Thursday, July 22, 2021

Musing of the Moment: SEC Expansion?

Yesterday less than an hour before Texas A&M Coach Jimbo Fisher gave his opening statement at SEC Media Days, news broke that allegedly the University of Texas and the University of Oklahoma had contacted the SEC about joining the conference. 

A&M obviously wants to remain the only Texas school in the SEC, which its athletic director clearly stated when interviewed by Paul Finebaum. 

However, going by the bylaws of the conference, there need to be 11 of the 14 schools who vote yes to new members. I think that's quite possible. 

I don't see the SEC turning this down because it would make them an even stronger conference, one that would rake in lots more cash and basically rule the college football world in a sport trending toward a 12-team playoff. 

Going to 16 teams might help with scheduling because one could eliminate the East-West conferences and use four-team mini conferences that would let teams play each more often that they normally don't get to. 

If you break it down by regions, here's a rough grouping of these mini conferences to my mind.

A) Texas, Oklahoma, A&M, and LSU
B) Alabama, Auburn, Ole Miss, and State
C) Arkansas, Mizzou, Kentucky, and Vanderbilt
D) Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee

With these groupings, the natural old East-West every year rivalry games could be kept. Alabama would always play Tennessee, and Auburn would always play Georgia, for two prime examples. 

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