What NCAA Conference Realignment Should Look Like

Dec 5, 2014; Atlanta, GA, USA; The Southeastern Conference logo is seen at midfield at the Georgia Dome. The Alabama Crimson Tide plays the Missouri Tigers in the SEC Championship on Saturday. Mandatory Credit: John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports

Southeastern Conference (SEC)

Does this look familiar to you? It should. This is the same exact SEC that existed before Mike Slive made the changes and added Missouri and Texas A&M.

Now, let me be clear. I don’t fault Slive for the changes, and they have brought a new sense of entertainment to the conference as a whole. But I liked it better this way. The SEC was set up perfectly from 1992 to 2011, and many new rivalries formed out of that. If every conference goes back to 12 teams, just keep this one the way it is.

Arkansas and LSU had become a very good rivalry. Tennessee and Florida exploded onto the scene as a rivalry due to that setup. And the historic rivals remained even if they were in separate divisions, including Tennessee-Alabama and Auburn-Georgia. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. And nothing about the conference setup needed to be fixed.

Take things back to the way they used to be in the SEC, and you will have absolutely no problem whatsoever. This is not the conference we were talking about when bringing up how they should realign.

On to the next one.

Next: Sun Belt