#1 REGIONAL LOCATION
I'm not sure how this Big East that includes schools in Texas, Kansas, and Iowa will work, but I personally don't want to drive to South Bend, IN to follow my team. It's too far and they have very little in common with "southern" schools, so let's make a list of the regional candidates.
Oklahoma & Oklahoma State (I think they only come as a package deal)
Texas
Missouri
Louisville
Cincinatti
Florida State
Clemson
Miami
Georgia Tech
North Carolina & Duke (would they split up? I don't think so)
Virginia & Virginia Tech (I'm pretty sure they're a package deal)
West Virginia
#2 COMMITMENT TO FOOTBALL
Let's not mix words, the SEC is a football conference that could improve in a lot of other areas, but football drives athletic budgets and some prospective college students want to attend schools that have great football atmospheres. So we'll start here, which schools currently make, would make, or have the means to make a serious commitment to compete at a very high level in football?
So I think this removes Louisville and Cincinatti, they were reaches anyways, but the other teams either have a commitment to football or have the means to make a commitment to football.
#3 LARGE, PASSIONATE FAN BASES
Most teams in the SEC have great fan bases, they travel well, there's not a better tailgating conference, and the traditions of the SEC are great. War Eagle, Woo Pig Sooie, Rocky Top, Hottie Totty, Rammer Jammer, Gator Chomp, Ashley Judd, and the now illegal cowbells. I don't even need to mention LSU, they're fans don't need coordinated cheers, ridiculous fans are the tradition at LSU. What schools would carry their traditions into the SEC and which fan bases would be most excited about competing at the highest level?
Oklahoma and Oklahoma State are easy, there's a bigger base of OU fans, but only a handful of them have the same passion the OSU fans have and both have a great deal of passion for their teams. These two easily pass the test.
Texas obviously passes, possibly the largest fan base in football, good traditions, great gameday atmosphere.
Missouri, hmmmm, not a whole lot of college football tradition, but South Carolina didn't have a ton of tradition before coming into the SEC, and look at what has happened with that fan base over the last decade, they're intense! Missouri does have a large alumni base and with an upgraded conference could turn on the passion, we'll give them a pass, but I'm skeptical.
Other than Texas, Florida State, Clemson, and West Virginia probably have the strongest fan bases with great traditions on the list. We'll say they pass.
North Carolina/Duke - I'd take North Carolina, but I'm going to say something that might be slightly controversial. Because SEC schools leave something to be desired academically, the alumni bases are limited in their careers to the borders of their own state. Sure, if you go to Alabama, you could move up to New York, Chicago, or Boston and work in high finance with the Harvard and MIT grads, but I would be shocked if more than 2 people per year get that opportunity from Alabama. I would venture to say, Vanderbilt excluded, the graduates of the SEC, on average 80-85%, stay in that state. That's where they know people and we all know that knowing someone is the key to being employed. Not like they don't become successful and lead great lives, they do, but they're not moving all over the world like graduates from Duke, North Carolina, and Virginia are. For that reason schools like Alabama can build a 100,000 seat stadium and not worry if it's going to sell out every game, it is.
So I'm removing Miami, Virginia, North Carolina, and Duke due to the fact that it takes a great fan base to be an SEC school, and maybe I'm just not familiar enough with the passion of these schools, but it's not at SEC levels.
#4 SOMEBODIES GOT TO BE SMART AROUND HERE
For those that don't really follow academic rankings, Missouri is one of the top 5 schools (1. Texas, 2. Texas A&M, 3. Baylor, 4/5 Missouri/Kansas if you disagree with this please feel free to enlighten me as to how it really is! haha!) in the Big 12, but a move to the SEC would instantly make Missouri the third strongest academic university in the conference (Vandy, A&M, Missouri). When you look at the SEC broken down by academics it explains why I think it's so important for the conference to add strong academic universities.
It's funny really, there's Vanderbilt, which is SO far out in front of the other schools, then there's everyone else and how close the rest of the schools are academically is what makes it so imperative that the SEC starts putting more emphasis on academics. The SEC schools only compete with each other, it's like the Mountain West Conference of academics, who's the best of the worst? Well, Vanderbilt is the academic version of Boise, but everyone else fights for second place, second place in the SEC means an NR when the National Lists roll out (NR=Not Ranked). The SEC has really done a good thing by picking up A&M, it's a very good academic institution. If we're looking for similar schools, Florida State, Clemson, West Virginia, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State are perfect candidates, they would fit right in to the SEC mentality: Football first, Football second, other sports third, partying fourth, then academics. If they wanted to increase the overall level of academics in the SEC they would add a school like Missouri or Georgia Tech. Missouri is a better example, they're a little closer to the pack and a school like Arkansas would take it as a challenge to compete with Missouri and A&M academically in this region of the SEC. They wouldn't want the smart kids that live between Fayetteville and Columbia to pick Missouri every time because they're superior academically, not if Missouri ends up in the conference anyways. Same thing goes if the SEC added Georgia Tech, don't think Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida wouldn't begin trying to catch GT academically. That's good for everyone in the Conference and South in general, a more educated South wouldn't be a bad thing.
Texas is the prize in this category, they're on par with other great public schools like Virginia, North Carolina, Indiana, Michigan, and Cal, Texas and Michigan probably lead this list academically but not by much. If you were to add Texas to the SEC you'd be getting a great academic school, a great football program, a huge fan base, big tv markets, and an emphasis on "other" sports.
#4 "OTHER" SPORTS
The SEC has great baseball, the stadiums and fans are awesome in the SEC. Recently, Arkansas had to go out West and play in a regional with Arizona State. I heard about a great post from an Arizona State fan that got onto the Arkansas message boards. He/She said, "I can't wait for the 'rednecks' to get out here and see this great stadium and the 3,500 fans that go crazy at these games." The next post from a Razorback fan was, "LOL," which means Laugh Out Loud or Lots Of Laughs. The Arizona State fan who was just talking some smack for his team should have looked at the NCAA attendance numbers, he would have realized that Arkansas is #2 or #3 every year in attendance, with around 7,700 a game. This was said in a year where Arkansas played a three game series at LSU who has been #1 in attendance the last 15 years and averages 10,600. To round out the top ten, Ole Miss, Miss St, and South Carolina accompany Arkansas and LSU in the top 6, all average over 6,000 at baseball games, the only non-SEC school in the top 6.....Texas. Clemson, Florida State, and Texas A&M finish out the top 9 schools, A&M's already in and Clemson and Florida State are on the list.
A&M has already won the last two track and field national championships a sport which the SEC has held down for quite some time. For those that might disagree just Google John McDonnell, then add what LSU has done in track and field and there's no room left to argue.
Basketball is a concern in the SEC, but since Kentucky is the premier basketball school in the country it's hard to say it's not important to the league. Hopefully, SEC basketball will get better and it would if they were to add North Carolina and Duke, or Georgia Tech.
#5 ADDITIONAL TV MARKETS
This is where Texas and Missouri make the most sense, along with Virginia & Virginia Tech or North Carolina & Duke. North Carolina is a very large state with great resources and would be a great addition for CBS and ESPN's telecasts. Virginia is also a very large state with a strong DC market, CBS and ESPN would love to pickup those 8 million sets of eyes and would pay the SEC schools a pretty penny to do it. Texas A&M was a great contribution because Texas is the prize of college football, even though California has more people, Texas has a much larger football audience. The SEC has been very firm on revenue sharing for the schools and I would hope if Texas were to become a member they would require the Longhorns to share equally with the other 15 members. This is non-negotiable for me, there's no extra deal, no other stipulations, if Texas wants to be a part, they'll be an equal part just like Vanderbilt and get the same revenue sharing deal. If you want to have the Longhorn network, by all means go ahead, but you're sharing the revenue with Ole Miss and everyone else Texas. This is probably the most important thing the SEC is looking at, additional revenue, but it's fifth on my list because I know that additional revenue is generated by great football. The SEC is the richest and most powerful conference right now, and they do it with what is generally known to be the poorest and smallest states in the Union. Other than Georgia, Florida, and Tennessee the other states have very small populations and very few city centers. New Orleans, Tampa, Jacksonville, Atlanta, Nashville, and Memphis are the only very large towns in the general reach of the conference, the population of the six are outmatched by the four biggest cities in Texas alone, not to mention the Big 12 also includes Oklahoma City, Kansas City, St. Louis, and did include Denver and Omaha. The population base of the states involved in the Big 12 FAR exceeds that of the SEC, yet the Big 12 is disintegrating as I type and the SEC is looking to increase their stranglehold on college football. That's because TV markets don't make great football or great conferences, great football draws interest from TV markets.
I've gone in so many circles I don't know what to say, each school on the list has at least one pro and con. I know it's hard to say this because Texas A&M was trying to get AWAY from Texas, but if the SEC requires a level playing field, maybe the Aggies would be okay extending the great rivalry.
So if we're drawing up sides, I'd say 1A:
The North East division
Tennessee, Kentucky, Vanderbilt, and West Virginia (they didn't get talked about much, but a great fit, academically similar, good basketball, great fans, small, overlooked state, fits in perfectly)
The South East division
Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and Clemson (it's all about traditions and fan base, Clemson fits in this category, they've got great facilities and with SEC level money going into their football program they would only improve, question is, would South Carolina ever agree?)
The East West division
Alabama, Auburn, Ole Miss, Miss St
The West West division
LSU, Arkansas, Texas A&M, and Texas (in my opinion A&M and Texas were the best candidates from the Big 12, OU's football program is very attractive, but it's not ALL about football, just mostly about football).
Good Luck to A&M and Arkansas trying to play through Texas and LSU every year, but can you imagine the last weekend in college football? Ark vs LSU and A&M vs Texas, you know the division would be up for grabs all the way through the season!
1B:
The North East division
Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Tennessee, South Carolina
The South East division
Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, Florida (this becomes a NASTY little four team group, there will be years where the two best teams in all of college football are right here in this division)
The South West division
Ole Miss, Miss St, LSU, Texas A&M
The North West division
Arkansas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Missouri (THIS would be awesome, 4 schools in a very close proximity battling it out, obviously OU holds the upper hand in football, but this is exciting basketball, baseball, and fan rivalry. When you get schools that are this close, you get a lot of overlapping fan bases and that makes for great sports talk radio and friendly, sometimes unfriendly, banter back and forth).
Either 1A or 1B, I don't care, but conference realignment is fun, because NEW IS FUN!!! If in five years Oklahoma were to do a home and home football series with Nebraska, the whole world will tune in to see the old rivalry renewed. You can't make rivalries go away with conference realignment, you just might not play them as often.
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