You know I love charts. So I had to make a chart.
I used Sports-Reference.com (support them with a Stathead subscription if you can) and their Head-to-Head tool in each schools History Page to build out how many times each SEC school has played every other SEC School. Then using those results to build a permanent rivalry setup based soley on who has played the most against each other, in order to preserve as many historical rivalries as possible.
It would be difficult to be perfect, because OU and
Texas has only been in the conference for a year, Missouri and A&M for a little over 10 years, and South Carolina and Arkansas for something like 30 years. But it’s a start anyway, and one of the purely great things about college football is the historical aspect of rivalries. The more teams play, the more likely there is to be drama between them, especially in the quest for championships.
Then on top of that, you have two teams who have played more frequently — Alabama has played Tennessee, Mississippi State, LSU and Vanderbilt more times than Auburn — but you can’t NOT have the Iron Bowl, right?
So with that said, here are the most likely inclusions based on historical matchups (I won’t limit each school to 3 just so we can have context for the final results:
- Alabama – Tennessee (106), Mississippi State (104), LSU (87), Vanderbilt (86), Auburn (83)
- Arkansas – Texas A&M (80), Texas (77), Ole Miss (71), LSU (69)
- Auburn – Georgia (121), Mississippi State (96), Florida (85), Alabama (83)
- Florida – Georgia (103), Auburn (85), Kentucky (75), LSU (71)
- Georgia – Auburn (121), Florida (103), Vanderbilt (79), Kentucky (78)
- Kentucky – Tennessee (108), Vanderbilt (91), Georgia (78), Florida (75)
- LSU – Mississippi State (114), Ole Miss (108), Alabama (87), Florida 71, Arkansas (69), Texas A&M (62)
- Mississippi State – Ole Miss (117), LSU (114), Alabama (104), Auburn (96)
- Missouri – Oklahoma (94), Texas (20), Texas A&M (17), Arkansas (16), South Carolina (15), Vanderbilt (15)
- Ole Miss – Mississippi State (117), LSU (108), Vanderbilt (94), Arkansas (71)
- Oklahoma – Texas (110), Mizzou (94), Texas A&M (30), Arkansas (11)
- South Carolina – Georgia (71), Florida (44), Tennessee (42), Kentucky (36), Vanderbilt (34)
- Tennessee – Vanderbilt (114), Kentucky (108), Alabama (106), Ole Miss (66), Florida (54), Georgia (53)
- Texas – Texas A&M (110), Oklahoma (110), Arkansas (77), Mizzou (20), LSU (16)
- Texas A&M – Texas (110), Arkansas (80), LSU (62), Oklahoma (30), Mississippi State (18), Mizzou (17)
- Vanderbilt – Tennessee (114), Ole Miss (94), Kentucky (91), Alabama (86), Georgia (79)
If you preserve just the most historic rivalries one for one, WITHOUT REPEATING A TEAM, you end up with:
- Auburn + Georgia (121)
- Ole Miss + Mississippi State (117)
- Tennessee + Vanderbilt (114)
- Texas + Oklahoma (110) – given the edge over A&M-Texas for reasons
- Alabama + LSU (87)
- Arkansas + Texas A&M (80)
- Florida + Kentucky (75)
- Missouri + South Carolina (15)
I just have to say LOL here. I started this and kept Texas and OU together for the Red River rivalry, and the consistency aspect, not realizing that it would inevitably put Mizzou and South Carolina together in the least history matchup. And to be honest, I am for Mizzou and SC keeping this naturally brewed rivlary over the last decade or so. You can force rivalries over enough time, but I doubt there are many Mizzou fans who feel a rivalry with Arkansas the way they do with South Carolina at this point. Mizzou holds a 9-6 win advantage, but the losses sting. Stupid Connor Shaw.
Is there a way here to preserve every teams most historic rivalries? Well, kind of.
Because of the new teams you are going to end up with some historical rivalries missing out, but it’s not too bad. So I started with Missouri and South Carolina, since they got the short end of the stick in the last batch, then went top down again:
- Missouri + Oklahoma (94)
- South Carolina + Georgia (71)
- LSU + Mississippi State (114)
- Texas + Texas A&M (110)
- Tennessee + Kentucky (108)
- Alabama + Vanderbilt (86)
- Florida + Auburn (85)
- Arkansas + Ole Miss (71)
The second round didn’t get as weird at the end, with Ole Miss and Arkansas having a pretty solid historical rivalary thanks to just playing a bunch of times before the Hogs joined the SEC in 1992. Maybe the Vandy-Bama matchup seems weird to you, but they have played against each other a LOT. From Missouri’s perspective, they get back a Big 8 rival, even if the win percentage against the Sooners hasn’t always been great.
Now we have two permenent rivals, and one more round to go. At this stage I’m pretty happy with where Mizzou is, even if this last round gets weird (and I’m doing this live as I’m writing, so I have no idea where this is heading). Since there was nobody super put out by the last round, I’ll just start back up at the top.
- Alabama + Tennessee (106)
- Florida + Georgia (103)
- Auburn + Mississippi State (96)
- Ole Miss + Vanderbilt (94)
Arkansas + Texas (77)LSU + Texas A&M (62)Kentucky + South Carolina (36)
Bump in the road. Missouri and Oklahoma were the leftovers, and they’ve already been matched up. Mizzou has also been matched up with South Carolina, and they’ve only played Kentucky 14 times, even though that was a solid rivalary there for a minute. OU’s and South Carolina makes little sense, they’ve played once. The Sooners next most historical matchup is A&M, with 30 games, then Arkansas with 11.
Arkansas has more history with Texas than they do with Ole Miss, so it would make sense to keep that… however if you do, then there goes the Shelter Insurance Batlle Line trophy. ** sad **
Of the other games it is necessary to preserve ‘Bama-Vols, Florida-UGa, and Auburn-MSU rivalry. I’ve crossed out the others and we’re going to reset a bit. Because I think the SEC is forcing the Battle Line thing, Mizzou and Arkansas are kept, we’ll go from there:
- Mizzou + Arkansas (16)
- Oklahoma + Texas A&M (30)
- Texas + LSU (16)
- South Carolina + Kentucky (36)
So this is what you end up with, the rank is where on the list the rival falls in games played against:
| TEAM | RIVAL 1 (rank) | RIVAL 2 (rank) | RIVAL 3 (rank) | Avg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | LSU (3) | Tennessee (1) | Vanderbilt (4) | 2.7 |
| Arkansas | Missouri (10) | Ole Miss (3) | Texas A&M (1) | 4.7 |
| Auburn | Florida (3) | Georgia (1) | Mississippi State (2) | 2.0 |
| Florida | Auburn (2) | Georgia (1) | Kentucky (3) | 2.0 |
| Georgia | Auburn (1) | Florida (2) | South Carolina (6) | 3.0 |
| Kentucky | Florida (4) | South Carolina (9) | Tennessee (1) | 4.7 |
| LSU | Alabama (3) | Mississippi State (1) | Texas (13) | 5.6 |
| Mississippi State | Auburn (7) | LSU (2) | Ole Miss (1) | 3.3 |
| Missouri | Arkansas (4) | Oklahoma (1) | South Carolina (5) | 3.3 |
| Ole Miss | Arkansas (4) | Mississippi State (1) | Vanderbilt (3) | 2.7 |
| Oklahoma | Missouri (2) | Texas (1) | Texas A&M (3) | 2.0 |
| South Carolina | Georgia (1) | Kentucky (4) | Missouri (11) | 5.3 |
| Tennessee | Alabama (3) | Kentucky (2) | Vanderbilt (1) | 2.0 |
| Texas | LSU (5) | Oklahoma (1) | Texas A&M (2) | 2.7 |
| Texas A&M | Arkansas (2) | Oklahoma (4) | Texas (1) | 2.3 |
| Vanderbilt | Alabama (4) | Ole Miss (2) | Tennessee (1) | 2.3 |
So obvious problems here: There”s no Iron Bowl, and you’ve efffectively broken up the most natural connection with the former SWC teams: Texas, Arkansas, Texas A&M. I think this rivalry set up is close, but those big draw backs are enough to make me say it won’t happen this way. If you want to preserve the Iron Bowl, and preserve the old SWC (which to me makes a lot of sense), then I would take these steps to tweak this order:
Remove Vanderbilt out of Alabama’s group in favor of Auburn.
Remove Florida out of Auburns group in favor of Alabama.
Remove Missouri out of Arkansas’ group in favor of Texas.
Remove LSU out of Texas’ group in favor of Arkansas.
Now you have Vanderbilt, Florida, Missouri, and LSU orphaned. LSU and Florida have played 71 times, which is 4th most for each. What’s left is the historical rivalry of Vanderbilt and Missouri. The Tigers have played Vandy 15 times, the same as South Carolina. I don’t love it, but it does kind of make sense.
Anyway, this all gets tougher mostly because there’s really very little history with anyone who wasn’t a clear sEC member before 1992, and it gets even moreso with the additions of the last 12 years. Maybe if the SEC had added another old Big 8 school, but instead it’s old SWC / Big 12 south teams the Tigers never played.
If I had my drothers, I would be fine absconding with the Arkansas rivalry as long as we keep OU, and I’d be good with a handful of other teams from the SEC East days: UK, UT, SC, Vandy, heck even Florida or Georgia (though I doubt it).
Just keep playing KU and by playing KU I mean beating them year after year.
