(02-13-2017 02:25 PM)green Wrote: (02-13-2017 02:09 PM)JRsec Wrote: As for the hipsters in Austin they've been in serious discussions with the SEC on three occasions since '91.
http://www.espn.com/blog/sec/post/_/id/8...sion-teams
I'm thinking bigger. I'm thinking the program that invented swagger, the program that has won five national championships in the last 30 years, the program that nearly joined the SEC in 1990 when the league first expanded.
I'm thinking Miami.
-- espn.com
TALKING POINTS MEMO
Miami was kicked around in '90 when the SEC was evaluating how to move going forward. You were in the battleground contingency that Jackie Sherrill has mentioned several times. It was a 20 team scenario in case once we moved the Big 10 tried a massive drive East and then down the coast.
What we finally decided to shoot for in '91 was Texas, A&M, Florida State, Arkansas, Clemson, and a distant interest from Oklahoma if Texas made the move.
We got 1 of 6. Texas wanted to check out the PAC for the first time. A&M got bogged down in politics (but the dialogue continued off and on until they joined). OU pulled out when Texas failed to commit. Bowden took FSU to ESPN and the ACC. The thing is ESPN was likely behind that and knew the details of the SEC offer because we naively went to them for valuations. The Mouse was just beginning to build the ACC. Clemson was always tepid, and probably interested only to spy, but when one of their boosters recounted the details to a buddy of his who was a S. Carolina guy the word spread and the Gamecocks applied.
So the whole thing was touted as a whopping success because we expanded into two bridge states to future targets, got our 12 schools and two divisions that led to the CCG, and looked to the public like world beaters. And we were. But lost in the shuffle was the fact that ESPN may have been an undermining factor, and the two big fish and their buddy got away.
Well here we are today and we are in South Carolina so not having Clemson is okay. We have Texas A&M and that completes another goal. Missouri was sort of an ESPN suggestion worked through A&M and Florida as I hear it. But that's a nice new market for the SEC. Where we lost out was in failing to acquire a second Florida school. I don't think we will make that mistake in Texas. But at least there we don't have to take a second Texas school to accomplish a victory. Oklahoma gives us all we need in DFW.
The only knock on the Canes was distance. We were still in a driving mentality in '91. We had a shot at Virginia Tech in '91 as well but passed due to distance. Now with ESPN backing both the ACC & SEC largely any movement between the two of us is anathema to them. So we look West.