re: Missouri to the West, Auburn to the East

I realize this'll get blasted for being a bad idea that'll never happen but as far as preserving traditional rivalries you could put the " Big 6" in one division and the other teams in another division. That way it protects AU-Bama, AU-UGA, UT-Bama, LSU-Bama, etc and re adds other traditional rivalries AU-UT, AU-UF, etc.

As far as the 8 game schedule is concerned 6 of the Big 6 conference schedule would be themselves the 7th one would be a rotating game with the other division and the 8th one could be optional either a permanent cross division opponent like UT/Vandy, LSU-A&M, etc or teams could opt to add another OOC P5/ upper tier G5 game instead.

As far as the other division is concerned 7 of the 8 conference games will be themselves and the 8th one will be either a permanent game like Vandy and A&M's schedule would be or teams could opt for a rotating game or add in a OOC P5/ upper tier G5 game instead of a 8th conference game.

Sorry for the wall of text