Ok, so I've been thinking about realignment, and I started thinking about the DowDuPont merger

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-dow-m...SKCN1BC4MO

A sort of merge then split.

I was also thinking about the BigEast split awhile back.

And I was also thinking about the media companies, and the idea of forking over money to a conference even for those members which might not be as "worth it" to the media company.

And quite a few other things which I'll spare you for the sake of brevity : )

Now I've thought for awhile that - due to the current streaming "wars", content is king, and more is better.

But it occurred to me that the "more" doesn't actually need to reside in the same conference.

For example, ESPN is getting "more" through SEC and ACC and other investments.

All the eggs aren't in one basket.

A split could save ESPN overall money since the "price per school" could be different for different conferences.

So what if there was a "push" by ESPN to see the best of the SEC/ACC split out from the rest of the 2 conferences

8 members seems to be the minimum for Div I, though from what I've been reading in threads here, 9 is more ideal (if you feel it needs to be 10, so be it : )

So imagine this:

ESPN offers some deal to SEC and ACC - it would be a short term, big amount payout in order to vote to end the various GORs.

There are currently 15 members of the ACC, and, if we count TX and OU, 16 members of the SEC - total of 31.

I believe the votes would need at least 3/4 (possibly fewer?) so a few schools could conceivably be left out.

So the 9 then leave for a new conference (reminiscent of the BigEast split - they could even purchase the SEC name like the new BigEast did). That leaves 22 members.

Let's say that 16 of those 22 merge together (treat it as if the ACC members merge to the SEC or vice versa - your choice).

That leaves 6 with no home conference. Do they go independent, or perhaps do up to 4 of them join the Big12 (bringing them to 16), or something else?

All up to you.

So I'm curious as to who you would select as the P9 teams (the best of the best) to create the new conference. Pick from any of the 31 members of the SEC and ACC.

And following that, what would the membership of the remaining conference look like, and presuming 16 members of that, what happens to the leftover 6.

I look forward to everyone's thoughts.

(edited: 22-16 is 6, not 5 - because apparently math is hard : )

If you took the "best 9", it would IMO be basically all SEC:

Alabama
Florida
LSU
Auburn
Georgia
TAMU
Texas
Oklahoma
Tennessee

Even if we left out Texas and Oklahoma in selecting the top nine, so nine with those two to be added later, we'd add ... UNC and Clemson from the ACC.

That would be it. So it wouldn't be a "merger" IMO, just the SEC adding a couple top ACC schools.

But I see zero appetite for doing something like this on the part of the SEC or ACC. The SEC would not want to lose its ties to Kentucky, Arkansas, South Carolina, Vanderbilt, Missouri, and the two Mississippi schools.

(05-20-2022 05:56 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  If you took the "best 9", it would IMO be basically all SEC:

Alabama
Florida
LSU
Auburn
Georgia
TAMU
Texas
Oklahoma
Tennessee

Even if we left out Texas and Oklahoma in selecting the top nine, so nine with those two to be added later, we'd add ... UNC and Clemson from the ACC.

That would be it. So it wouldn't be a "merger" IMO, just the SEC adding a couple top ACC schools.

But I see zero appetite for doing something like this on the part of the SEC or ACC. The SEC would not want to lose its ties to Kentucky, Arkansas, South Carolina, Vanderbilt, Missouri, and the two Mississippi schools.

I don't think they'd "lose ties" so much. We seem to be finding out that schools can apparently maintain ooc rivalries through scheduling.

And a 9 member conference would presumably leave room for that.

There could even be a scheduling alliance of sorts between the 2 conferences after the split/merge.

Not counting the texas teams and OK, the 6 you mention seem to be the top teams listed out on the internet as well

For example:

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/3572...i-am-third

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2137...of-bcs-era

So going with the 9 you selected, and looking at the 22 left, we, we could guess that ND returns to independence, and while some of the old northern bigeast teams might make it to the B12, I don't think that Boston college would. So I think BC likely would be looking for a new conference home.

So if we go to 16, the new conference might look something like:

Virginia
Duke
North Carolina
North Carolina state
Wake Forest
South Carolina
Clemson
Georgia Tech
Florida State
Miami
Kentucky
Vanderbilt
Mississippi
Mississippi State
Missouri
Arkansas

And the B12 becomes:

TCU
Baylor
Texas Tech
Houston
BYU
KS
KS state
IA state
OK state
WV
Cin
Pitt
Syracuse
Louisville
VA tech
UCF

Interesting results.

I've said before switching Clemson and Kentucky would improve both SEC football and ACC men's basketball and with ESPN holding full rights to both now more valuable.