Talk about the SEC with Texas and Oklahoma as members.

[Jean Lafitte]

This is going to be so weird that I have to put the question to this great message board that is overflowing with gentlemanly scholarly knowledge and understanding - a place where erudite logic and analysis are the norm.

Tell me what you think it will be like with so many teams in the SEC, two of them being Texas and Oklahoma.

Will there be some sort of "revival" of the old Southwest Conference rivalries, like Texas and TAMU? Arkansas vs Texas and TAMU?

Do you folks remember the Southwest Conference? You guys are mostly young and it might be before your time.

My good buddy Bill Pusch used to pontificate a while back about what it was like as a Hog fan of the Razorbacks in the Southwest Conference as opposed to the SEC, he said that he missed the old SWC rivalries. He lived up there around Mountain Home, Arkansas.

IMHO it's going to be really strange and I don't know what to expect, other than I will hate both Texas teams and that much is certain.

[bigpig]

The whole conference is going to be different without two big divisions. It's going to be more like the NFL where you primarily follow your team and your permanent opponents, and the rest is just there

[Hogfan58]

The whole conference is going to be different without two big divisions. It's going to be more like the NFL where you primarily follow your team and your permanent opponents, and the rest is just there

Isn't Mizzou our permanent now? I don't give a shit about them now until we play them, why would I "follow" them during the season?

[Guardrail]

One could say that With those two coming in we're more behind the 8 ball than we ever were in SWC. At least there we could compete despite the officials. We got pissed on by the sec before A&M and Missouri came in (losing the post-thanksgiving day game,countless officiating screw jobs), and its never gotten better. The SEC made sure that we, in the words of Duane the Rock Johnson, "know your role and shut your mouth."
Unless the HY hires a straight up killer to replace Pittman, it'll never change. 4-5 more years of crap. Then it'll start again.

[BleedinRed]

Conference expansions are the end of college sports as we know it.  The conferences are too big and are only going to become more top heavy.  The SEC will only get two playoff spots each year and those spots will be taken up by Bama, Oklahoma, Texas and Georgia.  The complaint over the last 40 years is that the same teams win every year.  That is only going to get amplified.  Add to it NIL and 99% of the programs are going to be sitting in the back of the bus.

The good news is Texas seems to wreck every conference they are in so I give the new SEC 20 years before it falls apart.  

[DirkPiggler]

Conference expansions are the end of college sports as we know it.  The conferences are too big and are only going to become more top heavy.  The SEC will only get two playoff spots each year and those spots will be taken up by Bama, Oklahoma, Texas and Georgia.  The complaint over the last 40 years is that the same teams win every year.  That is only going to get amplified.  Add to it NIL and 99% of the programs are going to be sitting in the back of the bus.

The good news is Texas seems to wreck every conference they are in so I give the new SEC 20 years before it falls apart. 

Not sure how they can limit the SEC to 2/12 spots when there are only going to be four real conferences. 

But I agree, it's just going to be more of same.  The final four will always end up some combination of Alabama/UGA/LSU/Michigan/Ohio State/Texas/OU/Clemson/FSU, with an occasional sacrificial lamb making it out of the first round.  The only difference is you'll have someone like Ole Miss, Auburn, Kansas State, or Wisconsin sneaking in with a 9-3 record every now and them and being summarily dispatched by a blue blood.

[buff2.0]

Heard a comment yesterday about the SEC and B1G soon becoming "professional college football" and the rest of the conferences being "traditional college football".

We're going to need boosters and coaches that embrace professional college football.

[Jean Lafitte]

The good news is Texas seems to wreck every conference they are in so I give the new SEC 20 years before it falls apart. 

LOL!

The rest is spot-on good analysis, too.

Cheers.

[Pig Benis]

I'm excited about it. I'm 45 and we've never had a rivalry with anyone in the SEC that compares to TX, even if it's a bigger deal to us than it is to them. I live in Austin so selfishly I'm happy that there will be games here. The UT alums that I run around with are excited to be playing us again in every sport. They also know they're about to get bitch slapped with a hard dose of reality by the rest of the league.

It will solidify our position in the bottom third of SEC football, though the last decade probably did that already. I can't wait to see Muss get it going against TX but I'm more excited about the additions for baseball than anything. The SEC may be more dominant in baseball than any other conference in any other sport with TX and OU coming in.

[buff2.0]

Wait until the Women's College World Series is all SEC teams

[Lurk]

This is going to be so weird that I have to put the question to this great message board that is overflowing with gentlemanly scholarly knowledge and understanding - a place where erudite logic and analysis are the norm.

Tell me what you think it will be like with so many teams in the SEC, two of them being Texas and Oklahoma.

Will there be some sort of "revival" of the old Southwest Conference rivalries, like Texas and TAMU? Arkansas vs Texas and TAMU?

Do you folks remember the Southwest Conference? You guys are mostly young and it might be before your time.

My good buddy Bill Pusch used to pontificate a while back about what it was like as a Hog fan of the Razorbacks in the Southwest Conference as opposed to the SEC, he said that he missed the old SWC rivalries. He lived up there around Mountain Home, Arkansas.

IMHO it's going to be really strange and I don't know what to expect, other than I will hate both Texas teams and that much is certain.

Y'all will be okay. LSU produces enough instate talent to always be a contender. I don't think we're going to fare as well.

As someone old enough to grow up in the SWC, we really only hated Texas(we dominated everyone else) and Baylor(Grant Teaff was a dick). I think Mississippi was hated more when we were in the SWC and played them every year.

[Jean Lafitte]

As someone old enough to grow up in the SWC, we really only hated Texas(we dominated everyone else) and Baylor(Grant Teaff was a dick). I think Mississippi was hated more when we were in the SWC and played them every year.

Back during the SWC days, Arkansas and Mississippi played an out-of-conference football game every year? Like a permanent opponent? I had no idea.

[AporkalypseNow]

I think it's possible we benefit from this in Texas recruiting as we are at the "Big boys table" and Texas media will now be dominated by SEC coverage, I think it hurts the likes of TCU, Okie State, Baylor, Tech, etc as the Big XII is really a second tier conference.

Ideally, I'd like us to play the Texas schools and keep playing Ole Miss and LSU as these are all teams we have history with.  I'd rather not be paired up with Missouri.

I don't get a say in it anyway and it won't work out how I want.  I think it's dumb we stopped playing LSU at Thanksgiving weekend to placate the Aggies, who eventually will want to flip that back to UT again and leave LSU hanging.

[FNG]

I remember the SWC all too well.

The Texass Longwhorns are a blight upon the land and--like cholera and smallpox--bring pestilence and misery and lay waste to wherever they spread. Woe unto the SEC for welcoming these vipers into her bed.

As for OU, although they never tainted the SWC, what else can you expect from a team who proudly claims a group of dirty-dealing, cheating, land thieves as their mascot.

[DrMongoose]

I think football will be the sport that suffers as recruiting gets that much harder.
We're not winning
We're not the only way to for guys to play in the SEC - an advantage we had before aTm entered the league - now we are surrounded on all borders by SEC states.
Seems like we have lost recruiting presence in Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana the last few years as it is.

[animal]

I think football will be the sport that suffers as recruiting gets that much harder.
We're not winning
We're not the only way to for guys to play in the SEC - an advantage we had before aTm entered the league - now we are surrounded on all borders by SEC states.
Seems like we have lost recruiting presence in Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana the last few years as it is.

I get that but it's not like Texas and OU weren't already out recruiting us. Certainly A&M coming into the conference did hurt us but hiring morons hurt us worser. Houston and SMU both going to "P5" conferences could also hurt us.

I think since Pittman has been here we've placed an emphasis on recruiting Georgia and some of the other "legacy SEC states" and also Houston more so than under our previous few coaches. If I'm not mistaken our Louisiana recruiting has consisted of taking LSU players.

[FNG]

Back during the SWC days, Arkansas and Mississippi played an out-of-conference football game every year? Like a permanent opponent? I had no idea.

The series ended in 1960 when (imagine that) a ref hosed the hogs; AKA "The Tommy Bell Game"

Oct. 22, 1960: No. 2 Ole Miss def. No. 14 Arkansas, 10-7

The Arkansas-Mississippi game, played regularly from 1913-1960, was often more contentious than the annual Arkansas-Texas game.

Both fan bases were rowdy and passionate; so much so that the in 1960, a riot reportedly erupted after the Rebels escaped with a 10-7 victory.

With the game tied in the waning seconds, Ole Miss booted a 39-yard field goal to go up by three. There was just one problem: referee Tommy Bell had called time out due to excessive crowd noise. The field goal was waved off and the Rebels were given a another chance. But the second kick hooked left — allegedly — sailing wide of the goal posts.

Still, Bell signaled that the kick was good. Fights broke out in the stands immediately. After the game, Hogs coach Frank Broyles chided officials and threatened never to play the Rebels again. When the series' contract expired the following year, Broyles made good on his promise. Although the two schools met in the Sugar Bowl in 1963 and 1970, Arkansas didn't renew its series with Ole Miss until 1981.

[Show-Me Hog]

Arkansas and Ole Miss also played some games in the '80s. In Little Rock and Jackson.

[AporkalypseNow]

I think we we had more games vs them than any major conference nonconference opponent.

They were a natural fit for a rival when we joined the SEC.

[Lurk]

Arkansas and Ole Miss also played some games in the '80s. In Little Rock and Jackson.

80-89 too, I think. Like I said, they were a bigger rival than most of the SWC.