And Kirby Smart is out here talking about the Big Ten having an edge and the SEC needing to adjust and I just think back to the 1980 Sugar Bowl when we lined up against Notre Dame and nobody was handing us any advantages. We earned that national championship on the field, in the trenches, where it mattered. This whole conversation about conference realignment and who has the edge makes me sick because it completely misses what made this sport great in the first place.
You want to know what gave the SEC an edge back when I started watching in the late 70s? It was the fact that we played each other every single week. We didn't need a nine-game conference schedule because we already had the toughest path in the country just getting through Auburn, Florida, Tennessee, and LSU every year. Now we got Oklahoma and Texas in the league and Kirby is worried about the Big Ten having some kind of structural advantage because they get more playoff spots or whatever nonsense they're cooking up in those committee rooms.
I remember when conference realignment meant Georgia and Auburn playing for the Deep South's Oldest Rivalry trophy and noboddy cared about TV markets or revenue sharing. Now we got programs jumping ship every other year and the commissioner is trying to figure out how to keep the league together while Kirby is over there worrying about the Big Ten. This is what happens when you let the money people run the sport. The game I fell in love with at Sanford Stadium in the 80s is gone and what we have now is a bunch of suits arguing over who gets the biggest slice of the pie while the players are jumping into the portal every December.
Give me the old days when we knew who our rivals were and the schedule made sense. When you could look at the conference standings and know that the SEC East champion earned it through blood and sweat, not through some formula cooked up by television executives.