This has nothing to do with venues or the respective locations. It has everything to do with TV markets. This moves the SEC into the St. Louis and K.C. markets in the west, and the Pittsburgh and D.C. markets in the east. That's a huge number of potential viewers for the conference and the all-important ESPN contract.
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You don't really know what you're talking about here.
Consider FSU vs. Va. Teach (cause Mizzou is just too easy of an argument for me) as a potential target. FSU is in a State where we already have a school. Va. Tech isn't. And so you (the above poster) assume that by going to a different geographical location that the new "market" makes adding that team more desirable than adding a team like FSU.
This line of reasoning is completely erroneous, incorrect on multiple levels, and based on a complete misunderstanding of how the particular market in question actually operates.
1. Conference expansion is completely money driven. It allows us to go back to the bargaining table and renegotiate a new deal because the terms of the old deal have changed (i.e. new teams have been added).
2. When we go back to the bargaining table with ESPN, the question will be "how many more viewers will be watching SEC games now as compared to the number of viewers that were watching SEC games when our conference was 12 teams.". The more viewers, the more lucrative contract the conference will be able to get from ESPN.
3. The SEC's television partners, ESPN and CBS, broadcast their games nationally. There aren't anymore television markets for them to expand. They are already in the bedrooms and living rooms of homes in every city, town, village, etc. in the country.
4. In view of #3 above, it should be pretty obvious to all -- unless you aren't very bright -- that important question in deciding which schools to add is: how many people watch their games? The latitudes and longitudes of these viewers is completely and utterly irrelevant. Read that last sentence again, because it is important.
For the above reasons, geography can only be thought of as a factor that may play into the ultimate question of increased viewership. To write off a school like Florida State because they already exist in the SEC footprint is to forget to put on your thinking cap. The Florida State Seminoles have a national brand. Everybody watches Florida State. From all over the country. And the additional viewership is greater than the additional viewership that would come from adding Virginia Tech*. The location of those additional viewers is completely irrelevant.
Parting shot: I would like to urge people on this board to think for themselves and to not regurgitage what they hear or read. Because if you actually think about how this particular arrangement works, it woldn't be the case that everybody and their moron cousin incessantly talks about extending into a new geographical footprint. Now I realize that some people in this world are just not particulary bright and unable of forming thoughts on their own...but at least try.
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*And the television ratings numbrers -- which are easily findable through google searches -- make this statement absolutely irrefutable.