One of the few storylines to emerge from the SEC’s annual spring meetings this year was about realignment. No, not adding teams to the conference but changing up the divisional alignment.
The discussion popped up mostly because those at Auburn really seemed to be banging the drum on a move to the SEC East. The flip side of any potential move by the Tigers to the other division has typically come with the idea that Missouri should be the one school who will then head to the SEC West and take their place.
As to be expected though, thanks but no thanks seems to be the response from those in Columbia to the idea.
“I think we’re fine and like where we are at,” Mizzou athletic director Jim Sterk told AL.com this week. “There’s been no discussion within the conference and with the commissioner about anything different. Until that point, I’m not going to speculate. But I can say we like where we are at. We’ve got schedules out until 2020 in football, so it’s something that would take a lot.”
There really hasn’t been any formal discussion of the idea of changing up divisions in the SEC but it’s pretty understandable for Missouri to do what they can to stay in the East, where they won two division titles not long after joining the league. Given Sterk’s comments, it seems likely this remains just an idea those at Auburn continue to talk about while everybody else in the conference sticks with the status quo.