Let it roll, baby, roll.
Texas A&M’s departure from the Big 12 Conference drew closer to reality on Monday when the university’s president, R. Bowen Loftin, sent a letter to the Big 12 board chairman, the Missouri chancellor Brady Deaton, notifying the league that the Aggies would formally withdraw — very likely on Tuesday — according to two college officials with direct knowledge of the decision.
I have a very hard time believing that the SEC is ready to commit to an unbalanced divisional arrangement, so if TAMU’s on board, that immediately begs the question about the identity of the potential 14th member.
Of course, Arkansas could always jump to the Big 12 to even out the numbers. Riiight.
Get The Picture 
You see this Senator: http://twitter.com/#!/ZachKleinWSB/statuses/108346363598745600
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I did. No firm idea what’s going on there.
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I saw a girl post that on twitter yesterday afternoon. I couldn’t find a reference so I thought she was incorrect.
http://twitter.com/#!/search/cloux12%20%22Rambo%22
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Nothing like a good Doors reference to the day started.
I’m very curious to see how this all shakes out. I don’t believe any University is stupid enough to leave the cash cow of the SEC. Therefore another University will have to be added. Honestly I’m not in favor of adding another big program (Clem(p)son, VT) because the league is tough enough.
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Mike Slive has no interest in Clemson whatsoever!
VA Tech, though, is a different matter altogether.
It’s all a matter of TV markets. TV markets drive TV revenues. TV revenues make the SEC the “cash cow” no university would be stupid enough to leave. Even U of Arkansas!
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Oh, can we leave the wish list here? North Carolina, please.
But my head tells me that, after they hang up on the SEC, the league will look back at the slowly disintegrating Big XII and grab Mizzou. I’d rather have Va Tech, but I think another western team will be more welcoming to our new pals in Texas and to the Arkies who have always had a sort of red-headed step-child feel about them. Then, you just move Auburn to the east and let the rivalries fall where they may.
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this is exactly what i believe too
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I tend to agree with this as well. The 14th team will be either UNC, Va Tech, or Mizzou. If it is Mizzou then the Aubs move to the East and their every year West game is Bama.
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I can forsee a situation where if Auburn is in the East and Bama is in the West, the two teams could play in the Iron Bowl one week and the SECCG the next week.
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Wouldn’t it make more sense to move Vandy to the West and move Bama AND Auburn to the East? That way all the traditional rivalries are preserved.
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Bama can stay right where they are, thanks.
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They’ve really done a good job of keeping a lid on the 14th member. As far as I know nobody from the league has even gone on the record anonymously as a source for anything. That or they really are contemplating a realignment to take two west teams, which I think sucks.
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Even Danny Sheridan’s friends in Birmingham aren’t taking his calls?
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+1 bagman
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Look for any anonymous joiner to be Ok. The most fragile conference has been permanently injured by UT’s piggish and cutthroat move with ESPN. A&M gave them a chance to rectify, but the egotistical aholes didn’t noticeably budge. Anytime one is established by fiat above all others spells the doom of any organization. Conference loyalty has been shattered in the formerly Big 12. They will never be the same.
It makes sense that A&M is heading our way and with Ok not too far behind. My druthers would be A&M plus Va. Tech if another team is added. NC and Mizzou would weaken the present setup, both teamwise and dollarwise. This is an opinion and not as a knock on any of these great teams.
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One of my favorite early gameday songs…”woke up this mawnin’ and got myself a bee-ah!”
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Okay, now you’ve done it.
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Were you the one going underneath the bandstand?
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I’m not really a staunch traditionalist or anything, but I really do wish that all of these people would just leave the conferences the way they’ve been since 1992 or so. I wish CU and UNL had stayed together with the Big 12, I wish TAMU would just get over itself in relation to Texas, and I wish the SEC would stay with the 12 teams we have.
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Careful. Referring to something in place since the 90s as tradition may get you mistaken for a Florida fan.
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I wish the SEC would kick out USCe and Arky and go back to the 10 teams we had before, play a 9 game conference schedule where everybody plays everybody and have a true champion of the conference.
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What does that really prove? Most of the time, you’d be likely to have ties and have to go through tie-breakers to figure out who is going to get the top bowl slot, etc.
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The tied teams will have played each other and the winner of that game is the conference champion.
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Adding a team or two will strengthen this conference and add unbelievable competition if the competitive teams join. We don’t fear any team in the nation and welcome competitive teams. Any team winning that new conference would surely be born of a hotter fire. If they bring dominance over UT to this conference, all the better. It will also give ESPN notice that the schools under NCAA umbrella are running things and elevating any team thru sports media fiat will get you nothing, not even money.
Did everyone see the article on the highschool presentation in Texas this weekend? ESPN had less than 200k watch in Texas and cables are not running to sign on. That should begin to attenuate their power some.
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That works with a two-way tie. With more than two teams, they have to start considering other tie breakers such as the record of your opponents, BCS ranking, etc.
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Peh. Think about the SEC East in 2002 or the Big 12 South in 2008. There are still ties and thus still tie-breakers.
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Does Louisville bring anything to the table?
In hoops do they qualify as a nation-wide brand?
Do they have a big following in Cincinatti maybe?
I have no idea but curious if they would pull in any new TV markets.
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UL would instantly become the worst academic institution in the SEC if admitted. I don’t see it.
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Texas Dawg would shit a brick.
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Yeah, they bring a trip to “The Kentucky Bourbon Trail” with them, but that’s about it. And that’s not anything we don’t already get with Kentucky.
Oh, and Charlie Strong and frankly if I never see him on the opposite sideline again, it’ll be too soon.
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Is the SEC willing to tamper with the 14th team’s conference contract or are they assuming a conference is about to fall apart?
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No. It is quietly happening in the Big 12. That conference will soon be consigned to the role of “signicant other” conference much like the Big East, Mt. West, etc., and change their name back to Southwest Conf. because of the region teams and as an attempt to pit that conference against the Southeast Conf..
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I managed at The Roadhouse for a number of years. So, you see, I’m pretty sure I could live out the rest of my days and never hear that particular song again. 😉
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Ahhh Roadhouse. The only place I’ve seen public consumption of cocaine (at the window booth no less!).
A friend of mine had the sad distinction of seeing his sister’s name written on the wall of the Roadhouse privy (“______ is a bitch”). At least it wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been.
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And I’m sorry to this day for having written that. Wait a minute;which Roadhouse?
The funniest ones I remember reading were:
“King Kong-He died for our sins.”
and one written at eye level over the urinal and in small lettering read “If you are reading this, you are pissing on your foot!”
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I have you beat because I ate at a Magaritaville Cafe once.
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Once?
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After the continuous loop of Jimmy Buffett’s greatest hits (which is a fairly short list), I certainly won’t go twice.
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I may be in the minority, but it seems likely to me that the SEC will go to 13 for at least one year. I don’t think they’ll be able to lock up a 14th team in time to have them in the fold by 2012. It might be unwieldy, but it’s far better than adding a scrub team just to be at 14.
If UF could be mollified, the ideal candidate is FSU. There’s a lot of talk of TV markets, which will play a part, but of far more importance is a conferences inventory of marquee games. FSU would be the best bet to fit that bill over the long haul, and they’re as good a geographic and cultural fit as any team could be. I still don’t think it will happen because UF will do everything they can to stop it, but a simmering season of the SEC holding at 13 while every other conference and team scrambles to respond could change the landscape considerably.
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I think Slive already has a secret commitment from another school to be the 14th. This has been going on for over a year.
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If this is the case, wouldn’t he need them to withdraw from their conference, as well? I haven’t heard any waves about anyone else inquiring into the procedures.
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Missou went through all that last year with the Big 12 and decided to stay. They could simply get out with a negotiated buyout just like Texas A&M.
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I am fine with staying at 13 for a bit. I even have this strange vision of Auburn switching back and forth between West and East depending on which side is weaker.
As far as FSU goes, what does that bring? Good athletics but a crappy school and no more money. Mr. SEC did a long series on expansion last year and the two teams that brought the most to the table were aTm and Virginia (not VaTech). If we can’t get Virginia (or North Carolina) then VaTech would do. Getting a second school in the same state (GaTech/CLemson/FSU) brings no new eyeballs and thus no more money.
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I think more people nationally would be interested in UGA/FSU, UT/FSU, UA/FSU than any of those matchups featuring Virginia. I’m not completely discounting adding new markets, but you’ve got to think about how appealing the matchups fearuring that new team will be. The Big 10 didn’t want Nebraska just to lock up all the TVs in Omaha. They knew that in any given year Nebraska/Michigan, Nebraska/OSU, etc. Would be the kind of matchups that would draw eyes from all over the country.
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Ok and/or Va Tech make more sense as to location and what they bring to the party. Va Tech seems to have interstate constraint so that baggage would have to be overcome. FSU already outrecruits us in South Georgia and they don’t need “SEC” by their name to erode us further. Thanks, but no thanks. I think that FU has the same problem of adding SEC ditinction to FSU’s name.
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I think adding TAMU would be a great addition, no-brainer as they bring a huge, new TV market. Va Tech would appear to be the next most attractive addition due to their tradition, style of football, sepgraphical location, and size of new TV markets that would open (DC, Tidewater, Richmond, and perhaps Baltimore and parts of NC.)
Once those 2 are added, it gets tough to find two more that fit that well. Mizzou adds St.Louis and KC but they do not seem as good a fit beyond that. It may be that while adding FSU and Clem’s Son doesn’t bring new viewers, they assure that the SEC remains the undisputed leader in CFB conferences regardless of what anyone else does.
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Good go. See above.
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Texas A&M will be the 13th team adding the Texas TV markets. I think there might be an undercurrent within the league that believes that if A&M is added then Arkansas MAY look to bolt for some sort of reconfigured Big 12/SWC. So the league holds at 13 for a year to confirm Arkansas’s intentions.
If Arkanasas leaves, then the league moves on with 12 teams but expanded TV markets which will enhance revenue in media rights negotiations.
if Arkansas stays, then the conference looks to add the best available school that will give them access to new Top 50 TV markets. Va Tech & UNC would be the top targets, but neither will end up leaving the ACC. Instead, the SEC gets NC State.
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Arkansas has laughed at the idea that they would return to what used to be the SWC. Nuff said.
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The locals up here tell me otherwise, but I could see NCSU. They’ve been the weak sister of the Triangle basketball teams (UNC, Duke, NCSU) for awhile now, which must be getting old. They give the SEC access to the Raleigh market. They would be a comparable Eastern Division addition to TAMU in the West, at least in terms of football strength. They don’t infringe on anyone’s current geographic footprint. And adding them to the East doesn’t imbalance the current power structure of each division, like some scenarios that have Auburn and/or Bama coming to the East. Can you imagine how hard it would be to get to the SECCG each year with either or both of them in the East? Negatively, though, TAMU and NCSU dilute the strength of the conference, at least as far as football goes. But this decision has always been about the money in the first place.
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We are ostracized from recruiting in Raleigh?
Take a look at A&M’s natl ranking in football. While you are at it, take a look at Ok. The problem with trying to pick football fits that encompass your B-ball fits is that we are discussing SEC football. B-ballers should stop mixing apples and cumquats. NC nor NC St bring much for a tougher football conference. Deciding new members as to finding new meat to beat is not in this conversation. We want teams with football pride and tradition to sit at the table with us, not to serve as blocking dummies.
Does WF stand for Wha..tha..f…?
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Again, the point of expansion is not to bring in the toughest teams in the land, but to bring in viewers and thus money. That’s why Virginia or VaTech is much better than, say, FSU or Clemson.
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The tougher, the bigger the following. Thus more money.
If we consider Ok as to paying cable customers, they don’t bring anywhere as many vgiewers as A&M. Like ND however, their name has a natl following of viewers that is immense. Their coach was recruited from the SEC and knows this conference. Ok would instantly be the team could beat anyone and would be a prime target to be beaten. That’s the culture in this conference. There really ain’t no pussies.
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I agree that Oklahoma would be a tremendous asset to the SEC in terms of overall sports program, football tradition and is a fit with the academic status of most of the conference.
But how much does Oklahoma really improve the national television ratings? The SEC already has the top rated conference for football nationallly. They would be able to get a larger national deal with Oklahoma, but probably not enough to justify adding a 13th and/or 14th member.
The real $$$ comes from opening tv markets that are currently closed to the SEC regional networks. New markets, especially Top 50 ones, allow the league to charge more for rights fees from their broadcast partners and more for corporate partnerships. TAMU at the very least opens up 4.5+ million homes (Dallas & Houston) which is 4% of the US. Not sure if those in sales would try to include Austin in the package but that is another 700,000 homes. These are markets not getting any SEC programming that is not part of the national package.
IF the 14th member is from the East, then the North Carolina or Virginia schools will be the target. But the difference between them is pretty negligible. VA has DC which the 9th largest market and Norfolk which is #43. The have about 3 million+ homes. NC has Charlotte (#23) RDU (#25) and Greensboro (#47) but just under 3 million total homes.
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Well said. I favor NC State but for selfish reasons since I live two miles from Carter-Finley Stadium.
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I’m not totally sure I followed all of that. But I’ll try to respond.
1. We’re not ostracized from Raleigh, but neither is it the lifeblood of our, or any other SEC team’s, recruiting. I probably should have said that NCSU doesn’t infringe on anyone’s *essential* geographic footprint for recruiting. Clemson and FSU, not so much.
2. On A&M’s national (football) ranking: yeah, they’re high in the preseason polls this year, but have you looked at what they’ve done in the past 10-15 years? They’ve been in decline. We met them in Shreveport, after all,
3. On basketball: I agree the SEC is a football-first conference. In my reference to bball above, I was listing an incentive for NCSU to leave the ACC.
4. WF = Wake Forest
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Sorry, WF(on the initials interpretation).
Don’t see any 10-15 yr mileposts for any team’s entry into any conference. How about 5-50 yrs? That would include some big names that can’t fit the 10-15 yrs. If you are not familiar with A&M’s history, you would do well to review it. Remember that they have pride in their program and “The 12th Man tradition”.
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