SEC to Announce Permanent Opponents

[HoopsDawg]

Bama already will have Auburn and LSU. They won't give them another old guard West team. My guess is that it will Tennessee.

Bama vs UT is more of a rivalry than Bama v LSU. I doubt the SEC gives them 3 tough permanents but they will probably stack the other 6 games with Vandy, UK, MSU and South Carolina as much as possible

[StarkVegasSteve]

Bama vs UT is more of a rivalry than Bama v LSU. I doubt the SEC gives them 3 tough permanents but they will probably stack the other 6 games with Vandy, UK, MSU and South Carolina as much as possible

Unfortunately for them, ESPN is going to have a large say in who permanent opponents are and they will request LSU be a permanent opponent for Bama.

[Coach34]

Bama wants those 3 as their perms. It's not just the SEC making them do it.

[Homedawg]

Bama wants those 3 as their perms. It's not just the SEC making them do it.

I don't believe that for a second.

[parabrave]

I could see us getting Bama due to proximity and to help Bama out.

I was thinking TAM was the old SWC teams/

[Tbonewannabe]

I was thinking TAM was the old SWC teams/

I wonder if the SEC at least gives A&M one bone by not having Texas as a permanent. They did leave the Big 12 just to get away from them.

[StarkVegasSteve]

I wonder if the SEC at least gives A&M one bone by not having Texas as a permanent. They did leave the Big 12 just to get away from them.

Like I said earlier, unfortunately for these teams ESPN is playing a large part in this stuff and ESPN wants TX/A&M every year.

[BulldogBear]

It all depends on whether Tennessee or Auburn is in the Upper half. Putting Vols in the bottom makes it work better. So, using that, my guess is that it will be:

ALABAMA: AUBURN, LSU, Tennessee

AUBURN: UGA, BAMA, Vandy*

FLORIDA: UGA, LSU, Kentucky**

GEORGIA: AUBURN, FLORIDA, Soukerlina

LOUISIANA STATE: BAMA, FLORIDA, Ole Miss

OKLAHOMA: TEXSA, TAMU, Mizzou

TEXAS: OU, TAMU, UPig

TEXAS A&M: OU, TEXSA, Miss.St.

Arkansas: TEXSA, Mizzou, Ole Miss

Kentucky: FLORIDA, Miss.St., Vandy

Missouri: OU, UPig, Soukerlina

Mississippi State: TAMU, Kentucky, Ole Miss

Ole Miss: LSU, UPig, Miss.St.

South Carolina: UGA, Mizzou, Tennessee***

Tennessee: BAMA, Soukerlina, Vandy****

Vanderbilt: AUBURN, Kentucky, Tennessee*****

*Historically it would make more sense to be us but they won't do it for 2 reasons. Aubie already has Tide & UGA. That's brutal. At least Vandy-AU has some history. Vandy-TAMU has none. We have a good, even series with TAMU. True Maroon. Aggie vs. Aggie, etc. We are getting TAMU folks.

**There is no reason to keep LSU-OU. Rivalry week should be Mizzou-OU anyway. They have a long history. LSU-UPig makes more sense but they won't play every year. This is the main wrinkle in all of this. What to do with LSU rivalry week.

***With the reality being the conference is split 9-7 rather than 8-8, it's going to be hard not to screw somebody. Right now, this is terrible for the cocks, but many years it wouldn't be.

****Because of the above mentioned 9-7 discrepancy, Vols get off pretty easy. I imagine this is why they'll consider re-evaluating the 8-8 every four years (which will be the schedule cycle) and making minor adjustments. UT-UK will be sacrificed. UK hasn't been competitive in this series even when they're good and Vols are bad. I haven't seen a model of this yet that includes UK-UT.

*****From 'Dores POV, Auburn and UT is brutal, so they'll be given us, Mizzou, or UK. Rebels have played themselves out of consideration to be Vandy's permanent. Besides, OM-UPig have been playing annually long before WPS came to the SEC. It's a great rivalry.

TRUTH BE TOLD...I think they picked the wrong scheduling model. It should have been 6-3 not 3-6. You would still play every other conference member every three years, both home and away every six years. That's not too bad. You can still split the groups if you want and make sure it's even 3-3 for the six permanent or perhaps 4-2 and 2-4 respectively. I am a strong believer that mid level rivalries die when you don't play them every year. I think having 6 familiar faces on the schedule each and every season keeps those fan bases much more engaged with each other than the short sighted people doing this give it credit for. You could still re-evaluate the split every six year cycle and make minor adjustments. But for the most part when using a 6-3 model every one of the schools that should be playing each other every year will get to. For instance, I would be much more excited about playing Auburn every year than getting to play UGA or Missouri more. Yawn.

[Quaoarsking]

Tweak to the above take:

They should move to a 10-game conference schedule with 5 permanents and 5 rotating so that you get more annual rivalries and still play everyone twice every 4 years.

[parabrave]

USCe and Fl do have a history. Tell you the truthy the only old SEC team that doesn't have a real rivalry is LSU. OM is their only historical rival and TAM is 2nd. They can't claim Tulane anymore

[BulldogBear]

Tweak to the above take:

They should move to a 10-game conference schedule with 5 permanents and 5 rotating so that you get more annual rivalries and still play everyone twice every 4 years.

I think that won't happen until they move to 13 games. Some people say they wouldn't ever consider that. I think it'll happen in less than 15 years. Another home game? More money. Greed will win out. It always does. Everyone will start week 0. No bye weeks. Well, except for when a 14 week season comes along.

[Todd4State]

I think that won't happen until they move to 13 games. Some people say they wouldn't ever consider that. I think it'll happen in less than 15 years. Another home game? More money. Greed will win out. It always does. Everyone will start week 0. No bye weeks. Well, except for when a 14 week season comes along.

Honestly, they have enough wiggle room to go to 15 weeks if they wanted to by making week 0 week 1 and then removing the byes in season.

Now, obviously they'll go to 13 before they ever get to 15.

To your point, 13 week season. Now you're talking about at least 8 and maybe even 9 home games for some SEC teams. Or a team could play in a kickoff classic and still have 8 home games. It works out pretty well.

[BulldogBear]

Honestly, they have enough wiggle room to go to 15 weeks if they wanted to by making week 0 week 1 and then removing the byes in season.

Now, obviously they'll go to 13 before they ever get to 15.

To your point, 13 week season. Now you're talking about at least 8 and maybe even 9 home games for some SEC teams. Or a team could play in a kickoff classic and still have 8 home games. It works out pretty well.

Probably 8. Most are going try to be sure if they're in the years with 4 SEC home games/ 5 SEC road games that their P4 opponent is a home game. Alternate years when it's 5-4 will be the return games and Classics. I doubt you see many more G5 road trips. Kind of sad really. A lot of great often played series will go away except for the odd bowl game, maybe a neutral site game, or maybe a home game only. But can we really see programs like Tulane, Memphis, USF, Oregon State, etc. just resigning themselves to only playing P4 schools on the road EVER? Just self-deprecatingly aligning themselves as no different than a Kennesaw State or NMSU. Either those types of opponents will never play mid to low tier P4 anymore or some of us will just have to have the occasional 6 (7 with 13 game) home slate.