Thanks to its move to the Southeastern Conference, Texas
A&M has a new "permanent" football rival: South Carolina.
A&M president R. Bowen Loftin broke the news through his Twitter account
Monday: "Just had a great conversation with the South Carolina president
about our permanent SEC rivalry. We will make this very special! #SEC
#WHOOP"
South Carolina president Harris Pastides told his hometown newspaper The State
that he would likely follow the results of the paper's fan poll on whether they
preferred to play Arkansas or A&M every year. The online poll
overwhelmingly favored A&M.
South Carolina had played Arkansas every year as a permanent cross-division
rival. Now, Arkansas will become Missouri's permanent rival. SEC presidents are
expected to formally approve the rivalries after the conference's basketball
tournament this week.
The new, 14-team SEC football schedule will have each team playing six division
games, one permanent cross-division rival and one rotating cross-division
opponent.
For Texas A&M, which will be in the SEC West, a natural cross-division
opponent would have been Missouri, which is also departing the Big 12 for the
SEC this summer.
Missouri's program could suffer by not playing in Texas every season. Missouri
coach Gary Pinkel has stocked his program with Texas recruits for years.
A&M's other historic rivals in the SEC, Arkansas and LSU, are also in the
SEC West. The SEC adopted the permanent rivals when it split into divisions to
maintain historic rivalries such as Georgia-Auburn and Alabama-Tennessee.
Now add Texas A&M-South Carolina to the list of permanent SEC rivalries,
although it's a rivalry that will need some time to get established. The two
schools, nearly 1,000 miles apart, have never played each other in football.
Follow Keith Whitmire on Twitter: @Keith_Whitmire
