Fisher hints at a three-rival wrinkle
ATLANTA — Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher offered up a little news in the midst of the ongoing prognostications of SEC Media Days: Should the league adopt a nine-game, three-permanent rivals format in coming years when it increases to 16 teams, Fisher said he believes the Aggies’ three foes will be Texas, LSU and Mississippi State, based on what he has been told.
The last one is a bit of a of swerve, considering most observers figured former Southwest Conference opponent Arkansas would be the third annual opponent for the Aggies. An A&M official reiterated Thursday, the last of four media days, that Fisher’s revelation is merely chat and a forecast in its early stages if the league adopts (as expected) a nine-game schedule over the current eight.
Texas and Oklahoma are expected to exit the Big 12 and join the SEC by 2025 but perhaps as soon as 2023 or 2024. As for those three permanent rivals in the model that’s expected to be adopted by the SEC once the necessary studies are done?
“You want Texas,” Fisher said. “When Texas comes into the league, you (want Texas) definitely because of that rivalry. And I think LSU is a great rivalry. Those are probably our two biggest. Then Arkansas (might) go into that. … I mean, you’re going to play great teams across the board, and you have to get those rivalries.”
A&M and Texas have not played in football since 2011, before the Aggies exited the Big 12 and entered the SEC, and A&M and LSU has developed into a colorful rivalry during the past decade. The A&M vs. Mississippi State series is knotted at 7. Former Texas Tech coach Mike Leach has run the show in Starkville, Miss., the past two seasons and is 1-1 against Fisher and the Aggies.
The nine-game model appears to be gaining favor against an eight-game setup that features a lone permanent rival once a year. Texas and Oklahoma already have claimed they will serve as the other’s annual opponent should the SEC opt for the eightgame schedule, likely leaving A&M and LSU to play each other every year, with A&M versus UT occurring every other year.
“We’re fine with LSU, but we want to play Texas (as well), and we want a third permanent rival — that gets you to the ninegame model,” A&M athletic director Ross Bjork said.
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, who spearheaded the Longhorns’ and Sooners’ move to the powerful league and has said the SEC intends to stay at 16 for now while he monitors the landscape, said there is no rush to make a final decision on three permanent rivals or one.
“We have to dig through a tiebreaking procedure,” Sankey said. “We have over a quarter century in divisions, and we understand all the nuances about how to break ties. We have to dig a bit deeper with the ‘single’ division concept in front of us. We want to understand the impact, through the use of analytics, on bowl eligibility for our teams who are growing their programs and College Football Playoff access dependent on the number of teams that might be included.
“There are a range of possibilities being considered, and we have time to make a decision. As you’ve seen before with us, particularly in the last few years and as we dealt with some difficult issues, we’re going to use that time to inform our decision-making and not be subject to an arbitrary deadline.”