The SEC unveiled which teams each of its teams will be playing for over the next four seasons earlier this week, and some serious controversy was stirred up in the process.
The biggest point of contention for most fanbases revolved around which 3 teams the conference decided would be the permanent opponents for each program under the new 9-game in-conference schedule format.
Commissioner Greg Sankey stated that the primary focus for the league office when selecting which teams would play each other on an annual basis was the preservation of historical rivalries, among other factors. However, there were still a few classic, longstanding feuds that were eliminated to make the new system work.
The LSU Tigers, in particular, saw some of their biggest yearly SEC rivalry games go up in smoke, as they lost their annual matchups against the Alabama Crimson Tide, Auburn Tigers, and Florida Gators.
This, naturally, led to many fans of these respective programs being upset, but LSU head coach Brian Kelly didn’t seem to be phased by the loss of some of his program’s most iconic longstanding rivalries.
“Everybody is going to play everybody home and away within a four-year period,” Kelly said on Wednesday during the SEC coaches teleconference. “You lose natural rivalries but not for a long period of time.”
Kelly does have a point, but the sting of not playing the Tide or Gators every single year is still going to hurt for some diehard fans of the Bayou Bengals. It will be interesting to see if the SEC decides to shift things around in 4 years time, which is the next time they’ll be looking at any potential tweaks to the new system.
