League scheduling

The SEC is going to a 3-2-8 conference scheduling format instead of the old 1-4-8.  What does that mean?  The first number is permanent rivals, the second number is rotating home-and-homes, and the third number is single game opponents.

Each team will still play five teams twice and eight teams once during conference play.  However, there will now be three permanent rivalries instead of just one.

Currently, Georgia's permanent rivalry is South Carolina.  Who will the other two be?  I have no idea.  Here are my guesses, along with totally fabricated percentages reflecting my confidence:

Auburn - 90%.  It just makes sense.  Both teams are historically bad, and there is a strong football rivalry in place.  Why not try to spark a basketball rivalry as well?

Florida - 65%.  I have this feeling there's going to be one traditional power in every team's set of rivalries (as much as that's feasible), and Florida has been good enough for long enough to be considered a power.  Add in, again, a healthy football rivalry, and I think both schools would be happy with the pairing.

Vanderbilt - 45%.   Please, no.  Fox couldn't beat Vanderbilt if they fielded 4 players (which they practically did last season).

Kentucky - 30%.  Somebody has to draw them, but even though Georgia has had some limited success against Kentucky in the past 15 years or so, there was never much of a rivalry here.  The series was totally dominated by Kentucky when both teams were in the East.  That doesn't mean they won't be paired up...it just means there's not a hugely compelling reason to do so.

Missouri - 20%.  No special reason.  Just a hunch.

The Field - 30%.  My percentages don't add to 100, but remember, there will be two selections.  Also remember no actual math occurred here, and I just made all of this up.  There are 13 other teams, so there's a decent chance I guessed wrong.

Update  [12:03]:

Why did I leave Tennessee off my list?  I have no idea.  Let's throw them in there at a healthy 60%, and let's kick Vanderbilt down to 35% and knock Kentucky down to 25%.  Much better.

h/t MrSEC.com