Yesterday was one of the most significant days the SEC has seen in a long, long time. News broke that the Texas Longhorns and Oklahoma Sooners have reached out to the conference about making the jump from the Big 12, giving Auburn football two more tumultuous tussles year in and year out.
Or at least one. The Tigers are one of seven SEC teams that have won more games than Texas in the last decade. Mississippi State is even on that list.
UT may have trouble maintaining their top-15 recruiting resume if they end up no longer being one of the top players in their conference. In the SEC, it could be a rude awakening. OU isn’t off the hook either.
While the Sooners did top Auburn football in their last meeting, they have lost their last meeting against Alabama, Georgia, and LSU in the CFP, all in the last three years. They’d no longer be the expected conference winner each year. Or even be guaranteed a spot in the top 3 of their division.
It’d be an exciting new world with the two Big 12 powerhouses in tow no matter what, though. New rivalries would form between states that haven’t interacted as much, and the SEC would dominate the airwaves even more, picking up the Longhorn Network and two of college football’s most relevant programs.
How exactly would the conference shake out, though? Today, Fly War Eagle is ranking the top 3 realignment scenarios we might see happen if OU and UT came to the SEC:
Both of the following scenarios would feature four different “pods” each with four teams that all play those they are sharing a pod with. The idea of the pods is to give the SEC four guaranteed CFP spots when the postseason eventualy expands to 12 teams.
#3 best scenario for SEC realignment: West Division pod (Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Arkansas football), North Division pod (Vanderbilt, Tennessee, Mizzou, Kentucky football), Central Division pod (Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Alabama, LSU football), East Division pod (South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Auburn football)
The first pod would separate Alabama and Auburn football by conference pod, making it easier for the Tigers to get a guaranteed postseason birth. Then again, it won’t be so easy for AU since they will have to now compete with the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry’s Peach State counterpart as well as UGA’s main rival, the historically dominant Florida Gators.
This scenario gives Auburn an extra marquee game on the calendar with a trip to Gainesville every two years, and balances out the competition with (what should be) a gimme against the Gamecocks each season.
#2 best scenario for SEC realignment: Pod A (Texas, Oklahoma, Mizzou, Arkansas football), Pod B (Texas A&M, LSU, Mississippi State, Ole Miss football) Pod C (Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina, Florida football), Pod D (Vanderbilt, Tennessee, Alabama, Auburn football)
This alignment came courtesy of Twitter personality Pablo Escobarner, and takes geography less into account than the #3 ranked arrangement. For Auburn, Alabama is once again a key division rival, making their games mean more with a CFP berth heavily effected by their head-to-head matchups.
This arrangement also makes Tennessee a significant rival–which is a fun thought for Tiger fans considering the wonderful host Knoxville is–and gives them a yearly tune-up game against Vanderbilt.
#1 best scenario for SEC realignment: SEC West (Texas, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Arkansas, LSU, Mizzou, Ole Miss, Mississippi State football), SEC East (Vanderbilt, Tennessee, Kentucky, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Auburn football)
In this scenario, Auburn now shares a division with their two greatest rivals in Alabama and Georgia. It adds marquee matchups against Florida and Tennessee while adding winnable games against perenail also-rans lie Vanderbilt, South Carolina, and Kentucky (who are admittedly on the up and up under Mark Stoops).
This arrangement draws a georgraphical line in the sand that makes the Tigers the only team with that mascot in their division. From an actual on-field perspective, it pits them against only two teams that reeled in a top 10 2021 this past spring and 2022 recruiting class so far. Four top-10 2021 recruiting classes and three top-10 2022 recruiting classes would reside in the West.
Ultimately, this would lessen the rivalry Auburn and LSU share and unfortunately rob fans of trips to the Bayou. That’s undoubtedly the biggest loss in this scenario.
The wins outweight that, though. Taking two out of three games against Alabama, Georgia, and Florida each year would give Auburn football an outside chance at the CFP, which would presumably gain at-large bids instead of having four guaranteed spots for SEC schools.