(07-04-2017 03:15 PM)OrangeDude Wrote: (07-04-2017 02:19 PM)BePcr07 Wrote: An SEC plus Oklahoma, Oklahoma St, Kansas, and West Virginia adds some football and basketball depth.
West: Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma. Oklahoma St, Texas A&M, Arkansas
Central: LSU, Mississippi, Mississippi St, Alabama, Auburn, Vanderbilt
East: Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia
Nice. That to me is the optimal SEC while keeping the conference as compact as possible in terms of both geography and culture.
Cheers,
Neil
While that lineup would be nice purely from a geographical standpoint it has some obstacles to overcome.
First, I'm not sure WVU which has applied twice in the past, offers enough to cover the 43 million that the SEC will have paid out by the end of August this year.
Second, I'm not so sure that the SEC will be calling the shots in this expansion. I think we will be promised enough to take what needs to be placed within our conference.
Third, I'm not so sure that Kansas will or could be a part of that mix, although they would provide a natural rival for Mizzou and some basketball gravitas to go along with Kentucky.
Why? I think the plan at work doesn't belong to the SEC, but rather to ESPN. And that plan focuses on having all of the P schools and top G5 schools in states with a sustained growth pattern.
Alabama: Auburn, Alabama (SEC)
Arkansas: Arkansas (SEC)
Florida: Florida (SEC) Florida State, Miami (ACC), South Florida, Central Florida (AAC)
Georgia: Georgia (SEC) Georgia Tech (ACC)
Kentucky: Kentucky (SEC) Louisville (ACC)
Louisiana: L.S.U. (SEC) Tulane (SEC)
Mississippi: Ole Miss, Mississippi State (SEC)
Missouri: Missouri (SEC)
North Carolina: Duke, U.N.C., N.C. State, Wake Forest (ACC) E.C.U. (AAC)
South Carolina: Clemson (ACC) South Carolina (SEC)
Tennessee: Tennessee, Vanderbilt (SEC) Memphis (AAC)
Virginia: Virginia, Virginia Tech (ACC)
What you won't find there are any FOX properties.
If ESPN holds true to form they will pursue the following:
Baylor, Texas, T.C.U., Texas Tech
Oklahoma, Oklahoma State
Why? Both Texas and Oklahoma have growing states. Between Texas and Oklahoma you account for 79.96% of the total population of the Big 12 states and roughly 65% of the total revenue produced by the Big 12 schools.
ESPN owns Texas A&M (SEC) S.M.U., Houston (AAC) and Tulsa (AAC)
Since nobody will be pursuing Baylor ESPN can control them by sliding them into the AAC. If T.C.U. has no suitors in the PAC and Big 10 they will slide to the AAC as well. ESPN will still hold them both.
Texas, Oklahoma, Texas Tech, and Oklahoma State could go together to the SEC or could be split between the SEC and ACC.
If ESPN does what it takes to land this product they will control all of the advertising for major college sports from Virginia to Miami and throughout the Southeast and into Texas and Oklahoma without a network rival. With the Texa-homa schools ESPN with A&M in that fold will control the eyes of just over 31 million people at least 3 times per Saturday and as many as 5 times per Saturday. The advertisers would have to pay the higher rate to command those sets. That's a pile of money. And if advertisers want to have their product seen from the Mid Atlantic throughout the Southeast they already have to go through ESPN to get into that college rabid region of the nation.
It is why the ACCN holds good promise, and why the SECN has been so lucrative.
If ESPN picked up Kansas they are not gaining a growth state, but they are fully picking up the Kansas City market. It would be a nice ancillary addition, but hardly a main target. With Virginia Tech and Pitt ESPN doesn't need West Virginia. They have that market covered and how much could a state of 1.88 million really be worth? Probably not 40 million a year.
Iowa State is not exactly a growth area either.
That's why I'm pretty confident that ESPN will do whatever it takes to land Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State and little brother status doesn't mean a darned thing in a content driven world where 1 network controls the regional advertising opportunities. Tech and the Pokes just give ESPN another chance to charge for those 31 million people each Saturday and so pay their way in quite nicely with a guarantee of 7 home games a year and rivalry games with Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, and L.S.U. to be played. Have any of those schedule Houston or S.M.U. or T.C.U. or Baylor from the AAC and it's another big in state payday.
So ESPN's strategy has been quietly building to the moment of this next realignment. They completely own the marketable product in the growing Southerly states and they have kept a finger in the pies of the Big 10 and PAC. So ESPN maximizes content and revenue in the most rabid college sports markets that still have sustained growth, and they minimize their competitions revenue by sharing the product FOX owns.
As they say at Guinness, "Brilliant!".
So I don't look for Kansas and West Virginia to be very high on ESPN's priority list, and therefore not very high on the SEC and ACC's priorities list either. I do look for Texas and Oklahoma, as was expected, to be top priorities on their list. But surprisingly Texas Tech and Oklahoma State to be there as well for the reasons stated above. If it breaks right T.C.U. may slip in, but most likely will not.
And no, I don't push little brothers except as a way for ESPN to lock up the 4 their model shows they will really want. And the SEC and ACC will do whatever they need to because their paydays will be guaranteed if they do.
So I don't think 18 is out of the question for either the SEC or ACC, but 16 with the right division would be more efficient.
And, asking whether the SEC would take OSU isn't relevant. The only relevant question is does ESPN want them. Look at the map, the exclusivity within Texas/Oklahoma as a region, and look at what ESPN has already quietly accomplished and the answer is "Yes".