SEC Expansion Rumors Pull Virginia Tech in Just When We Think We're Out

we would go to the SEC anyways. Plus, I think if Virginia Tech went, UVa would have to be included in a package deal which wouldn’t happen.

Should the SEC accept Texas A&M and Clemson, the ACC would then also want to expand to 14 teams, which would lead to raiding the Big East again. My guess would be Pitt, WVU, and Syracuse, and becoming the SEC of college hoops.

First, as a member of the SEC Eastern Division, VA Tech would RARELY travel west of the Mississippi. Tech would would play 1-2 SEC West opponents on a rotating basis. Arkansas is west of the Mississippi (944 mi from Blacksburg) while Baton Rouge sits on the Mississippi. If A&M and/or Oklahoma joins the SEC, they would be the two most distant teams at 1174 and 1098 mi, respectively. But, again, you would play them ocassionally. In the SEC East, the most distant venue is Gainesville (624 mi). The remainder of the Eastern Division opponents are within 416 mi (Nashville) or less. I really think the distance thing is a non-issue.

Now in terms of stadium size, Vanderbilt is the smallest stadium in the East Div with around 40K capacity. Kentucky is the second smallest at 68K and South Carolina is next at 80,250. The remaining SEC East stadiums hold 89K, 93K; and 104K. If VA Tech joins the SEC, it will have the second SMALLEST stadium capacity in the SEC East (66.2K) and would be in the bottom 4 among both divisions. Do you want to see stadium expansion in Blacksburg? It will happen much faster if the Hokies are in the SEC.

In the West Div, MSU is currently expanding to 55K and Ole Miss is at almost 61K. After those two comes Razorback Stadium ar 72K, Auburn at 89K, LSU at 92.4K and BAMA at 102K. If A&M joins and/or OU, there stadium capacities are 83K and 82.1K, respectively.

This I can promise you: much more energetic and exciting venues than where Tech plays now. You cannot beat the excitement of Bryant-Denny, Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge on Saturday night, the Swamp in Gainesville, Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, between the hedges in Athens, Columbia SC, Auburn, or the Sooo-eey Pig yells in Fayettville. You haven’t seen gorgeous women until you’ve tailgated at the Grove in Oxford, MS where “they redshirt Miss Americas” as Tim Brando is fond of saying. Now throw in the tradition and gameday atmosphere at Aggie Stadium in College Station and possibly Norman, OK where a rousing rendition of “Boomer Sooner” plays while the wagon circles the field. Please, it doesn’t get any better….ANYWHERE. This is college football’s version of heaven.

If VA Tech has a chance to get in the SEC and hesitates even a little, the administration needs their heads examined. You can’t let an opportunity for the big time slip by. Even brainstorming excuses why you shouldn’t is crazy.

My intent was to encourage the Hokies to join the league, not offend your pride.

Most would view that as an indication that Tech is highly respected and considered a desirable program not take offense at the overture. Sorry you took it that way.

Drive on, I’ll leave your thread alone.

Let’s face it Hokie fans, if we goin the SEC we are a 6 and 6 football team year in and year out. We would have to play Bama, LSU, Auburn, Georgia, Florida, Arkansas, Mississippi State, Tennessee, etc. I don’t think we want that every week.

It would also complement Texas A&M in that both have comparable quasi-military traditions and have made major strides academically in recent decades. (Heck, both even have maroon as a primary color.)

People assume the ACC is rock-solid, even though it’s a tier below the Big Ten and SEC in finances (the Pac-12, which is finally taking advantage of its geographical advantage, will soon join them) and really isn’t perceived as having a marketable football brand. Therefore, it’s just as vulnerable as the Big 12, albeit for different reasons.

If the Big 12 is nearing oblivion, with Texas aiming for independence (thanks to its Longhorn Network deal with ESPN) and A&M SEC-bound, every other BCS member below the Big Ten, SEC and Pac-12 are in play (though Notre Dame will stay independent in football). Therefore, I could see the commissioners of those top three leagues divying up their preferences from the other three (though to be honest, I don’t see any Big East teams being assimilated, aside from the longshots of Rutgers for the Big Ten and West Virginia for the SEC).

How about:
SEC adds Missouri, Texas A&M, Virginia Tech and N.C. State (four new states, without anyone of the problems adding Clemson or Florida State would bring)
Big Ten adds Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina and Duke (the core of the ACC, impact in the affluent mid-Atlantic region, and good academic/athletic fits with current members, especially Penn State)
Pac-12 adds Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Kansas (one football brand and one basketball brand to the mix; this might be the most problematic because Okie State is piggybacked — thank you, T. Boone Pickens! — and K-State isn’t.)

What’s left? The nine Big East schools (counting Texas Christian), six ACC remnants, and Baylor, Iowa State and Kansas State from the Big 12. That’s enough to form one 18-member conference (unlikely) or two leagues, one of 10 members, the other of eight; one of those leagues might be a replenished ACC. No one is going to be left out in the cold.

I’ve tried to take into account political considerations and the varied needs and aims of different conferences. The Big Ten has different goals and priorities than the SEC, which in turns has a different approach than the Pac-12.

A&M and Tech would be perfect cultural fits for the SEC, Missouri and NCSU perhaps less so, but the SEC almost certainly has to do a two-east, two-west expansion to reach 16. All things being equal, it would prefer Oklahoma, but political considerations would require Okie State tag along. So settle for Mizzou and hope, as was the case with South Carolina, the SEC brand can repair a rather dysfunctional athletic program.

For the Big Ten, its dream is Notre Dame, but that dream isn’t happening. Missouri is a rather ho-hum candidate from its perspective, and while Rutgers might work, it still hasn’t developed a long-term, big-time athletic program, and other talked-about Big East candidates add even less in the blend of athletics, academics and research. (Remember, the Big Ten institutions plus the University of Chicago have their own research consortium, which handles hundreds of millions of dollars in research.) As a unit, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina and Duke add a fast-growing part of the country to the Big Ten — along providing insurance of a sort if the midwest continues to struggle. None are big football brands, but Nebraska already took care of that, and perhaps association with the Big Ten, rather than the lackluster ACC, would pay off for all four. They would also bolster Big Ten hoops, as they have won five of the last 11 NCAA men’s titles and all four are perennial women’s powers.

The Pac-12 can add both OU and Okie State with little problem, and Texas Tech’s relative proximity to Colorado helps, too. The fly in the ointment might be breaking up Kansas and K-State; if worse comes to worst, substitute Texas Christian.

Using my scenario in the earlier post, how might the “what’s left?” teams divide? How about two nine-team conferences (yes, I said 10 and eight previously, but nine does allow eight conference games for all)::

“North” conference: Boston College, Cincinnati, Connecticut, Iowa State, Kansas State, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Syracuse, West Virginia
“South” conference: Baylor, Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Miami, South Florida, Texas Christian, Wake Forest

The above might work as one league with separate divisions if it had to.

Were Tech to bolt for the ACC, the entire conference is in play — and Maryland, with an athletic department in red ink and stuck in a conference with no marketable football brand — would be available. However, I would be shocked if it was pursued by the SEC. The Big Ten is a much better cultural fit for College Park, as the Washington area is teeming with Big Ten alums and joining that conference would be a step up for Maryland athletics, academics and research.

Maryland might leave on its own, but it would probably prefer not to go it alone unless it absolutely had to. If the writing seemed on the wall that the ACC was tottering (which it will as long as it has no football brand to speak of), and that leaving for another conference was the only way its core members could assure themselves of a secure future, UVa, UNC and possibly Duke would also flee, although political considerations might require the Big Ten to take NCSU instead of Duke in order to land the prize that is UNC. In that event, the SEC’s second team from the east might be West Virginia, assuming Clemson or FSU would be vetoed by South Carolina or Florida, and Duke is left among the ACC remnants who ultimately merge with Big 12 leftovers and the Big East football schools.

From Orangebloods,com, a U. of Texas site:

I’m a bit skeptical of this, if only because going 3/1 west/east would force the SEC to put Auburn in the east while keeping Alabama in the west. I don’t see them splitting. It’s possible that Oklahoma and Okie State are playing the SEC and Pac-12 against each other in order to secure the best possible deal.

http://texas.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1250840