SEC scheduling wasn't formalized back then. LSU had annual games with Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Florida, Kentucky and, starting in the early '60s, Alabama. In addition, we had annual series outside of SEC play with Texas A&M, Rice and Tulane (which was an SEC game until the mid-'60s). That's eight games out of what was only a 10-game schedule until the early '70s. With only two other slots available, there wasn't much room for games against Georgia, Auburn, Tennessee, Vanderbilt or Georgia Tech, which was also in the SEC until the mid-'60s. We went 25 years from 1953 to 1978 without playing Georgia at all, but that was partly because of a riot that broke out after a game in Athens in the early '50s. Sometimes we didn't have any other SEC teams on the schedule besides our annual five (six until Tulane left the SEC). We did have sporadic games with Tennessee and Auburn from time to time in the '60s and into 1970, but it was never an annual thing.

Beginning in '72, shortly after college football moved to the 11-game schedule and the SEC was down to 10 teams, the SEC went to a six-game schedule with five permanent opponents and one rotating slot for the other four teams. Under that arrangement, LSU met Auburn in '72 and '73, Tennessee in '74 and '75, Vandy in '76 and '77 and Georgia in '78 and '79. The pattern repeated from 1980-87 with the same four teams in 2-year increments in the same order: Auburn in '80 and '81, Tennessee in '82 and '83, Vandy in '84 and '85, and Georgia in '86 and '87.

Starting in 1988, the SEC went to a 7-game conference schedule with 5 permanent and 2 rotating opponents, so you would play each team at least twice every four years. We played Auburn and Tennessee in '88 and '89, Georgia and Vandy in '90 and '91. Unfortunately, that arrangement only lasted through one rotation of four years because expansion occurred in '92 and changed everything.

This post was edited on 9/22/16 at 2:22 pm