Permanent rival thing is mostly stupid. There are couple that I completely understand, but the majority of “permanent rivals” are just stupid, as it applies to cross division rival. Perfect example is South Carolina and A&M, wtf?? If it isn’t a truly historic rival, they should ditch this
The point is a lot of them are just fabricated rivalries. There are a couple that make sense like Auburn Georgin and Tenn/Bama, but A&M and South Carolina makes 0 sense.
You are correct aTm makes zero sense but if you schedule the other games then for scheduling purposes you have to give the other teams a perm opponent because you can’t have some fixed some floaters.
I wonder if it happens if the SEC goes to a division format, because there really aren’t any significant historic cross-division rivalry games to protect in that format
Sorry vb, but that went out the window with large amounts of money and realignment.
My memory ain't too swift and I can't nail down an exact time frame but I think you are about right. The amount of money became more significant when Oklahoma won their suit...and rightly so. Texas, A&M and Arkansas didn't think the rest of the SWC had enough drawing power to increase their pot of money. So Arkie went to the SEC, four SWC teams joined the Big 8. Money accelerated again with the start of the FBS. And then media offerings went up and the CFP really sent it up again. Realignment was all about money one way or the other. Either "we aren't getting our share, someone is getting more than their share, our total pot isn't increasing fast enough to keep up, etc..........."
i'm pretty sure Ark would trade those for a UT game..
One of the saddest moments in College Football History.
I agree with most of what you say, but UGA v. AU, and Bama v. UTjr are rivalries that need to be maintained.
If they move UA and AU to the east it resolves the permanent rivalry issues. We lose UF v. LSU, and UA v. LSU ... hate that, but they don't have the historical significance as some of the others. It also resumes TX v. TAMU maintains OU v. TX, and brings Arky back to the SWC days. All that is good IMO.
I don’t see them matching Bama with Texas. I would love it but the Bammers would cry (you’ll learn they try to stack the deck on conference scheduling the best they can in their favor) and there would be moaning about LSU and TN.
If Alabama and Auburn move the East. The only two worth discussion are Alabama vs LSU and Bama vs Ole Miss but LSU is not going to want to give up Florida for recruiting purposes. Truth is Bama vs LSU is the only one that truly matters.
That brings up another point. If any of our player “transfer” to a northern conference, you all are under legal obligation to return them to the SEC.
Just don’t see LSU vs Bama or Ole Miss vs Bama as historic rivalries. LSU v Bama grew,if they don’t smoke cigars after that game. They still do that after beating a 4 win Tennessee team.
If Alabama and Auburn move the East. The only two worth discussion are Alabama vs LSU and Bama vs Ole Miss but LSU is not going to want to give up Florida for recruiting purposes. Truth is Bama vs LSU is the only one that truly matters.
That is possible. Just saw a report (rumor) that Bama was one of strongest proponents of bringing in Texas and would like a game with Texas. It’s been a decade plus, since Texas could be a threat to Bama.