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re: How did the 12 SEC teams agree on these East & West permanent rivals for over a decade?
Posted on 5/9/24 at 1:04 pm to LSU Grad Alabama Fan
Posted on 5/9/24 at 1:04 pm to LSU Grad Alabama Fan
You don’t know your history. At the time, Auburn had played UF more than any SEC team other than UGA (maybe MSU). Auburn’s main recruiting areas have always been the states of Alabama, Georgia and Florida. Auburn fought to have UF as an annual rival (and would never have fought to avoid having that game annually).
Of course the DSOR speaks for itself.
Of course the DSOR speaks for itself.
2
Posted on 5/9/24 at 2:49 pm to AU6X
quote:
Auburn’s main recruiting areas have always been the states of Alabama, Georgia and Florida. Auburn fought to have UF as an annual rival
It seems somewhat bizarre now, but this is partly because Auburn didn't schedule Alabama for 41 years.
Similarly, Auburn did not schedule LSU for 27 years. They really only started playing each other regularly when they got placed in the same division.
For a long time, LSU scheduled towards the west and Auburn scheduled east, towards Georgia and Florida.
In fact, Auburn has played Georgia, Mississippi State, Georgia Tech (!), and Florida more times than Alabama.
Alabama has played Tennessee, Mississippi State, LSU, and Vanderbilt more times than Auburn.
Part of the reason for these "permanent rivals" was to force some some semblance of schedule parity — you also have to remember that these teams weren't necessarily ranked the same back then as they are today.
Posted on 5/9/24 at 3:03 pm to AU6X
quote:That's why I was hoping Auburn would be an advocate for ignoring strength of permanent opponents in a 3/6 arrangement. Maybe they have been behind the scenes, but it seems to me that the optimum 3/6 permanent opponents for Auburn would be Bama, UGA, and UF, strength be damned.
You don’t know your history. At the time, Auburn had played UF more than any SEC team other than UGA (maybe MSU). Auburn’s main recruiting areas have always been the states of Alabama, Georgia and Florida. Auburn fought to have UF as an annual rival (and would never have fought to avoid having that game annually).
Of course the DSOR speaks for itself.
I can see where it made a big difference in a divisional schedule setting, where you don't see teams in the other division often, but with the 3/6, any marginal strength differential in your permanent opponents ought to be offset, or nearly so, by the fact that your rotating opponents will be weaker.
Hopefully, sanity will prevail, we forget about trying to balance the "permanent" opponents (which would probably require constant revision), and Auburn gets that UF rivalry restored. Then you can tease Bama about having State as one of their 3.
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