SEC Gets Dubiously Sourced Expansion Rumors
According to a source talking to Jimmy Hyams of Knoxville sports radio station 990 AM the Sports Animal, Mike Slive has met with CBS to discuss possibilities regarding SEC expansion. Supposedly it would only happen if the Big Ten goes to 16, and the targets would be (predictably) Texas, Texas A&M, FSU, and Clemson. Should the Texas schools decline, the next choices would be Miami and Georgia Tech.
The SEC issued a swift denial, so caveat emptor and all that. At the very least this one sounds plausible because Plan A would add two teams to each division and we don't have to worry about schools leaving their current divisions.
I will say this though: you couldn't find a worse cultural fit for the SEC in the region than Miami. If you already think that Florida seems sort of like an outsider, Miami would feel like something from another planet.
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I said it once I'll say it again,
we need to take a team from North Carolina right along with a team from Texas
...in dixie land i'll take my stand to root for Atlanta
I agree about NC but dissent with regard to Texas.
Texas is too far away to travel to on the regular. The SEC works as a conference because all the schools involved share an identity. Besides being that far away, Texas doesn’t share that identity. They do their own thing. I’d much rather see us expand into North Carolina and Virginia. Maybe even West Virginia.
Dum spiro spero - "While I breathe, I hope"
State motto of South Carolina
by The Feathered Warrior on May 24, 2010 5:01 PM EDT up reply actions
not West Virginia
I’d much rather see UTC picked which I would love to see
...in dixie land i'll take my stand to root for Atlanta
As far as teams that are "too far away" and don't "share an identity" go . . .
. . . didn’t that ship sail when we admitted Arkansas to the league?
No North Carolina school would want to leave the ACC, and we should not want any North Carolina school to join the SEC. I think even considering a North Carolina school is a bad idea, but, bad idea or not, it’s a complete non-starter. It’s not even in the conversation.
If we’re going to poach programs from the ACC, Clemson and Florida State are the only options. As cultural fits go, you’d have a hard time finding a team that could be more seamlessly integrated into the SEC than Clemson.
Go 'Dawgs!
you guys give me a hard time every time I give the full name of this college
however, I will say that UTC is from the FCS and is home to the FCS national championship for the last several years
...in dixie land i'll take my stand to root for Atlanta
utc. last five fcs champions were villanova, richmond and then appalachian state three years in a row.
wait, you say the home of the fcs championship. utc, university of tennessee chattanaga?
I'm all about covering the spread and moneylines. I was building a house, I don't deserve this, deserves have nothing to do with it. Bang. "Unforgiven" I drink your milkshake. I drink it up! "There Will BE Blood". Hell is just a word, the reality is much much worse." Event Horizon". Now remember, when things look bad and it looks like you're not gonna make it, then you gotta get mean, I mean plumb, mad dog mean. cause if you lose your head and you give up then you neither live or win. That's just the way it is. "The Outlaw Josey Wales". "And that's just what these hustlers look for. They cruise from casino to casino looking for weak dealers the way lions look for weak antelope". Ace Rothstein, The Movie "Casino" 1995. My name is puzzy, puzzy galore. I must be in heaven. "Goldfinger" The man with the midas touch. To protect the sheep you gotta catch the wolf, and it takes a wolf to catch a wolf. "Training Day".
by wolfmanshowlforever on May 27, 2010 6:32 PM EDT up reply actions
chattanooga.
I'm all about covering the spread and moneylines. I was building a house, I don't deserve this, deserves have nothing to do with it. Bang. "Unforgiven" I drink your milkshake. I drink it up! "There Will BE Blood". Hell is just a word, the reality is much much worse." Event Horizon". Now remember, when things look bad and it looks like you're not gonna make it, then you gotta get mean, I mean plumb, mad dog mean. cause if you lose your head and you give up then you neither live or win. That's just the way it is. "The Outlaw Josey Wales". "And that's just what these hustlers look for. They cruise from casino to casino looking for weak dealers the way lions look for weak antelope". Ace Rothstein, The Movie "Casino" 1995. My name is puzzy, puzzy galore. I must be in heaven. "Goldfinger" The man with the midas touch. To protect the sheep you gotta catch the wolf, and it takes a wolf to catch a wolf. "Training Day".
by wolfmanshowlforever on May 27, 2010 6:34 PM EDT up reply actions
Which one though?
Whoever we add has to be good at football, period, since that’s where the money is and that’s what this is all about. I don’t think you’ll ever get UNC to leave the ACC… NC State maybe. Duke and Wake are non-starters. Beyond that… it would take a lot to get ECU up to SEC standards, and I say that as a casual ECU football fan.
I agree with you on NC State, but even that would be a reach. They’d want to play UNC and Duke every year, eating up two of their four (or three, if the SEC schedule went to 9) non-conference games. That doesn’t leave much left for fundraising and pretty much cuts out the possibility of playing any other power conference team (like Wake Forest) except for the occasional neutral site game.
Having lived in Charlotte for two and a half years now, I have a better understanding of ACC dynamics than I ever did while living in Florida. I’m pretty sure that all the NC schools would prefer to stay together, especially now that the ACC TV contract isn’t an embarrassment compared to the SEC deal (still not as good, but not nearly as far behind).
I do get the feeling that a lot of the rest of the conference resents how the conference essentially revolves around the four NC schools, so it might be possible to get FSU and Clemson. Clemson takes its position as a founding ACC member seriously, but I think if push came to shove and a real and binding invitation went out, they’d bail for the SEC. FSU couldn’t have been happier with the ACC in the ‘90s, but I don’t know how deep the loyalty runs now.
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Clemson would be in for sure.
Just check out Shakin the Southland. They’re all about joining the SEC. I just hope USC never lets that happen.
Dum spiro spero - "While I breathe, I hope"
State motto of South Carolina
by The Feathered Warrior on May 24, 2010 5:22 PM EDT up reply actions
It would actually benefit South Carolina if Clemson joined the SEC.
The Gamecocks’ season ender would go from being a non-conference game to being a conference game, freeing up a spot on the schedule for an easier out-of-conference opponent.
Of course, Georgia would reap a similar benefit from bringing Georgia Tech into the league, and I would stand foursquare against any attempt to add the Yellow Jackets to the SEC. Since the Engineers bailed on the SEC in the ’60s and left us high and dry where scheduling was concerned, of course, every team in the conference ought to feel bad blood toward the Golden Tornado.
The Tigers have no such taint . . . and, in fact, a couple of Georgia-Clemson games in the ‘60s counted as conference games for the Bulldogs because of Georgia Tech’s eleventh-hour defection.
Go 'Dawgs!
If the SEC expands,
I think the yearly schedule would expand from 8 conference games to 9 or 10, don’t you? Plus, South Carolina has never really subscribed to the Kentucky methodology of scheduling. We’re not looking to replace Clemson with an easier opponent, we’re looking to beat Clemson – maybe even twice in a row! I don’t think giving Clemson the resources and prestige the SEC has to offer aids our goal of beating them on a regular basis.
We haven’t made good use of our SEC advantages in football much, but I personally see that changing every year. The ACC isn’t even in the conversation for a being a good football conference anymore. That hurts recruiting, which hurts the overall quality of their football product.
Dum spiro spero - "While I breathe, I hope"
State motto of South Carolina
by The Feathered Warrior on May 25, 2010 11:31 AM EDT up reply actions
If expansion is all about the money...
… which is unquestionably is, then the biggest target for the SEC, without which the pain of expansion would just not make much sense, is the University of Texas. Adding the revenue and big-name appeal that would come along with the Longhorns and their marketing behemoth is a no-brainer for any conference that can pull it off… and the only existing conferences that could even think about it with a straight face (or without a conference re-naming) is the SEC.
I realize I’m tooting my own horn here, but I came up with a relatively simple solution for an expanded 15-team SEC over at DawgSports. All you really want is Texas, but you have to take Texas A&M for political reasons, and adding a 15th team would allow you to split into 3 divisions and still maintain an 8-game conference schedule that would allow you to play every team twice every 8 years.
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