THE MORNING CONSTITUTIONAL PREPARES FOR THE COMET

Do you know where Pitt is? This is not a rhetorical question, because not only can no one remember the ACC's football divisions after almost a decade of effort, they can't remember which divisions Pitt, Syracuse, and ECU entered. Did you say: ECU isn't in the ACC, sir! Are you sure about that? Have you checked lately? Are you absolutely certain this hasn't happened in the last few weeks, and would you notice if it did?

That's being hard on the ACC, but to be fair the SEC has now done something equally strange by turning the SEC football schedule into something less resembling a rotation and more like an astrological calendar. To wit:

FLORIDA – 2014 at Alabama; 2015 vs. Ole Miss; 2016 at Arkansas; 2017 vs. Texas A&M; 2018 at Mississippi State; 2019 vs. Auburn; 2020 at Ole Miss; 2021 vs. Alabama; 2022 at Texas A&M; 2023 vs. Arkansas; 2024 at Auburn; 2025 vs. Mississippi State.

Now rivalry-ish games like the once-annual matchup with Auburn go from frequent, spirited tussles to once-in-a-generation comet passes. Like comet passes, the arrival of the Auburn game usually spelled total extinction for one of the teams in the rivalry, but it was an exciting brand of extinction, for the most part. But sure, don't worry about what you'll be watching instead of an actual conference game, since it'll be sure to be an exciting, worthwhile collision of YOUR SEC TEAM versus MOST DEFINITELY NOT AN FCS TEAM, OR THE CLOSEST THING WE COULD FIND IN FBS WITHOUT SCHEDULING EASTERN MICHIGAN.*

*P.S. It's probably Eastern Michigan.