HOMEWOOD — There's a scenario and a world where the Iron Bowl could happen three times in the same season.

Seriously.

Alabama football and Auburn could conceivably face off three times in the new setup set to start this season with the expanded College Football Playoff and no divisions anymore in the SEC. So, the Crimson Tide and Tigers could play each other in the regular season like every year, then the SEC Championship Game and a matchup in the expanded playoff.

"I think that's incredible," said Auburn athletics director John Cohen at the Associated Press Sports Editors South region meeting Monday. "I think the limitless opportunities moving forward with the playoff system, how our league is going to work, no longer does it matter if an eastern division or the western division is the dominant side. It won't matter. Everybody over a four-year period is going to play everybody. I love that. I love the direction the league is heading in all of our sports."

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Cohen, a Tuscaloosa native who then played and coached at Mississippi State, said he first thought about that possibility when he was still the athletics director at Mississippi State, thinking about the Alabama-Auburn rivalry.

Now, with the CFP expanding to 12 teams, it's a possibility. Likely? Probably not. But it's at least possible.

It's one of many intriguing possibilities in the new era of college football that begins in 2024.

Nick Kelly is the Alabama beat writer for The Tuscaloosa News, part of the USA TODAY Network, and he covers Alabama football and men's basketball. Reach him at nkelly@gannett.com or follow him @_NickKelly on X, the social media app formerly known as Twitter.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Iron Bowl: Why Alabama-Auburn could now play three times in one season