It would be best if the NCAA would allow 14 team conferences go to 13 game schedules, with the stipulation of 9 conference games. That would give reason to go nine. As Missouri alum, we need keep that cross-div with A&M for recruiting.
Here’s one that will get Alabama and Tennessee fans fired up. SEC associate commissioner and chief PR guy Charles Bloom told Kirk Bohls of The Austin American-Statesman that the league’s permanent cross-divisional rivalries could go bye-bye as soon as 2013:
“There might not be a permanent rival. Don’t read anything into next year’s schedule (2012). But we are staying with eight conference games.”
For many fans across the SEC, the permanent cross-divisional rivalries serve no purpose. Kentucky and Mississippi State have no hatred for one another. South Carolina and Arkansas have little history. And Florida and LSU would rather not have to face one another every year.
But there are other schools that do have reasons to maintain those cross-division games. Alabama and Tennessee — traditionally speaking — is the SEC’s biggest game, played annually between the two teams who own the most SEC titles all-time.
Georgia and Auburn is the oldest rivalry in the Deep South. Ole Miss and Vanderbilt have played 86 times. And Missouri desperately wants to keep Texas A&M on its schedule for recruiting purposes.
Killing cross-division games is not a good solution.
We’ve said repeatedly that we believe the SEC will eventually go to a nine-game league schedule. We’ve taken that stance because the SEC has almost always in the past acted wisely from a business sense.
But if the league does away with permanent cross-division games and discards three of the league’s oldest rivalries in order to allow its schools to schedule more pitiful home games with schools like Georgia State and Elon, then the league will not be acting wisely.
If the league fails to follow the lead of most other BCS conferences that will be going to nine-game league slates by 2017 if not sooner, then — to be blunt — the SEC will be acting cowardly.
And if the SEC maintains permanent cross-divisional games while eliminating a rotating cross-divisional foe — meaning schools will visit one another every dozen years — the league will be undermining the very thing that makes it great: fantastic rivalries.
If there’s a story to watch in 2012, it’s the final scheduling plan for the SEC moving forward into 2013 and beyond. Will the SEC act wisely and boldly as it has in the past? Or will it be motivated to act out of greed (one more home game for everyone!) or fear (nine games is too tough!).
Here’s hoping the league’s leaders wise up before they damage America’s best conference from the inside out.
[...] Mr. SEC: No Permanent Cross-Divisional Rivalries In The SEC? But with six division games, having a cross-divisional rival means schools from different divisions might not see each other for more than a decade in football. [...]