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Auburn to the East? Jacobs says it's more than a pipe dream

Jay Jacobs has made it clear that Auburn believes it fits better in the Eastern Division.
Jay Jacobs has made it clear that Auburn believes it fits better in the Eastern Division. (Jay G. Tate/AuburnSports.com)

MIRAMAR BEACH, Fla. | Jay Jacobs believes the time has come for Auburn to switch divisions in the Southeastern Conference.

The Tigers, of course, are charter members of the league's Western Division. However, the conference's addition of University of Missouri prior to the 2012 season — and its odd membership in the Eastern Division despite being well west of Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Alabama and Auburn — has prompted Jacobs to reconsider his program's divisional identity.

"I’m not trying to spark a legitimate conversation. I think it’s a legitimate conversation to have at some point as a league," Jacobs said Wednesday at the SEC Spring Meetings. "For Mizzou to be in the West and Auburn to be in the East, it makes sense. We’re out there a little ways on football scheduling, so we’re not going to talk anything formally about it this weekend or this week — but at some point we will.”

Jacobs' public stance apparently is news to commissioner Greg Sankey, who on Tuesday night joked that nobody ever has approached him in an official capacity about Auburn moving to the Eastern Division. Nothing on the meeting's agenda involves Auburn's divisional status.

"I really only address that in conversations with (reporters)," Sankey said.

That's changing.

Jacobs said Wednesday that he's spoken with Sankey directly about the divisional swap and that the commissioner has been told of the Tigers' opinion on the matter.

Jacobs says the push is based on demographics: A large percentage of Auburn students, and therefore alumni, are from Georgia, Florida and Tennessee. All SEC schools from those three states compete in the Eastern Division.

Cynics, however, will say that Auburn simply is trying to duck top-tier competition in the Western Division in favor of the relatively calmer waters of the Eastern Division. Jacobs recoils Wednesday at that suggestion.

"You can’t schedule (based) on where you think the easier place is going to be because you’ll end up jumping from the frying pan into the fire," Jacobs said. "The thing that doesn’t make sense, geographically, is the Missouri fans. The travel they have to do. So we have to look at: What's the thing that’s going to preserve the game, keep us strong and be good for the student athletes> That’s really what it’s about — not what the easier road is. There’s no such thing in this league. At least I haven’t found one."

Jacobs said Auburn's annual rivalry game with Alabama will remain in tact regardless of what happens.

He also said that he's encountered zero resistance on this issue from rival athletic directors during informal conversations.

"I haven’t heard anybody say we don’t want you to leave the West — and I haven’t heard anybody say we don’t want you in the East," Jacobs said. "There just hasn’t been a discussion about it except with the media."

UPDATED @ 7:15 p.m.: Sankey spoke with reporters Wednesday night and affirmed his stance that the conference isn't considering any divisional changes.

"It’s still not an agenda item," Sankey said. "Could it be talked about at some meeting? I’m not going to speculate what might be on a future agenda item. I look back on the effort, the focus of this conference to come up with the formats, the schedule we have now. We made a completely informed decision that has guided us well to this point and I expect will for a while."


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