Potential Big Ten-SEC Schedule Series Pairs Iowa with New Rival

College football is doing the thing again: evolving, rapidly.

The Big Ten and SEC are considering a change to their scheduling structure that would require teams from each conference to play each other every season. One potential idea is to set up an annual series between two teams from each conference, similar to non-conference rivalries such as Iowa and Iowa State.

It’s an intriguing idea, and one many college football fans can get behind. But pairing the teams up across the two top conferences wouldn’t be easy. After all, an annual series between Ohio State and Vanderbilt or Alabama and Rutgers wouldn’t solve much of anything.

CBS Sports’ Brad Crawford took a shot at pairing the teams, settling on an Auburn-Iowa series for the Hawkeyes. Crawford liked the pairing because of the interesting stadium traditions both teams uphold, Auburn’s ‘Flight of the War Eagle’ and Iowa’s ‘Hawkeye Wave’, on top of the fact that the two programs have never met on the football field. 

Auburn is a fun rival prospect for Iowa. Like the Hawkeyes, they’re seemingly always on the cusp of joining the sports’ elite tier, but they more often than not find a way to settle back down to earth. Still, the Tigers have won a national championship this century and they toppled some impressive Alabama, LSU, and Georgia teams over the years.

While Auburn is a viable option, I’d argue there are better suitors for the Hawkeyes if this idea comes to pass. Iowa’s most recent SEC opponent, Missouri, is a fine place to start.

How About This Hawkeyes-Tigers Rivalry Instead?

Iowa and Missouri have played each other 14 times, with the Tigers holding a two-game advantage. However, they’ve only played twice since 1910 and are even in those matchups, both with 27-24 finals. 

The two programs did have an annual series from 1902 to 1910, skipping 1905, though they didn’t swap home and road games; Iowa hosted from 1903-07 while Mizzou hosted the final three games in the series.

There’s a little bit of history between the two black and gold programs that are seperated by just 223 miles. A good bit more than Missouri shares with Michigan State, Crawford’s choice for the Tigers. Those two have met eight times, but not since 2001. But as Crawford wrote in his piece, pairing these schools isn’t easy, especially when factoring that the whole idea behind these potential changes is to ramp up competition between the top two conferences in the sport.

There’s no timeline on when the Big Ten and SEC could come to a conclusion on their potential schedule changes, as well as no confirmation that a fixed annual series will be the way forward.