Florida Gators To Play Texas A&M Aggies And Missouri Tigers In 2012
The official schedule hasn’t been released (or maybe it has depending on when you’re reading this), but one thing is apparent – the Florida Gators will meet both the Texas A&M Aggies and Missouri Tigers on the gridiron in 2012. Florida will travel to Texas A&M and host Missouri in September, welcoming the SEC’s newest members to the conference early in the schedule.
The debates will rage on as critics and supporters continue to attempt to decide if the Aggies and Tigers were the right choices for the conference. At this point, those debates fall on deaf ears, at least around here. They have joined the SEC and will be members for what will most likely be a very long time (or until the super conferences come along, but we’re almost guaranteed the SEC will be one of them in some form). Due to that, I welcome Texas A&M and Missouri and look forward to watching Florida face them both during their first year in the nation’s best conference.
As the Gators begin their march back to respectability, I enjoy the idea of developing new rivalries. It may take years or even decades, but we get to witness them grow from the beginning. Neither will be a Florida State or a Georgia; we can’t expect a Tennessee or even an LSU; but something will brew between the Gators and those formerly of the Big 12. Hate them the way you hate the rest of the SEC. Respect them for what they hope to become. They didn’t join the conference on the cusp of winning its sixth straight national championship without a hope for improved competition.
While welcoming the Aggies and Tigers to the schedule, I do have a few concerns; selfish ones, but concerns all the same. First and foremost, I’ve come to expect the Gators to open their SEC schedule every season against the evil orange of the Tennessee Volunteers. It wasn’t always that way, but I’ve become accustomed to it. This isn’t necessarily a bad change, but one that alters an expectation. While the proposed schedule with Texas A&M before Tennessee isn’t set in stone for the future, with 14 members we can expect some changes to stick. Where the Vols fall on future schedules is anyone’s guess.
The other purely selfish concern is a change to the 2012 road trip. The plan was to visit The Grove as the Ole Miss Rebels hosted the Gators. Plans were made, but luckily not obsessively worked out. Altering those plans impacts no one but the fans, but this particular fan and a few select others were looking forward to taking in all The Grove had to offer. We now wait patiently for another opportunity to present itself.
Selfish reasons aside, I can live with and even support a schedule that looks like the one we’ve currently been presented with. It may not be ideal for some, but I’d like to see Texas A&M now as opposed to who knows how many years in the future. As for Missouri, if we go by today’s alignment, Florida will face the newest Tigers every year, but that’s far from guaranteed until we know more about future schedules. So I welcome the schedule and the 14-team SEC as much as I can. I’m not waving the conference realignment white flag, but I am in terms of these two. They will be members of the Southeastern Conference; like it or not. I’ll choose to like it.