Oh, that puckish Mizzou. First they incense a few of their new SEC neighbors simply by existing - theirs and Texas A&M"s addition to the 2012 football slate bumped several "heavyweight" games like Georgia / Alabama off the schedule- and now they're benefitting Bulldog baseball and the rest of the SEC East in much the same manner. The gall!
Let's clarify: SEC blog Team Speed Kills outlines what fans can expect in a 14-team, 30 conference game schedule of SEC baseball in 2013. Texas A&M, who enters this season ranked No. 7 nationally, will go to the SEC West, while the Tigers will head east. Mizzou baseball is respectable, but automatically a lesser-half squad in a SEC that enters 2012 with seven Top 25 teams, including five Top 10 teams, two Top 3 teams, and the No. 1 overall club in Florida.
Despite the two new schools, the SEC isn't expected to expand its 30 game conference schedule, which breaks down to ten, three-game series. That means every team will play one series against their division foes (six), and one against a rotation of four teams from the opposite division. Power schools like the Gators, Vanderbilt, defending CWS Champion South Carolina and yes, those lucky Bulldogs, will be guaranteed one series a year against Missouri, and less of a chance each season of drawing perennially ranked schools like Arkansas (No. 4 this year), LSU (No. 8) or Ole Miss (No. 22).
Say what you want, that it's a totally logical inclusion of new schools with accidental side affects on particular schools, but we side with South Carolina - this is all a dirty UGA conspiracy, and we're not fooled!
For less tongue-in-cheek analysis of Georgia, check out Dawg Sports.