(07-28-2022 06:36 PM)AllTideUp Wrote:  There are varying opinions on what exactly the new postseason will look like(for football much less basketball) and how much those tournaments will pay for expansion. One aspect of this postseason boost will be the conference tournaments that will surely expand in order to capitalize.

For the SEC, one important aspect of the new postseason world will be baseball and softball tournaments. These sports are about to turn into consistent moneymakers. They won't be the sort you make realignment decisions on because the money from those alone won't be significant, but they will add to the pot.

Aside from that reality, the new postseason formats will pay for a lot of this in addition to the new market dynamics of consolidation.

So from this perspective, who would the SEC be interested in showcasing during its own postseason? To be clear, I'm not talking about an SEC only playoff. I'm simply talking about conference tournaments.

For football the candidates are obvious...Florida State, Miami, Clemson...you could throw Virginia Tech in there and Louisville as well have developed solid football brands that will attract audiences should they find themselves in the conference semis.

For basketball, we again see usual suspects...UNC, Duke, Kansas, Louisville...Virginia maybe.

Thinking about expansion from this perspective brings a few things to bare.

1) The SEC has room to grow in a lot of different spheres. We could take a smattering from any one of these groups and add value.

2) If the postseason tournaments are valuable enough then perhaps 24 isn't big enough?

3) We'll be pitting ourselves against the same sort of setup from the Big Ten so we need to think in terms of beating them in the ratings game on this front as well. The only real weakness there is in terms of large basketball brands.

Just to provoke some thought...

If there is going to be only two super-elite conferences, it would make sense if they became very interactive in multiple sports and coordinate well on policies, rules, the post-season, promoting, marketing, etc. Not to say the two be exclusionary with regard to other important conferences; however, the SEC and BIG could function best in tandem. They do share a very long border in terms of states which will get further re-shaped. Play each other during the regular season where feasible. There are opportunities there to schedule some extraordinary games in fb, bb, etc.