quote:
The method the SEC used trades out UGA for Mizzou - uh oh, big problem, Bama hasn't played them since '08 and may not play them until '14 or '15. The SEC method created these 6 and 7 year gaps for Bama-UGA and also UF-Ole Miss.

That's true and that is a negative but there's no perfect system. Using the method you propose, 8 teams would fail to play a different cross-division opponent in '12 than the the ones they played the year before. That's not ideal either.

Also, consider that with your method we're going to run into the same gap issue in '14. Using your '13 schedule, A&M plays Vandy and Mizzou plays Auburn even though Auburn and Vandy are due to play one another. Meaning that there will be a 6+ year gap in that series.

Now, you might say that that can be addressed/corrected in the long term schedule that will start in '14 (hopefully) so that Auburn and Vandy play sooner rather than later. Well, the same can be done with Bama/UGA and Florida/Ole Miss. Also, consider that the original plan was for there to only be 1 bridge year ('12) with the long term schedule starting in '13 so it may well be that the schedule designers had planned on being able to address the skipped games a year earlier than how it actually turned out.