re: Mizzou to SEC EAST?

quote:

---

If Tennessee-Bama and AU-UGA games are so important, then those teams should be in the same division. Move AU and Bama East and Kentucky to the West.

---

yea, hell no

Making sure that teams are in the right division (Missouri fits better in west than east) is more important than keeping an inter-divisional rivalry as an annual game for the sake of tradition (Bama-Tenn/AU-UGA).

What if you take Mizzou as the yearly rival and we take USC?

quote:

---

Arkansas-Missouri would be a natural rivalry. Fayetteville has been stuck in the upper far corner of the conference for 20 years, and now we have a chance to add a team closer in vicinity. I don't think it would make sense to put Missouri in the East when they would fit in much better with Ark and A&M in the West. Auburn fits much better in the East, and they can still play Bama every season.

---

iron bowl problem tho - bama couldn't have both UT and Auburn as their fixed rival

if MU and A&M are set up as the cross division fixed opponents then you can keep the single cross division opponent thing going. The down side? With 7 teams in each division you only have room for 2 games against teams from the opposite division (unless you increase to 9 or 10 conference games instead of 8 per year)

This is the ugly part of expansion. Bad choices in scheduling will abound:

Options with 8 conference games:
1) six within division games - 1 fixed opp division opponent, 1 rotating (with a home/away this means you only play six of your opposite divisions twice per 12 years)
2) six within division games - no fixed opponents (bye bye Bama/UT, Auburn/UGA) and two rotating opposite division opponents. Loss of historical rivalries of great importance but you play more of the teams from your opposite division more often (just under one year in three)

options with 9 or 10 conference games are more flexible in that they allow you to maintain cross division rivalries and play more teams from the opposite division more easily... but defeat a major purpose in expansion (because you lose a lot of home games/home gates as a conference). Also with 9 conference games you have a very uneven schedule from year to year (half the teams get an extra home game - lousy for fairness in scheduling)

This post is already too long so I won't detail it - but if the SEC ends up expanding to 16 and has 4 four team divisions it would actually work out more easily. You would have 3 within division opponents, 1 fixed opponent, and a rotation of 4 out of division opponents (allowing you to play all the teams in the conference more than twice every 6 years). The challenge with that is how you convince the NCAA to allow for a two round playoff for the conference championship

quote:

---

Under the scenerio everyone brings up the most, which is moving Auburn east, and putting Mizzou in their place, here is what travel looks like from Columbia, MO:

Fayetteville, AR 310 miles
Oxford, MS 480 miles
Starkville, MS 575 miles
Tuscaloosa, AL 620 miles
Baton Rouge, LA 770 miles
College Station, TX 780 miles

Average travel distance = 589 miles

If you put Mizzou in the SEC EAST and leave Auburn in the West, you've got:

Nashville, TN 430
Lexington, KY 460
Knoxville, TN 610
Athens, GA 740
Columbia, SC 870
Gainsville, FL 1000

---

All this proves is that Mizzou has no business in the SEC.

quote:

---

Clemson
VT
NCSU
FSU

---

I'm fine with ANY of these over Missouri. I'd like to see

1. Clemson
2. FSU
3. Virginia Tech
4. NC State

Clemson would be a quality add for sure.

I'm even wearing a Clemson shirt on-campus today.

quote:

---

New Divisions Bama, Aub, UGA, FL, TN, LSU, SC Ark, A&M, Mizzou, Ole Miss, Miss State, KY, Vandy We'll call the Divisions: GOOD and BAD... or maybe RELEVANT and IRRELEVANT. Something catchy like that

---

I'm lost on the Clemson thing - the SEC is already in South Carolina and South Carolina as a state is obviously a much smaller state than Florida

If we want to add a program from a state we already have a presence in then why Clemson over FSU? FSU is actually good sometimes, they offer more of a recruiting base to SEC teams playing there (an issue when the average SEC team will play Florida less), and they have a much more favorable national reputation.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents, I know someone will chip in by saying the Clemson fans are more passionate than FSU fans but so are the West Virginia fans... why not them instead of Clemson?