Blake ToppmeyerUSA TODAY NETWORK
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- If Florida State and Clemson wriggle out of the ACC, where would they go? Each would fit the SEC's identity and footprint.
- If the SEC expands again some years down the road, let those future members be in the readymade mold of Oklahoma and Texas.
- Greg Sankey says he's paying attention to what's going on in other conferences. Which school will tempt the SEC to grow beyond 16 teams?
MIRAMAR BEACH, Fla. – The SEC prominently projected its pinwheel logo featuring 16 school pennants onto a hotel wall this week throughout the conference’s spring meetings.
It’s a visual reminder of Oklahoma and Texas joining the nation’s most powerful conference.
Whose pennants will join that pinwheel next?
I asked Commissioner Greg Sankey on Tuesday about the SEC’s appetite for further expansion. I didn’t expect Sankey would publicly declare that the SEC covets a particular school. Sure enough, Sankey said the SEC’s focus is on its 16 members.
More interesting, though, is what Sankey didn't say. He didn’t say the SEC will stand firm at 16 in perpetuity or that the conference is disinterested in further expansion.
That’s notable.
If brands the SEC might privately desire become available, I expect the conference to pounce – just as the SEC did with Oklahoma and Texas.
“We respect that there are agreements and situations that prevent a lot of movement, so our focus has been on our 16,” Sankey said.
“But, I pay attention,” he added.
I pay attention, too, and I notice Florida State’s discontent about its paltry media rights distribution from the ACC, in comparison to the SEC’s mega payday. FSU and Clemson are suing the ACC over its media rights deal, which runs through 2036.
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Why are Florida State, Clemson suing the ACC?
So far, that sticky rights deal prevented any ACC members, like FSU or Clemson, from vamoosing into the Big Ten or the SEC. But, I’ll eat a football tee if FSU calls the ACC home more than a decade from now. You don’t sue a conference you want to call home.
The ACC braced itself for potential defections by adding California, Stanford and SMU – not that any one of those schools would offset the loss of a school like FSU, Clemson or North Carolina.
Even Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin on Wednesday engaged with the possibility of FSU in the SEC, and Stricklin noted that no single school – a rival, let’s say – could veto a particular expansion candidate.
“Anybody who made our league better, we’d be supportive of joining the SEC,” Stricklin told reporters, speaking in a hypothetical sense.
Oklahoma, Texas ideal additions for the SEC. Why? ''The games!'
Did the SEC’s previous expansions improve the league? Well, those expansions made the league bigger and more powerful, anyway. Arkansas and South Carolina served a business purpose. Adding them allowed the SEC to split into divisions and launch a revolutionary SEC Championship Game. A decade later, Missouri and Texas A&M expanded the conference’s terrain and fortified the league for the launch for the SEC Network.
“All three (expansions) helped elevate this league,” Sankey said. “They all brought strength.”
If the SEC expands again some years from now, let those future members be in the readymade mold of Oklahoma and Texas.
These big brands and revenue giants not only fit league’s culture and identity, they also enter the SEC with natural rivals, unlike some of the SEC’s previous expansion arrivals. And for all of the SEC’s longstanding bravado, OU and Texas will be competitive in this conference from Day 1, in a variety of sports.
This expansion is good for business, but it’s also just going to be a heck of a lot of fun.
“The games!” Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte exclaimed when asked what excites him most about being in the SEC. “The whole thing is going to be awesome.”
Chief among the awesomeness: The restoration of Longhorns vs. Aggies on Nov. 30 in College Station.
Fact is, those teams never should have stopped playing.
"When you have two programs like that in the same state, two hours away, they should play every year, and it should mean a lot,” Aggies coach Mike Elko said.
It might mean one heck of a lot this year, considering Texas and Texas A&M each could emerge as playoff contenders. That rivalry goes beyond records, though, and Thanksgiving week wasn’t the same after Texas A&M left the Big 12 for the SEC. Egos got in the way, and the teams stopped playing after 2011.
“I know realignment looks different for every school, but for us, we gained two rivals back,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said. “We’re playing Arkansas again, which is great. … We get A&M back. The game against A&M, you’re talking about houses divided.”
Houses are divided between Florida and FSU, too. And Clemson and South Carolina. For now, those houses are split between the SEC and ACC.
But, what school wouldn’t prefer to be in the SEC (or the Big Ten)?
And, if presented with another tempting expansion opportunity, couldn’t the SEC find room for a couple more school pennants on its pinwheel?
Blake Toppmeyeris the USA TODAY Network's SEC Columnist. Email him atBToppmeyer@gannett.comand follow him on Twitter@btoppmeyer.
Also, check out his podcast,SEC Football Unfiltered,and newsletter,SEC Football Unfiltered.Subscribe to read all of his columns.
