(05-19-2017 06:05 AM)micahandme Wrote:  As for "clean and easy" scenarios go...I like OU and OkSt being the "first movers" to the SEC.

They fit the SEC culture...solidify its presence/claim to the state of Texas (and Oklahoma, obviously)...and they allow the SEC to have a new "west" pod that helps overall balance. Not only are many rivalries preserved...geography is preserved...and the "expansion" teams get to keep some of their natural connections.

OU/OkSt/Mizzou/TAMU
LSU/Arky/Miss/MSU
Bama/Auburn/UT/Vandy
UK/USCe/UF/UGA

This move would then clear the way for UT and Kansas to go whichever direction they choose--Pac-12 with two other regional,non-religious schools (TTech? Kansas State? Iowa State?) OR Big Ten alone.

For the Big Ten...the pods work out nicely. (Yes, Texas is still traveling a ton...but pods in the Olympic sports would help minimize that travel. Pod opponents twice...everybody else once, rotating home/away each season...18 games clean and easy. Or, if there are fewer "conference games" for a certain sport, your pod once and rotate through the other pods evenly--9 games.)

UT/Nebraska/Kansas/Illinois
Minny/Wiscy/Iowa/MSU
OSU/UM/NW/Purdue
Indiana/PSU/UMD/Rutgers

I'm with you on your first two paragraphs. After that, not so much, for reasons I stated earlier.

For Oklahoma, a move to the SEC likely means that league goes to a 9 game schedule. If the RRR game with Texas becomes an OOC game, they need for their other mandatory rivalry game against OK State to be a conference game.

As for the B1G, they don't need Texas and all the problems having them would cause, and they really don't need Kansas either. Maybe if they could get other P5 conferences to approve pod scheduling for football, it would be a little easier. But I don't think any of them are all that interested in helping out the B1G.

Some PAC members may want to expand into Texas to help their network. But they would have to overcome the objections of the four Mountain time zone schools who joined the PAC because they wanted their focus to be toward California instead of Texas. They have enough votes to block such a move.

I think the remaining 8 B12 schools would have to reconsider the expansion scenarios they just rejected. Maybe they didn't add enough value to a 10 team conference, but if the alternative is to remain at 8 members, maybe the math changes enough. It would all depend on how much ESPN and Fox would want to reduce their payout by as a result of the loss of OU and OSU.

I could see the B12 just adding one more member to get back to an 8 game league schedule and stopping there. I have no idea who that might be, because there are no options where the pluses clearly outweigh the minuses.

My question would be: How soon would OU and OSU move to the SEC?