What conference are we moving to?

[CoxMustangFan]

I still think the ACC and Big 10 are the more likely candidates.

We're not AAU so the Big 10 is off limits. The ACC is only possible if they get raided otherwise they won't stretch their footprint this far unless they can get a big fish like Texas.

ACC.

[Ponymon]

Given the disparity between us and Mizzou in terms of TV markets, an 8k variance in attendance is not insurmountable IMO.

It's more than 8K because you have to subtract all the potential fans from the SEC bump. We'd have to make up that with our own fans to get to 50K before we'd be considered. Not to mention that there's not much of a disparity between our market and the markets Missouri has (KC and STL) and those were new markets for the SEC. The SEC already has DFW.

My point SB is this.

If CM was told tonight that he is now the HC of SEC-bound SMU but we don't receive SEC $$$$, I strongly suspect that 4 years max from now, we could produce a high enough quality product to sell-out Ford (SRO= 35k fans) without much problem, mainly because what everyone is alluding to. Selling a marketable product such as Arkansas or LSU or A&M or Alabama vs ECU or Marshall or Tulane or whomever our conference mates were/are.

I hope everyone would agree with this.

Now tell SMU, here is $50M per year, get that attendance average to 55k. You know what, I think we could do it.

Also, for some perspective, the St Louis market is between Sacramento and Portland, not that impressive. Dallas and Houston (city I consider more Aggie than Dallas) is 5th and 10th respectively. And I do not think any school in Texas controls the 'Texas market', although UT and only UT would be in the discussion.

One final note. This same argument could be applied for other conferences, but let me focus on the ACC. Over half the teams average less than 50,000 fans. The bottom 5 average 33k fans. Give us ACC $$$ and their opponents and I think we can sell out an expanded Ford @ 42k.

Once again, if SMU was told, either a) receive ACC $$$ and average 42k or b) you never get P5 membership which leads to eventually shutting down your program.....something tells me we could get to 42k.

Dallas/Ft. Worth market is clearly larger than the 22nd rankded St. Louis and 24th ranked KC markets. Nevertheless, nearly 4 million potential eyeballs in those cities and 6 million plus for the state is nothing to sneeze at especially compared to most schools in the SEC. Here is a link to the Nielson ratings showing the size of the market:

http://www.nielsen.com/content/dam/corp ... s_2014.pdf