Well the SEC doesn't have any problem incorporating the protected
cross-division game in their conference schedule for football.
SEC's protected cross-division games
Auburn-Georgia
Alabama-Tenn
LSU-Florida
Miss-Vandy
Miss State-Kentucky
Arkansas-Missouri
TAMU-SC
The only reason the SEC has the protected cross-division game is because of the value it places on 2 rivalries; Auburn-Georgia (aka The Deep South's Oldest Rivalry) and Alabama-Tenn (aka The Third Saturday in October). In fact, when the SEC started using divisions each team had 2 protected cross-division games and 1 rotating cross-division game. I think the SEC waited about 10 years before making the switch to 1 protected cross-division game and 2 rotating cross-division game.
Now that Oklahoma and Texas are joining the SEC, the SEC may decide to eliminate the protected cross-division game (assuming Alabama and Auburn switch to the East Division). Although, I guess it is possible that the SEC could adopt the Big Ten's scheduling model and keep the Arkansas-Missouri as the conference's only protected cross-division game (reference to Indiana-Purdue being the Big Ten's only protected cross-division game). The down side to opting for that model is it will create quirks in the rotation pattern because every year 1 team will get bumped from taking its turn to play Arkansas or Missouri to make room for the Arkansas-Missouri game. It is possible that teams, who got bumped in previous years, could also impact the rotation for some of the years.
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In response to this post by Stech)
Posted: 11/13/2021 at 5:39PM