I've got an idea for all of these expanding conferences (SEC, BIG, PAC 12, etc.):  Just can the cupcakes and give yourself more room to schedule your inconference games.  

Are you kidding? In the same conference but scheduled as a non-conference game.  Can you imagine the howls if Ole Miss or Vandy goes 10 and 1 as well as the Gators and LSU and beat the Gators or LSU and miss out on the conference title?  Not a position the SEC needs to be in.  Plus the Gators have the in state rivalary with FSU and LSU has Tulane and Louisiana Tech that would be in jeopardy of going away.

Hogwash!  The fans not only of the two programs but the rest of America looks forward to this game.  It should be played on a regular basis maybe not every year but every other year.  All SEC teams should play each other but the size of the conference prohits it unless the NCAA goes to a 15 game schedule.  The Gators are committed to FSU every year and LSU is committed to Louisiana Tech.  Eight conference games and a weak sister for homecoming and the first two games of the season to make sure the team(s) are on the same page and firing on all eight cylinders sounds good to me.  In reality the SEC is so good they really don't need to schedule outside of the conference.  None the less you have the rivalaries that have been around for years that could go away by tinkering anymore with the schedule.  Six NCAA Championships in a row don't mess it up now!

Another problem for Georgia,Florida, and South Carolina is that there may be some seasons where they play only 4 SEC home games as well as playing their ACC rivals on the road, thus giving them 6 away games. That makes it almost impossible to to schedule anybody else of stature because they would need to schedule two more home games in order to make money. Home games are very important..........more than people realize.

So we have a 6 team Round Robin Divisional schedule, plus two rotated cross-division games, plus a permanent cross-divisional game, and the SEC thinks that it all adds up to 8 games.  Well no one ever said that the SEC was going to win any National Championships when it comes to brains.  The SEC has to make a simple decision.  It it more important for their fans to see traditional SEC teams play each other, or schedule one more cream puff to pad their team's records.  That is what it comes down to.  The problem is that Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida have traditional rivals outside the SEC (ACC teams Ga. Tech, Clemson, and Florida State).  All of the other current SEC teams have traditional rivals within the SEC.  This means that by going to a 9 conference game schedule, those three teams would probably have to play a tougher non-con schedule the other SEC teams.

A nine game conf schedule would resolve all of these issues.  Just do it.

It is sad to think this rivalry might be ending soon; however, it is not life threatening in the way that losing the Alabama-Tennessee and Georgia-Auburn rivalries would be. The latter two series are very intense, and have been for decades. The Florida-L.S.U. series was not always a life and death issue. It used to be that the Ole Miss - L.S.U. rivalry always had immense significance, but not it has been reduced in value. It still means a lot, but not in the way it did from the mid-50s until the the turn of the new century.

If L.S.U.-Florida has to go, so be it, but do not touch the Crimson Tide vs. the Volunteers and Auburn-Georgia. Leave them be!

@Steelbucks67, are you really going to come on a Sports thread and compare a 9 game schedule in the Big 10 & Pac 12 to a 9 game schedule in the SEC?  First of all, the SEC members are already scrambling to adjust their sehecules to accomodate two new members being admitted to the Conference.  

Second.  Take a look at the NCAA SOS ranking:

You may note, four (4) SEC teams are ranked in the Top 10 Toughest Schedules and nine (9) of the Top 25.  The Big 10 & Pac 12... not so much.  

LSU played 9 ranked teams, including the Pac 12, Big East Champ and the eventual National Champ.  Auburn played seven (7) ranked teams.  AL played five (5), Tennessee five (5) and so on and so forth.  And guess what, the teams they played WEREN'T; Northwestern, Minnesota, Ohio St, & Indiana... all with losing records and three teams Iowa, Purdue & Illinois who were one (1) game over .500.  FYI, playing 9 games in the Big 10 is the same thing as playing a weak OOC game and everyone on a Sports thread already knows this.  Ditto for the Pac 12 (LSU is 12-3 against the Pac 12 and haven't lost since a 1979).    

We all know that the SEC finished with 4 teams ranked in the Top 10 and five (5) in the Top 25.  The Big 10 and Pac 12... not so much.  We all know that if you go back 5 years that the Rankings will look the very same with the SEC dominatiing the Top 25 with the most number of teams and it's not even close.  

Take a look at the Bowl games and you will note that the SEC dominates their opponents.  We had the best record again this season at 6-3 (again, 1 loss IN Conference).  Here are the BCS records only, which is a good indicator because it attempts to match teams with comparable records:  SEC = 16-6 (70%) with one loss against our own Conference. Have won the last six (6) in a row and more than half of all BCS NCG's ever played.  Only 1 other Conference has even won two (2), the Big 12.  And one other thing, we always hear you Big 10 fans talk about how well you did against the SEC in Bowls buy no one mentions that the SEC teams face teams that, on average, are seeded 2 places higher in their conferences, than the SEC team.  

For instance in 2010, the ACC's North Carolina and Florida State beat the SEC's Tennessee and South Carolina in the Music City and Chick-fil-A Bowls this year. However, consider that Tennessee was the #9 team from the SEC facing UNC, #6 from the ACC. And, South Carolina was SEC #5 vs Fl. State -- ACC #2. This is commonly what the SEC is up against... just stating the facts.

The Big 10 plays some of the worst SOS in all of CFB and you dare come on here and beat your chest about playing nine (9) games in Conference?    

LSU had the hardest schedule in the country last year. i would say that they played some really good high school teams.