BY Kevin Scarbinsky
Birmingham News
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - You have to give the people at the Alabama Republican Party credit. They know how to schedule a speaker.
They managed to line up Texas Gov. Rick Perry to deliver the address at tonight's summer fundraising dinner of the Alabama GOP at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex.
The significance of Perry's visit, at least in the sports world, has nothing to do with his stature as a potential 2012 presidential candidate and everything to do with his status as a Texas A&M graduate and former Aggie yell leader.
With the talk of A&M joining the SEC getting hotter than Alabama asphalt, Perry is going to be speaking down the street from the SEC office.
You can't make this stuff up. You can read too much into it - the Alabama GOP announced Perry's visit June 13 - but you can't make it up.
Will Perry cross the street to visit with SEC commissioner Mike Slive? Will Slive make the move? Or will the commish, in a brilliant attempt at misdirection, be out of town, perhaps on a day trip to College Station?
Short answer, at least on the prospect of a high-level, top-secret get-together: No. SEC spokesman Charles Bloom said that Slive has no plans to meet with Perry today.
Pity, but OK. Will the governor, while on the ground here, deliver a message from his alma mater to its potential new home? Or will he stick to partisan politics and avoid this political football?
Stay tuned because rumors of Texas A&M bolting the Big 12 for the SEC haven't been this hot and heavy since, well, last summer.
Kevin Scarbinsky is a columnist for The Birmingham News. His column is published on Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.Perry himself added kerosene to the bonfire Wednesday. He told The Dallas Morning News that "conversations are being had" on the subject. That set off even more public discussion, even though the governor didn't say who was having those private conversations.
Meanwhile, the 12 current members of the SEC and their fans, having been led to believe that regular road trips to College Station are only a matter of time, are left to wonder what this all means for them.
Since the SEC needs two divisions to stage its lucrative football championship game, and the league isn't about to go to unbalanced divisions, A&M would need at least one partner to join the conference, too.
The identity of that partner or partners would help answer a lot of questions, including the most critical of all. How would the divisions break down?
Around here, we have two more questions. Could Alabama and Auburn actually end up in different divisions? And so what if they did?
Depending on which team or teams would join Texas A&M in the SEC, it would make sense, from a geographic and historic standpoint, to shift Auburn to the Eastern Division. The Tigers live farther east than any other member of the SEC West, and they have a longer history against teams in the East. Look at their most frequent opponents among current league members.
1. Georgia (114 games)
2. Mississippi State (84 games)
3. Florida (82 games)
4. Alabama (75 games)
5. Tennessee (51 games)
Three of those five teams - Georgia, Florida and Tennessee - are members of the Eastern Division.
Moving Auburn to the East and keeping Alabama in the West might seem like a good idea, but it would do nothing to ease the simmering tensions between the two programs unless they stopped playing every year.
Sorry, but you can't have an SEC with Alabama and Auburn without them playing every year. Well, maybe you can, but you shouldn't.
The more you study it, the more separating the Tide and Tigers looks like the worst idea for the rivalry since Harvey Updyke decided to drive from Dadeville to Toomer's Corner. Put them in separate divisions, and you make it possible for them to play twice in a single year, in the state championship game and in the SEC Championship Game.
Yikes. This state can barely survive one Iron Bowl every 365 days. Can you imagine two in eight days?
Better for the Tide and Tigers to stay together in the same division, no matter how wide the divide between them. They belong together, even when they can't get along.
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I expect the conference will find some way to keep Auburn and Alabama in the West. There would have to be, I hope, a compelling scenario for them to put Auburn in the East with the prospect of the two teams playing twice in the same year.
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