Since the expansion of the SEC in 2012, the conference alignment has been geographically out of whack. Texas A&M joined the SEC West and Missouri, despite being one of the westernmost universities in the conference, joined the SEC East. Well, thanks to Auburn’s athletic director, the rumblings of realignment are starting to turn up.
It’s not just speculation anymore: Auburn athletic director Jay Jacobs wants the Tigers moved to the SEC East, and he’s going to bring it up during the SEC’s spring meetings this week.
“It makes more sense for Auburn from the standpoint of the demographics of our students, not our student-athletes,” Jacobs told Brandon Marcello of 247Sports. “Six or eight years ago, I looked at all the demographics. Most of all our students come from Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, South Carolina, Kentucky, a few from Mississippi, very few from Louisiana. Since we went to the national championship twice, we’ve got more geographical students from all over the place, but still, the majority of our students come from the southeast.”
It makes a lot of sense. We’re in Nashville, so I can remember during the last expansion hearing a lot of the area Vols fans voicing their displeasure with losing the Auburn rivalry. When you go back as far as some of these SEC schools do, you’re bound to have rich historic rivalries – those Auburn-Tennessee and Auburn-Florida feuds fit the bill. But, since Missouri and Texas A&M joined the SEC, those rivalries were lost. Sure, they’ll end up playing once every few seasons because of the rotating cross-divisional scheduling, but it’s not the same. If Auburn did move to the SEC East, they’d get those rivalries back, and still have an open date for Alabama and the Iron Bowl.
But, even with that aside, just look at the SEC’s footprint:
I don’t know that any two schools are further apart than Missouri and Florida. Yet, they’re playing in the same division. The “East” division at that. It just doesn’t make sense from a geographical standpoint. They could easily swap Missouri and Auburn and have a much easier layout from a logistics standpoint. Everyone one should theoretically be happy.
So, if you’re Auburn, yeah – there’s no doubt you’d want to make this move.
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey does not think there will be any long discussion of the topic — at least this year. “I’ve talked to Jay,” Sankey said. “It’s still not an agenda item.”
Personally, I think the SEC could solve a lot of these problems by adopting a nine-game conference schedule. That way it could not only move Auburn to the East, but it could help ensure it’s 14 teams play one another on a more regular basis no matter divisional alignment.
As an Alabama fan, I don’t want to give up The Third Saturday in October. Nor do I want the Iron Bowl played any other weekend than the last of the season. If Auburn moved to the East, we’d have to give up the Tennessee game. That would be a bummer. So, that part of me wants Auburn to stay put….because, in case it isn’t clear…there’s no way in hell Alabama would choose to keep the Tennessee rivalry intact over the Iron Bowl.
But, the part of me that OCD…the same part that is driven NUTS by things like the Missouri Tigers being in the SEC West, the Dallas Cowboys being in the NFC East, and the Miami Dolphins being in the same division with teams in New York and Boston, is like, “YES, PLEASE MAKE IT RIGHT.”
That’s just my two cents. It doesn’t sound like Sankey is too gung ho about this idea, anyway – seems like it’s going to take a lot more than just Jacobs making noise to draw attention to this idea.
Tom Fornelli, the author of the CBS Sports piece, presents the clearest solution to make everyone happy: a nine-game SEC schedule. Nick Saban is on board with the idea, so who knows? Maybe that’s the thing that gets this idea off the ground and rolling.
What do you guys think? Should Auburn move to the SEC East or stay put in the SEC West? Let us know in the comments.
Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network. A strong advocate of GSD (get shit done) and #BeBetter, he’s down to talk Tennessee Titans and Alabama Crimson Tide football over a beer any day. Check him out covering the WWE for WrestlingNews.co. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley, @WrestlingNewsCo
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