Auburn to the SEC East? It’s a cushy move – for the moment
Howdy there, folks. Welcome back to the neighborhood. (AJC photo by Johnny Crawford)
Provided Kenneth Starr and Baylor don’t get litigious again, Missouri is expected to become the SEC’s 14th member at any moment. And with Missouri and Texas A&M arriving as Nos. 14 and 13, somebody from the current SEC West will have to move to the East for the sake of balance. Most folks expect the mover to be Auburn — although Alabama, being its selfish self, is making noises about preferring that its arch-enemy stay put — and how would Auburn feel about upping sticks?
Pretty darn good.
Auburn is based in the Central Time Zone by the grace of 25 miles. It’s almost as close to Atlanta’s southern suburbs as to the capital of Alabama. The Tigers’ greatest rival has always been the school in Tuscaloosa, duh, but for most of Auburn’s existence its next-biggest rivals were Georgia and Florida and Tennessee. (And don’t forget Georgia Tech, which is now out of reach in the ACC, which will require some realignment of its own. Auburn students would hold a Wreck Tech parade — I once covered it — before that annual game.)
Auburn-Georgia remains an annual fixture — it’s the Oldest Rivalry in the Deep South and, in my view, the best game of most every year — but Auburn-Tennessee and Auburn-Florida were lost to the realities of divisional scheduling. They’d return with Auburn’s move to the East, and the Tigers wouldn’t be displeased.
Back in September, both Auburn president Jay Gogue and AD Jay Jacobs said they’d have no problem with moving, and in saying “no problem” they sounded almost giddy. As Jacobs told Jon Solomon of the Birmingham News: “We have so many students come from Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, they come on campus and say, ‘Why aren’t we playing Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky, South Carolina?’ ”
What Gogue and Jacobs didn’t say was what seems rather blatant: As it stands, the SEC East would be easier to win than the West. (Arkansas, the third-best team in the six-team West, is ranked ninth in the BCS standings.) But here we need to say, “Whoa.”
When the SEC split into divisions, the East became Beverly Hills and remained so until Steve Spurrier left for the NFL and Tennessee began to wobble. Of the first 11 SEC championship games, the East won eight. Only after Nick Saban planted his flag at LSU did the West begin to rise, and only after Saban returned from his own NFL misfire to reconfigure Alabama did the West become the cutthroat division we see now.
Alabama and LSU are two of the three best teams in the country. Arkansas is nuzzling into the Top 10. Auburn won the 2010 BCS title. Mississippi State, which was either the fourth- or fifth-best team in the six-team division, was ranked No. 20 nationally in preseason. (That was before anybody realized the maroon Bulldogs couldn’t beat any of its Western brethren save Ole Miss.) The winner of the SEC West has won not just three of the past four SEC titles but three of the past four national championships. That said …
These things are, as things tend to be, cyclical. From 1994 through 2003, every SEC East winner — meaning Florida, Tennessee or Georgia — was ranked No. 6 or higher in the Associated Press poll entering the league championship game. Over that span, only two SEC West champs — Alabama in 1994 and LSU in 2003 — were ranked as high as No. 6.
But Florida is on its third coach since Spurrier and Tennessee on its second since Phillip Fulmer and South Carolina, which for a century stood as a case study in never-won-anything, took the SEC East last year with three conference losses. (And got beaten by 39 points by Auburn in the title game.) Georgia is scrambling to bleed out another division title to prove it’s still relevant. Add all that together, and … why wouldn’t the Tigers be thrilled at the prospects of relocation?
Just as Florida and Tennessee weren’t impervious to time and tide (pun intended), Alabama and LSU and Arkansas won’t be, either. What if Saban takes $10 million to go rescue Texas? What if Les Miles gets a similar offer from Ohio State? What if Derek Dooley loses to Vanderbilt and Tennessee looks to Bobby Petrino, ever-ready to relocate?
For all the homage we pay to college football’s traditions, the cold truth is that the sport’s greatest determinant is the head coach. Alabama won a national championship under Gene Stallings in the first season of SEC divisional play, but didn’t sniff another until Saban worked his dark magic. Florida ruled the SEC under Spurrier but became a punch line under Ron Zook; then it hired Urban Meyer, who won twice as many national titles as the Evil Genius.
So long as Saban and Miles and Petrino remain in the SEC West, any opponent would find the going softer anywhere else. But that’s the catch with coaches. Eventually they leave, and everything changes.
By Mark Bradley
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336 comments Add your comment
MikeP
October 20th, 2011
9:20 am
Quoting Blackout; “I didn’t take into consideration…” That was my point. Bammers are famous for running their mouths and thinking their wishes are fact.
Of my predictions, one is now fact: The NCAA has declared Auburn clear of any wrongdoing throughout the entire athletic program. Auburn will be keeping the National Championship trophy.
My other two, that Auburn will win no fewer than ten games this year and that the winner of the AU/LSU game will represent the West in Atlanta are still alive. Your three are all shot. Dead.
Now you act as though the betting line on a game predicts the outcome. Slow learner, aren’t you?
About Auburn moving to the SEC East, it’s all about renewing Auburn’s annual rivalries with Florida and Tennessee. Those were great games for the fans and teams of all three schools. The bamzos are against it because they are afraid to lose to Auburn twice in one season.
Better Alignment
October 20th, 2011
9:31 am
A better alignment would be for the Miss. schools to join the East and send Vanderbilt to the West.
This would keep cross divisional rivalries in place. Alabama will not allow Auburn to leave by themselves.
West
Alabama
Auburn
LSU
Missou.
Vanderbilt
Texas A & M
Arkansas
East
Florida
Georgia
Miss. St.
Ole Miss
S. Carolina
Tenn.
Kentucky
No Big Deal
October 20th, 2011
10:08 am
Auburn to the East makes sense.Why would Alabama not endorse that?They could still make sure that Auburn plays them every year as a stipulation for the move.It seems that Florida plays LSU every year and they are in opposite divisions.I guess Alabama would prefer Vandy and Kentucky moved to the west so they would have a couple easier games on top of their annual PATSY GAMES……..BOO HOO Tide……………..Roll with it!
LSU#1
October 20th, 2011
10:15 am
How about moving Alabama and Auburn to the East and Kentucky to the west.That way LSU will win the west every year!
LHarding Dawg
October 20th, 2011
11:21 am
The easiest thing to do would be to put Missouri in the east. Their permanent lock in the west would be Texas A&M and nothing else changes.
Ga > AU
October 20th, 2011
12:03 pm
AU to the SEC east? No big deal. Once Richt gets this dream team some more experience, they will own the SEC next year. Ga will beat auburn easy this year and win the SEC next year–take it to the bank!
PigIron
October 20th, 2011
5:17 pm
@No Big Deal
Bama isn’t concerned with their lil’ brother in Auburn. They don’t want to mess up the Alabama vs. Tennessee rivalry.
UGA Rocks!
October 20th, 2011
7:09 pm
Yeah! Can’t wait till UGA turns the page and ends the Richt era! Then maybe we will have a shot at turning the tide (no pun intended back Jeff) and become relevant again!
the dawg
October 20th, 2011
7:42 pm
Clemson should join the SEC, not Missouri, simple as that.
Jake
October 20th, 2011
8:21 pm
Mark,
Keep in mind, Mark Richt has a higher winning % than Saban, Petrino, etc.
SweeneyDawg
October 20th, 2011
8:27 pm
Good point, here’s current ranking of win % of active SEC coaches.
#1 Richt
#2 Petrino
#3 Saban
#4 Miles
I don’t think Auburn wants to be playing Mark Richt a lot, Richt’s 4-2 in last 6 games against Auburn.
SweeneyDawg
October 20th, 2011
8:28 pm
Here’s the link for Mark Bradley to get to know a little bit. No one fears Richt? Sure.
http://www.coacheshotseat.com/WinningestActiveCoachesIA.htm
Chicken From TD
October 20th, 2011
11:03 pm
You cannot put Auburn in the East without moving Tennessee to the West. If you have both Tennessee and Auburn in the East, and Bama in the West, you will lose either the Bama/Auburn game or the Bama/Tennessee game. Anyone with any sense knows that it won’t happen.
Here is what you do:
1. Leave things alone and put Mizzou in the East.
2. Put Mizzou and Tennessee in the West and move Auburn to the East.
3. Leave things alone and put Mizzou in the West and Miss State in the East.
Options 1 and 3 more here:
http://www.tigerdroppings.com/blog/bp/29206392/A-Stab-at-the-SEC-Divisions-After-Adding-Mizzou.aspx
Thoughts?
good122
October 20th, 2011
11:17 pm
Missouri to the west makes the most sense. Missouri sets up as a natural geographical rivalry with Arkansas. It makes no sense to have Missouri in the SEC but not have them play a border war game with Arky every year when Arky plays their home games on the Missouri border. Logically, if your Missouri you want to be able to recruit Arkansas, Mississippi, which are great states for football talent and not Kentucky, Tennessee. Ole Miss and Miss State are combined closer geographically than Vanderbilt and Tennessee. UGA, Fl, and SC are on average about 900 miles away from the Missouri campus. In contrast, Missouri’s longest road trips in the West would be on average around 700 miles. It’s better all around for them to be in the west for recruiting, travel, natural and historic rivalries, etc. Also, just a guess, Missouri will never be able to recruit Florida or Georgia the way they could Arky, Texas and Mississippi.
The best solution is to move Auburn to the east, have two permanent divisional opponents, and rotate one team from the other division every two years. It makes more sense geographically and you get to keep those older rivalries such as UT and Alabama. That’s nine conference games per year. As far as when the Iron Bowl is played, I really don’t see why it matters if there is a rematch. First of all, rematches happen all the time anyway. Half the championship games over the last 10 years have been rematches of regular season games, including last year. There is always a good chance that will happen in a divisional format.
good122
October 20th, 2011
11:58 pm
@ Chicken.
Lol, you can’t put Miss State in the East, then you would have Vandy, Kentucky and Miss State in one division. Also, there is the possibility that South Carolina will fall off the face of the earth when Spurrier retires. They were the absolute worst team in the SEC before he arrived. In other words, you have four historic bottom dwellers in one division. That would make the SEC too imbalanced. Moving Auburn to the East makes way more sense. A&M is actually a top 20 program all-time, so in reality both divisions would be pretty balanced with Auburn in the east.
East = Aub, Tn, Georgia, Florida
West = LSU, A&M, Alabama, Arkansas
All-time average historical winning percentage ranking of top four teams in each division in this alignment:
East =13
West = 17
East is only slightly stronger historically at the top, but historically MSU and Ole Miss have been a lot more competitive than Kentucky and Vandy, so it balances itself out. Missouri and South Carolina are awash.
TybeeDawg
October 21st, 2011
7:54 am
Missouri to the SEC is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. We don’t need the friggin’ midwest teams in the SEC. What a bunch if idiots.
TybeeDawg
October 21st, 2011
7:55 am
What about Clemson, Florida State, anyone but Missouri, please!
FanSince59
October 21st, 2011
9:51 am
Bradley, that’s a good way to put it: “Georgia’s trying to bleed out another East title in order to remain relevant.” Nothing like backing into a title, but, when you’re Mark Richt and sweating to save your overpaid job, you ain’t proud. The fun stops there though. Saban or Miles will kick his overpaid A$$ all over the field in the SEC championship game and will show all UGA fans how “relevant” their program (as well as their beloved coach) is once and for all.
MikeP
October 21st, 2011
9:59 am
PigIron
October 20th, 2011
5:17 pm
@No Big Deal
“Bama isn’t concerned with their lil’ brother in Auburn. They don’t want to mess up the Alabama vs. Tennessee rivalry.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bammer is scared of losing to Auburn twice in one year. They already have to deal with the fact that Auburn has dominated them since Bryant retired in 1982. Losing to Auburn twice in one year would tax the battered wife and child facilities of the state beyond capacity.
Bazooka Joe
October 21st, 2011
10:00 am
Back in the day when we had 2 permanent opponents from the west, the other one was Ole Miss…..
The Real Indian Dawg
October 21st, 2011
3:27 pm
The SEC Least is a joke, so I am sure Awburn wants to move here.
If our Dawgs were in the SEC west, it would be bad news…. in fact we have had a lucky scheduling anomaly this year in that we missed Arkansas, Bama, and LSU and got to play the worst teams from the West….
So we have 4 SEC wins – All four of those teams combined have 1 total win in the SEC this year. Let’s face it, we are doing better because we have the easiest schedule in the SEC and have beaten the easiest part of that schedule.
Think about it, the 4 teams we have beaten are 4 of the 5 worst teams in the SEC with conference records of:
0-3
1-3
0-4
0-4
That is freaking 1-14 and the only win was one that had to happen cause Vandy and Ole Miss played each other.
Don’t worry though, we play the other winless SEC team too – Kentucky has an 0-3 conference record.
This program is going down and some people thinkit should all be puppies, kittens, and roses – you need to understand the reality of where this program is. We have not beat anyone good since we beat Tech back in 2009.
And another thing… I am afraid that the Gators will continue to own us… They have only played 1 easy SEC team while we have played 4. The other games were against LSU, Bama, and Awwwburn.
Now if you think we would have won 4 conf games in a row with that schedule you must be the same homers that say we are going to win a National Championship again.
Face it, those days and 1980 are long gone and we are a middle of the pack team that is 5-2 because of an extremely EASY SEC Schedule…. Rated the Easiest in the Conference.
jim h
October 21st, 2011
8:45 pm
I believe the capital of Alabama is Montgomery. Much closer than the Atl.
Roger
October 21st, 2011
10:43 pm
The Auburn- Alabama game must be protected, it means more than the Auburn- Ga game. The East is softer than the West, for now, so Auburn should welcome the move. THE IRON BOWL MUST BE PROTECTED
good122
October 22nd, 2011
4:07 am
Found on another site… It’s a lot closer than people think.
“Disregarding ties… here is how it would stack up:
Alabama 0.70747 802 319
Louisiana State 0.64317 720 389
Texas A&M 0.59863 674 444
Arkansas 0.59318 668 452
————————————————– ————————————-
2864 — 1604 4468 games total = 64%
Georgia 0.64364 737 396
Auburn 0.63174 703 400
Florida 0.63090 662 379
Tennessee 0.68993 789 340
————————————————– ———————————-
2891 — 1515 4406 games total = 65%
The two divisions would be almost identical in terms of wins, losses, and all-time winning percentage just looking at the top programs.”
Ted.
October 22nd, 2011
8:23 am
Bama has only been a factor in the SEC West for the past three years or so. AU’s traditional rivals have always been from the east…when I was in school we rarely played LSU or Ole Miss …and Ark was not in the conference. If we want traditional rivals, let’s go back to playing UF, UTk, Ga every year.
gmandog
October 22nd, 2011
10:57 am
Mark – If you were UGA AD, who would you recruit to replace Richt?
WDE in SD
October 22nd, 2011
9:30 pm
Maybe I missed something, but why not just move both Bama and Auburn to the East and have TAM and Mizzou be in the West? That way you preserve the AU/UGA, AU/Bama, and UT/UA rivalries.
WDE in SD
October 22nd, 2011
9:35 pm
…and move Vandy to the West (meant to include that in previous post.)
I own you
October 22nd, 2011
10:50 pm
I don’t want Auburn and their dirty program tainting the SEC East. Gross.
Brainiac(Dawg for life)(CMR fan for life)
October 23rd, 2011
8:58 pm
I agree with Aaron and Swarles. Put a sock in it Alaska. You(and the AJC crew) must not have seen the same game that most viewers saw.
Brainiac(Dawg for life)(CMR fan for life)
October 23rd, 2011
9:03 pm
Jim h: I thought the capitol of Alabama was approx. $4.65.
Brainiac(Dawg for life)(CMR fan for life)
October 23rd, 2011
9:29 pm
Oleballfan: Who died and left you in charge? Stick a sock in it.
Brainiac(Dawg for life)(CMR fan for life)
October 23rd, 2011
9:33 pm
CMR is the tenth winningest active coach in the nation. He also has a higher winning percentage than Saban and Miles. Of course most of you negativist never let facts get in your way. CMR is also a really class act.
Dawg '88
October 23rd, 2011
9:33 pm
Instead of some coming on here and calling UGA players thugs…watch something that proves otherwise. Also, for those that want to trash our own….
http://www.georgiadogs.com/allaccess/?media=272503
NC Dawg 90
October 23rd, 2011
10:41 pm
Finally, people are stating what should seem obvious….Missouri ends up in the East. It’s not like college conference names make any sense any way: the Big 10 with 12 teams, the Big 12 with 9, 8, 7. And Missouri is north of the state of Alabama, fulfilling one of the directional directives of SEC East membership: to be located north or east of the state of Alabama.
This was Alabama keeps its traditional rivalry with TN, and Auburn stays in the West. It maintains balance power program-wise, too. It would be unfair for the East to have to take a program like Auburn when the West would get two soon to be doormats. Especially Missouri.
I really wish we would be patient and try to work something out to get Va Tech, or even NC State. Missouri is one of the most boring, non-descript college athletic programs around.
NC Dawg 90
October 23rd, 2011
10:45 pm
WDE in SD,
Auburn, Alabama, Georgia, Florida and Tennessee in the East? What, you want the West to be the minor league? That leaves one real power program in the West: LSU. Are you an LSU fan or something? Book the Tigers for Atlanta for the next 20 years with that conference set up.
You’re an idiot.