SEC football should consider expansion on one condition
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SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey borrowed from Bob Dylan final summer at his conference’s media days when he teased what would before long sharpen into target: “I’m likely to go away you with this a single previous reminder: ‘Times are shifting,’ Sankey mentioned then. “It’s not simply a tune lyric. It is a reality.”
Two times afterwards, news broke of the SEC’s plunder of the Massive 12’s prized items, Oklahoma and Texas. That lit the fuse on a round of convention realignment that the Large Ten proved is significantly from finished when, last week, it seized Southern Cal and UCLA from the Pac-12.
With their new additions, the SEC and Big Ten will characteristic 16 teams.
Now, a diverse Dylan song title, recorded many years following the strike Sankey referenced, seems acceptable: Points have altered.
And they’re not performed shifting.
Be expecting the SEC and Huge 10 to continue on their quest to make even larger, richer and additional impressive mega conferences that morph the Electrical power Five into the Tremendous Two, although other conferences combat for scraps.
To retain its location atop university football’s throne, the SEC ought to be open to supplemental growth prospects, but cope with with care.
Do not insert just to add. Concentrate on excellent around amount, and nurture the SEC’s perfectly-manicured model somewhat than diluting it.
Inquire a enthusiast of an SEC football group what they adore about the sport and the convention, and they’ll observe the rivalries, the culture, the pageantry, and the custom. Individuals elements, combined with a excellent on-subject solution, make SEC soccer specific.
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SEC football is red Solo cups in the Grove.
It’s singing Tom Petty in The Swamp.
It is Kyle Subject basically shaking in the din.
It’s Legend from Alabama sounding off on “The Paul Finebaum Present.”
It is obtaining lit and eating crawfish at a tailgate in Louisiana.
It is a black costume and cowboy boots in South Carolina.
It’s boats on the Tennessee River.
SEC football is woven into the tapestry of the South, and vice versa.
USC and UCLA enrich the Big Ten’s price (hello there, Los Angeles media current market), and, as opposed to past additions Rutgers, Maryland and Nebraska, they may well raise the over-all product or service. But the Large Ten’s persistent enlargement initiatives haven’t cultivated a defined identification or footprint.
Rutgers and UCLA are divided by 2,800 miles. They will phone the exact league residence. Consider getting a Maryland volleyball player and getting to journey to USC for a midweek meeting match.
The SEC’s various expansions have expanded its footprint without having leapfrogging swaths of the nation. Welcoming Texas and Oklahoma into a convention that res
idences Arkansas, LSU and Missouri helps make feeling in a way that bringing Piscataway and Hollywood below the exact roof does not.
If the Pac-12’s leftovers request an exit, go away them for the Significant 10 or Huge 12 to consider.
You will not locate a one Cracker Barrel or Waffle Property in Washington state. Sorry, Huskies, your soccer plan is respectable, but the SEC is not for you. Exact for Oregon.
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So, which educational institutions would make feeling for the SEC? Permit the additions of Texas A&M, Oklahoma and Texas provide as a product for how to boost the solution when remaining on model.
Clemson would be a slam dunk, even though the ACC’s grant of legal rights deal that operates by way of 2036 could complicate an exit. Also within the ACC, Florida Condition, North Carolina and Virginia Tech would in shape the SEC’s identification. Miami would stretch the footprint and split from the Southern college or university-city mould, but the Hurricanes boast football pedigree and would provide rivalry games in opposition to Florida and FSU, need to the Seminoles join.
The SEC corralled the Oklahoma City media current market by welcoming the Sooners, but Oklahoma State remains for the taking. The Cowboys would be a sensible suit, and locking up Bedlam as a meeting clash would you should admirers and television executives, alike.
Things have modified, but some things stay the exact same.
The SEC nevertheless possesses a effectively-crafted, recognizable, cherished and useful manufacturer, and when eyeing growth prospects, it ought to carry on to retain that brand name in head.
Blake Toppmeyer is an SEC Columnist for the United states Today Network. E mail him at [email protected] and stick to him on Twitter @btoppmeyer. If you get pleasure from Blake’s coverage, take into consideration a digital subscription that will make it possible for you entry to all of it.
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