There is nothing better in college sports than longstanding rivalries. It’s even better when they lead to schools leaving conferences.
The folks at Texas A&M is tired of the University of Texas’ smugness (in their eyes), the smugness being Texas’ Longhorn Network which, partnering with ESPN, is a 20-year deal worth $300 million. While I do get that Texas is being selfish by not allowing any of that money to be shared, it shouldn’t have gotten A&M’s panties in a bunch.
Now A&M is taking its ball to the Southeastern Conference. Now both the SEC and A&M are in mad love with each other (A&M had a chance to join last season, but stuck around last season).
Turns out that yesterday the SEC voted against conference expansion.
All that did was delay the inevitable. There’s a source that says the SEC will announce A&M as its new member within 21 days. All the SEC is waiting on is another school to jump to be its 14th member.
Word on the street is that 14th member may come from the ACC – Florida State, Virginia Tech and Clemson. If not those schools, then perhaps the SEC will consider Missouri.
I believe that there is a dark horse in the running for the 14th team in the SEC: my alma mater NC State.
NC State suffers from the same inferiority complex towards UNC as A&M does with Texas. State just wants to get out of UNC’s shadow, and while we’ll get our heads beaten in for the next three years in SEC football, it would be HUGE for our recruiting. We’d be the only school in North Carolina in the SEC! Besides, The Sporting News mentioned them as a possibility for a reason.
So what do NC State and Texas A&M have in common? Envy.
Couple that with conferences looking to rake in more tens of millions of dollars, and you have all the ingredients of rabid conference expansion. Hell, once those dominoes fall with A&M and another team going to the SEC, you better believe conferences will be scrambling to either replace teams and/or get bigger.
The era of the super conferences (14-16 teams) is upon us. It’s going to be fun and crazy times in college football in the next few weeks.
Categories: college basketball, college football, sports story
This isn’t about greed and envy, but it is about fairness. The SEC evenly splits the money it receives from football television, bowl games, SEC Championship Game, basketball television, men’s basketball tournament and NCAA Championships. In other words, Vandy & Ole Miss get the same amount of money from the SEC that Alabama and Florida does. In 2009, the money shared between member schools and the SEC Office was $209 million. Texas was only looking out for Texas when they signed the deal to create the Longhorn network. When A&M grew a brain and inquired about joining the SEC, the PTB in Texas got scared. A&M to the SEC will happen. Once they divorce the Big 12, they will move. There are a number of legal issues that need to be resolved. The main one being the $30 million price tag A&M will have to pay for leaving the Big 12.
I wouldn’t count on NC State being the 13th or 14th team added to the SEC either. If we made a decision to add a team from North Carolina, it would be a top tier basketball school (Duke or Carolina).
From reading more blogs and sports outlets, I think that Oklahoma will be the next school to join the SEC…
Dude i enjoyed your article and your perspective, and hope to see more from you…..BUT –
the part about NCSU getting its brains beaten in for *three* years in the SEC made me literally throw back my head and howl with laughter!
Klown, if NCSU joins the SEC, they will immediately become no better than the TENTH-best football program in the 14-team league.
If your alma mater joins the best college football conference in the land, you can look forward to measuring periods of futility in decades, not years. Just know this.
But the money will absolutely be there, so…….who knows?
Best,
-js
Hey, one only dares to dream right? While I said State would get its head beaten in for three years, I was being EXTREMELY optimistic (what do you expect, I’m an alum lol)…
I gotcha. Good luck either way!
-js