Worst mistakes in SEC history

I'll start with a few big ones:

Georgia Tech going independent in 1964 over a dispute over schools recruiting "extra" players and then cutting down to scholarship limits once they were on campus for tryouts. Bobby Dodd wanted the SEC to ban this practice and threatened to leave but the rest of the conference wouldn't vote with him, especially not in a threatening manner from one school. This is a well known blunder, but what is less known is that the conference ultimately banned this practice only 9 years after GT left and in 1973 GT tried and failed to rejoin the conference after independence became an on field and financial disaster for them. Memphis or FSU were floated as potential partners along with GT to get to an even 12 after Tulane left, but the SEC didn't want or need GT anymore so they stayed at 10.

Kentucky letting Adolph Rupp push out Bear Bryant. Bryant's time at UK was longer and more successful than most realize. He took over a program that had never won a bowl game and was there for 8 years, went 60-23-5, got invites to the Orange, Cotton, and Sugar Bowls, and beat #1 OU in the 1951 Sugar Bowl. Bryant was building a powerhouse at UK and likely would have stayed much longer, but his success hurt the pride of Rupp who couldn't share a spotlight with anyone and began undermining Bryant and the football program. Rupp eventually got in trouble with the feds over bringing gambling interests on campus which led to NCAA involvement. The AD told Bryant that Rupp had agreed to resign so that the NCAA would back off, but then Rupp never left. In one of the NCAA's first major enforcement cases, the NCAA gave UK basketball the death penalty for the 52-53 season, tarnishing the entire athletic department, and Bryant left for aTm the following year after the 1953 season.

Alabama tricking Bobby Bowden into a formal interview after the 1986 season. Bowden was a Birmingham native who dreamed of coaching Alabama and was the hottest coaching candidate in the country at the time. He was in Birmingham for FSU's bowl game and got a call from someone close to the Alabama program asking if he was interested in taking over after Ray Perkins left for the NFL. He said that if an offer was on the table, he would agree to a sit down with the university President to discuss details of the job, but would not interview. He shows up for the meeting and there are 12 people in a conference room grilling him with interview questions. Bowden comes across as unprepared and doesn't kiss enough arse so they simply tell him "thanks for coming" and offer Bill Curry that night. Bowden is pissed as hell and when Alabama tries to hire him in 1990, he declines.