The NCAA voted Wednesday to make significant changes to Division I football.
One of the changes was the elimination of division requirements for conference title games. In the days of the BCS, conferences with league championship games generally stood a better chance of making the national title game. But since the introduction of the playoff, the advantage has gone away. The ACC is largely expected to drop its Coastal and Atlantic divisions soon.
Still, some conferences make keep the divisional format. The Big 12, for example, is considering going back to its old divisional style. The SEC and Big Ten on the other hand are debating.
For Arkansas, the Razorbacks play all of their SEC West opponents, six of them, every year and also its cross-divisional rival, Missouri. The other SEC East opponent rotates. If the league were to eliminate divisions, however, it’s possible many teams would become rotations. The 3-5-5 format, for example, wherein each team has three permanent opponents and five rotational ones, has been discussed in the ACC. If picked up, it could become popular elsewhere.
With that in mind, let’s examine the three schools Arkansas might want to keep as permanent opponents if the SEC were to adopt such a formula.