re: How did the 12 SEC teams agree on these East & West permanent rivals for over a decade?

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Auburn’s main recruiting areas have always been the states of Alabama, Georgia and Florida. Auburn fought to have UF as an annual rival

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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.