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Realignment talk not going away


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4 minutes ago, orangebird said:

Cultural fit of these two schools in the Pac has been raised as a potential issue, but let's not forget that Washington State in particular is located in the thriving metropolis of Pullman, Washington.  If you've never been to Pullman - well, let's just say it makes both Stillwater and Lubbock look absolutely cosmopolitan by comparison.  I don't think this will be as big of an issue as some people make it out to be.

West Virginia to the ACC is perhaps a tougher sell - but really, what other options does the ACC have for expansion at this point?

When people say "but the ____ conference already has _____ team in the middle of nowhere" I chuckle. They aren't going to kick out that existing team with history in the conference. They've learned to live with that team. But they certainly don't want to add the Texas and Oklahoma equivalents of Washington State if given the choice. 

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7 minutes ago, orangebird said:

I think you could make a case for Texas Tech and Oklahoma State expanding the Pac into new media markets, particularly into the states of Texas and Oklahoma.  Sure, Tech generally does not travel all that well.  But they have a fair number of alums in the major cities in Texas - probably enough to justify carrying Pac games on TV.  I would think that expanding the Pac into Texas TV markets in particular would be attractive to the Pac, and perhaps at worst make adding these schools a break-even proposition for the rest of the Pac.  If some of the rumors of the B1G forming a west coast division and raiding the Pac for members come to pass, the Pac is going to be desperate to get out in front of that and try and shore itself up.

Cultural fit of these two schools in the Pac has been raised as a potential issue, but let's not forget that Washington State in particular is located in the thriving metropolis of Pullman, Washington.  If you've never been to Pullman - well, let's just say it makes both Stillwater and Lubbock look absolutely cosmopolitan by comparison.  I don't think this will be as big of an issue as some people make it out to be.

West Virginia to the ACC is perhaps a tougher sell - but really, what other options does the ACC have for expansion at this point?

ESPN + needs content. The big dogs play on the regular networks. Strong mid level fanbases willing to subscribe to watch their teams shitty games is valuable. 
 

The third tier media needs content that adds subscribers. 

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Maybe this. Tech and the Pokes need to accept the possibility of the PAC 12 standing pat. 
What does this mean? That our administration should not pursue every option available? If you're just talking about fans, I think many of us already understand there's a decent chance we are relegated to mid-major status when all is said and done.
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3 hours ago, GTX Horn said:

Evidently this is a move by the SEC powers that be meant to cripple the great Jimbo and prevent aggy football from becoming the fully operational Death Star they were clearly on track to becoming. Pooooooooor aggy

51554CD8-CCE4-4795-9BE6-4BC67F259AC1.jpeg

I’m surprised we haven’t seen SEC flags burning and chaos in the streets of BCS yet. Maybe tomorrow when it becomes official 

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11 minutes ago, billfromlaketravis said:

Maybe this. Tech and the Pokes need to accept the possibility of the PAC 12 standing pat. 

USC/Oregon don’t want to expand unless it’s ND.  They see their conference for what it is. The ‘State’ schools like OSU and WSU want to expand because they know they’ll be cut out of the next rendition if they had to stand on their own merits.

Ultimately, I think the Big Ten will take the best of the PAC and leave the rest.

USC, UCLA, Oregon, Colorado have reportedly reach out to the Big Ten already.

Washington and Arizona are (according to past reports) legally required to stay in the same conference as WSU and ASU. So until those laws are removed they’ll have to stay put.

Cal and Stanford are against the super conferences, but when they have to choose between joining USC/UCLA in the Big Ten or joining Baylor, BYU, and Boise in the new Super PAC12/Big12/MWC hybrid they’ll move too.

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51 minutes ago, orangebird said:

Well, Washington State, Oregon State, and Arizona State all happen to be members of the Pac - and none of them are AAU members.  I'm not sure Oklahoma State's academics are significantly worse than Washington State's, in particular.  If the Pac really wants Oklahoma State, I doubt their academics are going to be a deal-breaker.

Yep, but those 3 are all Tier 1 research universities...as is Oklahoma State.  The Pac and the Big's focus on academics is about to go out the window. This is survival mode time and the first death rattles of the NCAA. 

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25 minutes ago, closetojumping said:

The one question that been answered the same way by everyone is that Texas and OU leave the conference after the 2021-2022 cycle. To that point, I have a good friend that played college ball with a current Big 12 HC. He and his family were visiting mine down in Galveston this weekend and he texted his college roommate and teammate yesterday and I saw the text string with my own eyes:

”Do you think Texas and OU are really joining the SEC? If so, how you feeling?”

”We have been told that it is a done deal. It’s terrible news and we’re trying to figure out what we do next. It doesn’t make sense for us to remain in the next version of this conference though. “

Surprised he’s not enjoying those Chicago summers.

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Yeah, I lied. I’m back to put some assumptions to rest.

The SEC doesn’t set up the now traditional big opening neutral site OOC game. Saban started that with Clemson in 2008 I believe.

All the other teams got mad that Bama had that opening weekend to themselves in hot recruiting geographies - Atlanta, Dallas etc.

So they went out and got good OOC matchups to compete for that promo.

Y’all’s UT/OU game should be fine. The only neutral site SEC game that went home and home was The Iron Bowl and the SEC had zero input on that. The league actually wanted to keep it but Auburn and Pat Dye were a bunch of babies about it.

Also, question. Do y’all have men’s and women’s soccer? All the SEC schools have women’s but only Kentucky and South Carolina have men’s soccer. They actually play in Conference USA.

Lots of us want that sport to expand conference wide.

What about crew? Ice hockey?

Bass fishing? LOL.

What about gymnastics? That’s a huge draw for fans and the SEC is full of excellent gym teams.

Also, softball. The SEC is big on that too.

The first time y’all come to Tuscaloosa, we need a “Surly Internet Meet Up”. Y’all need to see “Dixieland Delight”, “Mr. Brightside, and “Rammer Jammer” in person.

And definitely a meet up for Auburn. I may pay money for my kid to attend there but I’ll happily cheer for y’all in that game.

And shakers - AKA - poms poms are mandatory, I’m afraid. They double as great drink stirrers.

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2 minutes ago, Bama Chick said:

Yeah, I lied. I’m back to put some assumptions to rest.

The SEC doesn’t set up the now traditional big opening neutral site OOC game. Saban started that with Clemson in 2008 I believe.

All the other teams got mad that Bama had that opening weekend to themselves in hot recruiting geographies - Atlanta, Dallas etc.

So they went out and got good OOC matchups to compete for that promo.

Y’all’s UT/OU game should be fine. The only neutral site SEC game that went home and home was The Iron Bowl and the SEC had zero input on that. The league actually wanted to keep it but Auburn and Pat Dye were a bunch of babies about it.

Also, question. Do y’all have men’s and women’s soccer?
women’s yes.  Men’s no, but we probably should.

All the SEC schools have women’s but only Kentucky and South Carolina have men’s soccer. They actually play in Conference USA.

Lots of us want that sport to expand conference wide.

What about crew? Ice hockey?
We won the NC in women’s crew. No men’s crew or ice hockey.


Bass fishing? LOL.

no.

What about gymnastics? That’s a huge draw for fans and the SEC is full of excellent gym teams.

No.

Also, softball. The SEC is big on that too.

yes.

The first time y’all come to Tuscaloosa, we need a “Surly Internet Meet Up”. Y’all need to see “Dixieland Delight”, “Mr. Brightside, and “Rammer Jammer” in person.

And definitely a meet up for Auburn. I may pay money for my kid to attend there but I’ll happily cheer for y’all in that game.

And shakers - AKA - poms poms are mandatory, I’m afraid. They double as great drink stirrers.

 

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if
8-8 split
current crossovers that become division games:
bama-tenn
barn-georgia
leaving only:
florida-lsu
any word on the grapevine if they would be willing to scrap that as an annual game?
2 games against the other division = maximum of 8 years to play the other division if back-to-back home-home series, 4 years if staggered, what's smoke signals on that?

I think Florida and LSU would be thrilled.

That only became a “rivalry” after expansion. They don’t like playing each other and there is some pretty bad blue and hatred there - and not in the traditional “rivalry hatred” sense.

LSU/UF doesn’t have traditional 100 years of history and rivalry. LSU doesn’t really have a traditional rival.

They insist they are Bama rivals and that feeling is not reciprocated. And that makes their natural insecurity complex turn up to 100.
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34 minutes ago, billfromlaketravis said:

Maybe this. Tech and the Pokes need to accept the possibility of the PAC 12 standing pat. 

While realignment is football based and brands, for the ACC the basketball benefits of adding Tceh, Baylor, OSU, Kansas, ISU, and WV could be enough to get those a look.  And possible help for them in recruiting in Texas (in theory), Texas eyeballs for the conf (in theory), and at 20 keeps travel down for the rest with a 5-team central pod (though in some sports they'd have an oddball 6-team pod in their setup, since ND makes 21.)

I'm still skeptical about them ever adding WV, based on academics and past really ugly fan incidents in Morgantown, but WV does have Gordon Gee at the helm.  So also skeptical of the Pac taking Tceh, OSU, K. State for academics (and Baylor's only shot there is a gun to the Pac's head) but the Pac may be more desperate.  I could also see a scenario where just Baylor and TCU being added to the ACC.  The ACC seems the most open to privates and religious, and both Baylor and TCU rank high on the academic side.  And while brands matter, ESPN still has their new ACC Channel, so a team or two or three in the Texas market may help.

Not sure that the argument that ESPN wants the ACC to add B12 teams to get more content holds water, since they could do that at a much lower price by adding them to the AAC.  But might matter if the Pac (or somehow the B1G) decides to pursue B12 schools.

But of course everything is on the table if the B1G decides to raid the P12.

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3 minutes ago, Bama Chick said:

Also, question. Do y’all have men’s and women’s soccer? All the SEC schools have women’s but only Kentucky and South Carolina have men’s soccer. They actually play in Conference USA.

Women's soccer only.  The men's team is a "club" sport.

 

Quote

What about crew? 

Yes, women's crew.  I believe they recently won the national title.

 

Quote

Also, softball. The SEC is big on that too.

UT softball is entrenched but a perennial underperformer.

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1 minute ago, GreenspointTexas said:

Literally the only Texas program that will have it tough in the SEC will be Football. Every other sport we field will finish top 3 in the SEC next year

Softball probably wouldn’t.  OU, Bama, UF, Arky. 

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12 minutes ago, pops said:

Yep, but those 3 are all Tier 1 research universities...as is Oklahoma State.  The Pac and the Big's focus on academics is about to go out the window. This is survival mode time and the first death rattles of the NCAA. 

Stanford and to some extent Cal are the only two insufferable Pac members worried about culture.  Stanford just as likely to drop D1 football as they are to go along with anything.

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8 minutes ago, Bama Chick said:

Yeah, I lied. I’m back to put some assumptions to rest.

The SEC doesn’t set up the now traditional big opening neutral site OOC game. Saban started that with Clemson in 2008 I believe.

All the other teams got mad that Bama had that opening weekend to themselves in hot recruiting geographies - Atlanta, Dallas etc.

So they went out and got good OOC matchups to compete for that promo.

Y’all’s UT/OU game should be fine. The only neutral site SEC game that went home and home was The Iron Bowl and the SEC had zero input on that. The league actually wanted to keep it but Auburn and Pat Dye were a bunch of babies about it.

Also, question. Do y’all have men’s and women’s soccer? All the SEC schools have women’s but only Kentucky and South Carolina have men’s soccer. They actually play in Conference USA.

Lots of us want that sport to expand conference wide.

What about crew? Ice hockey?

Bass fishing? LOL.

What about gymnastics? That’s a huge draw for fans and the SEC is full of excellent gym teams.

Also, softball. The SEC is big on that too.

The first time y’all come to Tuscaloosa, we need a “Surly Internet Meet Up”. Y’all need to see “Dixieland Delight”, “Mr. Brightside, and “Rammer Jammer” in person.

And definitely a meet up for Auburn. I may pay money for my kid to attend there but I’ll happily cheer for y’all in that game.

And shakers - AKA - poms poms are mandatory, I’m afraid. They double as great drink stirrers.

 

Here is a list of what we have. We are also a juggernaut in Quidich! Tell that fucker Voldemort that he can keep walking. 

https://www.collegefactual.com/colleges/the-university-of-texas-at-austin/student-life/sports/

https://www.utrecsports.org/sport-clubs
 

 

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6 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

Women's soccer only.  The men's team is a "club" sport.

 

Yes, women's crew.  I believe they recently won the national title.

 

UT softball is entrenched but a perennial underperformer.

Rowing will likely remain in the Big 12 

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8 minutes ago, Bama Chick said:

They insist they are Bama rivals and that feeling is not reciprocated. And that makes their natural insecurity complex turn up to 100.

That sounds a WHOLE LOT like another school I know of🤔

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Here is a list of what we have. We are also a juggernaut in Quidich! Tell that fucker Voldemort that he can keep walking. 
https://www.collegefactual.com/colleges/the-university-of-texas-at-austin/student-life/sports/
https://www.utrecsports.org/sport-clubs
 
 

lol Bama has a dumb quidditch team too I think it is a club thing I think.
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49 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

Oh, that's not the end of it.  His veterinary background landed him a medical position in the Air Force as a Major at age ~ 45.  He's now a Lt. Colonel and is going to Army War College to try to help make full bird.

He serves in the reserves and sometimes goes to the sandbox, but when he's off military service, he is either a horse vet in the Athens-Savannah corridor or a petroleum engineering contractor, usually in North Dakota (Bakken) but sometimes in the middle east.

He's fucking nuts.

I was going to go with “whatever he wants”, but I guess you just said the same thing. 

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1 hour ago, mdmost said:

I can very much see that. This isn't Deloss and Castiglione any longer. Yes, we have egos but we're now willing to just go to the best conference with strong leadership and not have to be the main alphas. The advantages of the SEC are too numerous to worry about how much power we may have. 

Joe C is still there and if you think about it, he's the only person from the two schools who has been through this saga start to finish.  He may be the most tired of all.  From what I read, he informed Lincoln Riley early on and Riley was on board.  Thinks he can recruit new areas.  (Maybe.)

As for as recruiting, OU recruits CA, AZ, and Vegas really well along with Texas and Florida to a lesser degree.  If they can maintain that pipeline to the West coast and be the defacto West coast SEC school and get some recruits out of the Deep South, that's a win for them.  They might have trouble breaking into those new markets, though.  Pretty entrenched gravy trains.

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50 minutes ago, closetojumping said:

 

 

 

I’m not the only who has heard stuff over the past few days so others can chime in if they’ve heard otherwise, but yeah, there’s allegedly a permanent cross division and then randomness going through the other 7 over 14 year periods, which isn’t completely different than what they have now. ATM is allegedly begging to keep South Carolina as its matchup. LSU and Florida and LSU and Bama don’t feel like they need to play each other every year either, but one of those would seem likely to stick. 

 

Hopefully they recognize the meme potential of a yearly Texas vs Tennessee 'Battle of the UTs' rivalry game and make that happen. Texas v Bama is probably the single biggest money making cross-divisional game the new SEC could put out each year, I would think, so unfortunately I imagine it swings that way with the pairings. 

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26 minutes ago, Bama Chick said:

Yeah, I lied. I’m back to put some assumptions to rest.

Y’all’s UT/OU game should be fine. The only neutral site SEC game that went home and home was The Iron Bowl and the SEC had zero input on that. The league actually wanted to keep it but Auburn and Pat Dye were a bunch of babies about it.

Giving you the benefit of the doubt, please show your work and include 1) the cocktail party, 2) legion field structural integrity, 3) city of birmingham investment in same; 4) cotton bowl; 5) city of dallas investment in same; 6) situational awareness around the 2nd saturday in october in fair park; 7) jerry jones & 8.) pig/aggy

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20 minutes ago, orangebird said:

I think you could make a case for Texas Tech and Oklahoma State expanding the Pac into new media markets, particularly into the states of Texas and Oklahoma.  Sure, Tech generally does not travel all that well.  But they have a fair number of alums in the major cities in Texas - probably enough to justify carrying Pac games on TV.  I would think that expanding the Pac into Texas TV markets in particular would be attractive to the Pac, and perhaps at worst make adding these schools a break-even proposition for the rest of the Pac.  If some of the rumors of the B1G forming a west coast division and raiding the Pac for members come to pass, the Pac is going to be desperate to get out in front of that and try and shore itself up.

West Virginia to the ACC is perhaps a tougher sell - but really, what other options does the ACC have for expansion at this point?

So reading some of these boards and insiders, it seems like Texas and Oklahoma will both get the $50 million/year that the SEC was already going to get (WITHOUT cutting into the existing members slice of the pie) and will give everyone in the SEC an ADDITIONAL $10 million/year.  If you do that math that means these two Big 12 schools are worth $260 million/year.

Texas got $15 million form the LHN and Oklahoma was getting $10 million from Fox Sports for third tier rights, remove that from the $260 million and you have an estimated market rate for their 1st/2nd tier rights which is $235 million a year.

The Big 12 1st/2nd tier TV deal was distributing ~$38 million a year each of its schools which is $380 million total.  If you subtract UT/OU’s $235 million the rest of the Big 12’s TV rights would only be worth ~$145 million/year.  $145 divide by the 8 remaining school averages out to just over $18 million per school.  (Ever wonder how all the Big12 schools “found” enough money to completely renovate their old ass stadiums?)

Even considering that the best of the 8 remaining school likely pull in a few million more over lower conference members it’s still likely less than the average $28 million/year the PAC12 is currently receiving.  Thus expansion with any of the leftover Big12 schools will directly cut into the amount of revenue the PAC12 is getting.

The only reason for the PAC12 to expand is for fear of being left out of the CFP deal and while that may be enough for Utah/WSU/Oregon State, it’s not a worry for USC/Oregon who would just leave and join another conference.

ACC expansion options (they have plenty) - ND, WVU, UConn, Temple, Cincy, Memphis and if FSU/Miami leave UCF/USF

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If Arkansas and aggy can have that dumb JerryWorld game, the SEC isn't going say Texas and OU have to go home and home. Next to Bama/Auburn, that's the best marquee rivalry in the new SEC. Always nationally televised. The Fair is a great backdrop. Gameday would actually give a shit about going back there and not having to promote a Fox game. The SEC would get a nice kiss with the promotional rights for the game. The AT&T SEC Red River Rivalry.

Edited by mdmost
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4 hours ago, Royale with cheese said:

Like Dizzy Dean once said, "It ain't braggin' if you can do it." I guess I better stay out of SEC rooms too. 

Dizzy was amusing but wrong on this one. Braggin' has always been about what you've done.

Namath used this quote. It's bothered me ever since. It's a license for bragging which isn't a great trait.

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26 minutes ago, GreenspointTexas said:

Literally the only Texas program that will have it tough in the SEC will be Football. Every other sport we field will finish top 3 in the SEC next year

Baseball will be tough. 

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While I realize that traipsing through copious volumes of preposterously erroneous speculation is a good bit of what we do here, the tripe about pods really needs to go, imo. I've seen proposals with Tennessee, Vanderbilt, South Carolina, and Kentucky in one pod and Alabama, Auburn, Florida, and Georgia in another and that scheme doesn't stand out as remarkably worse than dozens of others floated in this thread.

Aside from being too esoteric to effectively market, when a conference (pending any further additions) breaks down into two divisions of eight, providing both regional and competitive balance as well as preserving nearly all historically significant rivalries, a pod system simply isn't necessary or beneficial. It’s been said before, but a breakdown like this would work very nicely.

Texas
Oklahoma
LSU
Missouri
Arkansas
Texas A&M
Ole Miss
Miss State

Alabama
Georgia
Florida
Auburn
Tennessee
Kentucky
South Carolina
Vanderbilt

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I think Florida and LSU would be thrilled.

That only became a “rivalry” after expansion. They don’t like playing each other and there is some pretty bad blue and hatred there - and not in the traditional “rivalry hatred” sense.

LSU/UF doesn’t have traditional 100 years of history and rivalry. LSU doesn’t really have a traditional rival.

.

LSU is one of my favorite rivalries. A recent poll of Gators (pre-the recent news) showed an overwhelming desire to continue that game. They are homecoming for us several of the years, and we fucking love that optic.

And Ole Miss is very, very much an LSU traditional rival. That they are not competitive does not make them NOT a rival. See Aggy-Texas.
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I just had an epiphany while reading about aggy's continued meltdown and damage control.

You're either a program who would freak the fuck out about any other program joining your league, or you're not.

If you're in the former camp, you're a little brother. It's as simple as that.

Alabama, Ohio State, LSU, Georgia, Texas...some might have programs they'd prefer not see added for recruiting purposes, but none would freak out to this point of public embarrassment about any programs joining their league.

This tantrum alone does nothing but confirm what aggy has always been. A program that is desperately trying to avoid playing big brother so that they can bluster about how they'd win if they did.

Of course, we've always known this, but I'm glad it's being confirmed very publicly and embarrassingly for all to see.

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1 minute ago, Bill Lumbergh said:

I just had an epiphany while reading about aggy's continued meltdown and damage control.

You're either a program who would freak the fuck out about any other program joining your league, or you're not.

If you're in the former camp, you're a little brother. It's as simple as that.

Alabama, Ohio State, LSU, Georgia, Texas...some might have programs they'd prefer not see added for recruiting purposes, but none would freak out to this point of public embarrassment about any programs joining their league.

This tantrum alone does nothing but confirm what aggy has always been. A program that is desperately trying to avoid playing big brother so that they can bluster about how they'd win if they did.

Of course, we've always known this, but I'm glad it's being confirmed very publicly and embarrassingly for all to see.

Aggy needs to make an appointment. 
 

image.thumb.png.cfbeef698e3958773b54dfbe772926f8.png

 

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11 minutes ago, Voluminous Banality said:

While I realize that traipsing through copious volumes of preposterously erroneous speculation is a good bit of what we do here, the tripe about pods really needs to go, imo. I've seen proposals with Tennessee, Vanderbilt, South Carolina, and Kentucky in one pod and Alabama, Auburn, Florida, and Georgia in another and that scheme doesn't stand out as remarkably worse than dozens of others floated in this thread.

Aside from being too esoteric to effectively market, when a conference (pending any further additions) breaks down into two divisions of eight, providing both regional and competitive balance as well as preserving nearly all historically significant rivalries, a pod system simply isn't necessary or beneficial. It’s been said before, but a breakdown like this would work very nicely.

Texas
Oklahoma
LSU
Missouri
Arkansas
Texas A&M
Ole Miss
Miss State

Alabama
Georgia
Florida
Auburn
Tennessee
Kentucky
South Carolina
Vanderbilt

This was the obvious conclusion everyone came to the second the news broke. I can't come up with any other way to break it up, other than something stupid like swapping Mizzou and Kentucky. 

Edited by Red Five
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