Randy Smith
A couple of months ago former Auburn head football coach Pat Dye was among several people who started a campaign to have Auburn switching places with Missouri in the Southeastern Conference. Auburn would move to the SEC East, while Missouri, who became an SEC member in 2012, would move to the West. It actually makes sense , geographically speaking. Columbia, Missouri is about 600 miles west of Auburn, Alabama. So why not move both those schools?
Make no mistake about it. The only reason that Auburn would want to move to the East is so the Tigers can get out of the same division with Alabama. As long as Nick Saban is running things in Tuscaloosa, it's going to be very hard for any team other than the Crimson Tide to win the West. If Auburn were in the SEC East in 2017, the Tigers would be a unanimous choice to win the division, finishing ahead of two time defending champ Florida and this year's favorite Georgia. Twenty years ago the SEC East dominated in football, with Florida, Tennessee and Georgia leading the way. About ten years ago, when Saban came to the Capstone, the West became dominant. The East has gotten a bit better from top to bottom in the past few seasons but Alabama is still heads and tails away from all other SEC squads.
Has the SEC West really been that dominant recently or has it just been Alabama? The Tide has claimed seven SEC West titles in the last ten years, as well as five SEC championships to go along with their four national titles. That's domination folks any way you cut it. And things show no sign of letting up as Coach Saban has turned in one top ranked recruiting class after another.
The "Iron Bowl" game between Alabama and Auburn is the biggest regular season game that is played each year on a regular basis. It's been listed as college football's biggest rivalry and it's always played on the final weekend of the season. If Auburn did indeed move to the SEC East, you would run the risk of Alabama playing Auburn in back to back weekends if the Tigers would win the SEC East and advance to the league championship tilt the first weekend in December. Something would have to be done to move the "Iron Bowl" to an earlier date in the season to avoid that scenario. How many 'Bama and Auburn supporters would go along with that. There is too much tradition there to justify moving the "Iron Bowl" which means the SEC should probably just leave things alone. That puts the ball in Auburn's court.
If you think other teams in the SEC aren't getting tired of Alabama's dominance just check out what's being said on the internet. Crimson Tide fans will be the first to encourage every other school in the league to recruit better, coach better and play better, even though they know that is not likely at all. Schools are trying as hard as they can to beat Alabama but nothing seems to be working. So.....the only thing left is to leave; first the division then if that doesn't work leave the SEC. If you can't beat them then move to the Big 12 or another lesser football league.
The ACC probably wouldn't want Auburn, because from top to bottom the ACC is a better football league than the SEC. They proved it last year with Clemson beating the Crimson Tide in the National Championship Game and dominating SEC teams in other bowl match-ups. The ACC at one time became fed up with Florida State dominating things, and every other team improved and became more competitive. That's what schools in the SEC now must do; work hard and get better.....a lot better.
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Randy Smith has been covering sports on radio, television and print for the past 45 years. After leaving WRCB-TV in 2009, he has written two books, and has continued to free-lance as a play-by-play announcer. His career has included a 17-year stretch as host of the Kickoff Call In Show on the University of Tennessee’s prestigious Vol Network. He has been a member of the Vol Network staff for 30 years. He has done play-by-play on ESPN, ESPN II, CSS, and Fox SportSouth, totaling more than 500 games, and served as a well-known sports anchor on Chattanooga television for more than a quarter-century. In 2003, he became the first television broadcaster to be inducted into the Greater Chattanooga Area Sports Hall of Fame. Randy and his wife Shelia reside in Hixson. They have two married children, Christi and Chris Perry; Davey and Alison Smith. They have five grandchildren, Coleman, Boone, Mattingly, DellaMae, and CoraLee.