However, I did come up with an alignment that works. It’s based on geography, as I didn’t have a list of most played rivalries in the SEC. I won’t argue it’s perfect, but it shows that it is possible. I’d like the SEC honchos who get paid to make schedules to design their own version.

Anyway, here’s the setup I constructed:

Example with explanation:

FL-UG,AU,SC (LSU,A&M,UK,Bama)

H=OM,UT,MU

A=MSU,VU,Arkie

for Florida, Georgia, Auburn, and SC are permanent rivals, the 4 schools in parentheses are secondary rivals. OM, UT, MU are teams you play at home in years 1 & 3 (away in 2 & 4). MSU,VU, Arkie are teams you play away in years 1 & 3 (home in 2 & 4).

The order the secondary rivals are listed indicates where you play them over 4 years (that’s the complicated part in setting this up), but that’s only important if you want to make your own version.

The rest of this example:

UG-SC,FL,AU (UT,MSU,VU,UK)

H=A&M,Arkie,Bama

A=LSU,MU,OM

AU-FL,UG,Bama (UK,SC,LSU,MSU)

H=A&M,OM,VU

A=Arkie,UT,MU

SC-UG,UF,UT (VU,UK,MU,AU)

H=LSU,Arkie,MSU

A=A&M,Bama,OM

UT-VU,UK,SC (Bama,Arkie,UG,MU)

H=A&M,OM,AU

A=FL,MSU,LSU

BAMA-AU,OM,MSU (A&M,FL,UT,LSU)

H=SC,Arkie,VU

A=UG,UK,MU

UK-UT,MU,VU (FL,UG,AU,SC)

H=Bama,MSU,LSU

A=A&M,OM,Arkie

VU-UT,UK,OM (UG,MU,SC,Arkie)

H=FL,LSU,MSU

A=A&M,Bama,AU

OM-Bama,MSU,VU (MU,LSU,Arkie,A&M)

H=UG,SC,UK

A=FL,UT,AU

MSU-Bama,OM,LSU (Arkie,AU,A&M,UG)

H=FL,UT,MU

A=SC,UK,VU

LSU-A&M,Arkie,MSU (AU,Bama,FL,OM)

H=UG,UT,MU

A=SC,UK,VU

Arkie-A&M,MU,LSU (OM,VU,MSU,UT)

H=FL,UK,AU

A=UG,SC,Bama

A&M-LSU,Arkie,MU (MSU,OM,Bama,FL)

H=SC,UK,VU

A=UG,UT,AU

MU-UK,A&M,Arkie (SC,UT,OM,VU)

H=UG,Bama,AU

A=FL,LSU,MSU

I like this idea as it gives everyone a mostly sensible set of rivals. I think it’s nice for variety that Arkansas plays Georgia every year. But I don’t see any reason for them ever to play twice in the regular season when they could be each be playing border states with regularity.

As a possible example, for Florida, give Georgia, South Carolina, and Auburn as primary rivals, and LSU, A&M, UK, and Alabama as secondary rivals. Their 4 year schedule can look like:

Year 1 H:UG,AU,SC,A&M,Bama,LSU,OM,UT,MU
A:UG,AU,SC,A&M,Bama,UK,MSU,VU,Arkie
Year 2 H:UG,AU,SC,LSU,UK,A&M,MSU,VU,Arkie
A:UG,AU,SC,LSU,UK,Bama,OM,UT,MU
Year 3 H:UG,AU,SC,A&M,Bama,UK,OM,UT,MU
A:UG,AU,SC,A&M,Bama,LSU,MSU,VU,Arkie
Year 4:H:UG,AU,SC,LSU,UK,Bama,MSU,VU,Arkie
A:UG,AU,SC,LSU,UK,A&M,OM,UT,MU

They get the variety of playing every SEC team every year, but also get to establish regular rivals with their own personalized ‘division’ of 7 teams.

Also, travel would be reduced for the interior schools by keeping most of their rivals geographically close (not as much for a school like Florida).

I would prefer that each team plays an 18 game schedule with ONE permanent foe home and away every season and then rotate the other FOUR home and away opponents between the other Twelve schools so, you would face every team in the league home and away in a season every three years.

Here are my choices for the permanent home and away foes
Alabama-Auburn
Arkansas-Missouri
Georgia-South Carolina
LSU-Texas A&M
Miss.State-Ole Miss
Tennessee-Vanderbilt
Kentucky-Florida

Sorry about the numerous typos and errors in that last one – meant to put Shaq in one of the Dale Brown spots

hopefully more awake now, and looking at how the current SEC women schedule works as a possible model :

16 games falls out like this (using Tennessee women this season as reference)

East = 8 games

Home and Home

Vanderbilt = 2 games

Kentucky = 2 games

Georgia = 2 games

Home or Away

South Carolina = 1 game

Florida = 1 game

West = 8 games

Home and Home

Arkansas = 2 games

Auburn = 2 games

Home or Away

Alabama = 1 game

LSU = 1 game

Mississippi = 1 game

Mississippi State = 1 game

Now this has fixed and rotating schools in each division, and it gets a bit confusing at times, but going to 18 or 19 is not that difficult because the women have been doing it for years. Point being there is precedent, and it allows for balance schedules over times while not so tightly locked by division.

TN: KY, VA, NC, GA, AL, MS, AR, MO

MO: OK, AR, TN, KY, IL, IA, NE, KS

Tennesse borders every SEC state but FL, LA, TX, SC so almost all of UT’s and Vandy’s SEC games are border games. It’s also why the SEC tourney should be in Nashville every year, it is centrally located.

The real question is do you weight the schedule so from the top 8-12 teams from the previous year play more games against each other than the “2nd” division.

I prefer a slightly more complicated arrangement where every team is given 3 primary rivals and 4 secondary rivals.

Every year, play all 3 primary rivals + 2 secondary rivals both home and away; play the other 2 secondary rivals + the other 6 SEC schools once each.

The 2 secondary rivals you play both home and away swap each year.

With this arrangement, in a 4 year ‘normal’ college career, a team would play:

each of their 3 primary rivals 4 times at home, 4 times away;

each of their 4 secondary rivals 3 times at home, 3 times away;

each of the other 6 SEC teams 2 times at home, 2 times away.

This gives each school a larger set of rivalries while still allowing every team in the conference to play each other every year.