re: Traditional Rivals (UA-Tenn, AU-UGA) as OOC games?

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I have been on the 9 game band wagon for a whole because I want to preserve the traditional rivalries, but still wanted to play the other cross divisional teams more often than every 10 years or whatever it is. Now I'm sorta thinking keep the 8 game schedule, get rid of the permanent rivals, and play the big traditional rivalry games as OOC the years they don't fall in the conference schedule.

I don't buy into saying they'd be meaningless because they still obviously count for the overall season, and they are huge rivalries that each team would want to beat purely on those merits. The cross divisional teams that don't necessarily care to play each other every year (LSU-FLA, etc) can drop each other accordingly.

From Bamas perspective, if we play 8 regular conference games, one "Michigan" like big OOC game, an also play TN as an OOC game, that's 10 quality opponents and only 2 cupcakes, so scheduling looks a lot better.

Problem solved.

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This is the most logical thing to do. Regardless if we stay at 8/9 games or expand this format affords the most balance. Also the least restrictive the schedules the better. Less restrictions allow easier schedule manipulation.