Time for the SEC to attack

I forgot the “WHY”

The WAC was once a 16 team league until it split into the WAC and Mountain West. So, that doesn’t look good. The Big East has 16, but basketball only, and there is a huge gap between the minnows and sharks (Aside from Marquette, Georgetown and Nova, the Catholic schools cannot big time college basketball). It would actually work out to two 8-team leagues in a 16-team conference, which is what the Big East refuses to do for basketball.
As for dropping an SEC team, no way. Vanderbilt is the best academic school and only private school. If a team was dropped, it would actually be one of the Mississippi schools, which lacks the research dollars and TV markets everyone else has. Of course, the SEC shouldn’t drop anyone.
I would like to see Georgia Tech (rivalries with UGA, Auburn and is a former SEC school), especially for academics and cornering the Atlanta market. Texas or Texas A&M would be a nice add because of rivalries with LSU and Arkansas. Plus, Texas is pretty similar to UF and Georgia in sports and academics. Not to mention, Dallas and Houston being two of the top-10 TV markets.
If the SEC expands, 14 should be the max-out. But don’t settle for weak schools. I don’t know much about Clemson, but FSU is slipping in more than just sports, USF is a commuter school and Miami is Vandy without the academic standards. West Virginia and Louisville could work, but you don’t pick up more TV markets, except for maybe Pittsburgh (for WVU). Cincinnati and Southern Indiana already get Kentucky sports. Also, 14 is two divisions of 7, with six divisional games and two cross division, with one a permanent rival. Right now, it is five divisional, three cross division, one permanent rival. With basketball, you’d have 12 divisional games and six cross division, with one team rotated out each season.

An ACC-SEC merger or SEC expansion with some ACC teams. I’d love to play Miami more. Gerogia Tech would also be cool to have

The SEC is setting the bar right now. Everyone is just trying to keep up so their conference can win 4 titles in a row. Dont change a thing SEC.

(Although on a more personal note i would love to see the U in the conference and maybe also another team for the West, but im not in love with Texas teams in the SEC, i guess A&M would be alright tho.)

To expand is to premanently establish your conference if, and only if, there is a sudden desire to expand conferences to greater than 12 teams.

The SEC shouldn’t change if it’s not going to a +12 team conference. The Big Ten (11) just needs to expand to 12, but if they expand to 14 and one of those teams is Notre Dame, then I could see the SEC expanding to keep up their brand, revenue, and bargaining power.

Plus expansion in the SEC covers all sports, not just football, unlike other conferences in the past. So to expand the SEC it would be to increase or maintain their high brand, revenue, and bargaining power over multiple sports.

My thoughts exactly.

Yes, because geography means so much to the Big East (two teams in the Central time zone; USF no where near the league members) and ACC (Boston College in a league with Wake Forest and Clemson). Also, Arkansas joined the SEC because the Southwest Conference exploded.
You are correct in that Arkansas is a bit odd. But nearly all of the ACC, SEC, plus Texas and Texas A&M, were once in the same conference; the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association. The league eventually split up as it was too large and the big schools wanted their own conference. Geography or location means shit when there is money to be made.

Texas A&M shit themselves when Texas nearly went to the SEC in the early 1990s. When Texas was going to go to the Big 8 with TA&M, Baylor and Texas Tech shit themselves and (I think) threatened to remove Texas as a state public school if they left for the Big 8 without Baylor and Tech. That’s where the state legislation came in. The “big brother” symptoms of Texas and the other state schools makes Alabama-Auburn and UF-FSU look like nothing.
Also, adding Georgia Tech to the SEC weakens the ACC, which is of some benefit to the SEC. And I don’t see the ACC adding the mighty commuter schools of USF or UCF. They don’t have the academics to match the ACC elite, but USF is just as good (and in some cases better) than FSU’s academics.
As for divisional alignment, don’t discount an SEC North/South or SEC Kramer/Slive alignment. They would try to balance out football, before basketball, but also maintain some rivalries.

I don’t think NC has a similar situation because NC State is the “technical school” similar to Georgia Tech for Georgia. I don’t think it’s an intellectual or cultural rivalry on the level of the Texas schools or the Florida schools recently. That’s not true for all technical schools, as Virginia looks down on Va Tech, but UVA looks down on everyone.
As for the politics, North Carolina is moderate, even if there has been a red to blue shift. (A lot of those blues are Blue Dogs.) Remember, they had John Edwards serve at the same time as Jesse Helms. Texas has a special brand of crazy; ten years ago, they had members in exile.

There’s no way you could leave it that way. of course that is 16 teams. Conference play would have to expand to 10 games basically, which is not ideal. But a conference made up of those 16 teams, is a very tough conference regardless of division.

I agree with mlm though, 14 teams is the max, just trying to make the 16 team conference would shake things up too much and basically leave you with two conferences inside of a conference.