There’s no point in complaining about conference realignment, but I’m going to anyway. We’ve lost so many awesome rivalries because of realignment and TV Deals. That’s the world we live in, but other than TCU and Utah it feels like no other fanbase is truly stoked about all the movement in college football.
Nebraska and Colorado on Black Friday was an awesome game; I’m stoked they’re playing this year but imagine how big that game would be now with Prime and Matt Rhule if it was an annual conference rivalry. Michigan and Notre Dame was a massive game each year, they last played in 2019 and aren’t scheduled to play again until 2033. What is the point of scheduling out ten plus years for a football game?
With Texas and Oklahoma joining the SEC we’re at risk of losing even more rivalries. No player should go a full four year career without playing every school in your conference at least once. One proposed schedule setup is going to a schedule where you play three teams annually and everyone else on a rotating basis. Out of the goodness of my heart I’ve come up with the three teams that each SEC school should be playing every single year. Some schools had much more natural rivalries than other ones, and you’ll be able to tell which schools I’m talking about when you get there.
We’re not gonna break the SEC into four separate pods, but rather each school plays three set opponents. So Alabama would play Tennessee and Auburn every year, but Auburn and Tennessee wouldn’t play each other annually because they’d have two other annual rivals. Playing three set opponents lets us keep historic rivalries while also getting to see games like Florida versus Auburn and Georgia versus Alabama that currently we get once a decade.
Alabama: Auburn, Tennessee, Mississippi State
Auburn and Tennessee are no-brainers. Alabama and Tennessee are historically the two most successful programs in SEC history, and that game needs to be played the Third Saturday in October. There’s not a chance in the world that we lose the Iron Bowl, one of the most significant in-state rivalries in the country. Alabama and Mississippi State are geographically the two closest schools in the conference.
Arkansas: Ole Miss, Texas, LSU
Every year, Arkansas and Ole Miss is the weirdest game in college football, and in a lot of ways it’s the game that best embodies college football. They’re border states that recruit the same kids, and for whatever reason chaos breaks out in some form or fashion every time those two teams play. Arkansas and Texas might be a one sided rivalry, but boy is it a rivalry in Fayetteville. When I was at the University of Arkansas the bookstore had a whole mini section dedicated to “Beat Texas” type shirts. Arkansas HATES Texas. LSU and Arkansas is another border rivalry, they’ve played for the “Battle of the Boot” trophy since 1996. Games with trophies should be held onto as much as possible.
Auburn: Alabama, Georgia, Ole Miss
Auburn doesn’t get any breaks here. They have to play Alabama every year, and unfortunately for whoever Auburn’s head coach is their success is measured by how often they beat the Crimson Tide. It’s harsh to judge a coach by how often they can beat Nick Saban, but that’s how the world works down in Auburn, AL. Auburn and Georgia is the Deep South’s oldest rivalry, and that game should be being played not only annually, but also two weeks before the Auburn Alabama game. Auburn and Ole Miss is a border rivalry game, and two of the most intense fanbases in the conference.
LSU: Arkansas, Florida, Texas A&M
I wanted to include Ole Miss with LSU on an annual basis, but there just wasn’t the space on the calendar. The LSU and Florida rivalry is one of the best jersey combinations in the country, so we can’t get rid of that. Arkansas and LSU have played every year since 1996 for the “Golden Boot”, but they’ve played every year since 1901. A&M and LSU is a kind of not geographical rivalry, but it also is somehow? College Station and Baton Rouge aren’t super alike, but the two fan bases have a surprising amount of cultural overlap in *some* aspects.
Mississippi State: Ole Miss, Alabama, Vanderbilt
The Egg Bowl, not any Lions or Cowboys games, is the best football on Thanksgiving. Most of the time Ole Miss and Mississippi State play for nothing but hate, which is really the only thing we need for a rivalry game. It’s fun to see Alabama go into Starkville every year and deal with the cowbells of State fans. Mississippi and Tennessee border each other, and playing schools geographically close consistently still counts for something in my book.
Ole Miss: Mississippi State, Arkansas, Auburn
When Ole Miss plays both Mississippi State and Arkansas those games are appointment television, no matter how bad the teams are. Typically, against Arkansas in particular, the closer the teams are to .500 the funner the games are. Ole Miss and Auburn is just an excuse for two awesome fan bases with great gameday atmospheres to get together every year and see what happens.
Texas A&M: Texas, Oklahoma, LSU
The Longhorns going to the SEC means we’ll finally get the game that everyone either desperately wants, or no one wants any part of. Texas and A&M seem to have a weird kind of hate where they dislike each other so much that at least part of the fanbase doesn’t even want to play them. It’s closer to disrespect than hate. Oklahoma would be a fun throwback to the original Big XII (which was an awesome conference). College Station and Baton Rouge are about five and a half hours away; but everything East of Houston is basically Louisiana, so LSU and A&M is a much closer geographic rivalry than it may seem.
Florida: Georgia, Tennessee. LSU
The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party obviously has to stay. There’s some pros and cons to having a neutral site game every year instead of home and home, but it does create one of the most unique atmospheres in college football. It’s been a while since both Florida and Tennessee have been awesome, but when they are it’s a meaningful game for the whole country and especially for the folks in Gainesville and Knoxville. I wanted to put Auburn instead of LSU for Florida’s third team, but despite the historical significance of Florida and Auburn I didn’t feel right taking LSU off the Gator’s schedule.
Georgia: Florida, Auburn, Tennessee
Picking Georgia’s pod was one of the easiest schools to pick in the whole conference. All three of these games are historical, meaningful games for both the schools and the fanbases. Georgia and South Carolina is a fun game but without Steve Spurrier at South Carolina anymore it’s not really the same; and there’s not a chance you’d bump Tennessee, Florida, or Auburn for that.
Kentucky: Missouri, Vanderbilt, South Carolina
We’re in the part of the SEC East schedule where everybody has gotta play somebody. Kentucky and Vanderbilt is a border state game; and Nashville is an underrated hotbed for high school football so playing in Nashville consistently couldn’t hurt Kentucky. Technically Kentucky and Missouri are also border states, but it’s like the bottom corner of each state so realistically doesn’t matter as much. South Carolina and Kentucky have been playing annually in the SEC East for years, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
Missouri: Kentucky, Oklahoma, South Carolina
Missouri is tough because we’re torn between the old Big XII and the soon to be old SEC East. The fact that Missouri which is basically as far West as the SEC footprint goes and was in the SEC East just shows how creative we have to be with some of these matchups. Mizzou playing Oklahoma every year gives us a bit of a throwback. Playing Kentucky and South Carolina lets Missouri keep playing a couple of the schools they’ve been playing annually since joining the SEC.
South Carolina: Missouri, Kentucky, Vanderbilt
I wish South Carolina could play Georgia and Florida every year, but it just wasn’t in the cards. Both of those games for South Carolina, especially the Florida game, have strong Steve Spurrier ties. Spurrier obviously won a Heisman trophy as a player and a National Championship as a head coach at Florida before moving on to coach South Carolina. While at South Carolina the Gamecocks would typically play Georgia in week two. When asked about playing Georgia early in the season, Spurrier said: “I sort of always liked playing them that second game because you could always count on them having two or three key players suspended”; which is objectively a hilarious and ridiculous thing for a head coach to say. The fact that I’m spending more time talking about who South Carolina isn’t playing than who they are points to the Gamecocks getting the short end of the stick.
Tennessee: Alabama, Georgia, Florida
Like Georgia, Tennessee has three no-brainer games they have to play each and every year. Alabama and Tennessee used to be the game in the SEC, and historically that’s the most intense rivalry in the conference. I still don’t think Volunteer fans are over the fact that Peyton Manning never beat my mans Steve Spurrier and the Florida Gators. Until Kirby Smart came along Tennessee was second only to Alabama in terms of SEC Championships. Now the Vols and Bulldogs are tied at thirteen, and with Georgia not showing any signs of slowing down the best thing Tennessee could do is keep them out of the conference championship game.
Vanderbilt: Kentucky, South Carolina, Mississippi State
This would be quite the baseball pod; unfortunately for Vanderbilt playing baseball in the SEC means that they also have to field a football team. Kentucky and Mississippi State are border games. If we’re being honest the math just worked out to have Vanderbilt and South Carolina in the same pod; it’d be a great annual jersey match up at least.
Oklahoma: Texas, Missouri, Texas A&M
With no natural rivals besides Texas, Oklahoma gets to keep it in the Big XII. The nice thing for Oklahoma is with Texas A&M they’ll still get to play games in Texas Dallas and the (loosely) Houston area, maintaining and maintaining as much of a presence in Texas as Oklahoma can is the best thing for them. Playing Missouri every year is just a fun bonus.
Texas: Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Arkansas
I think Oklahoma is the only team that Texas would actually want to play each and every year. The Arkansas rivalry is a fun throwback to the old Big 8 conference, but most Longhorn fans would be totally fine not having to play in Fayetteville every other year. Who knows how Texas and Texas A&M feel about each other, one of the few rivalries I truly never seem to understand. There’s basically no way that the SEC wouldn’t have them play each other though, so like it or not they’re gonna be stuck with each other.
-By Jake Cowden
Photo: John Bazemore/Associated Press