A&M says "screw that".
https://www.espn.com/college-footbal...-want-join-sec"We want to be the only SEC program in the state of Texas," Bjork said. "There's a reason why Texas A&M left the Big 12 -- to be standalone, to have our own identity."
Texas and Oklahoma are reported to have reached out to the SEC about joining that conference.
I suppose this won't affect the ACC but you never know what might happen once conference realignment resumes.
A&M says "screw that".
https://www.espn.com/college-footbal...-want-join-sec"We want to be the only SEC program in the state of Texas," Bjork said. "There's a reason why Texas A&M left the Big 12 -- to be standalone, to have our own identity."
Q "Why do you like Duke, you didn't even go there." A "Because my art school didn't have a basketball team."
B12 grant of rights agreement is a significant obstacle. Longhorn Network an even bigger obstacle.
- This is disappointing to me. I still wish UT had gone to Pac 10 way back when even if A&M didn’t want to go. They backed out when A&M did, then A&M bolted (a smart move by A&M).
- That said, hilarious that A&M thinks they can do anything about it if this train is already moving. Their AD today looked like his dog died. If anything good comes out of this it’s UT crashing A&M’s party.
- The grant of rights with a few years left can be wiggled out of.
This is bad for college football and I think is going to further regionalize the sport.
Clemson is probably happy to let the SEC throw up more roadblocks between Alabama and the playoffs.
The college sports landscape is so depressing these days.
I think the grant of rights expires in 2025. Seeing as these things take a couple years to fully sort themselves out anyway, I could certainly see an announcement that Texas and Oklahoma are leaving for the SEC starting in 2025 (which could probably be moved to 2024 with a moderate exit fee by the schools to the B12).
Unless I missed something, I don't think the Longhorn network is much of a barrier as Texas would just take it with them to whatever conference they joined. The SEC Network will have plenty of programming with 16 teams even if they have to show a bit less Texas content than usual due to the presence of the Longhorn network.
I've seen estimates that adding Texas and Oklahoma would take the SEC's annual payout per school from $44 mil to $60 mil. That's a pretty significant change.
Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?
Should Texas and OK bolt from the B12, which many are saying is inevitable at this point, then the B12 is gonna be on life support and would be in prime position to get raided. I am sure it would try to recover by grabbing schools like Houston, Cincinnati, or Central Florida, it sure feels like the more likely outcome would be other B12 schools going to other conferences. This will set off another round of conference movement.
So, what does it do to the ACC? I'm sure Jim Phillips is working the phones trying to figure out how to make this help our league. I suspect that once the SEC goes to 16, other conferences will try to do the same. Phillips has already talked about wanting Notre Dame to join the conference. I think last season's football experiment with the Irish probably made that a bit more of a possibility. In addition to Notre Dame, I think Cincy would be a great addition -- strong in both football and hoops and a new, robust TV market. West Virginia, from the flailing B12, could be another good possibility, though they don't do much for our football footprint. I suppose I could see us looking into Houston, but they would be a pretty big leap outside of our regular conference footprint so I think that would be really unlikely. Tulane would seem like a good fit from a geographic and academic standpoint, but they would really need to upgrade their programs. I think Memphis could be an intriguing addition too.
So, -- with TV dollars being my primary driving factor -- my wish list would be (in order):
Notre Dame
Cincy
West Virginia
Memphis
Tulane
Central Florida
-Jason "if we don't care about the whole geographic thing, then Houston really jumps up that list... but I don't see the ACC reaching all the way into Texas" Evans
Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?
one had to know all along that a conference called the B12 with fewer than 12 teams has to be in trouble.
A short history of the Big 12:
Formed by combining Big 8 with four Texas teams from the Southwest Conference in 1996 -- Texas, A&M, Texas Tech, and Baylor. (Lots of luck, TCU, SMU, Rice and Houston!)
Lost four teams in 2011-2012 -- Missouri and A&M to the SEC; Colorado to the PAC-12, and Nebraska to the Big Ten.
Added TCU and WVU in 2012. (Sorry, we forgot to send your invitation in 1996, TCU.)
The only other major conference to have lost a school is the ACC with the departure of Maryland. (No comment.)
Sage Grouse
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'When I got on the bus for my first road game at Duke, I saw that every player was carrying textbooks or laptops. I coached in the SEC for 25 years, and I had never seen that before, not even once.' - David Cutcliffe to Duke alumni in Washington, DC, June 2013
Notre Dame is a must. The Big 10 will be coming after them hard and heavy. The ACC needs to suck it up, swallow it's pride and do what it takes to bring Notre Dame in as a full member.
Out of the others, West Virginia might not meet up to all of the ACC academic standards, but they are the best fit.
Two others the ACC should consider are U South Carolina. Maybe the bad blood between the 7 members they left high and dry has simmered. ACC members do play SC in most sports now. ( Where as the bad blood with Maryland is still very real ) .
The other to consider might be Kentucky.
Teams like Kansas, Baylor , Nebraska ( big 12 falling apart if Texas and Oklahoma leave ) I don't think will be considered due to geography. Yes, I know there is no geography any more, but if you're going to throw out geography then don't pick Baylor and Kansas to go after, go west to California lol.