Stormbreaker

I have to agree here. I am Auburn through and through but unbiased as much as possible. I love Gus and appreciate what he's done. He struggles with LSU tremendously, and the Tigers are quite scary this year. In part to how balanced on both sides of the ball they've become. Auburn can play extremely strong defensively and still lose to LSU, while Alabama can play well offensively against LSU and lose due to defensive issues. Not saying it's a prophecy, but it can easily happen.

I have to agree that UGA is aggressive in scheduling at least one Non-Conference game per year that should be satisfying to the SEC as a whole. However, UGA understands that playing in the East automatically puts their strength of schedule at a disadvantage compared to teams in the West. The only difference here is that UGA recognizes the need, while Alabama elects to ignore it and let their reputation with the committee carry the difference when faced with a weak schedule. Alabama's perspective is that they expect the West to be great each year. When that is true, their schedule is difficult already. However, when the West fails to produce more than two or three teams of relevance, Alabama's schedule takes a tremendous hit. With both Mississippi schools down from the last few years, it impacts the perception that Alabama just needs to clear Auburn, LSU, and TAMU.

If this were true, Alabama could just drop an annual date with Tennessee and rotate an East opponent. That would improve the schedule while removing a non-rivalry game based on this definition.