Given that Missouri's Board of Curators authorized its chancellor to explore other conference options yesterday evening, a lot of speculation arose about the SEC's meeting of athletic directors today. Charles Bloom, the conference's P.R. guy, took the time to pour cold water on the rumors about the league accepting a third set of Tigers:
"Today's meeting of the SEC athletic directors was planned immediately following the announcement of Texas A&M joining the league. The purpose of the meeting was to integrate Texas A&M into the Southeastern Conference and plan for a 13-team schedule for all sports in 2012-13. The transition team from the SEC office made its initial report in this meeting to the athletics directors with the focus on scheduling and championship formats. The SEC is excited to have Texas A&M in the league and looks forward to having the Aggies compete in the SEC next year."
In other words, don't expect anything from today regarding the possible addition of Mizzou. It makes perfect sense, given that the conference presidents (and not ADs) are the ones who make those kinds of decisions. It seems to indicate that there won't be a 14th school entering the conference in time for the 2012-13 athletic year, but it's probably too early to rule anything out.
Scheduling with 13 teams per sport is a challenge. We've already looked at what a 13-team SEC football schedulemight look like, and it's headache-inducing to say the least.