AllTideUp
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RE: It's been 8 years since the expansion. What are the results?
(07-02-2020 04:19 PM)JRsec Wrote: (07-02-2020 03:22 PM)AllTideUp Wrote: (07-02-2020 03:18 AM)murrdcu Wrote: (07-01-2020 03:30 PM)Soobahk40050 Wrote: Texas A&M is right about where the SEC before expansion would probably expect them to be. 34-30 is about 4.25-3.75 a year, i.e, 4-4 most years, at 7-5 or 8-4, with 9-3 or some 6-6 thrown in.
Missouri is a little odd because they won their division early and have since slid backward. I still wonder if a Big 10 invite came along if they would take it. Since the 2012 expansion I have moved to Missouri and would still say they are better cultural fit with that league. Wonder if we shouldn't have gotten VT when we took Missouri; I think it would have helped VT as the east was down then, and with Clemson's rise, it might have given Beamer-ball a few extra years.
[Note: playing that scenario out is tough. The ACC could have just replaced VT with Cincy/UConn at the time, or the combo of VT leaving and Maryland leaving later might have created a more drastic shift. If it did, perhaps Maryland doesn't even get a Big 10 invite, as the Big 10 goes after UVA/UNC/Duke/Syracuse/GT? Maybe they go west completely and do grab Nebraska/Kansas/Missouri. And if that happens, the Big 12 is down 5 schools: Nebraska, Kansas, MO, Colorado, and Texas A&M, not just four. Would it still have been TCU/WVU and one other, say Cincy or Houston? Or would the fifth school have been the straw that broke the camels back and sent Texas/Tech/OK/St. to the PAC? And if that is the case, then would the OBE still exist in some form? Maybe the OBE raids the ACC instead of the other way around?]
However, if the question overall is: Was the 2012 expansion a success for the SEC, I would still say the answer is yes, absolutely.
However, I would only give the SEC a B+. We don't really know what could have happened, but I think they could have gotten a better school than Missouri, like VT, or perhaps even made a much stronger push for OK back then.
As OU’s President Boren said at that time, OU would have seriously considered the offer the SEC sent A&M and OU had either Texas or Oklahoma State had also been offered.
Virginia Tech was a recent addition to the ACC due strong state politics persuading University of Virginia to pressure the ACC into adding their instate rivals. It might have been too soon for VPI leaders to ask the same folks in Richmond to let them jump ships again.
It's interesting when you think about it.
Apparently Texas did not receive an invitation?
I'm sure there have been back-channel discussions, but you'd think the SEC would have made that an option so that makes me wonder.
1. Would Texas A&M have backed out had Texas been in serious talks?
2. Was Texas so preoccupied with keeping their fiefdom together that there was no point in making a serious offer.
3. Did ESPN tell the SEC to lay off?
4. The SEC needed 2 new markets and is it possible they had no interest in acquiring more than 2 schools at this time?
We can safely presume that ESPN had no issue with the SEC chasing Oklahoma, but you'd think they would want to go ahead and sweep Texas up at the same time. It's an interesting little wrinkle in the discussion and I haven't thought about it before.
At the time Texas and Oklahoma were at odds. Boren wanted OSU to move with them and the SEC was under the contract mandate for 2 schools from 2 new markets, so no duplicates. This is yet another reason Texas wasn't included. A&M wanted in and the discussions were confidential until they committed. Oklahoma wanted confidential conversations as well and Boren wanted numbers but didn't want to commit so OSU was his excuse. He knew we weren't taking more than 2 and that A&M was in.
People frequently forget the situations when they look back what is now 9-10 years since the talks and 8 years since the joining.
If it makes things simpler going forward then offering Oklahoma and Oklahoma State as a package seems like a good move. Their combined viewership is pretty good. From there, we can see what shakes loose.
The ACC is still a weak link in a model that rewards viewership so I have to wonder what they could lose. You could still build a pretty strong league around Texas and the ACC football schools though...
Texas, Texas Tech, TCU, Baylor, Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State, and West Virginia remain at the moment. Add to them Florida State, Miami, Georgia Tech, Clemson, Louisville, and Pittsburgh. Now you've got 14 that cover very a very similar region to that of the SEC.
Move Virginia Tech and NC State into the SEC. We finally rest at 18.
Move North Carolina, Duke, Virginia, and Notre Dame into the Big Ten. They rest at 18.
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