simply change the division games from East/West to Neyland/Bryant? Then, put Missouri in the former and A&M in the latter. Hell, it even creates a nice little tribute to The Junction Boys.
[uck fay] Auburn. [uck fay] them with the curved end of a crowbar. We just need to make it work. The travel times between a couple of schools will be a lot longer than what we are used to no matter how it is done, so we might as well make it consistent for both divisions. Missouri coming into what is now "The East" would be fine, I think.
They can call them the Robbie Caldwell and Brad Scott divisions for all I care if they save the rivalry with bama. and [uck fay] auburn
Since Mizzou may be in the SEC by the week's end.... I propose the following. Realignment Division A A&M Bama Florida Mississippi State Ole Miss Tennessee Vandy Division B Arkansas Auburn Georgia Kentucky LSU Mizzou S. Carolina New permanant inner-division rivalries A&M/Arkansas Bama/Auburn Florida/Georgia Ole Miss/LSU Tennessee/Kentucky Mississippi State/Missouri Vandy/S.Carolina Play 9 conference games with the rotation currently used for the two other conference games. I think if you do this, the divisions are as fair as can be and would allow all of the old SEC rivalries to remain intact. There's a few switches you could make to still have it work, but I just threw this together for discussion.
For what it's worth, here are the rivalries I think you have to keep no matter what - UT/Bama Bama/Auburn Auburn/UGA UGA/Florida Ole Miss/State Ole Miss/LSU You could argue to include Florida/LSU as well, but it's only been played annually since the 70s. And if you included it, you'd almost have to swap those two teams in the divisions.
In this scenario I would prefer to keep UGA on the schedule every year instead of Kentucky. From a geographical standpoint I think it would look something similar to this: East: Auburn Florida Georgia Kentucky South Carolina Tennessee Vandy West: A&M Alabama Arkansas LSU Miss St Mizzou Ole Miss
Schedule does not work if you want to keep Auburn/Bama and UT/Bama every year. Which is why alternatives are being discussed.
Well, considering we've played Bama 92 times compared to Auburn's 69 I think we've got a little more history. Although, Auburn/Alabama met for the first time in 1902 and Tennessee/Alabama met for the first time in 1903. So technically speaking their rivalry is older.
Fwiw, another idea I've heard in to move auburn and bama to the east and send vandy to the west. Lsu greatly endorses this scenario.