I'd take 10 wins and deal with damn near any personality issues this side of Art Briles. Sometimes bad personalities make for good coaches. He pulled Notre Dame out of the program killers of Charlie Weiss and Tyrone pretty quick.
One of the funniest things I've heard this year was Gus Johnson showing off his knowledge of Louisiana/East Texas geography by pointing out that Nacogdoches and Nachitoches are actually pronounced differently in Louisiana and in Texas. Louisiana apparently pronounces "it" "Nackadish" and Texas pronounces "it" "Nackadoches." OK....
When I was young (under 10), my grandmother taught us Natch-i-toach-es, essentially rhyming it with the Texanized Nacogdoches. Took me until college to unlearn that and connect the real Louisiana pronunciation with the town.
Then let's expand the view to ALL SEC coaches. With Texas and OU included: Texas--Steve Sarkisian Ole Miss--Lane Kiffin Texas A&M--Jimbo Fisher LSU--Brian Kelly Mississippi State--Mike Leach Arkansas--Sam Pitman Oklahoma--Bob Stoops (interim) Brent Venables? Dave Aranda? Missouri--Meh Alabama--Nick Saban Georgia--Kirby Smart Auburn--Bryan Harsin Florida--Billy Napier Tennessee--Josh Heupel Vanderbilt--Meh South Carolina--Shame Beamer Kentucky--Mark Stoops That's an impressive amount of coaching firepower.
I've been on the fence about this issue. But the pod of Texas-Oklahoma-Arkansas-Missouri looks a lot better now.
The pod problem is the North Pod would have zero worthwhile teams in it: Kentucky (lucky them if they get this setup - playoffs every year!) Tennessee (should be good, but that was over 20 years ago) Mizzou Vandy East Pod would be too powerful: South Carolina (poor guys) Alabama Georgia Auburn so you end up with pods named Leaders and Legends. South Pod is balanced with: LSU Florida Miss St Ole Miss West Pod is balanced with: Texas aggy Oklahoma Arkansas
You nailed it. Mizzou is the outlier. In nearly every situation. Because their placement affects every other pod. And either makes said pods too weak or too strong. In my estimation, there are only two logical configurations for Missouri that don't screw up every other pod/division in the SEC: 1) Texas-Oklahoma-Arkansas-Missouri or 2) Missouri in the eight-team SEC West Texas Oklahoma Arkansas Texas &M LSU Missouri Ole Miss Mississippi State I'm cool with either one.
If you just switched Mizzou with Georgia, then the pods would even out strength wise. The East Pod would not be too powerful, and the North Pod would not be too weak: North Pod: Kentucky Tennessee Georgia Vandy East Pod: South Carolina (poor guys) Alabama Mizzou Auburn It makes sense to put Georgia in the North. They are in northern Georgia near Atlanta. They are not too far from the University of Tennessee - which is a rival. They are not too far from Vandy. However, it makes no sense to put Mizzou in the East pod from a geographical perspective. But they have to go somewhere. At some point you have to shoehorn a school or two into the wrong geographical pod, in order to make the pods more even strength wise.