Kentucky writer argues for SEC realignment

#126
#126
volgrad500 said:
This. I'm not sure why people are struggling with this. The top teams aren't the issue. The problem is Vanderbilt is not a SEC quality program. It would be tougher to play a mid tier G5 team every year than Vandy. It really is like only playing a 7 game conference schedule. There really isn't a way to realign that problem away, because wherever Vandy is, that division immediately becomes easier that the other.
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South Carolina was quite responsible for those as well.

Everyone else in in the East at least won a game in even their worst seasons.
 
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#130
#130
Let's get real about this division thing. Yes, vandy and ky aren't traditionally very good. Missouri and South Carolina are every bit as good, traditionally as miss State, ole miss, ark and aTm. What has occurred in the last 4 yrs is these 4 west teams have had their best run in the last 20 yrs except Ark. Aggies were never a traditional 10 win program in the SWc (except under Sherrill and we know who he did it) or Big 12. Miss St has had a good run but it's gonna be hell for them to replace Prescott. Ole miss could stay tough but they might fall back some too. All of these 4 usually play very weak non-conference schedules (aTm exception this yr with Arz St)
 
#131
#131
wmcovol said:
Let's get real about this division thing. Yes, vandy and ky aren't traditionally very good. Missouri and South Carolina are every bit as good, traditionally as miss State, ole miss, ark and aTm. What has occurred in the last 4 yrs is these 4 west teams have had their best run in the last 20 yrs except Ark. Aggies were never a traditional 10 win program in the SWc (except under Sherrill and we know who he did it) or Big 12. Miss St has had a good run but it's gonna be hell for them to replace Prescott. Ole miss could stay tough but they might fall back some too. All of these 4 usually play very weak non-conference schedules (aTm exception this yr with Arz St)
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Saying Vandy and Kentucky aren't "traditionally very good" is seriously trying to soften reality. Ole Miss and MSU are better than those two, consistently. Granted, the gulf has even widened recently, but no matter if that continues, they are much better programs. Vandy especially- they are an SEC team by name alone. They would be a middle of the pack/bottom tier AAC team most years.
 
#132
#132
volgrad500 said:
Saying Vandy and Kentucky aren't "traditionally very good" is seriously trying to soften reality. Ole Miss and MSU are better than those two, consistently. Granted, the gulf has even widened recently, but no matter if that continues, they are much better programs. Vandy especially- they are an SEC team by name alone. They would be a middle of the pack/bottom tier AAC team most years.
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Dude, I never compared vandy and ky to ole miss and miss st. Read the post! I compared south car and mizzou to them. Ky has had their moments, just not very often and vandy has never and will never be a factor in this league. Ky sucks but vandy sucks harder. How is that?

But Johnny football brought aTm their best team in 20 yrs. before that it was Brandon Stewart before they won anything. They aren't a power by any stretch. And ark has been hot and cold since they entered the sec, mostly cold.
 
#133
#133
bamawriter said:
Assign each team 3 permanent rivalries and rotate the other ten. The important rivalries stay intact and each team plays a home-and-home with every other team within a 4 year cycle as opposed to the 12 year cycle we have now.
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Love the idea of getting rid of the divisions. My only tweek would be go to 9 conference games and have 5 permanent opponents. That would have Tennessee playing Bama, UF, UGA, Vandy, and UK every year. I guess Bama would play us, Auburn, Mississippi State, LSU, and Ole Miss. Still puts it on a four year cycle.

I imagine (while both are extremely unlikely) yours would happen first since they seem hell bent on staying at 8 games.
 
#134
#134
UTwild82 said:
Love the idea of getting rid of the divisions. My only tweek would be go to 9 conference games and have 5 permanent opponents. That would have Tennessee playing Bama, UF, UGA, Vandy, and UK every year. I guess Bama would play us, Auburn, Mississippi State, LSU, and Ole Miss. Still puts it on a four year cycle.

I imagine (while both are extremely unlikely) yours would happen first since they seem hell bent on staying at 8 games.
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I like your proposal. Nine games is my preference no matter how the conference is set up. It simply doesn't have support.
 
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#135
#135
bamawriter said:
I like your proposal. Nine games is my preference no matter how the conference is set up. It simply doesn't have support.
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I think Mizzou should go to the West and BAMA should move to the East.

East
UT
Bama
Fla
UGA
S Carolina
UK
Vandy

West
Auburn
LSU
Texas A&M
Arkansas
Mizzou
MSU
Ole Miss

That is about even...
 
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#136
#136
LittleVol said:
I think Mizzou should go to the West and BAMA should move to the East.

East
UT
Bama
Fla
UGA
S Carolina
UK
Vandy

West
Auburn
LSU
Texas A&M
Arkansas
Mizzou
MSU
Ole Miss

That is about even...
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This solves the Iron Bowl and Third Saturday in October problem. With Bama in the East, we'd play every year as divisional opponents and the permanent cross division rival for Bama would be Auburn to preserve the Iron Bowl. I guess our permanent cross divisional rival in this scenario would be Mizzou? Only other changes I would make is to remove Vandy from the SEC and replace them with Georgia Tech. Time for GT to come home as a founding member.
 
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#138
#138
bamawriter said:
What's their record against everyone else? They sucked less than Vandy and UK, but they still sucked.
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South Carolina since joining SEC in 1992:
vs Alabama: 3-5
vs Auburn: 0-8
vs Arkansas: 9-13
vs UF: 5-19
vs UGA: 9-15
vs UK: 16-8
vs LSU: 1-6-1
vs Ole Miss: 2-4
vs Miss St: 9-6
vs UT: 6-18
vs Vandy: 20-4
 
#139
#139
Some other, random fun facts I came across while looking at the numbers:

1) After its 42-42 record against Kentucky, Vanderbilt's 38 wins are its second most over an SEC opponent (Vanderbilt is 38-50-2 against the Rebels).

The series has broken down the following over the last 26 years:
Vandy vs Ole Miss in the 90s: 3-7
Vandy vs Ole Miss in the 2000s: 3-7
Vandy vs Ole Miss in the 2010s: 3-3
(So 9-17 the last 26 years)

Since the divisional split in 1992, Vanderbilt's record against Ole Miss is 8-16.

No one else seems to have the recurring difficulty with them that Ole Miss seemed to have.


2) Interestingly, UK is 4-3 versus Arkansas since the latter joined the SEC in 1992.


3) Kentucky's 3rd most total wins against an SEC team (after Vanderbilt and Tennessee) are against Mississippi State (a 20-23 series). Until this current decade (with Miss St now under Mullen), the UK-MSU series saw the following results:

UK vs Miss St in the 90s: 4-6
UK vs Miss St in the 2000s: 5-5

(Making UK 9-11 against Miss St over those two decades.) Mississippi State's 6 wins this current decade gave them the overall lead in the series (a first since the 1940's, surprisingly).


4) LSU also had some surprising amount of difficulty with UK in the 90s...from the 1992 divisional split up through 2000, UK went 5-4 against the Tigers (this was also back when there were two permanent East-West opponents, so the Wildcats and Tigers played each year).
 
#140
#140
LittleVol said:
I think Mizzou should go to the West and BAMA should move to the East.

East
UT
Bama
Fla
UGA
S Carolina
UK
Vandy

West
Auburn
LSU
Texas A&M
Arkansas
Mizzou
MSU
Ole Miss

That is about even...
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Assuming the Iron Bowl stays a permanent fixture, that screws up Bama's game w/ Mississippi State and Auburn's game w/ UGA. That won't have much support.
 
#141
#141
If you are going to realign, what has always made the most sense is mizzou to the west and auburn to the east.

However, it means the end of alabama-tennessee.

But, its the least disruptive move. It also brings back tennessee-auburn, florida-auburn rivalries
 
#143
#143
bamawriter said:
Assuming the Iron Bowl stays a permanent fixture, that screws up Bama's game w/ Mississippi State and Auburn's game w/ UGA. That won't have much support.
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Maybe moving Auburn and Bama to the East and Mizzou and Kentucky to the West would be a solution? It isn't exactly an even trade, but it would bring some parity to the divisions. The Iron Bowl, TSIO, Auburn-Georgia rivalries would be preserved. Plus as the Gator stated the Auburn-Tennessee and Auburn-Florida rivalries would be renewed. Bama's cross division game could be Mississippi State, Tennessee could restart an old rivalry with Ole Miss, and Auburn could pair with Mizzou. Or Auburn-Ole Miss and Tennessee-Mizzou would work as well.
 
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#144
#144
zeppelin128 said:
Maybe moving Auburn and Bama to the East and Mizzou and Kentucky to the West would be a solution? It isn't exactly an even trade, but it would bring some parity to the divisions. The Iron Bowl, TSIO, Auburn-Georgia rivalries would be preserved. Plus as the Gator stated the Auburn-Tennessee and Auburn-Florida rivalries would be renewed. Bama's cross division game could be Mississippi State, Tennessee could restart an old rivalry with Ole Miss, and Auburn could pair with Mizzou. Or Auburn-Ole Miss and Tennessee-Mizzou would work as well.
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Sounds great. While we're at it, we should let LSU include the SEC Championship Game in their season ticket packages, since they'll be there just about every year.
 
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#145
#145
bamawriter said:
Sounds great. While we're at it, we should let LSU include the SEC Championship Game in their season ticket packages, since they'll be there just about every year.
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Just a scenario to preserve what most seem to believe are the most "important" rivalries in the SEC. Auburn or Bama makes the most sense geographically to be in the East in my opinion. But either the Iron Bowl, the TSIO, or Auburn-Georgia would have to bite the dust.
 
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#146
#146
LittleVol said:
I think Mizzou should go to the West and BAMA should move to the East.

East
UT
Bama
Fla
UGA
S Carolina
UK
Vandy

West
Auburn
LSU
Texas A&M
Arkansas
Mizzou
MSU
Ole Miss

That is about even...
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This would be much more fair for UT. THE OTHER east teams would have to face the same schedule we do every year.
 
#148
#148
zeppelin128 said:
Maybe moving Auburn and Bama to the East and Mizzou and Kentucky to the West would be a solution? It isn't exactly an even trade, but it would bring some parity to the divisions. The Iron Bowl, TSIO, Auburn-Georgia rivalries would be preserved. Plus as the Gator stated the Auburn-Tennessee and Auburn-Florida rivalries would be renewed. Bama's cross division game could be Mississippi State, Tennessee could restart an old rivalry with Ole Miss, and Auburn could pair with Mizzou. Or Auburn-Ole Miss and Tennessee-Mizzou would work as well.
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The east should be:
1)Vols
2)Bama
3)Fl
4)LSU
5)Auburn
6)Ga
7)Mizzou

Go to 9 games and always play aTm every year and rotate 2 of the others home and home.

Then the three non conference:
1) Homecoming, pay a UT Martin to come take an AW.
2)A Power 5 team, that's has a history for being good(like OU) home and home.
3)A Power 5 team, that has a history for being good(like Michigan St) home and home.

Go Vols!
 
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