Mizzou to join SEC?, Auburn move’s East? It could Happen.

The Southeastern Conference and the University of Missouri have informally agreed that, barring new developments, the school will join the league and that Auburn University will move to the SEC East Division, according to two people familiar with the discussions.

A majority of presidents has endorsed the informal agreement, the sources said.

Early Tuesday night, the SEC issued a statement: “The Southeastern Conference has not agreed formally or informally to accept any institution other than Texas A&M and there have not been conference discussions regarding changes in divisional alignment.”

The league already plans to add Texas A&M as its 13th member, provided potential legal challenges from some remaining Big 12 members disappear. Missouri, also a member of the Big 12, would be the 14th member of the SEC.

A timetable for when Missouri would join the SEC, if the informal agreement becomes official, was not immediately known.

Earlier today, The Kansas City Star reported Missouri has an offer to join the SEC and that the league is willing to wait for an answer until the Big 12′s future is decided.

SEC spokesman Charles Bloom said the SEC has not extended “any invitation” to any school other than Texas A&M. Bloom declined to say whether the SEC and Missouri have had any discussions.

Because both Missouri and Texas A&M are located to the western side of the SEC’s basic footprint, that prompted discussions of moving a current West Division school to the East Division. Auburn is the easternmost school in the West Division. A third person familiar with the discussions confirmed that Auburn would move to the East if Missouri joins the league.
If Auburn moved to the SEC East, that could cause the Iron Bowl date to be changed. Moving Alabama-Auburn from the final week of the regular season would eliminate the possibility of a rematch the following week in the SEC Championship Game.

Auburn President Jay Gogue said Sept. 8 he would not be bothered if Auburn moved to the SEC East to accommodate a 14-team conference. Gogue said a benefit for Auburn would be renewing annual games against old rivals Florida and Tennessee, and that Auburn would pick Alabama to be an annual cross-division partner.

“If that’s what it took, if you ever went to 14 and needed to make it work, that wouldn’t be something I would be upset about,” Gogue said.

In an interview last week, Auburn Athletics Director Jay Jacobs supported Gogue’s position.

“We have so many students come from Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, they come on campus and say, ‘Why aren’t we playing Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky, South Carolina? ‘ ” Jacobs said. “I think Dr. Gogue’s point is, which is mine too, whatever is best for the league to make it work, we’re willing to do that.

“We went through this a year ago. I just think until all that happens, until we know what the outcome is going to be, why spend a lot of time and energy concerned about who’s going to play who?”

When the SEC added Arkansas and South Carolina for the 1992 season, the conference wanted competitive balance between the divisions. That’s how Auburn landed in the West even though it is farther east than Vanderbilt, which plays in the East Division.

The SEC identified six traditional powers and divided them accordingly: Florida, Georgia and Tennessee in the East, and Alabama, Auburn and LSU in the West. If Auburn shifted divisions, four of the six traditional SEC powers would be in the East.
Adding Missouri to the SEC would bring two large television markets to the SEC. St. Louis has the nation’s 21st-largest, and Kansas City is 31st. The state touches three SEC states: Arkansas, Tennessee and Kentucky.