ESPN reporting A&M to SEC done

[LA_Mustang]

Florida St., Clemson and Missouri to follow.....

[LA_Mustang]

They just broke into Sportcenter with the news.....said it will be made official Monday, the A&M part at least.

[NomAnor]

Wow just wow man. I never thought i would see the day come where A&M and FSU are in the sec good luck.
GEAUX TIGERS !!@@!!

[Pony ^]

Big 12-2-2 + smu + cougar high = new big 10

[Stallion]

mmm taking Missouri instead of OU kind of changes things. May have to think about this. That's another pretty big State gone from Big 12. Its really looking tough for Big 12 to survive if true in just Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma Makes the Big East option look less desireable for Kansas and K-State. Texas should go Indy or go back to Pac 16 plans if true. Strategically this SEC move screws the Big 12, the ACC, the Big East-possibly the Big 10 if every one goes to 16-not to mention CUSA and every conference downhill. May force Notre Dame to make a decision. It would be a major earthquake in College Football-that could FOREVER establish the future of College Football into 4 major conferences with 64 teams and a Playoff.

[leopold]

ESPN is specificaly reporting that A&M will get an invite when the SEC presidents meet as quicky as today - they are conjecturing about FSU, Clemson, Mizzou, as in who will be number 12. But its interesting OU wasn't even mentioned.

[Pony Grey Hair]

SEC is not only approving admission of A&M today but also discussing next candidates. When that leaks out in a few days, we will know who is next up.

[Mexmustang]

Poor Missouri! If they do go to the SEC, they will get beat by Vandy! At least Vandy offers a top education, big city (Nashville as compared to Columbia or Tuscaloosa), and is the power base of much of the South. They may never reach .500 again.

They must hate the Texas league so much they will do anything to get out. The Big 10 was their natural alternative--but in this league they are just going to be the foder in the front line catching the cannon balls to protect the calvary (A breather game in a tough schedule for LSU).

As these conferences get larger do they become less relevant? More like leagues than true conferences. Imagine being so large you only play a conference member like Florida once every five years? Almost like Baseball's interleague play. I know, I know its all about the money--but when you step back it looks more and more like my menu button on Direct TV--The NBC League, The ESPN League, The CBS League, etc. I wonder if College Football is really hurting itself by destroying or at least dilluting traditional rivalries. That is what has distinguished itself from the NFL.

[EastStang]

Wow, lots of grist here. Beebe has to call in his troops. Swafford has to call in his troops at the ACC. BE has to circle their wagons. Add in the Pac-12 now might revisit their plans and see what carcassas are out there. Who knows what the maps will look like on Friday next week. I assume that Orsini and Turner are working phones this weekend as well. Lawyers will be spending the weekend in their offices drafting lawsuits. Governors calling in their staffs to figure out how to deal with the fallout in their states. With Perrry announcing his run for the Presidency, the Whorn, Sand Aggie and Bear alums will be wetting themselves because he's not going to bail them out and hurt his Aggies and has the perfect cover of being busy. Perfect storm out there.

[Mexmustang]

I would hope Turner is on vacation...

[RGV Pony]

from NYT:

a high-ranking SEC official with first-hand knowledge of the talks...

The official said there was a 30 to 40 percent chance that the presidents could vote against Texas A&M’s membership. He also said there was the issue of which university would become the 14th team, something many in college sports will monitor.


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/14/sport ... ref=sports

[SMUtrojanFAN]

I have a hard time believing Larry Scott will let Texas into the Pac12. He specifically stated that no Pac12 teams would be permitted to have their own network.

[Mexmustang]

This whole affair make Beebe look like an idiot. He had a great conference, making loads of money, a great championship game and like a monkey let Texas chit all over people.

[leopold]

Yes, but be honest, there have been a lot of people UT and A&M's ego have made to look like an idiot. We know this first hand.
Frankly, based simply on numbers such as revenue and TV markets, I have a hard time seeing how other people could have done much better.
EDIT: Take a look at John Swafford at the ACC. He's the genius who thought up the current 12 school ACC alignment, watched it get screwed up, watched it fail to increase revenue proportionally, watched it fail to sell out championship games, watched it fail to live up to preseason hype every year, and now he's about to start eating words himself:
http://espn.go.com/blog/acc/post/_/id/2 ... taying-put

[Charleston Pony]

Assuming this is in fact a done deal with A$M, the SEC will most likely look for an offsetting 14th member in the east so as not to mess up their current divisions (do you think they are going to split up Alabama and Auburn?). FSU, Va Tech and Clemson are the logical targets, but who knows?

There was some pretty serious talk years ago about the formation of 4 "Super Conferences" of 16 teams each, with a 16 team playoff for the national championship. If that is where this is headed, things could get really interesting. My guess would be that the Big 10 and PAC 10 will carve up the remains of the Big XII but the real question is who will survive between the Big East and ACC? It's fun to speculate, but reality is that if this does happen, SMU will not be competing at the highest level (as if we do now?). The 64 schools would be determined based on their willingness to fund athletics at the highest level. Big advantage to schools that can draw 50k plus for football and 10k for hoops. Stinks for the "little guys"

If that ever happens, I look for SMU, Houston, TCU & Baylor to be back together in the same conference (the return of the SWC?) Would be interesting if the playoffs included winners of the "lesser" conferences, much like hoops does with March Madness. Might have to expand to 24 teams, with play-in games and 1st round byes for top seeds.