(07-26-2016 08:35 PM)Hallcity Wrote:  

(07-26-2016 01:42 PM)Lou_C Wrote:  

(07-26-2016 11:21 AM)Hokie Mark Wrote:  

(07-26-2016 11:14 AM)XLance Wrote:  

(07-26-2016 09:48 AM)Lou_C Wrote:  The ACC shouldn't even be considering expansion right now. Got to wait and see what happens with the Big 12. That's a gordion knot to untangle, considering all the interwoven considerations between the schools and their state brethren.

However, if the Big 12 HAS to go, and I don't believe it does, one POSSIBLE option could be the following:

OU, Ok St, Kansas and WVU to the SEC.
TX, TT, TCU and Kansas St to the ACC.

I'm not saying that's likely...but it checks more boxes than any other proposal, IF you can figure out how to make an 18 team conference work.

- 8 votes is enough to disband the Big 12
- Oklahoma and Texas little brothers are protected (state politics)
- KU and MU are renewed as conference rivals
- The following games are added to the ACC/SEC rivalry slate: Red River Rivalry, KU-KSU, WVU-Pitt
- The LHN can stay in the ESPN family in some form
- Texas-Texas A&M can become an occasional secondary ACC/SEC rivalry like UGA-Clemson, UF-UM,
- Texas isn't island-ized, and the ACC is entrenched in Texas
- SEC basketball gets a monster upgrade
- ACC football gets a great upgrade
- All can be done under the auspices of ESPN, and would be a major block on Fox/B1G

Biggest drawbacks:
- How do you schedule an 18-team conference?
- Kansas and the SEC just historically doesn't seem to make sense
- Is there enough value there for the SEC to take four teams, but very little population and only one premier brand? I suppose that's up to how much ESPN would be willing to make it worth.

It's not perfect, but of all the scenarios people float, that seems to be the most logistically feasible.

If you flipped Kansas and Kansas St.,you might have something Lou_C.

The SEC has to get something of value... like Kansas basketball.
Personally, I'd like to trade Texas Tech to the SEC for Oklahoma State.

My thinking exactly. The SEC needs KU basketball to approach value in that.

And I would be happy to have OSU over TT, but OU needs one of it's two rivals in conference to make it work.

Culturally, Kansas to the SEC would be difficult for historical reasons. Bear with me, this really matters. Before the Civil War, Kansas was known as "bleeding Kansas" because it was where pro and anti slavery forces fought it out, not with mere words but with guns. Think this no longer matters? If you look at Kansas message boards they regularly refer to Missouri as "slavers" because it was a slave state before the Civil War and the slave forces who engaged in violent attacks in Kansas came from Missouri. Kansans still proudly refer to their state as a free state because the anti-slavery forces prevailed there. Kansas message boards never discuss the possibility of joining the SEC. As Faulkner said "the past isn't really past."

Yeah, I kind of implied that with:

- Kansas and the SEC just historically doesn't seem to make sense

(07-27-2016 08:27 AM)MKPitt Wrote:  I get potentially taking Texas, Oklahoma or Kansas if the B12 falls apart even though I wouldn't necessarily love it. However, some of these other names getting thrown around are ridiculous: Texas Tech? Kansas State? Why on earth would the ACC ever add these schools? They're poor academic schools in bad locations with almost no potential for major growth and zero history with any of the schools in the league. I know I'm in the minority but I have almost no interest in Pitt playing in the same conference as any of the Big 12 schools except West Virginia. I'd rather UCF, USF, Cincy, UConn, Temple than middling schools like KSU, OSU, TTU that have almost no growth potential from a completely different area of the country.

The idea is that you have to take their "friends" to get them. If either of them can break 100% free on their own, then the ACC isn't in the conversation. The B1G would get them.

At least in the near term, both for state political reasons and for conference dissolution reasons, 8 have to have a home. This solution is one where the ACC doesn't sit out the breakup of the Big 12.

Otherwise, they all go to the PAC, B1G, and/or SEC and the ACC gets nothing. The ACC can expand with Temple and Uconn and Cincinnati instead of Texas and not slum it with schools like TCU and KSU.

In the year 2025!

FSU - Miami
Clemson - GT
UL - Virginia
NC St - NC
Syracuse - Pittsburgh
BC - VT
WF - Duke
Texas - ND