The only way this will happen is by expanding to 9 conference games because CBS & ESPN are not parting ways w/ yearly Third Saturday in October or Iron Bowl games. I'm a proponent of 9-game schedule, so I hope Auburn gets their wish.
auburn To The East?
- Thread starter PitMaster
- Start date
IMHO I think the University of Aubarn is doing anything to keep its name in the news. We all know the Bama vs Aubarn game will not be cancelled. But Aubarn is going do what they always do. Would love to see a FunnMaine you tube about the Barn leaving the SEC E and not playing Bama each year. Oh I still dont see why its called the Iron Bowl. Its not longer play in Birmingham. I do not see the need for the moniker of the Iron Bowl. But I am one of the old farts who hates Pat Dye for what he did by moving the game.
Actually some of that blame should be placed on Steve Sloan who was AD at the time.
The game was going to get moved eventually anyway. Legion Field was beginning to decay even back then. There were ncaa rules in place that restricted the hosting of recruits if the game was not on campus (not sure if that is still the case today).
Even if Auburn didn't have a burr under their saddle about it, the day that Bryant-Denny passed Legion Field in capacity (1998), Alabama's time at Legion Field began to come to an end.
The creation of Tide Pride also helped seal the fate of the 50/50 split.
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There's an alternate reality in which Birmingham had a new stadium that hosted the Iron Bowl, UAB, the bowl game and the SEC Championship. The trick is it would have required the city making better choices well before the late 90s. Having said that, it is still easy enough to resent Auburn for the way things were handled.
For what, the game moving?
He didn't have a whole lotta choice.
When the back and forth was going on in the summer of 1987, Auburn President James Martin basically said that if Joab Thomas (UA prez at the time) didn't respond within two weeks, they were going to begin preparing for the 1989 game to be at Auburn - and Thomas replied say saying he had asked the SEC to end the game as a rivalry game. In fact, on the pregame to the 1987 Iron Bowl (played that year on November 27, which was the day after Thanksgiving), the coverage on CBS focused on the fact that that game MIGHT be the LAST Iron Bowl in the continuing series.
Furthermore, he isn't the one that put the athletics department $39 million in debt, $17 million of which was a BDS upgrade that began before Sloan was hired as AD. I'm no apologist for the guy, but blaming him on something that: a) preceded him; and b) was going to happen anyway is absurd.
I completely agree, the game was on its way out of B'ham and quite frankly should have been. Yes, the IB in B'ham meant a lot when I was in college and for many years after, but the reality is it is a different world now and for anyone in their 30's or even early 40's having the game there means nothing to them. For both auburn and Tuscaloosa having the extra home game every other year is a big payday for both communities. I have said many times that I really wish the SEC and every other conference had stayed at 10 teams, but as I said, it is a different world and you take the good with the bad. If auburn were to move to the East and we lost UT as the annual cross over game it would not bother me, although I would prefer to keep UT and play auburn once every 4-6 years. Just don't see this happening until possibly the next round of expansion.
The only way I can see the swap between the barn and Mizzou is if we do decide to have 9 SEC games every year with 2 permanent rivals (UcheaT and barn). That's the only way I see Bama going with it.
Going to 9 games but allowing 2 permanent rivals doesn't fix the schedule rotation problem.
The poster formerly known as RollTide1017
The poster formerly known as RollTide1017
The rotation problem is never going to be fixed if the schedule expansion comes with divisional realignment. In fact, I think 9 games, two locked cross-divisional opponents, and Auburn in the East is the best way to maximize the value of the SEC live football package to advertisers because you keep Auburn-LSU, Alabama-Auburn, and Alabama-Tennessee while gaining yearly Auburn-Tennessee and Auburn-Florida. Rotation only matters to true fans and the players. Consistent quality matchups on the yearly slate matters to everyone who really matters.
The problem with a 2 permanent cross-divisional games is that it only matters to Alabama. If Auburn moves East, no other program cares about having 2 permanent cross division opponents except us. Florida semi-cares about the LSU game, but no other West team. Georgia doesn't care about anyone but Auburn who would then be in their division anyway. South Carolina has no real rival in the West division. Tennessee, despite the past decade, wants to keep us but doesn't care about anyone else. Kentucky and Vanderbilt have no real deep ties to the West division. Vanderbilt was our second permanent rival under the original schedule rotation because we do have a long series with them, but we've dominated it.
The issue is the same in the West. LSU actually doesn't want the Florida series, because it's unfair to them supposedly. Right now, Auburn has Georgia but again, that's rectified by them going East. Arkansas has zero tradition ties to any East division team. Ditto Ole Miss, Mississippi State, and Texas A&M. Although I think Ole Miss and Tennessee used to play each other regularly.
My point is simply that I doubt the rest of the conference will go along with the 6-2-1 split.
Can someone explain to me again why we should want Alabama to play Auburn? I have yet to see anyone actually make a logical argument for why Alabama (not some other party) should want that to happen.
Personally a win after an iron bowl is just a big exhale, and being able to eat finally since it is a stressful game. I could care less if we didn't play them again, but the SEC is not going to allow that to happen since that rivalry makes way more money and gets a lot more views for them. Yeah you could make an argument for LSU-Bama, but do you have faith that the game is going to be the same 3-4 years under Orgeron. I remember that under Dinardo the game was more or less no different than the MSU- Bama game. The Iron Bowl has been a bigger deal on a far more consistent basis than any other SEC rivalry. It isn't going away.
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The fans could care less. But I'm sure businesses in both T-Town and Opelika (among others) love that weekend. I can't give you a single reason a Tide fan would want such a game. The problem, however, is there's more than just our desires at play here.
While I've seen a lot of fans here more than willing to give the game up, I have seen some explicitly state that they want the game to remain. Now, we can debate what it takes to make it happen, but clearly one of the factors is that there is a faction of both Alabama and Auburn fans that have some sort of special affection for the game. That's the reason CBS and the SEC wouldn't want to give it up right? If it was just the simple fact of A: Alabama possibly losing and B: Two football powers playing, then it wouldn't be irreplaceable.
I mentioned planting a seed earlier and so did Cecil. I think that's the first step and both sides would have to come to accept doing without this game before anything could happen. As to the notion that it's impossible? Alabama isn't going to act like Texas, but the SEC has been making a lot of money off Alabama and so has CBS. Alabama has multiple top rated college football games every year (with our without Auburn), and to give another example when the SEC teams had to give up tier 3 rights, it was Alabama that lost the most. Some teams had around a million in tier 3 content, Alabama had around 9 million! Now think about that, Alabama handed that over. Now, are we really going to suggest that those guys would bite the hand that feeds them even though Alabama took a hit like that?
Furthermore, ponder the fact that Alabama was willing to make a move that put all that money on the table. Did Alabama go kicking and screaming like some seem to think CBS and the SEC would? Did it end up paying off? It seems like it, but other teams enriched themselves thanks to Alabama. There's no way around that. I'd wager that if Alabama pushed hard to get something like that, they'd have more success than some seem to think. Alabama making all those guys a ton of money, but that doesn't make Alabama their slave. If Alabama ended up wanting this, I don't see CBS of the SEC head office being the parties that blocked it.
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That's the thing, I don't think they're "scared" per se. I just think they're tired of being in Bama's shadow, and they finally realized they'll never be as good as Bama. They want their own identity.
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