Auburn president: move to SEC East would be OK

[Nay4AU 2]

http://eye-on-college-football.blogs.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/24156338/31837832

[Justin5 20]

I, for one, would welcome this.

I know Im in the minority though.

[ShocksMyBrain 9,389]

Dominating the East year after year would be nice

[autigeremt 6,776]

The posibility of playing Alabama in back to back weeks for the same prize is idiotic. It could work as long as the Iron Bowl is moved to late October or 4 games prior to the end of the season.

[Ronin 2]

I'm for it. I'd miss playing LSU every year but won't miss Ark, MSU or Ole Miss. Ky and Vandy don't thrill me but Fla and Tenn do.

[eibua12 81]

The posibility of playing Alabama in back to back weeks for the same prize is idiotic. It could work as long as the Iron Bowl is moved to late October or 4 games prior to the end of the season.

Moving the Iron Bowl doesn't solve the problem because we are always going to have an SEC game in that spot. What about the current possibility of playing UGA then Bama then UGA again? That isn't compelling either but it is a possibility.

[nanatiger 3]

I'm for it. I'd miss playing LSU every year but won't miss Ark, MSU or Ole Miss. Ky and Vandy don't thrill me but Fla and Tenn do.

Same here. When they originally aligned the divisions, I was surprised they stuck us in the west.

[bdc81 90]

I am OK with a move to the east.

The more traditional rivals are there. Rather play FL, TN and UGA than Ark, TA&M and whatever.

Forget Bama, heard for years how we could not survive without them, given the current status of the rivalry and low self esteem of their fanbase then playing them only on rotation would be fine with me. Both teams go undefeated and play for all the marbles great. Given our track record against UAT the last three decades I have no problem playing them back to back vs playing another SEC power. Besides, if they were undefeated it would give us two chances to upend their NC applecart. I'll take the odds either way.

Little Doc

[AuburnKnight 0]

I love playing Corndog U too much to give that rivalry up for...Texas A&M and an EAST schedule. Have we forgotten we play in the BEST division in America!? I do NOT want to move. PERIOD.

[SLAG-91 1,488]

I, for one, would welcome this.

I know Im in the minority though.

You can add me to being pro-East if it came to that.

Thinking long run, the only other West opponents that we've played consistently through the years are Alabama and Mississippi State. LSU and Ole Miss were rotating opponents that we played about 2-3 times a decade. They weren't really that high on our radar screen. Arkansas was a product of expansion.

If we went East and kept Alabama as our permanent opponent, the only long-running rivalry we'd cough up is MSU...no offense, but that one is worth losing to see us get Florida and Tennessee on a yearly basis again.

LSU has been a very heated game and I'd sort of miss it, but I could get used to not having it around. I guess my age factors into that, as I'm from the 10 team SEC era.

The fact that we'd get to play Vandy and Kentucky every year would be a plus. It would make up for all of those years where we usually played the toughest conference schedule around (sidebar: Back when we used to only play 6 SEC games a year, which was until the early '90s, our annual conference games were Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi State and one rotating opponent.)

[AUdrew1 3]

I love playing Corndog U too much to give that rivalry up for...Texas A&M and an EAST schedule. Have we forgotten we play in the BEST division in America!? I do NOT want to move. PERIOD.

"Corndog U" is not a rival in my mind. The history between Lsu and AU is not that old. Until the conference split into east and west LSwho was not even considered a rival. Florida is considered a much bigger rival and TN for that matter than LSU could ever be. Bring back AMEN Corner. I for one would love the chance to beat the Turds twice in one year. Move the AU/UAT game to earlier in the season and lets kick their butt twice in one season. The only thing that could make it even better is if Georgia Tech was added to a 16 team sec and we got the chance to kick that rivalry off again.

[CJ Bas 0]

I could stand a move to the east so long as the IB remains at the end of the season. I'd rather play them in back to back weeks than to play them early. However, the liklihood of playing them back to back weeks is slim. The losero f the first game would more than likely be knocked out of the SECCG. I know both teams could sew up their divisions prior to that game, but that's not likely to happen often.

[CheeseLover 0]

I'm for an east coast move as well. Arky, Ole Miss, MSU are all opponents I wouldn't miss. I would miss LSU, but it's not like UF or Tenn couldn't easily fill that game. The main downside would be the possibility of playing Bama twice in a row. But changing the date of the Iron Bowl would be defeating the purpose. I'd rather play it back-to-back than mid season!

If we expand to 13 wouldn't it be easier to just have a 7 team west? If we expand to 14 teams the second team would likely be east of us. If this were the case we would still stay in the west and have to add TAMU each year.

Might be no school changes divisions, rather just a pure expansion.

[Mikey 16,777]

We'd need to pick up two western teams and then move us to the SEC East, where we have belonged all along.

As noted above, the likelihood of playing bammer twice isn't high because the loser of the first game probably won't qualify for Atlanta. If it comes to pass that we play them twice, even in back-to-back weeks, so be it.

I miss the trips to Knoxville and Gainesville. Who the hell wants to go to Arkansas, Mississippi or Baton Rouge anyway? Not me!

[AUdrew1 3]

I'm for an east coast move as well. Arky, Ole Miss, MSU are all opponents I wouldn't miss. I would miss LSU, but it's not like UF or Tenn couldn't easily fill that game. The main downside would be the possibility of playing Bama twice in a row. But changing the date of the Iron Bowl would be defeating the purpose. I'd rather play it back-to-back than mid season!

If we expand to 13 wouldn't it be easier to just have a 7 team west? If we expand to 14 teams the second team would likely be east of us. If this were the case we would still stay in the west and have to add TAMU each year.

Might be no school changes divisions, rather just a pure expansion.

what if two teams come from the west say Oklahoma then Auburn is heading East. I'm almost willing to bet it will be more than 14 teams in the end.

[2219 0]

No one wants to talk about the other option? Both Auburn and the Turds move to the east. Problem solved. Of course, that would mean that no other teams from the East are picked up and they all come from the Midwest.

[aucanucktiger 1,805]

Why does anybody need to move anywhere? Acquire a team after TA&M and put them in the east. They have NO traditional SEC opponents (unless it's FSU or Clemson who have traditional opponents in the East anyway). IMO we have 4 natural rivals in the West (bama, lsu, ole miss & miss st) and 3 in the east (UF, uga and tenn).

I'm not getting why we're so cooperative about moving to the east. b/c it's been down for a few years? UF, UT & UGA are on a different planet than ole miss and miss st (who shock people when they win 9 games) and thaty east trio will be back and quickly. if miss st goes anywhere w/ mullen they'll just lose him to 50 other schools, like ole miss did tubbs to auburn.

[jaredm2012 0]

I'm not getting why we're so cooperative about moving to the east. b/c it's been down for a few years?

No, because we have 3 long standing rivalries in the east (Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee) and only two in the west (Miss State and Bama). And Miss State sucks. Ole Miss really isn't a "rival" and we haven't played them annually until relatively recently compared to UGA and the others.