Chris Doering cautions SEC on importance of tradition, rivalries amid scheduling changes

With the inclusion of the Texas Longhorns and Oklahoma Sooners into the SEC, there have been some significant changes to the college football schedule. In 2024, the conference will do away with divisions. The downside to this shift? It also did away with several exciting annual rivalry matchups.

Recently, Andy Staples brought on an individual quite familiar with the conference in SEC Network analyst,former Florida Gators wide receiver Chris Doering to discuss the new scheduling format and its impact on tradition and rivalry games.

“I think that’s one of the things that I think I’m most worried about, with the landscape of college football changing so much,” said Doering. “The SEC is built on history, built on tradition, and so losing some of those; we lost Florida-Auburn a number of years back which was such a great game… to not have that. I think there’s a way that you can create in this new environment, with two new teams, a way to go back and keep some of that traditional.”

It is inevitable in college football, with the changes in movement that consistently happened, that you might lose one of your rivalry matchups, such as what Doering alluded to with Florida and Auburn. However, with the new SEC scheduling format, there’s only room for one protected rivalry matchup, which means others will have to rotate out. And that makes Doering sad.

“I’m a little sad about the elimination of the divisions. I would probably be sadder if I followed an SEC West team the entire time because I feel like the SEC West was such a meat grinder and so good over the last 15 years,” he began.

“I think the pendulum that you talk about scheduling, for a while there, it felt like it was inevitably going to go to 9 conference games. And then, as much of a grind as it’s been and projecting, I don’t know if they’re going to go forward with that.”

While Doering is not a fan of the current schedule set up and 2024, he does believe that a change may come sooner rather than later. Some programs, like Doering’s alma mater, Florida, have a nightmarish schedule in 2024 with the new setup.

To protect the interest of the league and likely ensure a chance for multiple SEC programs to make it into the college football playoff expanded field of 12, some tweaking will likely need to be done. And maybe, just maybe, that tweaking results in maintaining some of the SEC rivalry matchups that fans have cherished for decades.