re: LSU, rank your rivals

Before this season ended:

1. Alabama
2. Ole Miss
3. Auburn
4. Florida

After? Really hard to say. Two huge changes affected the Alabama rivalry, at least for me:

1. Saban retired
2. Divisions are gone

Personally, I don't hate any team except Alabama, and I'm realizing a lot of that was just that Saban had them a step ahead of us and that we had to go through them every year to win a championship. Neither of those things are true anymore. I could easily see the rivalry returning to the pre-Saban era intensity, where I still don't like Alabama and prefer them to lose all else equal, but where they recede back to the crowd of regular rivals instead of standing out.

Historically LSU's rival is less about predefined hate for a team regardless of performance and more about hating the best competition, whoever it is. Auburn and Florida were way more intense rivalries until Saban fixed Alabama for instance.

And with two quality programs coming in that LSU will recruit against in the state of Texas, with Auburn still recovering from wayward hires, with Florida apparently suffering a wayward hire, with Alabama taking a step back from Saban's dominance, and with Georgia looming large as the biggest threat in the conference... who knows?

It's not been this wide open in ages