SIAP: Texas, Oklahoma formally apply for SEC membership with an effective date of July 1, 2025
It has begun in earnest. I would say the chances that they actually wait until 2025 are slim to none.
Conferences are more than sports. There are numerous collaborations and conferences in many department between B1G schools.
Conferences are not just about sports. Do people not know this?
The Big Ten's activities extend beyond sports.
BIG should role out a beautiful red carpet for VA and UNC. VA might be easier to convince. UNC because of MBB is less likely. However, with coach K moving on, the possibility is higher.
If I favored expansion, I'd instead shoot for Georgia Tech and Virginia. For starters gaining a major recruiting foothold in the southeast, GT might not be top notch right now but they do have some amount of storied football history. But more than just that...
Instant built-in full house for the GT home games, probably also enabling them to upgrade/enlarge their facility. Or could they possibly even play some of their biggest games indoors just down the road in that shiney new stadium the Falcons had built? If nothing else play there temporarily if they upgrade on campus.
Quickly gain a ton of viewership for the conference from all the northern transplants who now lives in that ginormous metropolitan area.
No data to back myself up here, but a lot more fannies in front of TVs than Rutger ever gained. The Atlanta market is so much more into college football than NYC ever could pretend to be, it would be foolish not to just kick those tires but to jump if the opportunity presents itself.
Virginia would bring in an additional sizeable chunk of the mid southern coastal region, not to also mention a top-notch school and basketball program, one that's not tied to state rivalries like every school in Carolina.
Nobody in the ACC is getable until 2036. Grant of rights extends until then. Sure you could maybe do something like the SEC and snag someone a couple of years before GOR expires, but the Big 12 GOR expires in 2025.
Nobody in the ACC is doing a damn thing for at least the next decade.
The ACC buyout is $50 million, pocket change compared to what the TV revenues will be.
The buyout is in addition to the GOR. So they'd have to pay $50m AND they'd have to fork over all their Big 10 TV money until 2036 if they left the league. For however many years they'd be in the Big 10 before 2036, they'd be getting zero dollars for their media deals. Nobody is going to do that.
The latest rumor I’ve heard was that the B1G wasn’t looking to expand. If they can get away with it, I really hope that’s what they do. The more teams in means the less we’ll play the original schools, which is all I care about.
My man - I think worrying about the days of keeping the current BIG as is and playing all the original schools are done. Adapt or be significantly weakened is the new reality. The good news is the BIG has a stronger current position of visibility, money and power than the Big 12 (obviously) or the Pac 12 to be able to cherry pick some additional teams, expand and compete against the visibility/power the new SEC will possess.
No question that is what the path ahead looks like, but I’m not sure it’ll be something I’ll be willing to devote my Saturdays to. Obviously, I’ll wait to see what emerges after the dust settles. Maybe it’ll be awesome, but if it ends up looking more and more like the NFL and loses a lot of elements of what draws me to college football, like regional rivalries, a focus on perfect seasons, and an emphasis on bowl games, which is surely gone, I’ll probably just watch the NFL and Michigan play. Just honest feels here.
My feeling exactly.
A look at the history of Missouri's departure from the Big 12 for the SEC:
It's a little ironic that Mizzou and TX A&M bolted from the Big 12 in large part because dealing on a mutually beneficial basis with Texas was an exercise in futility, and now both have UT as a conference partner again.
The kid-glove treatment the conference gave to Texas was also a big part of the reason Nebraska bolted for the B1G back in the day. No way UT gets a nice round of applause during their goodbye tour of away games in any sport...
Yeah, the Longhorn network ran off every program in the Big 12 that moved the needle on TV/attendance except Oklahoma, and then, having weakened the Big 12 beyond repair, they ditched it too.
If you wanted to destroy a conference from the inside, you would do everything Texas has done over the last decade or so.
"If you wanted to destroy a conference from the inside, you would do everything Texas has done over the last decade or so."
Which is exactly why I've never wanted Texas in the Big Ten. Texas is the hot chick who's also a gigantically selfish pain in the ass, and the glamour of being seen with her wears off quickly.
I don't see how they last in the B12 after this season, let alone through 2025! They won't get any breaks from the conference in scheduling, officiating, finances, or social media. Away games will be a feeding frenzy of boo's and thrown objects. Like the oldtimer said above, it'll be a nasty divorce...
I also think the B1G needs to strike now. And by now, I mean identify 2-4 schools to bring in within the next month, or so, and schedule them into the conference for the 2022-23 football season. Basketball and other sports can integrate however that works out, but football needs the catbird seat for this expansion. To keep football revenues where the B1G needs them to be, they've got to fight an SEC power move with a power move. (And that means staying away from second tier targets like ISU, Cincinnati, Pitt, etc... - aim HIGH!)
If the BIG presidents maintain the position that AAU membership is a prerequisite for belonging to the conference, the list of feasibly poachable schools is pretty small.
I'm skeptical that any PAC12 program is going to bolt to the Big Ten by itself, and ACC schools like VA and UNC and GT have the media rights penalty standing in their way.
That leaves Iowa State and Kansas, and few on the fan side want them. But nobody really wanted Maryland or Rutgers in the conference, either...
Need to drop the AAU thing - this new entity needs to be about sports. Keep the AAU membership stuff to the schools already in the conference agreement, and make something new for sports. NIL has effectively ended the charade of 'college sports and amateurism', anyway. I mean, UVA, UNC, and GT don't move the needle for sports, either - unless you're looking to make a new basketball conference to replace the ACC.
I'm looking at USC, Clemson, Oregon, FSU, Washington, ND... Those are the programs that will match the SEC's football power grab.
Yeah, I'd never heard of the AAU until this week and didn't know it was a thing. But, ND is also not in it. And I imagine that wouldn't be a barrier if they wanted to join the B1G.
Any academic-focused club that includes Iowa isn't really that prestigious. I'm sorry, I don't mean to harp on it but for a conference that has Iowa and Penn State and Indiana and whatnot in it to start getting snooty about academics is just too ridiculous to handle.
All three of those schools are perfectly fine. No they are not Michigan, Northwestern, Wisconsin, or Illinois, but they are leagues ahead of Kansas, Iowa State, or Missouri.
Not that my personal experience is exhaustive or completely representative, but I’m always surprised by the national and international number of Iowa, Penn State and Indiana alums I encounter. I can’t say that about any of the Big 12 schools except Texas.
Yea I'll chime in too, the dig on Iowa is unfounded. It's a perfectly good institution.
"I'm sorry, I don't mean to harp on it but for a conference that has Iowa and Penn State and Indiana and whatnot in it to start getting snooty about academics is just too ridiculous to handle."
The Big Ten's emphasis on academics isn't based on the quality of undergraduate education—as a UM grad with two degrees I have no illusions about that—it's based on the size and influence of the post-graduate research activities, and every Big Ten school save Nebraska is in the top 50 of research institutions by funding. Every research institution in the top 50 by funding with a P5 football program that's within the Big Ten footprint is already a member of the conference, with the sole exception of Pittsburgh.
So this is the end of college football as we know it.
RIP Big 12
1994 - 2021
Whenever we see a football game where defense is purely optional we will remember you.
What happens to the Longhorn Sports Network?
It's easily the biggest boondoggle in ESPN history, and the SEC network is already part of the same ESPN umbrella. I imagine they make a press conference announcing the networks are being merged together and forgotten about by Big Mickey.
And in 10 years when you have to explain to people why the Big 12 imploded and why the Pac 16 never happened, they'll be astonished anyone was stupid enough to give one school a 24 hour cable network that nobody ever watched.
So far, none of the old Big 12 or SWC conference members (Tx A&M, Missouri, Arkansas) have set the SEC on fire since they joined it.
Oklahoma and Texas might be getting more than they're bargaining for athletically, but they obviously figure it's worth it financially.
Arkansas joined the league in a 10 year funk following Lou Holtz's firing. Missouri and Texas A&M have been roughly as competitive in the SEC as they were in the Big 12, they're just not main event programs and never have been.
Texas is already at historical lows for program success, it's not likely to get more shitty. It's more likely to stay exactly as shitty as it already was. Some programs, like Nebraska 10 years ago, think switching leagues will cure all that ails them, and we have ample proof that's not true, but it's not like Nebraska got WORSE joining the Big 10. They just stayed on the same trajectory they've been since college football conference consolidation started.
OU is the most interesting test case for realignment, because we've never seen a school operating near their peak switch leagues.
Yeah, and if the SEC does a geographical alignment the West would probably be Texas, OU, LSU, Texas A&M, Arkansas, Missouri, Miss St and Miss. If you're Oklahoma, that's not to scary. Sure a step up for the most part from what they see week in and week out in the Big 12, but not exactly a daunting path to the SEC title game.
The fact media rights is basically holding this up is pretty funny.
Assuming this isn't the end of teams looking to move out of the Big 12, it's going to be a wild couple of years.
I bet the attorneys across the footprint of the Big 12 and the SEC are licking their chops at the prospect of lawsuits and counter-lawsuits.
I never saw anything but I assume this is for all sports not just football correct? Some of the proposed leagues that include West Coast schools with the Big Ten would commit the secondary sports to some challenging travel schedules.
Not sure how the Big Ten can insist that AAU membership is of the utmost importance while simultaneously having a current university who is not an AAU member. Feels like if it were THAT important they would kick out the none AAU school
It's not. I have no idea why people think it is. It's not like money is awarded via athletic conference or something. It's earned on a school by school, department by department and proposal by proposal basis.
If OU/Texas called Warren and asked to join the Big 10 instead, the Big 10 would never mention the AAU thing again.
If OU/Texas called Warren and asked to join the Big 10 instead, the Big 10 would never mention the AAU thing again.
The Big Ten would at least consider Texas because it's an AAU member and a nationally significant research institution. Oklahoma is not either of those things.
Your assertion that the conference would accept OU without hesitation is bluster that you have no evidence for.
Of course it's just my opinion. But it's an opinion based on facts.
Fact: the Big 10 is an athletic conference.
Fact: the primary driver of revenue in the athletic conference is football.
Fact: Oklahoma is tied at the hip with Texas right now (apparently).
Fact: Oklahoma as a brand is more than just the markets in Oklahoma. They brings fans from throughout the plains and Texas.
Fact: the eyeballs and subs of all those plain states and Texas that aren't currently on the Big 10 network are worth a lot of dollars.
Ancillary facts: Oklahoma and Texas both shore up a fading brand, Nebraska, and help with recruiting Texas for all Big 10 members.
The AAU has nothing to do with the above, because research dollars don't have anything to do with an athletic conference. The AAU thing is a nice sop to those who still think the Big 10 has anything to do with academics and want to feel superior to other conferences, such as the SEC, that's about it.
We can move on our merry way and agree to disagree, but the above is pretty logical imho.
Nebraska was an AAU member when the Big Ten extended its invitation. By the time the membership became official, the AAU had expelled Nebraska because of a dispute over the AAU's metrics for membership.
The Nebraska chancellor at the time said that if Nebraska had not been a member when the Big Ten was considering expansion, Nebraska wouldn't have been invited to join.
FWIW, some Nebraska people blame Texas for instigating the AAU's expulsion of Nebraska.
Fact is, Nebraska was in the AAU when they joined the B1G. And they still would be if other AAU member presidents would return to including Nebraska's Medical School (on their Omaha campus) when reviewing Nebraska's AAU qualifications.
Ok, cool. Hook ‘em.
In all seriousness, they will be in the SEC by ‘22 or ‘23.
It's all BS. UT has a new football and basketball coach and wants to assert their dominance. It's called marketing.
I’m guessing they’ll play in the SEC in 2022
The slow death march of college football continues on. Every year that goes by more and more I watch smaller conferences and smaller league teams and less and less I care about major college football.
Hard to argue against this....NIL is a free for all, super power leagues forming, still have the bag everywhere, still the top 4 teams and everyone else. Not sure how someone DOESN'T think this is trending in that direction.
Will I wake up at 9am on the west coast, make a bloody then watch M play, cruz on into Pac 12 play at night....yes. But its...just....not...the...same. And it makes me sad. Although my wife likes it a lot more, she always says "wow Im surprised you arent as pissed as you once were after that game"
Demise of CFB is better for all marriages. lol
Why though? You don't want to watch Georgia play Oklahoma or something?
Nothing is stopping those 2 teams from playing now? How many times is OU and Georgia going to play each other in a 20 team conference?? This whole super conference idea is utter shit.
Exactly, with two 8 team divisions unless the SEC goes to 9 conference games you're only going to play a team in the other division once every 8 years. In order to make sure they get as many teams as possible into the playoff, they probably won't go to 9 games. They'll keep it at 8 so most teams can beat get 3 pretty sure W's in their non-conference schedule.
Georgia Southern, Middle Tennessee State and Louisiana-Monroe might as well join the conference too because they're probably on so many SEC schedules already anyway.
I’m ready to go all-in on the G5 teams. I’ve already started following Eastern Michigan fairly closely the last few years since they’ve been televised a lot more, and will make a few visits a year to the Sun Bowl to watch UTEP…they’re terrible, and I can’t think of a better time to become a fan than when they are at or near rockbottom.
I've been an Ohio U fan since the early 90s so I've followed the MAC for a long time and uts much more enjoyable