Although the SEC hasn’t made an official announcement, it appears that Arkansas-Missouri and South Carolina-Texas A&M will become permanent cross-division rivals in football.
South Carolina president Harris Pastides told ABC Columbia that Texas A&M is their “likely” option for a permanent cross-division rival.
“If all goes the way I think it will, we’ll probably be swapping Arkansas for Texas A&M in the fall,” said Pastides.
Arkansas and South Carolina have been cross-division rivals since the SEC moved to divisions in 1992. With Arkansas sharing borders with Missouri, it seems likely that those two will also become permanent cross-division rivals.
“Arkansas is a long way off. Arkansas and Missouri have kind of buddied up because they are neighboring states and wanted to play each other,” Pastides told ABC Columbia.
To add fuel to the fire, Texas A&M president R. Bowen Loftin tweeted this yesterday:
Just had a great conversation with the South Carolina president about our permanent SEC rivalry. We will make this very special! #SEC #WHOOP
— R. Bowen Loftin '71 (@aggieprez) March 5, 2012
Judging by the comments of these two presidents, it appears that the SEC will stick with an 8-game conference schedule and use a 6-1-1 format.
The 6-1-1 format will allow for old rivalries to continue, such as Auburn-Georgia and Alabama-Tennessee. But this model also means it will take 12 years for each team to play every team from the opposite division, compared to only five years under the old 5-1-2.
Another option for the 6-1-1 format is to play each team from the other division in succession, rather than playing one team home-and-home and then moving to the next team. In that scenario, each SEC team could play all of the other teams in the opposite division in six years rather than twelve.
It’s still plausible that the SEC could move to a nine-game schedule in the future. After all, nothing is “permanent” when it comes to football scheduling and conference alignment.
Wouldn’t be surprised to see a nine game schedule and a 13 game regular season schedule as a thing of the future. PAC-12 already plays 9, Big Ten and ACC have discussed it as well.
I THINK THE 9 GAME SCHEDULE IS COMING, BUT THEY WILL TRY THE 6-1-1 FORMAT FIRST. INSTEAD OF HOME & HOME, THEY WILL ROTATE ON & OFF ONE AT A TIME.
Agree it will have to happen but the big problem with a nine game schedule are those years when you are on the wrong side of four conference home games, five on the road, with a loaded team, and your chief divisional rival to get to the conference championship game that season happens to be one of the ones on the right side of 5 & 4. Most coaches are reluctant to spot any other coach that much of an advantage even before the first fight song of any season is played hence the conference’s slow move toward the inevitable.
I think this is a good idea for both Mizzou and Arkansas in the long run, because this would be the closest cross-division rivalry in the entire SEC, or one of the closest, if not the closest outright.
Actually the closet rivaly in the SEC is the EGG BOWL between Mississippi State and Ole Miss
Dont forget lsu at the border on south we play each year
Don’t know why Pastides is saying Arkansas is a long way off. Texas is even further!
Arkansas already has a rival w/ LSU dont care about tigger!
Don’t worry, “tigger” will give you all you want…just get you house in order.
With the new additions to the SEC, its no wonder everyone is confused about who should play who,when and where. Old rivals should be preserved for the good of the conference but new rivals would make for what could be an even deadlier schedule in the SEC especially if Missouri and Texas A&M can hold their own.
South carolina will beat texas a&m
When does Carolina play Texas A @ M ??? Man that will be a game to see !!
SOUTH CAROLINA?!?!? Come on!!! We knocked off the Crimson Tide at THEIR house. What has South Carolina done? If we are going to have a rival I think we should be able to play someone who could be a likely 50/50 winner. Don’t give us the East leftovers!!! At least with Texas we had a good back and forth rivalry that was great to watch every year! Even though we would have SMOKED them this year. South Carolina has NO chance of beating A&M if we play this year… NO MATTER WHERE WE PLAY… (undefeated on the road) only lost to Florida (FIRST GAME OF SEASON, by 3 pts) and LSU by (5pts also early in season) by the time mid season hit we WERE UNSTOPPABLE!!!… South Carolina PLEASE!!! Three words for all the haters… FEAR THE 2!!! (Johnny Heismanziel!!!)
We beat Alabama in their house 2 years ago. Beat the shit outa Ga. and loss to the. same two teams A and M did. I hope we do play. and. CLOWNEY KNOCKS LITTLE JONNYS FRIGGIN HEAD OFF.
SC won 11 games in back to back seasons. Beat UGA, UF, Tennessee and Clemson pretty handily for the past 3-4 years. Knocked off Bama ourselves a couple of years ago. Beat Nebraska and Michigan in bowl games for the past two years. So, you can knock the chickens all you want, but they finished top 10 last two years. Put a couple of good years back to back and crow all you want. I think #2 is an incredible talent, but know that small running QB’s don’t generally hold up well in the SEC. I hope he is enjoying taking all of those online classes (does he every come to campus?) and hitting the weight room. he’ll need it because he won’t sneak up on anyone in 2013.
TED said…..
AMEN TO WHAT RONNIE SAID!!!!!!