I say let'm move, keep the IB, and play a 9 game sec schedule....probably won't happen in my lifetime!
LOL,... works for me!! RTR!!This is my thought, though Georgia is still pretty close. How about the Azores?
Some people actually get degrees in Agriculture, you know.....---snip---The ag school cultists ---snip---two other annoying ag school cults we play---snip---
94 and 13 are probably the most important iron bowls in the last 30 years in terms of it meaning something more than Alabama trying to avoid embarrassment and Auburn trying to show their relevant. I think in that time range the Red River Rivalry and the FSU-UF (in the 90's) had more games that meant something more than beating your rival.I think this would be more earth shattering news if this was the pre-1989 Iron Bowl that was played in Birmingham every year. That was a thing of beauty in that you would have a near 50/50 crowd trying to outdo one another cheering wise. But once again let's be honest - this thing is about money as always (not that there's anything wrong with that). The part I will confess surprises me a tad is that Auburn is not proposing to move to the East AND trying to change things so that the Iron Bowl is still the locked-in game (e.g. Alabama no longer plays Tennessee every year but instead plays Eastern rival Auburn). I'm also assuming that Dye has made the financial calculation that replacing Alabama with annual games against both Tennessee and Florida will more than make up for any financial losses.
Who would Auburn keep as their Western annual rival? I'm guessing they'd prefer LSU if not Alabama merely because of the money.
College football has been going through constant evolution and if this happened it would just be the latest. I recall a time when Oklahoma-Nebraska was one of the biggest rivalries going, bigger even than the Red River Rivalry. But they weren't even annual rivals in the Big 12 much less nowadays. Same with Texas/ATM, and both of those games were always played right around Thanksgiving, sometimes back to back.
I think the days of the Iron Bowl being a big thing have regressed from what they were. How many times has the game carried any NATIONAL significance? 2013 obviously but what other times was this true? It did have some secondary significance (e.g. the unbeaten or one-loss team HAD to win but it didn't really mean much nationally otherwise). The only other time that comes immediately to mind is 1971, when both teams were undefeated, but I was two years old and have no recollection of this. OK, and maybe 1981 because of Coach Bryant's becoming the winningest coach (though this turned out to be a fraud when later research showed Pop Warner actually had won 319 games and so Bryant actually broke the record against Penn State in 1982).
At the state level? Well, I don't think some of the Tide fans have thought this one through. The game is a trap for Alabama - if we win we were supposed to but if we lose we listen to a year of "we beat you." Of course, this could also set up an Auburn national title run that bypasses Alabama merely by the luck of the draw, and don't think Tide fans wouldn't resort to "but you didn't beat us!!" Same in reverse.
I thought the rivalry could have used some cooling off back during the Ramsey and Jelks scandals as well as the twin occurrences of the Cam Newton scandal and the tree killer dude.
Years ago I would have said, "No, we need to keep this." Now? I honestly don't care one way or the other. I DO suspect part of it in Dye's case is looking over the East and realizing, "Ok, if we put together a good team we have four easy wins and if we can go 2-1 at worst against the Big Three and maybe draw Miss State and Arky in the same year, we can win the East - and in one game against hopefully not Alabama, we can win the SEC and maybe play in the playoff, and that's money."
On the flip side......strength goes in cycles. Florida or Tennessee won the East every single year for the first decade of the expanded SEC, and they won the conference title seven of those times. Since then, however, the Vols have yet to win the conference and Florida has only won it twice. Think about that: since 2001, Auburn has won the SEC more times than powerhouse Florida.
The history of how it moved was interesting - and money-driven on both sides - but there's not much of interest now more than any other game save for rare years like 2013.
Hell, it feels a lot like UGA in football. Even when they're bad they have our number.* = Mr. Dub: how does it feel to lose 3 games, on your own field, to the worst team in the conference. We did such a number on your baseball team's head that you went on to lose the next 4 games! For maybe the only time in my lifetime, we got the chance to ruin your season, and looks like we did.
People gotta eat.Some people actually get degrees in Agriculture, you know.....