SEC East vs SEC West

[jbcarol]

LSU 35, Florida 28

Auburn 30, Kentucky 27

LSU 45, South Carolina 24

Arkansas 24, Tennessee 20

Bama 38, UGa 10

Florida 38, Ole Miss 10

Ole Miss 27, Vandy 16

[jbcarol]

David Paschall ‏@DavidSPaschall 10h10 hours ago

SEC West teams are now 8-1 this year against the SEC East, with Florida over Ole Miss serving as the lone East win.

[jbcarol]

Bama 19, Tennessee 14

Miss. St. 42, Kentucky 16

[Exit Pursued by a Boar]

In case anyone is keeping track, but my rough count shows the SEC West at 6-1 vs the SEC East with Florida's romp over Ole Miss being the sole blemish.

EFBAB

[ErieHog]

Arkansas won over Tennessee
Alabama won over Tennessee
Mississippi State won over Kentucky
LSU won over South Carolina
Ole Myth won over Vanderbilt
Auburn won over Kentucky
Alabama won over Georgia
LSU won over Florida

Ole Myth lost to Florida

8-1

[Exit Pursued by a Boar]

Arkansas won over Tennessee
Alabama won over Tennessee
Mississippi State won over Kentucky
LSU won over South Carolina
Ole Myth won over Vanderbilt
Auburn won over Kentucky
Alabama won over Georgia
LSU won over Florida

Ole Myth lost to Florida

8-1

Even better.

[Dwight_K_Shrute]

East is garbage especially once you get past Florida, and Florida's record is helped immensely by the fact it can beat up on it's weak eastern siblings.  The bottom 4 teams in the East are something like 4-14 in the conference.  3 of those 4 wins came against each other.

SC beat Vandy
Vandy beat Mizzou
Mizzou beat SC.

The only decent win for the bottom 4 is TN's vs. GA.

Then if you look at the top 3 teams in each division, the top 3 in the West are 11-2 in conference while the 3 in the East are 9-6.

Florida's path to the SEC East crown is so easy it's not even funny.  GA, Vandy, SC, and they finish their conference schedule 2 weeks before the end of the season.  The East is just weird in that 4 of the 7 teams actually end their conference season 2 weeks before the end of the rest of the season which makes it very anticlimactic.  It's as if they place a greater value on the out of conference rivalry to end the season instead of the conference, which makes the West immensely more interesting.  Think about how many times winning the West has come down to the very last game of the season.

[rzrbackrob]

     TOP
LSU/Bama

    Middle level
Fla/GA
Ole Miss     
                                           
        Bottom
TAM/Ark/MSU/Aub
TN
KY/USC/Vandy/Mizzou

[Jackrabbit Hog]

Hard to believe that until Saban got to Alabama, the East was considered the stronger side of the conference almost every year.  It's so unbalanced now it's not even funny.  Wouldn't it be nice if we got to play Vanderbilt, Kentucky, South Carolina and Missouri every year?

[ErieHog]

Hard to believe that until Saban got to Alabama, the East was considered the stronger side of the conference almost every year.  It's so unbalanced now it's not even funny.  Wouldn't it be nice if we got to play Vanderbilt, Kentucky, South Carolina and Missouri every year?

That used to be how the Tennessee/Florida/Georgia troika viewed Ole Miss/MSU/Arkansas, during the darkest days for our program.

[redeye]

That used to be how the Tennessee/Florida/Georgia troika viewed Ole Miss/MSU/Arkansas, during the darkest days for our program.

Florida and Georgia still look at Arkansas that way, because we've always struggled to beat them.  True to form, Florida seems to be improving and we get them next year in Fayetteville.  I hope we make a big deal out of getting our first SEC win over Florida, because it's long past due.

There's also a lot of bias in the SEC-E regions.  They don't seem to like any teams west of Alabama and act as if the world revolves around the Southeast.  They're very insular and myopic imo.

[Hogwild]

2014= SEC West 11 SEC East 4

Missouri & Georgia won both of their non division games.
The other 5 teams went win less against the West.

[jbcarol]

Miss. St. 31, Mizzou 13

A&M 35, South Carolina 28

Miss. St. 42, Kentucky 16

Bama 19, Vols 14

LSU 35, Florida 28

Auburn 30, Kentucky 27

LSU 45, South Carolina 24

Arkansas 24, Tennessee 20

Bama 38, UGa 10

Florida 38, Ole Miss 10

Ole Miss 27, Vandy 16

[jbcarol]

Still to come:

11/14  UGa @ Auburn

11/21  A&M @ Vandy

11/26  Mizzou @ Arkansas

[Sow’sEar]

Texas A&M    1-0        beat South Carolina 35-28
Arkansas       1-0        beat Tennessee  24-20
Alabama        2-0        beat Georgia 38-10, and beat Tennessee 19-14
Auburn          1-0        beat Kentucky 30-27
Miss. St        2-0        beat Kentucky 42-16, beat Mizzou 31-13
LSU              2-0        beat South Carolina 45-24, beat Florida 35-28
Ole Miss         1-1       beat Vanderbilt 27-16, lost to Florida 10-38

3 games remaining: 
Auburn vs. Georgia  11-14,  Arkansas vs. Missouri  11-27,  and Texas A&M @ Vanderbilt  11-21

[bigred223]

Looks like a 12-2 finish at worst.

[TomBigBeeHog]

Texas A&M    1-0        beat South Carolina 35-28
Arkansas       1-0        beat Tennessee  24-20
Alabama        2-0        beat Georgia 38-10, and beat Tennessee 19-14
Auburn          1-0        beat Kentucky 30-27
Miss. St        2-0        beat Kentucky 42-16, beat Mizzou 31-13
LSU              2-0        beat South Carolina 45-24, beat Florida 35-28
Ole Miss         1-1       beat Vanderbilt 27-16, lost to Florida 10-38

3 games remaining: 
Auburn vs. Georgia  11-14,  Arkansas vs. Missouri  11-27,  and Texas A&M @ Vanderbilt  11-21

Should the SEC West start its on conference? Seriously, looks like the teams should be redistributed because this imbalance is ridiculous. West teams being punished. Never get a easy run to the playoffs like O State.

[HOGINTENNESSEE]

As long as we continue the trend and beat Mizz I don't care

[DiamondHogFan]

Should the SEC West start its on conference? Seriously, looks like the teams should be redistributed because this imbalance is ridiculous. West teams being punished. Never get a easy run to the playoffs like O State.

Trading Bama for Missouri would provide immediate balance, and make more sense for Missouri.  But Bama ain't going anywhere without Auburn.

[East TN HAWG]

Should the SEC West start its on conference? Seriously, looks like the teams should be redistributed because this imbalance is ridiculous. West teams being punished. Never get a easy run to the playoffs like O State.

The strength of the conference cycles.  A decade ago it was the East that was the strongest.  Now it is the west.  In a decade,  it may be the east again.  Ole Miss will go and probation, Dak will graduate, Saban will retire, and our schedule gets a lot easier. 

[Locutus_of_Boar]

Should the SEC West start its on conference? Seriously, looks like the teams should be redistributed because this imbalance is ridiculous. West teams being punished. Never get a easy run to the playoffs like O State.

Barring further expansion the drive to rebalance the divisions will be one or two years where a weak east team knocks the SEC out of the playoff with an upset in the SECCG.  I expect the solution will be to eliminate divisions altogether with each team playing a number of fixed and rotating opponents and the top two finishers meeting in the SECCG.

[HOGINTENNESSEE]

Trading Bama for Missouri would provide immediate balance, and make more sense for Missouri.  But Bama ain't going anywhere without Auburn.

Bama would like as the would never lose

[scruf]

North:

UK
Vandy
UT
Ark
Mizzou
GA
OM


South:

Bama
AU
UF
LSU
ATM
MSU
SC

Permanent cross-division games would be:

Ark-LSU
UF-GA
OM-MSU

UF-UT every other year

[Jackrabbit Hog]

Next year won't be much better.  The East will likely be a battle between Florida and Tennesse, and the rest will be a bag of poo. 

[TNhawgfan]

North:

UK
Vandy
UT
Ark
Mizzou
GA
OM


South:

Bama
AU
UF
LSU
ATM
MSU
SC

Permanent cross-division games would be:

Ark-LSU
UF-GA
OM-MSU

UF-UT every other year

Considering how close a drive I have for Ut, Vandy, UK, and GA, I would do cartwheels if this ever happened

[Hogarusa]

It wont be like this forever.  The East will catch up

[East TN HAWG]

Attached is a link from last July by Solwemi or whatever his hogville nick name is.  This is an very interesting article.  The league is balanced since 1992.  There is no reason to adjust the divisions. 

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/eye-on-college-football/24623586/when-will-sec-wests-dominance-over-the-sec-east-en

[MojaveJoe]

North:

UK
Vandy
UT
Ark
Mizzou
GA
OM


South:

Bama
AU
UF
LSU
ATM
MSU
SC

Permanent cross-division games would be:

Ark-LSU
UF-GA
OM-MSU

UF-UT every other year

That is actually a brilliant restructure. Of course, that means it will never happen.

[Dwight_K_Shrute]

It wont be like this forever.  The East will catch up

I don't think East will ever be as deep as West.  Kentucky will never care as much about football as they do about basketball.  Vandy will never be consistently good, SC surrendered all it's positive momentum under Spurrier and job of getting them back is even harder considering Clemson is trending so high.  Call me crazy but I think the current down year for Missouri coupled with what happened on campus may make it more difficult for them to get back to double digit wins or even 8-9 any time soon.

[Atlhogfan1]

The balance shifted in 2001.  Saban won the SEC in his second season at LSU beating Tennessee.  It was Spurrier's last season at Florida. 

From 92 through 2000, Florida won 5 SEC Ch and Tenn won 2. 

Starting with Saban's first SEC Ch in 2001, the SECW has won 10 of the last 14.  Ga has 2 and Fl has 2.  Tenn we know went downhill especially after Fulmer. 

Saban's arrival and Spurrier's departure from Florida started the flip.  By the time UM got Fl going, Tenn was in decline.  Saban returned and made Bama into a power again while what he left at LSU had established a power.  Then we have AU and their way up cycles mixed with a lot of mediocre to down seasons.  But when AU wins, they can win big.  UGa can't quite get there.

Now of course we added an elite recruiting program in A&M even though they tend to underachieve. 

The SECE also has more bottom teams than does the SECW.  OM and MSU both have access to a fertile recruiting area around them while the SECE has Vandy, Mizzou and the basketball college. 

[JayBell]

I've been saying this for years.  Alabama and Auburn in the West is ridiculous and has been for a while.  It's not a fluke anymore.  It's established competitive (and geographical imbalance).

It's going to stay imbalanced as long as the SEC waits for Florida, Georgia and Tennessee to become the juggernauts they once were.  Hint: they won't.

[JayBell]

North:

UK
Vandy
UT
Ark
Mizzou
GA
OM


South:

Bama
AU
UF
LSU
ATM
MSU
SC

Permanent cross-division games would be:

Ark-LSU
UF-GA
OM-MSU

UF-UT every other year

This just doesn't make sense, at least not when keeping it East/West and just distributing the teams better makes so much more sense.  You can keep those permanent cross-division games, but you still can't put Ole Miss/MSU and Florida/UGA in separate divisions.

[Dwight_K_Shrute]

I've been saying this for years.  Alabama and Auburn in the West is ridiculous and has been for a while.  It's not a fluke anymore.  It's established competitive (and geographical imbalance).

It's going to stay imbalanced as long as the SEC waits for Florida, Georgia and Tennessee to become the juggernauts they once were.  Hint: they won't.

Instead of a radical rebalance, they just need to move AL AU to East, and Vandy, Mizzou to West.

This also solves the problem of permanent East opponents.  There are only a few real permanent opponents/rivalries that the schools insist on keeping.  AL-TN, AU-GA.  This would then allow cross division opponents to rotate every year which makes scheduling easier and no one gets the advantage of having KY, or Vandy as the permanent opponent.  Except for the odd year when Vandy is good, it is an advantage.

AL, AU, most likely wouldn't mind it because it would make their path to the division title easier.   No team in the East would be for it so I doubt it would ever happen.

[JayBell]

The West has combined for 305 wins over the last five seasons, an average of 8.7 per team per season. The East has 255.  That's 50 less wins over that time period.  They averaged just 7.3 wins per team per season.

An adjusted West with Alabama and Auburn traded for Missouri and Vanderbilt would have 277 total wins over the last five seasons.  The East: 283.  A balance of 277-283 is a lot more even than 305-255.

And think of how many more wins Arkansas, TAMU, Ole Miss and Mississippi State would have if they didn't have to play Alabama and Auburn every single season.  The suckage of Tennessee and Florida has been boosting the records of Missouri and South Carolina.  A realignment wouldn't just make sense geographically, it'd make sense competitively too.  The West has been the toughest division in the history of college sports for way, way too long now.

I posted this ^ before the season and it still makes the most sense, by far, to me.  It makes sense geographically and competitively.

The biggest issue though is that the SEC probably doesn't want 4 of its 5 most historically prestigious programs in one division, but the imbalance is just getting more and more ridiculous every year.

[JayBell]

Instead of a radical rebalance, they just need to move AL AU to East, and Vandy, Mizzou to West.

+1

See my last post.

[Atlhogfan1]

What the SEC didn't need to do was add A&M.  Not because I think they will become a power.  But because of their recruiting base, they roll out NFL talent and it just adds to the depth of the SECW.  And by adding the two more teams, it forces more games within each division and limits the cross divisional scheduling.  12 was a great number.  But for financially competitive reasons, it had to be done since the Big 12 imploded(thanks Horns) and the B1G and ACC went on a tv market grab. 

[JayBell]

What the SEC didn't need to do was add A&M.  Not because I think they will become a power.  But because of their recruiting base, they roll out NFL talent and it just adds to the depth of the SECW.  And by adding the two more teams, it forces more games within each division and limits the cross divisional scheduling.  12 was a great number.  But for financially competitive reasons, it had to be done since the Big 12 imploded(thanks Horns) and the B1G and ACC went on a tv market grab.

I think college football as a whole will be better off when the Power Five all play nine conference games like the Big XII.  Will it be tougher in the SEC?  Yes, but that's just the nature of the beast.

Fix the alignment, cut out cross-division games which then wouldn't be needed, add a conference game and every SEC team plays 3 from the other division every single season.  It just makes too much damn sense.

[DiamondHogFan]

North:

UK
Vandy
UT
Ark
Mizzou
GA
OM


South:

Bama
AU
UF
LSU
ATM
MSU
SC

Permanent cross-division games would be:

Ark-LSU
UF-GA
OM-MSU

UF-UT every other year

Leaving LSU, Bama, and Auburn in the same division wouldn't create balance any more than what we have now.  Trading OM and Ark for UF and USC doesn't change a lot.

Of course as a Razorback fan, this would be ideal...

[PigWig]

Alabama to the SECE
Mizzou to the SECW
Alabama's permanent opponent changes from Tennessee (they'd be in the same division) to Auburn

Do away with divisions in baseball, just like you did in basketball, and things would be perfect.

[IronHog]

If college football really wants to go semipro complete with playoffs they need to weed out the academic and basketball schools and go to a P4 format.

(Optional round one: inter divisional conf game)


Playoffs round 1:  conference championship games

Round 2: sugar/rose bowl (etc)

Round 3: championship



All on the field.  No committee, huge TV.

[JayBell]

Alabama to the SECE
Mizzou to the SECW
Alabama's permanent opponent changes from Tennessee (they'd be in the same division) to Auburn

Do away with divisions in baseball, just like you did in basketball, and things would be perfect.

You don't split up Alabama and Auburn, or Ole Miss and Mississippi State or Florida and Georgia.  And if you put Alabama and Auburn in the East, there's zero reason for the permanent cross-division rivals.  Everyone would be in the same division as their biggest historical rivals.

Agree on baseball though.

[Hog_Swanson]

North:

UK
Vandy
UT
Ark
Mizzou
GA
OM


South:

Bama
AU
UF
LSU
ATM
MSU
SC

Permanent cross-division games would be:

Ark-LSU
UF-GA
OM-MSU

UF-UT every other year

This makes no sense.  None.

[longpig]

I don't think East will ever be as deep as West.  Kentucky will never care as much about football as they do about basketball.  Vandy will never be consistently good, SC surrendered all it's positive momentum under Spurrier and job of getting them back is even harder considering Clemson is trending so high.  Call me crazy but I think the current down year for Missouri coupled with what happened on campus may make it more difficult for them to get back to double digit wins or even 8-9 any time soon.

Well put, the East has been trending down for a while now.  Strong seasons will always come and go with Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and maybe SC, but Kentucky, Vandy and Mizzou not so much.   

[TomBigBeeHog]

Barring further expansion the drive to rebalance the divisions will be one or two years where a weak east team knocks the SEC out of the playoff with an upset in the SECCG.  I expect the solution will be to eliminate divisions altogether with each team playing a number of fixed and rotating opponents and the top two finishers meeting in the SECCG.

This would make sense to me, and be the easiest to implement.

[PorkSoda]

I don't think East will ever be as deep as West.

the east used to be the stronger of the two divisions.  everything goes in cycles.

[JayBell]

the east used to be the stronger of the two divisions.  everything goes in cycles.

Very.  Money makes modern cycles last a lot longer though.  We're talking about a decade now of the West's dominance of the East, with no signs of it ending any time soon.  Not only are there no signs it will end, it actually got worse this year.

[Jackrabbit Hog]

Seems to me the West has always had more of a "top to bottom" quality about it, while the East, even when it was considered the strongest, was top heavy with Fla-UGa-UT and bottom heavy with USCe-Ky-Vandy. 

Sure would be nice to know you get to play Vandy and Kentucky every single freakin' year.

[PorkSoda]

Seems to me the West has always had more of a "top to bottom" quality about it, while the East, even when it was considered the strongest, was top heavy with Fla-UGa-UT and bottom heavy with USCe-Ky-Vandy. 

Sure would be nice to know you get to play Vandy and Kentucky every single freakin' year.

traditionally its been like playing OM and Miss St every year.  but now the mississippi schools are actually good.  Man I really hope we sweep the state of mississippi this year.  I have a hard time stomaching a loss to that state.

[Großer Kriegschwein]

traditionally its been like playing OM and Miss St every year.  but now the mississippi schools are actually good.  Man I really hope we sweep the state of mississippi this year.  I have a hard time stomaching a loss to that state.

I do hope Dak takes the "landsharts" to the woodshed though.

[Pig Worshipper]

Florida is getting ready to start winning SEC championships again as soon as their quarterback problems get solved. That will balance things out more.