https://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/sec-fo...nferences/


The SEC adds Florida State, Clemson, Texas A&M, and Virginia Tech

The SEC makes the first move and decapitates the ACC. Florida State and Clemson get the invite over muted grumbles from Florida and South Carolina. The schools accept, after a few minutes of rejoicing.

Texas A&M still joins. That move has worked out well for both conference and program. Though, one could ask whether Texas A&M fans would enjoy winning and competing for the Big 12 and beating Texas more than being middle of the pack in the SEC. The conference needs one more school as a makeweight. Consistent football potential trumps TV market. Welcome, Virginia Tech.


A 16-team Southeastern Conference

These moves accentuate what the SEC brand is: the preeminent college football competition. The conference has more balanced divisions. The recruiting stranglehold in the South grows even stronger. The best of the best are playing in the SEC. There are top draw games every weekend.

The SEC sticks to modern tradition. Two divisions, East and West, meet in Atlanta to determine the SEC champion.

East: UF, UGA, Tenn, SC, FSU, Clem, VT, Van
West: TA&M, LSU, Ark, OM, Miss St., Ala, Aub, Kent

Essentially swaps VT for Mizzou. Adding Clemson and FSU would be huge content multipliers.

Let's go further back. To the late 70's. What if Arkansas had the votes and support of the Big 8 members to join their conference. Would the Big 8 still be around today?

(07-05-2017 10:34 PM)hawghiggs Wrote:  Let's go further back. To the late 70's. What if Arkansas had the votes and support of the Big 8 members to join their conference. Would the Big 8 still be around today?

These are the posts I like! I still think the Big 9 (with Arkansas) go for 12 with Texas, Texas A&M, and Texas Tech.

From there, if I were the XII, I'd have gone to 14 with Utah and BYU.

(07-05-2017 10:41 PM)BePcr07 Wrote:  

(07-05-2017 10:34 PM)hawghiggs Wrote:  Let's go further back. To the late 70's. What if Arkansas had the votes and support of the Big 8 members to join their conference. Would the Big 8 still be around today?

These are the posts I like! I still think the Big 9 (with Arkansas) go for 12 with Texas, Texas A&M, and Texas Tech.

From there, if I were the XII, I'd have gone to 14 with Utah and BYU.

The Big 8 is interesting. If it did still exist or existed with Ark and then grabbed a few Texas schools, then the instability still exists, Nebraska and Colorado still leave.

We could have still ended up with a similar situation to today, with the SEC chasing large parts of the Old Big 8.

As it is we already have Missouri and Ark. Add Kansas, OK and Ok State along with Texas A&M in this scenario and that's 5 of 9, with the Big 10/PAC 12 each having one and KSU and ISU being left behind.