(06-19-2019 09:27 AM)JRsec Wrote:  

(06-19-2019 08:45 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(06-19-2019 06:49 AM)goofus Wrote:  You should swap Missouri and Texas A&M. A&M has shown a clear desire to be aligned with the traditional SEC schools. Missouri probably would prefer to be grouped with it's old Big 12 pals. Arkansas also fits geographically in the west, and has history in the SWC.

Missouri is the only SEC acquisition of the past 30 years that still doesn't "feel" like an SEC school, and they probably never will.

I bet they will, someday, end back up either with the Big 12 schools or in the B1G.

Most of the schools from the SWC and Old Big 8 are going to just feel grafted in wherever they wind up. The trick here Quo is to take the best of those two and create as Gamecock has stated above a division that fits with each other. And quite frankly that is why the Big 10 and ACC don't really seem to be a sound possibility for these schools. Nebraska, Colorado, and Missouri all chose to be where they are and that's the best you can say for them.

To me, adding Missouri was more a marriage of convenience than anything else, albeit a MoC with some redeeming qualities. Missouri was worried about the future of the Big 12 and the loss of some of its historical Big 8 compadres so didn't feel at home there. I believe they would have preferred to to join UNL in the B1G, but the B1G didn't want them at that moment. And given that, what's not to like about the mighty SEC?

For its part, the SEC badly wanted TAMU and vice-versa (that was a true love affair) but needed a second warm body to balance everything out. And as warm bodies go, a flagship that borders three SEC states wasn't bad.

But the whole thing has seemed "meh" from the git. Not bad, just "meh".

Contributing to the sense on my part has probably been my sadness at seeing the dissolution of the old Big 8. When I was coming of age in the 1970s, the Big 8 was a major conference, and its Nebraska - Oklahoma rivalry was as big as any in college football. Looked forward to it as much as Notre Dame - USC and Ohio State - Michigan. It was a tight-knit conference where the rivalries went back over 100 years. Everyone was everyone's rival, because they'd all been playing each other since around 1900. Arguably the most tight-knit grouping in the country. The 2010+ realignment wrecked that.