Can You Imagine An 11 Game SEC Schedule?

In today's Birmingham News, Charles Goldberg reports that Tommy Tuberville suggested that the SEC should consider going to an 11 game conference schedule. When the SEC expanded to 12 teams and two divisions, Auburn had to drop its annual contest with Florida. The 1985 Florida Auburn game was my first experience in Jordan-Hare Stadium, and I would go on to witness every Florida game in that stadium through the 1991 year. Actually, this will be the first Florida-Auburn game in Auburn that I will not be in attendance for since the two teams battled in 1983. It was a shame that we had to drop Florida and I actually remember Pat Dye struggling with determining who our annual Eastern division foe would be. I am glad we choose Georgia over Florida, but the series sure has offered some great games and personal memories for me. I will never forget the 1987 game when Florida brought its heralded freshman running back Emmitt Smith and their Top 10 national ranking to Auburn. The visiting team buses use to drive down Donahue before the Tiger Walk, and I remember Auburn fans literally shaking the buses. Auburn crushed Florida that day and our nation's best defense absolutely stifled Florida and Emmitt Smith.

Anyhow, back to an 11-game conference schedule. As an SEC fan, I would absolutely love to the see the conference go to this format. With out of conference schedules in the league getting weaker and weaker, every game under this format would be very meaningful. However, not quite sure it would help out the SEC's image nationally, and would still take away from those one off solid non-conference games such as Tennessee - Notre Dame, Florida - Florida State, and Alabama - Duke (yea, Right).