Auburn's football program isn't moving any time soon.
Neither, apparently, is its head coach.
The issue that never was at this year's Southeastern Conference spring meetings in Destin, Fla., involved the potential for division realignment. Auburn fourth-year coach Gus Malzahn told ESPN in April that there would be discussion about the Tigers moving from the Western Division to the East, which fueled speculation that Missouri would head from the East to the West for a more geographically correct league.
"There wasn't any discussion at all on that," Mazahn told reporters this week before leaving Destin. "I had a conversation with a reporter, and it was kind of real casual. I feel the same way (now): I'm happy the way it is. That's probably the way to answer that, and that's the truth."
When the SEC expanded from 10 to 12 teams before the 1992 season with the additions of Arkansas and South Carolina and went to divisional play, it ended an early-season tradition of Auburn playing Tennessee. The Tigers and Volunteers met annually from 1956 to 1991, and Auburn's rivalry with Florida ended after the 2002 game when the SEC reduced the number of permanent cross-divisional matchups from two to one.
Moving Auburn to the East could better balance the divisions based on results in recent years, given that West teams have won seven consecutive league titles, with Auburn contributing in 2010 and 2013. Yet the subject cropped up this week only in interviews, according to SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, who was asked Wednesday night if it was a "dead story."
"I don't know that it was ever a live story," Sankey said. "The only time I've talked about this in Destin is here in this room. I have never once talked to our football coaches about any team moving to a different division."
HARBAUGH STRIKES AGAIN
Wearing an Atlanta Braves jersey with Hank Aaron’s number, Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh worked a satellite camp Thursday at Maynard Jackson High School in Atlanta. First-year Georgia coach Kirby Smart also worked the camp.In speaking with reporters afterward, Harbaugh did not back down from his Twitter post that mocked Alabama coach Nick Saban’s comments earlier this week about satellite camps by referencing the recent resignation of Crimson Tide defensive line coach Bo Davis due to alleged recruiting violations.“The issue is what I said it was,” Harbaugh said. “It’s somebody who’s recently broken rules and has that in their history, and he’s lecturing us other coaches on potentially violating rules. I thought it was hypocritical and a hypocritical act.”— David Paschall
The SEC split its six strongest programs in 1992, placing Florida, Georgia and Tennessee in the East and Alabama, Auburn and LSU in the West. Those six have combined to win every league championship game since, with each of those six winning at least five SEC titles since 1980, and the remaining league members having not won any.
Kentucky was the last "outsider" to win an SEC football title, sharing the 1976 crown with Georgia, and Ole Miss in 1963 was the last to win an outright championship.
The biggest roadblock to Auburn ever moving to the East would be the current scheduling format that allows for just one permanent cross-divisional opponent in the eight-game league format. If Auburn switched and maintained its Iron Bowl rivalry with Alabama, then what would become of the Alabama-Tennessee rivalry?
SEC schedules have been set through the 2025 season.
As for Malzahn, he will enter his fourth year on the Plains with a 27-13 overall record and a 13-11 SEC mark. Malzahn guided Auburn to a berth in the last BCS championship game following the 2013 season, where the Tigers lost in the final seconds to Florida State, but he enters this season having lost nine of his last 11 league games.
"He's our coach, and he'll be our coach for a long, long time," Auburn athletic director Jay Jacobs told reporters in Destin. "He's a brilliant offensive mind who has taken us to two national championships - one as a coordinator and one as a head coach. There are a bunch of schools in our league that would love to be in a position with a guy like him."
Malzahn called the plays for Auburn's 2010 national championship team that topped Oregon on a final-play field goal, and the Tigers are 57-23 overall and 28-20 within the league with him as an assistant or heading the program. Auburn won dramatic Iron Bowl victories in 2010 and 2013, but the Tigers with Malzahn on staff are just 2-4 against the Crimson Tide and have that same record against Georgia and LSU.
The Tigers enter this season unsettled at quarterback and have lost two tailbacks - Peyton Barber and Roc Thomas - who had eligibility remaining. Malzahn has hired five new assistant coaches, including Kevin Steele, who is Auburn's fifth defensive coordinator in the last six years.
"It's a tough league," Jacobs said. "This league is tough every day. It doesn't matter what year it is, but there is no doubt that he is the right guy for Auburn."
Simmons admitted
Mississippi State announced Thursday that five-star defensive end Jeffery Simmons, who was arrested on misdemeanor simple assault charges earlier this spring after striking a woman in a parking lot, has been allowed to enroll for summer school and participate in football activities under certain conditions.
Simmons must go through a counseling program, and he has been suspended for MSU's season opener against South Alabama.
"This was a parking lot fight that got out of control, which is why he's not being charged with domestic violence or sexual assault," MSU athletic director Scott Stricklin said Thursday during a news conference in Destin. "That doesn't make it OK, but it makes it a unique situation and a unique case."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.