SEC football is the best football conference in college athletics, and and the respect it harbors among every college football personality is the worst kept secret in the country — specifically in the college football playoff committee.
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. This southern cliché fits perfectly into the mindset SEC football fans have towards the best conference’s chances for the college football playoff. However, college football is changing and — more importantly — expanding.
Strength of schedule has never meant more in college football. Because of the depth of SEC football, teams from the conference have benefitted from the rigidity of in-conference and in-division scheduling. So in the playoff’s current four team enrollment, the way the schedules and plays divisions is perfect.
Not for long. SEC football better be ready.
Other conferences can combat the SEC’s dominance once the playoff expands by scheduling tougher non-conference opponents outside of SEC teams. Other big teams, Michigan for instance, could replace their out of conference opponents with teams from everywhere outside of the SEC. Basically, if conferences wanted they could place an embargo on scheduling SEC football teams. This would not hurt their own strength of schedule, but would cripple the SEC’s.
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So here’s how the best conference in college football can stay ahead of the curve by just realigning –but with a very specific goal in mind: separate traditional rivals.
DIXIE MAGNOLIA
Alabama Auburn
Arkansas LSU
Florida Tennessee
Georgia Mississippi State
Ole Miss Kentucky
Vanderbilt South Carolina
Missouri Texas A&M
The key benefit of this divisional realignment, besides the sweet names, is that it forces teams to replace their weak out-of-conference game that the SEC Alternate channel doesn’t even want to broadcast with traditional rivalries and — more importantly — fellow SEC teams!
There’s no way Ole Miss cancels the Egg Bowl with Mississippi State, or Arkansas discontinues the Battle for the Golden Boot. There also isn’t a sliver of a chance the Iron Bowl is retired.
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It’s time to realign the SEC, but not just because one division is far more dominant or it needs more geographical alignment. It is time to realign SEC football because the landscape of college football is getting a full makeover. The uneven seesaw of the conference has to become a like-minded conference that harps on the importance of strength of schedule through playing more SEC football opponents.
Whether Greg Sankey has the fortitude to separate traditional rivals to promote that is unforeseen, but something has to happen.