SEC Commissioner, and the most influential man in college football, Greg Sankey, said that once Texas and Oklahoma join the league in a couple seasons, the SEC is leaning toward scratching its current divisional model of having teams split into two divisions: East and West.
We’ve seen other conferences like the Pac-12, the Big-12, and the Mountain West do the same and it’s exactly the right move.
The whole point of scheduling in a conference is to have each team play each other at home at least once and play away at least once during the course of a college career. This decision will bring the SEC one step closer to that.
The geography of how the SEC has done it also makes absolutely no sense. You don’t have to be Christopher Columbus to figure out Auburn and Alabama don’t need to be in the ‘West’ or Missouri and Texas A&M in the ‘East’.
It also seems like the four team pod model is also dead, which I also agree with.
The biggest challenge out there, as the SEC leans into this change, will be keeping the best rivalries intact. Games like Georgia vs. Florida or Texas vs. Oklahoma or Auburn vs. Alabama are big, historical rivalries and must-watch games. The way the new SEC championship will be set up makes it very possible to maintain those rivalries.
Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
With the SEC’s goal of expanding to 16 teams by 2025, this seems like a simple decision. At the end of each season, the top two teams play for a spot in the College Football Playoff. The tiebreaker system needs to be simplified as well. Head-to-head should take precedence if teams are tied and if there is no head-to-head, there should be tiebreakers implemented underneath that.
Either way the SEC is making the right move. At the end of the day, divisions are always bad.
Jake Crain is co-host of “Crain & Company.” the Daily Wire’s sports show hosted by former athletes and coaches Jake Crain, Blain Crain, and David Cone. @JakeCrain_
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.