re: SEC leaning towards 1 division

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The Bama equivalents to Tigerbait, ESPN 104.5 in Tuscaloosa are suggesting LSU and Bama is not happening. You can keep pushing that narrative but I am not buying it till I see it in print from Sankey.

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How many times do I have to say I’m not pushing any narrative when it comes to LSU and Alabama? The choice here is to keep a rivalry and force an awkward pairing or create two new “rivalries” for the sake of geography. It could easily be LSU-Oklahoma and Alabama-Florida instead if that makes you feel better.

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Do you know how far it is from Gainesville to Norman, that is a 1200 mile trip.

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Do you think they are driving there? It’s 962 miles as the crow flies. It’s 858 to Columbia, MO now. That’s maybe a 10-15 minute difference in flight time.

I understand the thought is trying to prepare for the playoff model, but with 16 teams, no divisions is a model rife with issues. The most glaring issue is you would name your 'conference champion" arbitrarily then get them and at most one other team into the playoffs whereas with a two division model and a 12 team playoff, you could have a great case to get in 3, such as this year should LSU win out.

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There are ways for all of those teams to get what they want without caving to LSU. They can get pretty much the same voting bloc and kick LSU to the curb.

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You’re a strange person. How do you know how these teams will vote?

It’s extremely simple. Alabama will play Auburn and Tennessee. For their third game they’ll want someone like State.

1. Both LSU AND Bama will be against playing each other.

2. Alabama has the most influence in the conference.

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Do you think they are driving there? It’s 962 miles as the crow flies. It’s 858 to Columbia, MO now. That’s maybe a 10-15 minute difference in flight time.

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There are lots of people who still don't like to fly who take motor homes and say 6-8 people go together on road trips. Those road fans make a significant number of any teams total fans who make road trips.

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So Texas will have OU, LSU and Aggie? I think Arkansas is willing to negotiate with other league members to guarantee they get Texas back on their schedule. Texas of course will obviously want OU, along with Arkansas and I think Texas A&M.

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I agree that LSU-Texas is the most unlikely of those pairings, but it’s even more unlikely LSU will get away with not having one of those teams as a permanent opponent.

Arkansas almost certainly will get Texas and A&M and I agree with your 3 permanent opponents for Texas. If you look at my list, I have both of those things happening without having to give LSU an easy schedule.

My thoughts on the permanent rivals if the SEC consolidated to a single open division.

Assumption is to have 3 permanent rivals with 6 rotating games amongst the remaining 12 teams. 6 rotating games results in a home and away for every team to play every 4 years.

1. Rivalry - Games like Tenn-Alabama, OU-Texas SHOULD never end.
2. History - Teams that have played the most historical games should be prioritized.
3. Geograpy - Teams should play teams nearest them if possible.
4. Balance - Each team should have 1 or 2 superpowers and 1 or 2 avg to bottom dwellers

In parenthesis is the number of total games played with that rival. First 3 teams are the permanent games. The rest on each line are just reference.

Rivalry and the number of games are closely aligned. Every team naturally has 1-2 obvious rivals. Some teams are newer to the picture and feel forced. They are much harder to place (ie Missouri and South Carolina).


LSU - MSU (113), Ole Miss (106) TAM (59) —— Bama (85), Florida (69), Arkansas (67),
Alabama - Tenn (103), MSU (103), Auburn (80) —— LSU (85), Vandy (85),
Auburn - Georgia (119), Florida (85), Alabama (80) —— MSU (95),LSU (55)
MSU - Ole Miss (114), LSU (113), Alabama (103) —— Auburn (95)
Ole Miss - MSU (114), LSU (106), Vandy (93) —— Arkansas (68)

Florida - Georgia (101), Auburn (85), Kentucky (73) ——- LSU (69)
Tenn - Vandy (111), Kentucky (106), Alabama (104) —— Ole Miss (66)
Georgia - Auburn (119), Florida (101), South Carolina (70), —— Vandy (78), Kentucky (75), Alabama (70)
Vandy - Tenn (111), Ole Miss (93), Kentucky (89) —— Bama (85), Georgia (79)
Kentucky - Tenn (106), Vandy (89), Florida (73) —— Geogia (75),

Arkansas - Texas (78), TAM (76), Missouri (13) ——- Miss (68), LSU (67),
South Carolina - Georgia (70) Missouri (13), Oklahoma (0) —— Florida (43), Tenn (40), Kentucky (34), Vandy (32),

Missouri - OU (93), Texas (20), Arkansas (13), South Carolina (13) ——- Kentucky (13), Vandy (13),
TAM - Texas (109), Arkansas (78), LSU (59) ——— OU 30

OU - Texas (108), Missouri (93), South Carolina (0) —— TAM (30), Arkansas (11),
Texas - TAM (109), OU (108), 76 Ark (76) ——— Missouri (20)

This is obviously not perfect, but I think it is about as good as it would get.

If it doesn't push member teams higher into playoff races he will.

There's a opportunity with a 12 team playoff that the loser of an SEC championship game doesn't get into playoffs, where had the game NOT been played, perhaps they would have gotten in.

Take 2001 LSU (or this year even) 8-3 going to SECGGC. We won that game, but what would a loss look like in a 12 team playoff scenario? The highest ranked 8-4 team that year was 15th (out of playoffs). Now that knife cuts both ways. Without the CCG, they don't get in either. Ranked #21 prior, 12th afterwards.

If a team losing the CCG loses a playoff spot, the commish certainly has an obligation to consider it as an option.