(04-18-2018 12:44 PM)OdinFrigg Wrote: (04-06-2018 11:15 AM)JRsec Wrote: Alright. We have an old thread buried a few pages deep called "If the SEC did expand again and did so from the ACC who should we take and why?
This thread is about the Big 12. Start another thread if you want to talk about the ACC.
Now if you want to talk about Big 12 schools that you think might prefer the ACC, or that the ACC could benefit from that will be close enough to keep this thread on topic.
But the readers who daily follow this thread don't give a hoot about whether Duke or North Carolina go to the SEC or not.
I get your guiding point, JR, and agree about keeping threads relatively on topic. But dang, I am not a B12 purist when it comes to SEC expansion. I suppose living on the far east side of the conference influences that.
My idea would be one add on the west side, one add on the east side. It keeps the divisional divide, basically impacted by one add each. OK, one realizes the inflexibilities with the GoRs and such.
My choices, out-of-the-box thinking, maybe too out there, are oSu and get this--Wake Forest. Does contiguous market penetration still matter? Maybe staying away from UT and OU perpetual drama would not be all bad; particularly if their hearts and ambitions are elsewhere.
A family member is an oSu Vet grad. I like oSu, visited there. Wake? When time comes, maybe Wake would be the easiest to break-away from the NC-4. Winston-Salem is a wonderful location, not specifically in the academic triangle. Wake has good academics and quality professional schools. Unfortunately, Wake Forest would need to double Grove Stadium, just 31,000 seats, and find fannies to take the seats. A profound change, and a bit risk-taking, could possibly do that. Also, undergraduate enrollment is the smallest in P5. Yet, politically, the ACC may realize they have one too many schools in NC, and Wake would be the easiest to relinqish. Heck, they could be a private school companion for Vandy, whom they have often played. Two private schools in the SEC east? Well, some unbalanced oddity has to happen when expanding. It may work better than expected. UNC, NCSU, and Duke just ain't going to break, and Wake's bond with them is heavily security-oriented. Deal-cutting, external to a GoR, can be attempted somewhere.
So, again, pardon the half and half approach, and the odd picks, but being unorthodox happens....once in awhile. No diversion was intended. What fits is quite subjective and mixture can be an option, perhaps naming other schools.
If put to the question, most of the Oklahoma fan base would choose the SEC because of proximity and ease of travel. Their state's main concern is making sure that both schools find P5 homes. The academics at OU want the Big 10 but then there is an agenda there that is not sports oriented. Minor sports people at OU want the SEC as well. Better baseball and softball are important to them. So I wouldn't believe all of the Big 10 agenda talk at all. In the end a school needs its fan base to make its sports profitable. It's just good business.
There is one mainline ACC school that has actually held talks with us before, although because of different motives than their desire to leave, Virginia Tech. Wake is closer to UVa and UNC and Duke than is N.C. State (who is still pretty darn close to them). Virginia Tech historically has not been as close.
While ESPN doesn't want to let the schools that prop up their value go (F.S.U. and Clemson) Virginia Tech is a respectable program, but hardly a bell cow, and they would give the SEC virtually everything we could want in Virginia and penetration into West Virginia. I think that's the school that would add value. Market penetration is now moot. Most contract values are going to be driven by content and the SEC looks at whether schools add to, or drag down our averages. Wake Forest drags them all down but academics without giving us the any brand power like a Duke would.
Oklahoma State on the other hand offers a great deal, but is less acceptable to the college presidents of the SEC would want to enhance our academic standing overall. Personally I have no problem with OSU.
But the only way I could see Va Tech being in play would be if Texas (at ESPN's behest to have them in a more ESPN controlled conference and wanting to increase the carriage of the ACCN at the launch date) agreed to head to the ACC, but with buddies. That would probably encourage some kind of push to let the SEC have inroads into the ACC so that Texas could be included with enough slots to fill out an 16 school conference. Otherwise there aren't enough slots to give Texas a division of their own.
So you might see a 2010 consideration come back into play. Remember the N.C. State and Va Tech to the SEC talk? Well that was because there was a bigger plan to move Texas and pals to the ACC in 2010 (before the GOR's and when Deloss Dodds was saying that Texas was looking East).
So if the SEC had to take the two Oklahoma's but also landed Va Tech and N.C. State, then Texas could move to the ACC with Baylor, T.C.U. and Tech in tow.
But this kind of thinking is now more passe. Why? Because ESPN is looking at bundling the ACCN with the SECN as far as the combined footprints are concerned, and because content (meaning brand on brand games) are going to provide the bigger payouts in a streaming world so market footprint size is much less relevant.
My wife works for a school of Vet Med and personally I see a great deal of fit for Oklahoma State, and Iowa State but sports realignment probably won't go in that direction.
And the SEC has another issue, which is closer to my heart, Auburn belongs in the East. Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee were all annual games that we have lost due to realignment. We are the farthest point Eastward that any West Team has to go regularly. Gainesville and Knoxville a much closer drives for our fans than Arkansas or Texas A&M. So the benefit in adding two to the East, especially if they are strong brands, is that it makes a move of Auburn and Alabama to the East and Missouri to the West that much more likely.
That would essentially unite the old core of the SEC in the East, and unite the old rivals of the SWC plus Oklahoma in the West. That's a much more marketable package of divisions. So I wouldn't be surprised if for one reason or another we land Oklahoma State, but I seriously doubt that Wake would even receive consideration. If we are that desperate to get into North Carolina (and we are not) then East Carolina would be a better option by most metrics other than academics and that won't be happening either.
In a streaming world the options change. In 2010 Virginia Tech and North Carolina would have been the two most valuable ACC schools the SEC would have wanted to land. In 2018 and forward Clemson and Florida State become the two most valuable ACC schools to us. Those two against an SEC schedule are money in the bank in a streaming world.
But ESPN will never let them go because the value of the ACC would tank. There are only two schools which could add more value for the SEC, Oklahoma and Texas. Landing just one of them cements us in the top earning position moving forward. Oklahoma would be a much easier fit than Texas, so if taking OSU is the price then the way people need to look at it is that we get the #2 brand from the Big 12 (#7 in the nation) along with the #4 brand value wise in the Big 12 (about #38th nationally) and as a pairing that's really solid.