re: Which Iron Bowl win was the most unlikely for Auburn

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Which Iron Bowl win was the most unlikely for Auburn
The seven games in 1976-77 is probably what instigated the implementation of the six game maximum in 1980. The issue was somewhat resolved with the seven game minimum/maximum in 1988.

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No the 6 game was started in 1974. The only games between 74-87 (1988 was standard 7 game schedule) were the 1976-1977 Bama/Ole Miss games.

I went ahead and reviewed Alabama's schedules from 1974 to 1991. Consistent with what I remembered (I am in my mid 50's), Bama was playing Auburn, LSU, MSU, TENN and Vandy as their base 5 and Ole Miss rotated on in 74-75

Bama 1974 schedule 6 games

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Bama 1975 schedule 6 games
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Bama 1976 7 SEC games (Auburn, LSU, MSU, TENN, Vandy), UGA rotates on and Ole Miss is the 7th game
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Bama 1977 Schedule 7 SEC games, same as 76, Bama beats UGA 18-10 at home after loosing in Athens in 1976. Ole Miss is 7th game

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Bama 1978 schedule: 6 SEC games, Base 5 of AU/LSU/MSU/TENN/VANDY plus Florida rotates on, UGA and Ole Miss off

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Bama 1979 Schedule: 6 SEC games, same as 78, Bama goes to Gainsville and beats FL 40-0, played in Legion field in 1978

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Bama 1980 season: 6 SEC games: Base 5 AU/LSU/MSU/TENN/VANDY and Kentucky rotates on, Florida rotates off. Ole Miss game is a OOC game.

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Bama 1981 season 6 SEC games (same as 1980), Ole Miss is OOC game.

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Bama 1982 Season 6 SEC games. Base 5 of AU/LSU/MSU/TENN/VANDY and notice Ole Miss rotates on as a Conference game based on the 1974-1975 schedule. LSU in 1974-1975 played TENN an in 1982-1983, TENN rotated back on LSU's schedule.

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Bama 1983 Season: 6 SEC games, same as 1982

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Bama 1984 Season: 6 SEC games, Base 5 AU/LSU/MSU/TENN/VANDY and UGA rotates back on (Bama last played them in 76-77). In 1976-77, LSU played Vandy and in 1984, Vandy rotated back on LSU's schedule

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Bama 1985 Season: 6 SEC games, same as 1984

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Bama 1986 Season: 6 SEC games, Florida rotates on, last time Bama played them was in the 1978-1979 seasons. For LSU, UGA rotates on, last time LSU played them was the 1978-1979 season.

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Bama 1987 Season: 6 SEC games, same as 1986

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Bama 1988 Season: 7 SEC games. Bama plays base 5 of AU/LSU/MSU/TENN/Vandy. Both UK and Ole Miss rotate. UK was last on schedule in 1980-1981 and Ole Miss the 1982 and 1983 schedule. Had the SEC not moved to 7 games in 1988, Ole Miss would not have rotated back on as a SEC game on Bama's schedule till 1990.

For LSU, Auburn rotated on, last time played was 1980-1981 and TENN, last time played 1982 and 1983. Had the SEC not gone to 7 League games, TENN would have not rotated on LSU's schedule till 1990.

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Bama 1989 Season: 7 SEC games same as 1988. Base 5 AU/LSU/MSU/TENN/VANDY plus UK and Ole Miss

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Bama 1990 Season: 7 games, base 5 plus UF and UGA rotate on, UK and Ole Miss rotate off

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Bama 1991 Season: 7 SEC games, same as 1990

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I was hoping an Alabama poster would do the research but I enjoyed doing it myself, kind of brought me back down memory lane as I vividly remember all those seasons I reviewed from 1974 to 1991. I think you can see the standardization in Bama's schedule of AU/LSU/MSU/TENN/VANDY follows LSU's standardization of Bama/Florida/Kentucky/MSU/OLE MISS and both LSU and Bama had a rotation that moved teams on and an off in a systematic way.

I will just for the heck of it, do another team, maybe TENN or UGA and do the same analysis.

So based on my analysis of both LSU and Bama's schedules from 1974 to 1991, the conclusions are

1) Sometime prior to 1974 (I don't know when, but I am going to keep digging to find out as I sort of love history), the SEC voted to have a Uniform schedule with each team having a Base 5 plus 1 team rotating on every 3rd year (play home and home, rotate off, new team comes one).
2) Alabama and Ole Miss must have scheduled the 1976 and 1977 7th SEC game before the vote for point 1 above took place, thus, the SEC allowed Bama and Ole Miss to grandfather in those games as a 7th SEC game.

3) Sometime after the SEC voted (point 1 above), Bama an Ole Miss scheduled a game for the 1980 and 1981 season but those 2 games were not league games. The 1982 and 1982 games as part of the Uniform 6 game schedule did count as league games as part of the uniform schedule put in place back in point 1 above.