Houston Chronicle reporting both Texas and Oklahoma have reached out to SEC about joining conference
This story just broke a few minutes ago and the only source is currently paywalled but Houston Chronicle football reporter Brent Zwerneman just tweeted out that both Texas & Oklahoma are looking to join the SEC.
Now THAT would be a super-conference. Whoa.
Houston Chronicle exclusive: Texas, Oklahoma reach out to SEC about joining conference https://t.co/tw2Qm3yeoj via @houstonchron
— Brent Zwerneman (@BrentZwerneman) July 21, 2021
I wonder if Texas A&M has power to veto this, similar to UGA's position on GA Tech. A&M left the Big 12 and its annual game against UT for a reason. I'm sure it's nothing money can't solve but it's an issue.
OSU (not Okie State) next to reach out? One can hope.
OSU would never join the SEC. They might actually loose a game before the playoffs, and I am not sure the SEC comish would give them the easiest crossover games.
They should tighten things up if they are loosing games.
They would get 6 of the 12 playoff spots every year
Six? Try nine. The other spots are reserved for Clemson, OSU, and ND (whenever they run the table).
Otherwise, we all know about the might of SEC, baby.
The B1G can add Wake Forest and UMass to get the lucrative North Carolina and Boston markets.
East Carolina and James Madison - that’ll really grab the VA/NC market by the balls.
Maybe the B1G goes all out and finally gets the coveted Cali and Florida markets by bringing in San Diego State and FAU while they are at it.
Mmmmm, Boston Market.
I can upvote again! So happy that I can give ups to this post. The B1G brand is sure to take over everywhere.
Beyond "zomg SEC getting better" the biggest issues for me are:
1. For years we've heard any move by Texas or Oklahoma would force the league that added them to take Oklahoma State and Texas Tech for political reasons. There's no hint that's involved here, was that speculation for years or has something fundamentally changed?
2. Pac 12 seems doomed too. Their big hail mary for years has been trying to lure Texas and Oklahoma to the Pac 12 to fix their problems of not having enough football-centric major brands in the league. It almost happened once, even. Now that it seems that won't happen, it would seem the Pac 12 is doomed to be stuck with their sub par situation with little room to expand.
3. What happens to the Big 12? Do they raid the AAC or does the AAC raid them? Kansas Basketball is the only program that has any real value there if you take those two programs away.
Great points all.
I cant help but wonder if OSU would consider bolting from the B1G to join a mega-super conference.
That would Ultramega Ok (think I have just dated myself... can't go wrong with early Soundgarden though)
OSU has it easy right now. Why would they leave?
Big 12's television contracts are about to be greatly diminished in value.
Not that OSU
If the NCAA really ceases to be a governing body for BIG TIME COLLEGE FOOTBALL, then yes, I could see Ohio St leaving to join that with Notre Dame.
At what point does a conference become too large to manage? If the SEC does add Texas and Oklahoma, that will put them up to 16 members with presumably two 8-team divisions. If each division member plays all the others every year, they can schedule 1-2 teams in the other division with 3-4 non-conference games (keeping in mind that most of those ADs are not going to want to drop non-conference games for the revenue).
If they add Ohio State and (I assume) another team, then they'd be up to 18 with two 9-team divisions. At that point, your division is practically a conference by itself. Playing all the other teams in the division leaves four games (most likely one cross-division game and three non-conference games).
(Sure, you could *not* play all the other teams in your division but you're asking for trouble when Alabama and Georgia or Texas and Alabama or whoever tie for the division lead without playing each other.)
At some point, you might as well stop calling it a conference and start calling it a league within a league.
If they go to 16 teams, it will be 4 pods of 4, not two divisions of 8. - Clay Travis
Why would they, they own the B1G, and it makes just as much money for them.
Yeah that's the thing, the Big 10 is just a perfect place for Ohio State. They make just as much money as the SEC schools but currently they face no real opposition.
I know this may not be popular, but the struggles of programs like Michigan and Penn State to consistently be in the same discussion with Ohio State and the top SEC programs has nothing to do with money. We have plenty of money. We just don't use it properly, and they do.
Please define what you mean when you state that Michigan is not using money “properly”. In comparison to OSU, Alabama, Georgia, LSU who “are” using money properly.
They’re good football teams and we’re dogwater.
I think he means that they put their money toward their players. The best way to accumulate talent is to pay for it. Meanwhile, legacy programs like ours will continue rely on our brands and try to see players as "student athletes" rather than professionals. Not saying I like it, but here we are.
I was thinking he meant exactly what you say here. But, one never knows, so I asked.
Texas A&M bailed a decade ago and didn't have to take anyone. So my guess is that the political winds have shifted a bit with regards to this.
I'm not sure what the Big XII / AAC do. Position itself as a football conference halfway between the Power 4 and Group of 5? Could be a major hoops and baseball conference though.
Pac 12 has few answers. Go after a pissed off Nebraska and some other team? Be a national conference and rebrand?
Pac 12 would have to pull off something insane like adding Notre Dame in addition to Nebraska, but the idea any school would leave Big 10 media deal money for the Pac 12 is just not realistic. And why would Notre Dame pick the Pac 12 over the ACC which they seem comfortable with or the Big 10 who would pay them more money than the Pac 12 could?
It seems like we just saw the college football world get locked into a hierarchy where Big 10/SEC are permanently above everyone else with no chance to surpass them in money, with the ACC having a chance to lock in number 3 if they snare Notre Dame. Pac 12/Big 12/AAC seem interchangeable and only just barely in the same conversation with the above 3.
I doubt Texas and OU give a shit about Okla. St. and the like. And they can always arrange rivalry games.
They are public universities. It’s not entirely up to them.
1) Texas was always going to do what it wanted to do. The political pressure on Oklahoma was real, but politics can change with new people in office and if the money is big enough. I would bet on Ok St to the PAC-12/14/16/18.
2) The PAC-12 has a strong brand out west, a lot more stable history than the Big 12. They can poach at least a couple of the better Big 12 schools if they want to. Slim pickings there, in my opinion.
3) The Big 12 is toast if the other conferences are willing to raid them. What kind of TV contracts could they get without Texas and OU? The ACC will take Kansas and promise ND they can play them every year if they sign on as a full member. The PAC-12 will take OK St and the Texas school they find the least objectionable. The Big Ten will pass on the Big 12 leftovers and try to poach schools from the ACC. GT, Pitt, Syracuse would all jump at the chance.
Sorry but you need to type it out as $€¢
At this point, I’m assuming this would only be temporary, as the SEC/haves of college football eventually break away altogether to make their own premiere league in CFB.
That seems like the point to me. They become bigger than the NCAA, start making their own rules and dare the NCAA to do anything about it. Then the Big10 starts adopting the SEC rules and the NCAA is pushed out of college football.
Don’t forget that the schools empower the NCAA, and that without the schools cooperation the NCAA is nothing. There seems to be this school of thought that the NCAA is s separate entity instead of an association of all the colleges/universities that belong.
You mean, like a Super League?
If this happens is there a P5 any longer? What's the Big 12 without Nebraska, Texas, and Oklahoma? It turns into what used to be the Big East. Does if affect the B1G? I can't decide if it's good for Texas & Oklahoma or not. If they can compete it's good. But, surely you'd think they are behind Bama and also maybe UGA and FLA. If you've got another guaranteed loss every year does that hurt or help being in the SEC. I mean the top 3-4 in the SEC are likely to make an expanded playoff of 12 teams most years. Do we see either of those teams regularly being in the top 2 of a division? Maybe Clemson & Miami want to join the B1G lol.
I think it's good for them. They get life rafts in the best FB league--they would always land somewhere, but not necessarily in the SEC. A&M can't recruit against them as "SEC FOOTBALL." I imagine the TV contract money would be renegotiated and ridiculous. Lastly, with an expanded playoff they would have a chance to compete. A 9-3 Texas in the SEC might get a home playoff game.
Everyone looks at it as too much competition, but it's not like they were winning a bunch of national titles in the Big XII. And the NFL Draft has been a complete wasteland for the league which has to have a recruiting effect.
A 9-3 Texas in the SEC might get a home playoff game
Do you see Texas going 9-3 in the SEC west against Bama, LSU, TAMU, Oklahoma, etc and that's without potential cross division games against UGA, FLA, etc? They have only lost 3 or fewer games once in the last 10 years and that was last year in a shortened schedule. They've been losing to TCU, TTech, & Iowa St (and Okla), etc never mind Bama, LSU, etc.
I assume if Texas/OU joins, Alabama/Auburn move to the east
Bama, UGA, and FLA in the same division, yikes! UGA and FLA are about to get a taste of what UM and PSU have been going through for years with OSU in the B1G east...no division titles, no conference championships, and irrelevance.
If only the rest of the country could get some reprieve and get Bama, OSU, and Clemson is the same division so they can suffer too!
It's interesting - if you include Notre Dame, there are 65 power 5 teams. That almost works with 4-16 team conferences. Maybe you could leave Notre Dame as an independent...
Hate to be that 65th team, if the result is 4 16 team power conferences...
So I might just be bummed about how my program is doing but college football is really starting to lose its luster. I love the new NIL changes and they were long overdue but this would kill the sport for me. I hate the mega conferences and the competitive imbalance is getting so great they might as well not even be playing the same sport. The stuff that made me fall in love with college football isn't enough anymore.
Unfortunately CFB has been trending towards this more NFL model ever since the BCS. It was inevitable. And, you're right, it sucks.
Same boat for me. I never thought I’d be more interested in NFL than college.
I knew from a young age that it was never an innocent game of student athletes playing for the love of their school and I knew that money was definitely at play in deciding where players attended and how programs guided decisions, but the last decade or so has transformed college football into something I don’t even recognize.
Like you, maybe the fact Michigan has been a joke since the App State game has made me feel this way more than I should, but it just feels like the game is no longer as enjoyable because of all of this.
If that happens, you can kiss the Big XII goodbye.
I wonder if the B1G would try to swoop in and pick up anyone afterwards. I'm not sure what kind of school KU is, and their football team is probably the biggest FBS disaster in America, but man they would be one hell of an addition for basketball coverage. Conventional logic would probably say that the Big Ten plucks ISU, though.
As for Texas and Oklahoma, I'm sure this is all money-related otherwise they wouldn't be reaching out, but I'm not sure why they'd want to make it harder on themselves to win a national title by going to the SEC. With them being out west they're going to have to contend with A&M, LSU and Alabama every single year.
I personally would rather stay as the big fish in the Big XII, feast on considerably easier competition, and have an easier path to the playoff that way. But again, I'm sure this is all about $$$ otherwise this conversation never happens.
I thought Texas had their own cable network. That they were bringing in more money than most other teams, and the most in that regard in the Big 12 .
You/ve got it right.