It was a creation of the Mike Slive (SEC Commissioner) back in the day to keep an 8-game SEC schedule, while other conferences had gone to 9. Plus the fact that most teams had gone from a 10 game schedule to around 11 or 12, depending on the season. The Slive rationale was that if each SEC scheduled a “cup cake” in either week 2 or 3 of November, the conference was guaranteed an additional home game, but also a victory in those weeks, while 50% of the country experienced a LOSS during that timeframe, so individual rankings of SEC teams wouldn’t be impacted close to the end of the regular season. It was “glossed over” by the media pundits, because of the rough and tough SEC regular season. While teams in the B12 for example played each member throughout the season. Pretty smart and the SEC got away with it until now, as with the addition of UT and OU, it almost mandates that 9 game schedule in conference. The only ones balking that idea are the ones complaining about losing that additional home game and cup cake victory. Hook’em!!!