(05-13-2014 10:23 AM)bigblueblindness Wrote:  

(05-12-2014 07:52 PM)JRsec Wrote:  Let's get back to the point. Given all of the data if the SEC expanded from the Big 12 we would be best served to move to 18 with Baylor, Texas, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State. I don't care about doubling markets those are the best athletic properties that are within a reasonable distance and have a more or less Southerly culture. I wouldn't call all of them Old South by any means.

If the SEC wants to get to 20 there are really only two programs in the ACC worth having for their merit: Clemson and Florida State.

Face it guys the SEC leads the nation in total revenue as a conference, even more than the mighty Big 10. The SEC leads the nation in viewing audience by 900,000 over the Big 10. We can talk markets until the cows come home but these six are the best football additions we can make to the conference and most of them have multiple sports at which they excel.

There is nothing for the SEC in North Carolina or Virginia other than a big market. Their product would weaken football, total revenue, and attendance (which the SEC also leads by 5,000 per game average), but would improve hoops and at least be on par in baseball.

As a football fan any of those 6 to get us to 16, or 18, but better yet to 20.

In terms of football prowess, you are correct, JR. Selfishly, I want a VA and NC school to give Kentucky more natural rivals. I bet South Carolina feels the same way. It has been hard for both of us to break into the Tennessee/Georgia/Florida love triangle at any level. Auburn is definitely a bigger rival to UGA and UF than either UK or USC, and Tennessee feels the same about Alabama. It is rough when our biggest rival, Tennessee, sees us as their 4th most important rival, at best. A VA and NC school really helps to round out potential pods of 4 or 5 schools. You could easily place UK and USC with those VA and NC schools and stop having to worry about us fitting in the existing rivalry structure. Just an addition of two of those schools to get to 16 sure is clean:

Pod A - Kentucky, VA, NC, South Carolina

Pod B - Georgia, Florida, Auburn, Tennessee

Pod C - Alabama, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Vanderbilt

Pod D - Texas A&M, LSU, Arkansas, Missouri


Are the pods unbalanced? Absolutely, but as long as overall conference record, not pod record, is used for the conference championship, then it matches up most of the important rivals for everyone. Pods as a scheduling device, not a determiner of champion, could really work well with a VA and NC school.

Adding two schools from the west would certainly help Missouri, but we would still be left with the UK/USC problem in the east. I know the TV numbers for the North Carolina and Virginia schools did not look great last year compared to the Oklahoma schools, but I still believe that there is a large percentage of VA and NC residents that identify strongly with Southern culture, and they just need a rallying point. That is what our schools represent to our states. If UK was in the Big 10 or ACC, the whole state of Kentucky would probably be seen as a tepid expansion candidate for the SEC. On the borders, it does not take much to be swayed either way. Maybe I am overly optimistic, but I believe if Virginia Tech and North Carolina State step back and see UVA and UNC in the same manner that TAMU sees Texas, they are primed to take the role as the Southern rallying point for citizenry. Even if only half of those states' citizenry come on board, that is still 10 million new faces that reconnect with their states' heritage and culture.

I am sure my UK fandom and frequent business travels in North Carolina are swaying my opinion, but I'm not ready to give up on NC and VA yet as tremendous additions to the SEC. I see many of those residents as SEC folks without a home. Some know it (see any ECU post on this site), and some don't know that they don't know it. Outside of FSU and Clemson, there are no more "signed, sealed, delivered" schools that will immediately fit into the SEC with no hesitations, similar to TAMU. However, NC and VA also do not have to combat the mysteries of a school like Missouri. They are fitting great, but we all had a learning curve with them. I think NC State and Virginia Tech would be somewhere between TAMU and Missouri in terms of transition ease.

I don't disagree with your assessment or your pod pairings at all. I just don't think that as long as the ACC looks stable and ESPN thinks they have a shot at Notre Dame that we will have any approved movement of ACC schools to the SEC. In the meantime I'm sure ESPN would love to more fully lock down the properties they might like to own in the Big 12.

If the economic disparity between the ACC and Big 10 get to a point that ESPN is no longer comfortable and fears defections I look for some kind of merger or agreement between the SEC and ACC to ameliorate the disparity and solidify the collective product. At that point dividing new divisions could definitely aid Kentucky by placing them with the Virignia's and North Carolina's. But, until then the only viable expansion product is to the Southwest and West from a product acquisition perspective.

I guess what I'm saying is that realignment to 16 or 18 will come from the west. Realignment to 32 or 36 will come by merger and that is the only way we get access to divisional play with ACC schools.

And the idea of a Big 10 / PAC merger may be a wild idea, but underpinning it is feasibility. FOX has a large network site in Los Angeles. It may be the only way to get the California schools the kind of money they are looking for. Corporate backers like the idea. 7 of the proposed 9 in the merger meet CIC requirements. It explodes the value of the Big 10 and props up the geographical value of the Midwestern states as the center point of the the Mega conference. And it gets around the PACN distribution problems by making it a subsidiary of the BTN. If something like that were to transpire the logical counter move for ESPN would be an SEC/ACC merger with the addition of key Big 12 properties. Under 1 umbrella the division into geographical groupings would benefit all.