How Do You Reshape a Conference? SEC Realignment Style

The SEC is about to get a makeover. The conference has approved the additions of the University of Oklahoma and the University of Texas leaving fans to wonder how the two former Big 12 giants will fit into the SEC.

Will the SEC reshape its conference alignment? If so, what will that look like? Could the Crimson Tide be headed into a pod system with its bitter rivals? There are many solutions that have been bantered about but only one will satisfy the masses.

The concerns with a 16-team  league start and end with schools not playing each other often enough. This is already a problem in the SEC with a 14-team league, for example the Crimson Tide is traveling to Gainesville, FL., for the first time in 10 years in 2021.

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In order to play each and every team in such a large conference and in order to present a fair and balanced schedule the SEC needs to move to a 9-game conference schedule. The league played a 10-game schedule due to COVID-19 in 2020 and everyone survived, there is no reason to revert back to the original 8-game schedule and leave television revenue on the table.

The conference should next eliminate divisions. Allow the SEC  to be one giant 16-team conference as it stands and let the teams with the top two conference records play in the SEC Championship.

By eliminating divisions, the schedule makers can restructure their format. Each team should have three locked-in schools that it plays every year, for our Alabama Crimson Tide they could preserve their rivalry with Tennessee, Auburn and LSU. The remaining six conference games will be filled by the remaining 12 schools on a home-and-home basis.

By structuring the schedule in this fashion an athlete that stays with its SEC football program for four years will have played in every SEC stadium while maintaining a strong connection to their respective rivals.

Alabama : Auburn - LSU - Tennessee

Arkansas : Missouri - Oklahoma - Texas

Auburn :  Alabama - Georgia - Mississippi State

Florida : Georgia - LSU -  South Carolina

Georgia : Auburn - Florida - South Carolina

Kentucky : South Carolina - Tennessee - Vanderbilt

LSU : Alabama - Florida - Ole Miss

Mississippi State : Auburn - Ole Miss - Texas A&M

Missouri : Arkansas - Oklahoma - Texas &M

Oklahoma : Arkansas - Missouri -Texas

Ole Miss : LSU - Mississippi State - Vanderbilt

South Carolina : Florida - Georgia - Kentucky

Tennessee : Alabama- Kentucky - Vanderbilt

Texas : Arkansas - Oklahoma - Texas A&M

Texas A&M : Mississippi State - Missouri -Texas

Vanderbilt : Kentucky - Ole Miss - Tennessee

The conference would maintain its reputation as the toughest football conference in America and a strengthen already close relationships between one another.

The elimination of one of the cupcake games would benefit the television partners and the fans, and although traditional rivalries like Alabama and Mississippi State or Florida and Tennessee aren't played every year they will still occur at a high rate, twice every four years.

Could the conference adopt this model? Anything is possible in the ever-changing landscape of college football. Do you like this system or have something different in mind? Leave us a comment on our Facebook, Twitter or App Chat.