Seriously, I'm curious, because myself and the ones I know would rather have vultures eat out our livers on a daily basis than move the Alabama game to midseason, much less play them twice in the same season, the thought of which makes me want to vomit all over my keyboard. Every fiber of my being rejects those kinds of ideas. So I'd like to know who these Auburn fans are who'd be fine and dandy with what's happening to The Game happening to the Iron Bowl. Yeah, we'd still hate Alabama, yeah, it'd still be delirious fun to beat them, but that doesn't mean it would still be the Iron Bowl. The Iron Bowl is played the last week of the regular season, as the climax to both team's seasons, and has been since the rivalry was re-instituted. The End.

As for the Third Saturday in October, it doesn't hold up as an analogy to The Game at all, since (as has been pointed out elsehwere in this thread) they only moved it to the fourth Saturday, and in some years it still falls on the third. It's not comparable to what Delany and Co. are proposing. Besides, Tennessee fans are the worst possible fanbase to ask about huge year-end rivalries--they get all of their big games (Florida, Georgia, 'Bama) out of the way by November and close every season with Kentucky and Vanderbilt. If they're OK with moving rivalry games around, it's because they'd like to get some of what M-OSU and Auburn-Alabama have already got.