Why division play?

[newsdog]

May have been mentioned here before, but why does the SEC maintain divisional play (East/West) in basketball? Other large conferences with multiple divisions for football (e.g. Big 12, ACC) scrap the divisions for basketball. What's the SEC's reason for doing it this way?

Based on our recent record vs. the East, we should probably lobby for the status quo regardless of the reasoning.

 

[jamdawg96]

This is a prime opportunity for a Stans-hater, unlike myself, to make a great comment like, "Because it's the only way Rick Stansbury can win championships."<div>
</div><div>But seriously, the SEC is the only major conference that has divisions in basketball. The only other conferences are: the SoCon, the Southland, the Sun Belt and (just so it's not entirely a Southern thing) the MAC.</div><div>
</div><div>I have no idea why they still do it, other than tradition--since we maintain the divisions in all major sports.</div>

 

[newsdog]

I just don't see the argument for basketball since you already play everybody.

Why not just play 1 game against every other team and have the 5 home-away/rematch/division games rotate each year? Someone will always have an "easy" schedule and only have to play UK/UF/MSU(for the homers)once, but at least it won't be the same teams every year. Also, if we do have a really good team, we'd havea better argument since we won't be in the "weaker" division.

We're only talking about 20 years worth of tradition, so that's not a good argument for keeping them if that's the only reason.</p>