The Georgia Bulldogs would be one of the most affected teams in the SEC if the conference removes divisions in football.
Why?
Simply put, the SEC West is much tougher than the SEC East. The SEC West has College Football Playoff mainstay Alabama, up-and-down LSU, uber-talented Texas A&M and the stars align every few years for Auburn.
In contrast, the Bulldogs have an excellent set up in the SEC East at the moment. Georgia has been the top team in the SEC East in recent seasons and has had an easy path to the SEC Championship in Atlanta.
Vanderbilt has consistently been the SEC’s bottom-dweller in recent seasons. Two of the division’s historically good programs, Tennessee and Florida, have been in turmoil thanks to multiple coaching changes in the past decade. Both programs may be trending up with recent hires, but not to the extent of Brian Kelly’s LSU or Jimbo Fisher’s Texas A&M.
Georgia holds a significant coaching advantage in the SEC East compared to the SEC West. The SEC West features three of college football’s top coaches: Jimbo Fisher, Nick Saban and Brian Kelly. Kirby Smart is the top coach in the SEC East and Kentucky’s Mark Stoops does not get the credit he deserves, but the football coaches in the SEC East aren’t as strong as the ones in the SEC West.
Tennessee is the last SEC East team, outside of Georgia and Florida, to win the SEC Championship. That was in 1998.
Georgia fans should expect the format and schedule of the SEC to change when Texas and Oklahoma join the conference. There’s a good chance the conference goes to a nine-game schedule in the near future. Some programs oppose a nine-game conference schedule. Fans would benefit from more conference games.
Overall, the format is changing, but what rivalries will be preserved is one of the lingering questions for the future. Additionally, uncertainty over the future of the CFP will impact how the SEC implements the new conference schedule.
