What's the best annual SEC game most years that doesn't involve Alabama?

crimsonaudio

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I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Ole Miss - Mississippi State.

Not often great teams, and even less often influences a championship of any kind. But for spectacular dysfunctionality, internecine hate, and pure-d wierdness, it's hard to top.
It's all the hate of the Iron Bowl but with terrible football teams.
 

GP for Bama

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I like the AU-UGA game. Usually there is a lot of intensity. It drives AU crazy that UGA has dominated the series the last 15 years or so.

Also the UF-LSU game is great. It is often a good game. Also LSU is usually crying that they are being abused because they have to play UF every year..... Just funny.
 

BamaMoon

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I think UT vs. UF was the best game in college football a few years ago. Better than what eventually became the same thing in the west with LSU and Bama, but UT and UF was really fun to watch (typically high scoring games) and it was basically the SECCG lots of years.

I think in the next few years that's what will happen with UF and Georgia, but I'd love to see UT start challenging both of them.
IMO, SEC needs a stronger east that resembles more of the west.
 

selmaborntidefan

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The Egg Bowl - I'll admit to being a tad bit biased here having spent nearly two full decades as a prisoner of war in the Magnolia State. With the exception that the teams are about 1/4 as talented, all that propaganda you hear about the Iron Bowl is found in the Egg Bowl.


"Coaches have been fired for failure to win this game"

No Alabama coach in history has ever been fired for failure to beat Auburn.

(In point of fact, the only coaches Alabama has actually fired since the Iron Bowl re-started are Drew (perhaps), Whitworth, Price and Shula. That woud shock a lot of people and yes - I know that DuBose would have been fired......but how many of those coaches got canned because they couldn't specifically beat Auburn? Drew only lost his last game against Auburn, Whitworth couldn't beat anyone, Price never coached a game, and Shula would have kept his job if....I don't even want to go there).

I'll leave it to the Aw-bun faithful to determine that with their coaches, but please spare us your sportswriting poppycock cliche. Maybe Doug Barfield. Maybe Tubs or Chizik saves the job with a win (as opposed to a blowout) in the last Iron Bowl. But please spare me the nonsense.

Emory Bellard lost 3 in a row to Ole Miss and despite having 2 really good years right before that, he got canned.
Rockey Felker went 1-4, and his win came right as Ole Miss got put back on probation, and he got canned.

Some of the others are admittedly debatable, but the in-state mandate is clear: 6-7 wins minimum and a bowl game - and beat the other one in the Egg Bowl.

"Throw out the records, anyone can win this game."

That's the biggest Porta-Potty of crap when talking about the Iron Bowl. There's been ONE true upset since the game restarted - Alabama's 1984 win. The other so-called "upsets" were evenly matched teams record-wise (1972, 1985, 2001, 2002, 2013).

But the Egg Bowl actually has those occurences.

2017 - 6-6 Ole Miss beats 9-4 MSU
2009 - 5-7 MSU beats 9-4 Ole Miss
2007 - yes, 8-5 MSU did beat 3-9 Ole Miss......but Ole Miss led, 14-0, with eight minutes left and gave up 17 points, including a FG with :12 left.
2001 - 3-8 MSU beats 7-4 Ole Miss
1983 - 6-6 Ole Miss beats 3-8 MSU on an Auburn-level miracle......the game-winning field goal on its way to victory is blown out of the sky by a wind gust.....on a 26-yard attempt by a pretty good kicker
1981 - 4-6-1 Ole Miss beats Hall of Fame Bowl (and three-point loss to a decent Alabama team) MSU, who is 8-4
1968 - 0-8-2 MSU and 7-3-1 Liberty Bowl bound Ole Miss...play to a 17-all tie


It has many closer calls than the Iron Bowl where a team with an awful record almost beats one with a good record.



I also think Auburn-LSU is a fun one.

Auburn-UGA
UF-UT
 

trenda

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The Egg Bowl - I'll admit to being a tad bit biased here having spent nearly two full decades as a prisoner of war in the Magnolia State. With the exception that the teams are about 1/4 as talented, all that propaganda you hear about the Iron Bowl is found in the Egg Bowl.


"Coaches have been fired for failure to win this game"

No Alabama coach in history has ever been fired for failure to beat Auburn.
I think Curry was awfully close, which is why he ran for the bluer grass of KY IMO.
 

GrayTide

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LSU vs Ole Miss at one time was one of the premier annual SEC games. We all know what happened on Halloween Night 1959 in Baton Rouge. After Archie Manning graduated and John Vaught retired, the game lost a lot of its luster because Ole Miss became a challegne to Vanderbilt for the SEC cellar dweller. Occasionally Ole Miss will surprise the Bayou Bengals, but for the most part LSU dominates this series.

Georgia vs South Carolina has been a game where upsets can and do happen (especially during the Spurrier years), but since the beginning of the Richt era UGA has pretty much dominated this series.

I will repost my most hated teams out of the 130 FBS teams.

130. Auburn
129. Notre Dame
128. Tennessee
1-127 No preference
 
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BamaMcGowin

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Not that the outcome either way was good, but the Auburn-LSU "Les Miles" game in 2016 in which LSU "won" then lost all in the last couple seconds was wild. The game clock was winding down late, and although they made a first and goal with a few seconds left, a penalty for illegal shift sent them back with 1 second remaining. When the clock started on the officials signal, it was all over. IMO, the refs didn't help LSU any by poorly communicating what was happening with where the ball was to be spotted, but I'm not loosing any sleep over the fact of who it happened to!

I don't like either team winning, but it was a very entertaining way to end a game. The mind-boggling decision to fire Les Miles after that game made it an even more intriguing story.

This game has been on the top of the list for Alabama fans to watch for the past 10-15 years because of the ramifications for the division and Alabama's spot in it. A win here for either team usually puts them one win against Alabama away from an SEC Championship game appearance.
 

tide96

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It used to be UT-UF for many years.

Then UGA/UF took over, but I'd argue that UGA/Auburn has been more interesting lately.
 

TideMan09

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I pick The Barn & Georgia as well..Here lately The Vandy - Tennessee game has been really good just cause the viles can't hang with Vandy now days..LOL
 

CoachInWaiting

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Over the years, this has been all over the board. When I was a kid, the LSU-Ole Miss game was as big to those fans as Alabama-Tennessee or Texas-Oklahoma. I always looked forward to it, especially during the McClendon era when I always wanted LSU to win. The same can be said now, but more due to the demise of any semblance of morality at Ole Miss. I also enjoy it when Tennessee and Auburn play. It allows me to root for the Viles once in a while and still see a hated rival go down in defeat. UGA-barn is a similar situation, I'm always going to be against the barn winning anything, even if UGA has to win. UGA-UF has often been entertaining and important to the standings, so it will always be noteworthy. And, although it hasn't been an SEC match-up for long, LSU and A&M have had quite a few great games in the past.
 

81usaf92

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I think Curry was awfully close, which is why he ran for the bluer grass of KY IMO.
Had Curry beaten Miami then I think he would've been hard not to be retained. Dye was on the decline, and you could make the argument that Auburn won the IB that day because of a crazy amount of energy of it being the 1st time ever in Auburn.
 

selmaborntidefan

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I think Curry was awfully close, which is why he ran for the bluer grass of KY IMO.

One can make that argument. I don't think the evidence supports it, but there are some supporting points.


For those too young to remember or who have successfully completed the Curry Amnesia Course - Curry bolted because after winning his first SEC title (our first post-Bryant SEC title no less), Hootie Ingram offered him a contract with no raise, released Alabama from any "outside money" Curry got if they fired him (which could be done at any time for any reason) and......most important......Curry could neither hire nor fire his staff.

In other words, he got offered a contract they knew he was going to tell the PTB to stuff it.


My suspicion (which I'll admit may be wrong) is that Ingram was named AD in order to woo Bobby Bowden to the Capstone. After botching the 1987 hire, I always figured you go get a former Alabama guy who helped build FSU, bring him in so Bowden comes, and then offer the current coach a terrible deal so he walks.



I don't think it was so much about firing Curry as it was getting Bowden. I suspect Hootie got caught in a bad situation after Curry messed up the plan by winning the SEC, albeit in a three-way tie. And my own personal thought is that that contract was already drawn up regardless of whether Curry had beaten Auburn or not.


Let's grant, however, both of us are speculating at this point. But I honestly thought the day they hired Ingram (Sep 1989) that it was to get Bobby Bowden.
 

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