Texas A&M, the SEC, and ESPN's questionable journalism

I disagree with your premise on one of those guys.

 

Nor is it not out of the realm of possibility. ESPN has cost certainty with an SEC contract, but if A&M is no longer a rival of UT, its investment in the LHN diminishes.

Either way, Bristol has to tread lightly because we're talking massive conflict of interest.

 

And this last mattered, when, in this context?

 

SEC has right to renegotiate if it adds members.

 

It's clear that there is interest in this happening. But the SEC needs one or more teams. There's a problem with that.

Florida will block FSU
South Carolina will block Clemson (and what does Clemson bring to the conference that SC doesn't already bring?)
If the SEC starts flirting with Missouri, does the Big 10 get involved to add Missouri and Kansas/Rutgers (whoever else) to not be left behind (remember, Missouri is an AAU school and it share that with the Big 10 members, but not many of the SEC members).

So if those three things don't happen, and there's reason to believe none of them would happen, then where does the SEC go? Or does the SEC land one of these three anyway?

 

If it stays out of its current footprint the only choices that make sense are West Virginia, Va. Tech & maybe NC State.

There are several reasons not to take Missouri.

1. It's fucking Missouri.

2. Bringing in two western teams will require at least one current SEC team to change divisions. Don't see that happening so the next team will have to come from the east.

3. Missouri doesn't bring much in terms of TVs. KU owns Kansas City & St. Louis is a much an Illinois town as a Mizzou town.

4. It's fucking Missouri.

 

St. Louis leans much more Missouri. Kansas City? Well, that's different.

 

I see no reason to take N.C. State. Why add another little brother school with an inferiority complex that barely draws 50k, if that?

 

I actually like Missouri coming in, but you'd almost have to come in with two in the east to make it work.

If you bring Missouri in, you can establish a state line rivalry with Arkansas (although that would suffer the same problem Arkansas has with LSU as a rival -- Columbia is on the other side of the state and is more interested in Illinois and Kansas as neighboring state rivals than it would be with Arkansas way down there south of Springfield).

LSU would have A&M as a natural rival (separated by about a five-hour drive mostly along I-10).

And you'd still have Ole Miss-State and Alabama-Auburn.

In the east you'd have to add two to balance it and that's where it gets tricky. I don't think 14 teams work with Missouri because unless you ship Missouri east, you'd have to break up Auburn and Alabama into separate divisions to create balanced divisions.

 

Initially, I thought Missouri made no sense, but it would be a good pairing with Arkansas.