The SEC

Recap: Texas A&M has left the Big 12 and pursued life as an Independent (ie avoiding conference affiliation fees associated with the SEC).  Oklahoma and Oklahoma State decided they are off to pursue the money of the Pac 12.  As a result Texas is forced to give up the Longhorn Network and buy into the Pac 16, bringing along Texas Tech.  The remnants of the Big 12 (Baylor, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, Iowa State) are forced to see how the dominoes fall on conference alignment.

Tonight I will be exploring how the SEC would proceed in a Super-conference push.  I am a strong advocate of the strength of rivalries.  I have seen MLS flourish in the NW because of the foundation of the rivalry.  I am however a realist and recognize that the college football landscape is dominated by Revenue, not Rivalries.  I will offer my Rivalry system in this blog as well as explore the more likely revenue based possibilities. The only way the Super-conference movement occurs is if the SEC gets Texas A&M in their conference.  The SEC would only expand to create a footprint in Texas for recruiting and revenue purposes.

SEC West:
Louisiana State
Arkansas
Alabama
Auburn
Ole Miss
Mississippi State
Texas A&M
Missouri*

3 options for the 8th team in the West: Missouri, Baylor, Texas Christian
Honestly, I don't feel like Baylor adds much more to a Texas A&M rivalry than Missouri.  Both were previous Big 12 members and I have other plans for Baylor (to be revealed at a later date).  Texas Christian is the least likely, but still a possibility.  Picking up TCU would give the SEC the Dallas market as well as the Houston market from Texas A&M.  However I think when the day is done, Mizzou gets the nod due to the St. Louis market and proximity to Louisiana and Arkansas.  This is actually what I preferred but the other 2 options are possible as well.

SEC East:
Florida
Georgia
Tennessee
Vanderbilt
South Carolina
Kentucky

options for the SEC East: Clemson, Florida State, Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, Louisville

This is where the SEC and I differ on revenue vs. rivalry .  The SEC will probably pick up Florida State and Virginia Tech to pick up a presence in the D.C. market and a big win school like Florida State.  If they didn't, my ACC configuration would work out nearly perfectly.  Revenue based expansion will pick up the aforementioned schools.  I personally would like to see the SEC pick up Clemson and Louisville.  Why?  Take a look at how the rivalries would look:

SEC East:                                               SEC West:
Florida-Georgia                                      Louisiana State-Arkansas
Clemson-South Carolina                         Alabama-Auburn
Tennessee-Vanderbilt                             Ole Miss-Mississippi State
Louisville-Kentucky                                Texas A&M-Missouri (or TCU or Baylor)

Anyhow, I think this would be pretty cool as 5 (maybe 6) of the rivalry pairs would be in-state rivals.  The other 2-3 would be border rivals.  Unfortunately the more likely scenario is posted below:

SEC East                                                           SEC West (same as above)
Florida-Florida State
Tennessee-Vanderbilt
Kentucky-Virginia Tech
Clemson-Georgia

Anyhow, tomorrow I will explore the effects of this expansion on the Atlantic Coast Conference and see how the ACC could adapt to develop a super-conference of their own.  This is actually my favorite layout of the super-conferences so you won't want to miss it!