re: Who considers their SEC East-West Permanent Opponent a Rival?

There is the option of moving Auburn to the East in place of Mizzou and doing away with the permanent rivals (and re-establishing the great AU-UF and AU-UT rivalries).

But then you run into the issue of no Iron Bowl and no TSIO annually. The Iron Bowl is too fun and too important just to do away with every year.

Auburn and Alabama both being in the East would make the divisions too imbalanced. We'd have a situation like the Big Ten with their goober imbalanced divisions.