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.