Forget divisions and pods. Here’s a better way to schedule a 16-team SEC

Texas’ move to the SEC should mean the return of the annual Texas-Texas A&M rivalry game.

With the news that Texas and Oklahoma are headed to the SEC, there have been many different opinions swirling around about how the conference should schedule 16 teams.

The simplest thing to do would be to keep divisions and add Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC West, send Auburn and Alabama to the SEC East and move Missouri over to the SEC West.

That would establish a sensible geographical split and keep every major rivalry in tact. It would also be pretty balanced competitively, though I’m sure Florida and Georgia wouldn’t be thrilled about sharing a division with Alabama in the short term.

But I understand why some people would rather see the league move away from divisions. With eight teams in each division, that would mean only one out-of-division game per year. (Or two if the league went to a nine-game schedule.)

Texas could go eight years without playing Alabama, and 16 years without hosting the Crimson Tide. That would feel like two separate leagues, not one super conference.

The problem with pods

The Georgia-Auburn rivalry has been played more times than any other SEC rivalry.

There have been many articles written in favor of four four-team pods, in which teams would play the three teams in their pod every year and would rotate through the other 12 teams. With a nine-game schedule, every team would play every other team at least twice in a four year span — once at home, once on the road.

The concept is great. But here’s the problem: There are no perfect ways to draw the pods without losing some major rivalries. Trust me, I’ve tried.

Most articles advocate for pods that look like this:

Florida-Georgia-South Carolina-Kentucky

Tennessee-Vanderbilt-Alabama-Auburn

Mississippi-Mississippi State-LSU-Texas A&M

Missouri-Arkansas-Texas-Oklahoma

Not bad. But that means we’ll only get Georgia-Auburn — the oldest rivalry in the SEC — twice every four years. Same with Texas-Texas A&M. Same with Tennessee-Florida. That’s far from ideal.

Keeping rivalries in tact

Oklahoma and Missouri have played 96 times. They’ll be reunited in the SEC.

So here’s a better idea that plays off the same concept: Throw the pods out the window and just assign each team three permanent annual opponents.

This way, all of the major rivalries can stay in tact and — with a nine-game season — every team would still face every other team twice in a four-year span.

At the end of the season, the two teams with the best records would go to the conference championship game.

Here’s an example of what each team’s permanent rivals could be:

Alabama: Auburn, Tennessee, Mississippi State

Arkansas: LSU, Missouri, Texas

Auburn: Alabama, Georgia, Vanderbilt

Florida: Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee

Georgia: Florida, Auburn, South Carolina

Kentucky: South Carolina, Mississippi State, Missouri

LSU: Arkansas, Texas A&M, Mississippi

Mississippi: Mississippi State, Vanderbilt, LSU

Mississippi State: Mississippi, Kentucky, Alabama

Missouri: Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kentucky

Oklahoma: Missouri, Texas, Texas A&M

South Carolina: Kentucky, Florida, Georgia

Tennessee: Vanderbilt, Alabama, Florida

Texas: Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Arkansas

Texas A&M: Texas, LSU, Oklahoma

Vanderbilt: Tennessee, Ole Miss, Auburn

Could you make a tweak here or there? Absolutely. But this system would feature all the perks of a pod system without the flaws.