slimm will be all over this in no time to shed some light on the subject i'm sure ...
The thing about GT is, they left the SEC willingly.... I'm sure there's not a lot of love lost between GT and the SEC... besides the other factors that I've already mentioned...
FSU makes sense... but FSU and Miami have already had an opportunity to join the SEC and didn't want to... they didn't want to have to play the SEC schedules every year... They wanted to join the ACC and thought they would rule that conference in football.... didn't happen.
UM to the SEC isn't happening to begin with.... they're just not SEC material. They have no fan support outside of the southern tip of Florida.... and very little there. Nobody from the SEC wants to travel halfway to Cuba every year to play in an empty stadium. And they don't bring the tv market.... nobody in the Miami area even watches college football on tv. It's a pro sports town... not enough dollars to go around.
The SEC wants Texas.... and that huge Texas market. Similar to the Pac-10, the SEC would probably accept A&M as a package deal to get Texas.
Louisville, UNC, etc.... all these basketball schools are going to be at the bottom of the barrell on the SEC''s grocery list. College football pays the bills.... expansion is about money.... college football=money. College basketball isn't what it was 15 years ago...
Basically, any University that has a "State", "Tech", University of "a pro sports city", a directional school (South Florida, etc.) or anything else in their title isn't prime pickins' for the SEC....
Texas is....VT is because of their DNA, dedicated fanbase, tv market, and culture..... Florida St. is because of the same culture...
Texas, FSU, or VT would be who the SEC is most interested in...
too bad about UM IMO. they've got the athletes too compete in the SEC - if their recruiting and coaching was what it once was they'd be ideal. damn school is too committed to academics though - which i guess is fine by me since UF has been snagging a lot of those elite south florida recruits.
texas would be great but i know the pac 10 is lobbying hard to get them - and they would easily dominate that conference - as it remains right now at least. plus i'd rather have two elite programs like FSU and VT rather than one elite program and its tag along.
Hey guys..a little scuttlebutt I've been hearing from my dad's cronies up at the Capstone,
and think about it a little before rushing to judgement...but don't be surprised if
West Virgina gets a invite to the SEC.
nice post as always, slimm. this is gonna get real ugly real fast. there will be a frenzy to absorb some of those big name stragglers that have no choice but to pick a poison. notre dame really, really intrigues me in all of this. i think these conferences are gonna be falling all over themselves to get the irish to join - i mean - who wouldn't? they don't really pose that much of a threat competitively and talk about cashing in.
the big 12, big east, and mountain west are all but done for. the ACC might be as well to be honest. so these new monsters are gonna be the big 10, the pac 10, and the SEC? the ACC has a chance to join this group but they'll have to get creative fast - while competing with the SEC if they don't get absorbed. and everyone else is just more irrelevant i suppose? wow this is gonna get messy.