share rows are permanent rivals.

SEC West - SEC East

Arkansas - South Carolina
Missouri - Kentucky
Texas A&M - Florida
Ole Miss - Vanderbilt
Alabama - Auburn
Mississippi State - Tennessee
LSU - Georgia

We are going to have a nine game conference schedule. You will play all six of the teams within your division annually. You will play your permanent rival and two teams from the other division annually. Those two teams will rotate annually so that you play each team once every three seasons and go six years between home games against any given non-rival opponent from the other division.

Here is my thinking for each permanent rival:

Arkansas - South Carolina (keeping an existing pairing)

Missouri - Kentucky (pairing the two biggest traditional basketball programs and the two most northerly schools)

Texas A&M - Florida (I've split the 'Big 6' 4/2 in this solution. I want A&M to step up to the plate and play one of them. LSU fans don't seem to want Florida as their permanent rival, so we will take them.)

Ole Miss - Vanderbilt (keeping an existing pairing)

Alabama - Auburn (The Iron Bowl is the best rivalry game in the nation.)

Mississippi State - Tennessee (Tennessee loses it's traditional game with Alabama. I want to appease them by giving them one of the 'Little 6' schools as a permanent rival. I am trying to buy their vote as the 9th vote for Mizzou.)

LSU - Georgia (A 'Big 6' pairing. LSU fans don't seem to want Florida any more, so I gave them Georgia.)

I know that the Alabama/Tennessee game goes back a long time. Honestly, before I joined this board, I didn't know it was that big of a rivalry. On the other hand, Missouri is at 92 degrees west longitude. Only A&M and Arkansas are further west.

If you read about the success of the NFL, you will often read that the genius of the league was realizing early on that it was only as strong as its weakest link. I know that the SEC is a lot stronger than Vandy. However, Gary Pinkel has built a solid Missouri program from *nothing*. He has 35 kids from Texas on his roster. It's only fair to them that they be in the west with A&M. I want them to remain a "strong link."

Now, if someone can give me Mike Slive's fax number or email address, I'd like to pass this along to him so that he can put it on SEC letterhead before distributing it to the media.

That's my .