Auburn football: Winners and losers of Oklahoma and Texas SEC jumps

Winners: The SEC West

One would assume it would be the SEC West that would bring on Texas and Oklahoma considering their geographical standing. That means that Alabama, LSU, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Arkansas, and Auburn football would all gain marquee matchups with two programs that have won a National Championship since the turn of the century.

That is unless…

Winner: Auburn football

That is unless Auburn football ends up in the SEC East as a way to balance out the conference. If you look at a map, the Plains lies east of where Tennessee, Missouri, and Vanderbilt all sit, so they kind of already have a case to be in the SEC East.

The Tigers’ second biggest rival behind Alabama is Georgia, and the Iron Bowl would obviously go nowhere with the realignment. A move to the SEC East would make for a much easier regular season, a welcome change given Auburn’s current situation of owning one of the nation’s toughest schedules. 

But even if AU remains in the West, who is against Jordan-Hare Stadium one day hosting Texas and Oklahoma with relative regularity?

Exactly.

Winners: The Red River Showdown

Last time I checked, there is no longer a Big 12 Network. I hate to be petty like that, and I wish it returned. But I say that with the point to convey that the Red River Showdown itself would benefit from this move.

Beyond the obvious on-field ramifications, the two schools will now be part of the most collectively passionate conference in the nation between all of its member schools. They’ll also have more coverage and a production team that will spruce up their presentation and product.

The ESPN machine supports the SEC the most. That’s a very underrated perk of it all just meaning more in the SEC.