There's a reason why, when they have the day of programming for each school on the SEC Network, Alabama's day might show one Iron Bowl while the Barn's day will show at least three or four: all other things being equal, that game defines their season.
The Iron Bowl is simply a much bigger deal to the Barn than it is to Alabama.
Also, the Iron Bowl was a much bigger deal, I believe, for most Bama fans when it was truly the Iron Bowl - played in Birmingham with a 50:50 ticket split. Plus, while most of us are too young to remember it, historically they aren't our traditional rival; the Iron Bowl came about as a sort of a gimmick, forcing us to play the cow college just because they happen to be located in our State.
While Tennessee hasn't been great for several years, now, they are - historically - one of the SEC elite (the second tier, as the first tier is a group of one: Alabama, the king of the SEC).
After all, the Barn has only a 54.4% winning percentage in SEC play, compared to Alabama's 67.2% and even Tennessee's 58.4%. In fact, half of the 10 charter SEC members still in the league have a higher SEC winning percentage than the Barn. As for the ultimate conference goal - Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, LSU, and even Florida have won more SEC Championships on the field.
The Iron Bowl, for me at least, lost most of its allure when it stopped actually being the Iron Bowl. Now they're just a little bit more than another team on the schedule. A very annoying team on the schedule. They're a rival, yes, and an in-state rival but the Alabama-Tennessee and Alabama-LSU rivalries mean much more, historically.
It wouldn't hurt my feelings one whit if we were to only play the cow college twice, outside of Atlanta, every decade.