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+---- Thread: How Big is too Big for the SEC? (/thread-872511.html)
How Big is too Big for the SEC? - Fighting Muskie - 03-13-2019 08:13 PM
I've held the opinion that the SEC could make itself even more profitable if they added the best of the Big 12 and ACC to their mega conference, concentrating a greater share of the most marketable collegiate sports properties into one consortium. How big should they go?
RE: How Big is too Big for the SEC? - esayem - 03-13-2019 09:04 PM
Do you speak of the Southern Conference that tried this 100 years ago? Sorry pal, nothing revolutionary here.
RE: How Big is too Big for the SEC? - USM@FTL - 03-13-2019 09:40 PM
36
RE: How Big is too Big for the SEC? - IWokeUpLikeThis - 03-13-2019 09:51 PM
They should’ve let someone else have Mizzou and waited for someone bigger.
RE: How Big is too Big for the SEC? - ColKurtz - 03-13-2019 10:03 PM
They're not going to add any teams any time soon. The cash cow of carriage fees funding ESPN's payouts to the conference networks has possibly peaked. With the amount of money given out now, probably OK + UT are the only additions that would break even, possibly an NC + VA school. The ACC schools are are locked up for another 17 years. What the landscape looks like then is completely unknown.
RE: How Big is too Big for the SEC? - XLance - 03-14-2019 04:48 AM
Actually the correct size for the SEC is 12. It would be it's most profitable size and the level of play would not diminish.
Simply move out Missouri and South Carolina. The conference does not lose anything, but gains about $100 million.
RE: How Big is too Big for the SEC? - AuzGrams - 03-14-2019 05:02 AM
12 or 14.
RE: How Big is too Big for the SEC? - BadgerMJ - 03-14-2019 07:40 AM
I went with 18. I think the same could be said for the B1G as well.
That number is predicated on WHO is available to hit that magic number.
I'm guessing that if a couple of conferences decided to break up or certain blueblood programs opted to seek greener pastures, either conference would jump at the chance.
RE: How Big is too Big for the SEC? - Nerdlinger - 03-14-2019 08:37 AM
(03-14-2019 04:48 AM)XLance Wrote: Actually the correct size for the SEC is 12. It would be it's most profitable size and the level of play would not diminish.
Simply move out Missouri and South Carolina. The conference does not lose anything, but gains about $100 million.
If you're going to cut teams, better to deduplicate markets and toss Vanderbilt and one of the Mississippis.
Maybe the Mississippis could merge their programs and become the Ole Miss State Rebulldogs.
RE: How Big is too Big for the SEC? - ohio1317 - 03-14-2019 08:56 AM
On these boards, we think of these conference like companies, but it has to be remembered the conference serves the schools and not the other way around. The SEC could be more profitable per school with the right expansion from TV for sure, that is only one piece of the puzzle. Major schools could go decades without a conference crown easily if you over expand and weaker schools drop even further down. You also get less games vs. traditional opponents, difficult divisional questions, and being an SEC school loses a little cache as more and more schools are. Whateever you do can also not be undone. Over-expand and realize you broke a good thing or a few era benefits from smaller conferences for some reason and there is no going back.
RE: How Big is too Big for the SEC? - CliftonAve - 03-14-2019 09:18 AM
Someday I would not be surprised to see two conferences of 40 (80 total). Divisions within the conference will be divided up by geography. Winner of the conferences meets in the Super.. err. national championship.
RE: How Big is too Big for the SEC? - goofus - 03-14-2019 09:21 AM
The SEC could easily expand to 18 teams.
If they can get the NCAA to chang the rules, then get rid of divisions. Each team would have 3 permanent rivals and play everybody else at least once every 3 years. 2 best teams make the SEC CCG.
If they can't change the rules, then go to rotating divisions of 9 teams each. They could set up a rotation where a school could still have 3 permanent rivals and play everybody else at least once every 3 years.
RE: How Big is too Big for the SEC? - 49RFootballNow - 03-14-2019 09:40 AM
400
RE: How Big is too Big for the SEC? - Frank the Tank - 03-14-2019 09:47 AM
(03-14-2019 08:56 AM)ohio1317 Wrote: On these boards, we think of these conference like companies, but it has to be remembered the conference serves the schools and not the other way around. The SEC could be more profitable per school with the right expansion from TV for sure, that is only one piece of the puzzle. Major schools could go decades without a conference crown easily if you over expand and weaker schools drop even further down. You also get less games vs. traditional opponents, difficult divisional questions, and being an SEC school loses a little cache as more and more schools are. Whateever you do can also not be undone. Over-expand and realize you broke a good thing or a few era benefits from smaller conferences for some reason and there is no going back.
This is an important point. There’s a certain breaking point where you go from being a “conference” to being a “scheduling arrangement”. Some of the larger proposals that I see just look like the old College Football Association arrangement. I love this realignment stuff as much as anyone, but I think 16 teams for any league is truly the max to actually keep some semblance of being a single conference. At 18 teams, you presumably have 2 9-team divisions, which are really 2 separate leagues with a conference label slapped on top of it. To be sure, that might make plenty of money, but it’s a CFA-style association at that point as opposed to being a conference with a true identity.
RE: How Big is too Big for the SEC? - panite - 03-14-2019 10:32 AM
(03-14-2019 04:48 AM)XLance Wrote: Actually the correct size for the SEC is 12. It would be it's most profitable size and the level of play would not diminish.
Simply move out Missouri and South Carolina. The conference does not lose anything, but gains about $100 million.
South Carolina is not going anywhere.
RE: How Big is too Big for the SEC? - GoldenWarrior11 - 03-14-2019 12:05 PM
Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Tennessee and Vanderbilt are the original SEC schools (10). South Carolina, Arkansas, Missouri and Texas A&M are the "new" members (4). Going up to twenty completely eliminates the perceived power of the original guard and creates a clear separation of old/new blocks. Even going up to 18 members can potentially create a divide within the new conference with a 10/8 set-up - especially if that group now suddenly includes Texas/Oklahoma/Oklahoma State/Kansas/TCU etc. You would then have your original SEC contingent, and then a Big 12/8/SWC group, in theory.
I don't think the original schools would want to relinquish their control/authority over the direction of the conference IMO.
I would think 16 is the ceiling. Anything greater, and these mega-conferences create the possibility of split factions within the leagues, which could create the formation of smaller conferences that we were accustomed to seeing (i.e. back to where we started).
RE: How Big is too Big for the SEC? - bullet - 03-14-2019 12:08 PM
13 is too big. But that's not a choice.
RE: How Big is too Big for the SEC? - bullet - 03-14-2019 12:10 PM
The SEC would be better without Missouri and either Arkansas or A&M. South Carolina seems to fit very well.
RE: How Big is too Big for the SEC? - esayem - 03-14-2019 12:44 PM
Maybe one day Mizzou-Arkansas will mean a lot to the fan bases. It will never be Mizzou-KU, but it’s Missouri’s best hope for a conference rival. It’s still a long drive, but the Big XII didn’t boast many drivable away games for the Tigers either. That’s just Big XII country, I suppose.
RE: How Big is too Big for the SEC? - Gamecock - 03-14-2019 12:44 PM
I think it's ideal as is.