Tony Barnhart tells the story:
The SEC will announce at Noon ET an agreement with the Big 12 for their champions to meet in a to-be-determined bowl game if they are not a part of the anticipated four-team playoff beginning in 2014.
An industry source said the alliance between the two conferences will be similar to that of the Big Ten and Pac-12, whose champions meet annually in the Rose Bowl if they are not a part of the BCS championship game.
“The thinking is, the Big 12 and SEC, we’re in the strongest positions right now. Let’s create a big-time matchup,” a source told CBSSports.com. “I don’t know if other leagues will create matchups like this, but this is a way for the two leagues to develop [a partnership].”
In one sense, this isn’t much: the bowl game itself is almost meaningless. There hasn’t been a national title game without a participant now a member of either conference since 2001.
But as a message, it’s profound. The ACC just found itself locked out of the public perception of being one of the major players. Now when it comes to football conferences, there’s a big four and there’s everybody else. (Unless you think there’s a lot more cachet to a ACC-Big East partnership than I do.) If you don’t think this is going to add more fuel to the FSU fire, you’re nuts. I’ll leave you to speculate on what Slive hopes to gain here. Let’s just say that if I were John Swofford’s dog, I’d be keeping a low profile today.
The SEC just chose a side. The ACC lost.
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UPDATE: By the way, if the next step the new partnership takes is to emulate the regular season scheduling matchup the Pac-12/Big Ten have agreed to, that will take some of the sting out of the SEC staying with an 8-game conference schedule. Although I will laugh my ass off if the first pairings include South Carolina-Oklahoma and Iowa State-Georgia.
Get The Picture 
Just thinking outloud, but if the SEC is thinking of later adding two more teams and either one or both may be in the ACC anything that weakens the ACC helps that process.
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Texas will reject the offer…they already believe they are the champion (regardless of on-field results which are beyond their control).
/#hook’em
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Swofford’s always struck me as more of a cat guy.
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+1 Nicely played.
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Jerry World here we come!
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As someone who lives 10 miles north of the Death Star these days, I have to admit I’m excited about that possibility.
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Very interesting. Wonder if it will be the Sugar Bowl or the Cotton Bowl?
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This…Where does the Sugar Bowl fit in this equation?? Surely Slive isn’t marginalizing it or going away from the SEC’s affiliation with the Sugar Bowl…
IMO, that would be a terrible move…
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I’d rather have them rotate between Atlanta and Dallas.
Not quite the Rose, Sugar or Orange, but a good football game either way.
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Wild guess: Sugar and Fiesta are the SEC’s and Big 12’s “Anchor” bowls for semifinals, and this new bowl is unrelated to and independent from the playoff.
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From Seth Emerson…..
Seth Emerson @SethEmerson
SEC commish Mike Slive raids Big 12, then forms an alliance with it, all in less than a year. I think we found the man to fix Washington. 😉
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Likely they will rotate between the Cotton and Sugar unless Jerry cuts a deal to always host the championship or playoff games.
Don’t be too quick to disparage Iowa State, Senator. When was the last time Oklahoma beat an undefeated team and knocked them out of the BCS championship?
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I’m not disparaging them. But I bet every SC fan on the planet would be. 😉
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My wife is a Cyclone and nothing would make me happier than a home & away with them.
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My guess is if FSU leaves the ACC for the Big 12, then VPI and Clemson take a hard look at becoming #s 15 and 16 in the SEC. Just a hunch. I don’t want it, but if that’s where we’re going, I’d prefer those guys over most of the alternatives.
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I’d prefer taking FSU and Clemson into the SECE and moving Mizzou to the West
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I have read and/or head several times over that Va Tech and UVA are tied at the hip. You can not have one without the other. I would love to have both, but not over FSU and Clemson.
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Some commentor on ESPN said this …
“Not to be outdone, Big East & ACC announce their champs will play at your high school if you’ll have them”
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I don’t think they would sell out a high school stadium.
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very funny to me. First Slive wants the BCS in order that his teams can get the championship. Now that a playoff might leave his team out he is going back to a tied in bowl game, hoping I am sure that if an SEC team he deems worthy of playing for a championship isn’t in the 4 team playoff they would still pull votes away. Back to the future.
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You write at a 5th grade level and your understanding of college football is horrible.
Do you serve fries or just eat them?
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This is just off the top, so please allow me the right to change … but Slive is brilliant. The SEC Champion will always be in the Top 4. Now, the SEC runner-up is in a big-time, prime-time Bowl Game that will match up every bit with the overrated Rose Bowl.
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Based on past performance, my guess is the the new match up game will not be an existing bowl. Slive will want to se lect the game site, entertain sponsors and selectthe network so the SEC (& Big 12) can maximize $$$$ (which was the real point behind this proposal in the first place). For all the $$ Mr. Slive has brought to the conference, he continues to be the antichrist for anyone who is a true fan & season ticket purchasor of a conference affiliate.
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+1. Slive is about one thing and one thing only–$$$. He would (and IMHO has already in some respects) destroy everything that is good about SEC football in the quest for the almighty buck.
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