Missouri is the outlier as far as shape goes.
More or less. But it could be argued that Kentucky was already a geographic outlier, and adding Missouri nicely rounds out a more normal outline to the SEC, making UK look less like an outlier. Particularly now with OU on board. The conference will cover a quarter of the country, but it's a contiguous quarter which can aptly be described as "southeastern."
In other news, many think of LSU as a Johnny come lately that started under Saban in the early 00's. In fact, LSU is something like 13 or 14 all-time, according to several lists I've seen (and if somebody made a list, it has to be true). Not exactly a blue blood, but not a historic also-ran either. I wonder if having to play OU and UT more frequently now is going to hurt LSU's win% going forward. In our case we'll probably only ever play one or the other in a given year, but that's an extra historic power that will take the place of a Mississippi State, for example, on our schedule.
SEC fans have said for years that other big schools wouldn't win so many games if they had to play through an SEC schedule. Guess we're 'bout to find out.
One thing I do know for sure, roster acquisition and management has fundamentally changed with NIL and the xfer portal. And LSU is badly behind the times with NIL, and it shows when you track individual swings and misses with players. I hate what the game is now, but LSU will have to figure something out if they don't want to slide into irrelevance.
