The official word that Oklahoma and Texas will join the SEC in 2024 means the real backroom brawl can commence — even though it likely began months ago. The conference will introduce a new scheduling format when the two new members join, and that new format will require considerable debate, assuming the schools choose the correct format.

And let’s be clear: There is only one correct format. Several schools pushed last year for the league to remain at eight conference games. Each team would have one permanent rival and the other 14 schools would rotate through the remaining seven spots twice every four years. This would be a massive mistake, and I don’t expect the SEC schools to make this mistake.

In case I haven’t made myself clear enough, I’ll repeat what I wrote Saturday in a column about the new version of college football coming in 2024:

If you have Texas and Texas A&M in your league and you don’t have them play football annually, you are stupid. If you hijack the league schedule for almost 20 years to ensure Alabama and Tennessee play every season and then stop playing that series annually just when it’s getting fun again, you are stupid. If you stop playing the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry (Auburn-Georgia) annually so Mississippi State can schedule another easy win, you are stupid.