If the SEC were to add four more teams, who would you want to see join the league?

I find this to be more an indictment of the $hittyness of the ACC than SMU being a game changing addition to the SEC. They have a lot of $$, but so does Texas and aTm, and I don’t think they add much value w/ the DFW tv market that doesn’t already exist. The same way that I don’t think GT adds any Atlanta metro viewers. They’re not worth the extra split of revenue IMO. Established brands in untapped TV markets is probably going to get us to get Carolina and a Virginia school.

This is essentially now a chess match b/n the SEC and B1G. There are three remaining top shelf pieces on the board--Notre Dame, Florida State, and North Carolina. Neither can have Notre Dame. Florida State isn't as valuable to the SEC as the B1G leaving North Carolina as the last piece. The SEC must have it and in order to get it UNC will in some respects get to dictate who their dance partner(s) will be. My money is still on UVa. My dark horse is Duke but only if 4 are added. Those Duke-UNC basketball matchups are highly valued winter tv properties.
 
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This is essentially now a chess match b/n the SEC and B1G. There are three remaining top shelf pieces on the board--Notre Dame, Florida State, and North Carolina. Neither can have Notre Dame. Florida State isn't as valuable to the SEC as the B1G leaving North Carolina as the last piece. The SEC must have it and in order to get it UNC will in some respects get to dictate who their dance partner(s) will be. My money is still on UVa. My dark horse is Duke but only if 4 are added. Those Duke-UNC basketball matchups are highly valued winter tv properties.
I think where the lines are blurred, compared to even 10 years ago is the league footprint, vs eyes on the product. I’m sure Sankey wants to maintain his policy of adding contiguous states like North Carolina and Virginia. I agree with that. I think it makes the SEC unique at this point . I think where the lines are blurred is where we’re looking at streaming vs cable providers in the added footprint. To your point about winter TV properties, Duke is the most valuable college basketball tv product, by a lot. Duke adds eyeballs in NC, but also has a huge following in DC and NYC . Plus, a lot of people watch Duke just to see them lose (Howard Stern effect) Some of you don’t believe me, go look at the basketball forum. IMO if you add Duke and UNC, you have add 6 new marquee rivalry games for basketball. Duke vs UNC, Duke vs UK, UNC vs UK. Those games move the needle. For football you have the Iron Bowl, Red River Shootout, Tailgate Party, Texas vs aTm, TSIO etc…no other league would have that collection of games for both football and basketball. Of course Ohio vs Michigan is currently in their own version of 2003-2004 Yankees vs Red Sox, and there are a lot of huge alumni bases of B1G schools, but the TV product of the SEC would be better overall and would draw more casual eyeballs than say Penn St vs Wisconsin.
 
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At this point, I want the B1G and SEC to merge and eat the other leagues. Then we go to regional divisions that we can call the B1G, SEC, Pac12, Big12, ACC, and Big East.

It gives us back the original leagues when I started watching the sport but also allows more cross-nation games that were badly missing in the 2000s.
 
I think where the lines are blurred, compared to even 10 years ago is the league footprint, vs eyes on the product. I’m sure Sankey wants to maintain his policy of adding contiguous states like North Carolina and Virginia. I agree with that. I think it makes the SEC unique at this point . I think where the lines are blurred is where we’re looking at streaming vs cable providers in the added footprint. To your point about winter TV properties, Duke is the most valuable college basketball tv product, by a lot. Duke adds eyeballs in NC, but also has a huge following in DC and NYC . Plus, a lot of people watch Duke just to see them lose (Howard Stern effect) Some of you don’t believe me, go look at the basketball forum. IMO if you add Duke and UNC, you have add 6 new marquee rivalry games for basketball. Duke vs UNC, Duke vs UK, UNC vs UK. Those games move the needle. For football you have the Iron Bowl, Red River Shootout, Tailgate Party, Texas vs aTm, TSIO etc…no other league would have that collection of games for both football and basketball. Of course Ohio vs Michigan is currently in their own version of 2003-2004 Yankees vs Red Sox, and there are a lot of huge alumni bases of B1G schools, but the TV product of the SEC would be better overall and would draw more casual eyeballs than say Penn St vs Wisconsin.

Duke wouldn't be an atrocious add but they would definitely be competing with Vandy and Miss State as the bottom feeder in Football.
 
Duke wouldn't be an atrocious add but they would definitely be competing with Vandy and Miss State as the bottom feeder in Football.
Football wise I agree, even though they have made great strides recently. They are definitely spending the $$ to be as competitive/successful/relevant as Duke can be in football. They just spent about $8 Million on the transfer QB from Tulane, but it just couldn’t compete in the SEC. I think they would be more competitive in the B1G versus the likes of Northwestern, Purdue, Rutgers etc.. If we’re being honest, Duke isn’t a cultural fit in the SEC, I don’t think UNC is either, or UVA or Miami. NC State would fit in more, Va Tech, Clemson and FSU. I think those 4 would be great football additions, while Duke, UNC, UVA and Miami would fit in really well in the B1G. The others should just join the Big 12 and start the Big East football conference again .
 
I think where the lines are blurred, compared to even 10 years ago is the league footprint, vs eyes on the product. I’m sure Sankey wants to maintain his policy of adding contiguous states like North Carolina and Virginia. I agree with that. I think it makes the SEC unique at this point . I think where the lines are blurred is where we’re looking at streaming vs cable providers in the added footprint. To your point about winter TV properties, Duke is the most valuable college basketball tv product, by a lot. Duke adds eyeballs in NC, but also has a huge following in DC and NYC . Plus, a lot of people watch Duke just to see them lose (Howard Stern effect) Some of you don’t believe me, go look at the basketball forum. IMO if you add Duke and UNC, you have add 6 new marquee rivalry games for basketball. Duke vs UNC, Duke vs UK, UNC vs UK. Those games move the needle. For football you have the Iron Bowl, Red River Shootout, Tailgate Party, Texas vs aTm, TSIO etc…no other league would have that collection of games for both football and basketball. Of course Ohio vs Michigan is currently in their own version of 2003-2004 Yankees vs Red Sox, and there are a lot of huge alumni bases of B1G schools, but the TV product of the SEC would be better overall and would draw more casual eyeballs than say Penn St vs Wisconsin.

Its not all that certain if Duke would even want to join the SEC. Institutional alignments, private v. public etc are going to mean even more in the post-House era.

In the end the ACC is basically going to be a private school league with a few "public Ivies". They may want to stay there.
 
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Its not all that certain if Duke would even want to join the SEC. Institutional alignments, private v. public etc are going to mean even more in the post-House era.

In the end the ACC is basically going to be a private school league with a few "public Ivies". They may want to stay there.
That’s for sure about Duke. As a guy who has lived 5 minutes from Duke’s campus for a good portion of my life I selfishly just want them to stay w/ UNC. I was hoping this would be avoided altogether , but I think UNC is reading the tea leaves and they’re not liking what theyre seeing . They are definitely highly coveted and the most desirable school in the next round of realignment , I don’t consider Notre Dame to be a legitimate school willing to join a conference.
 
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That’s for sure about Duke. As a guy who has lived 5 minutes from Duke’s campus for a good portion of my life I selfishly just want them to stay w/ UNC. I was hoping this would be avoided altogether , but I think UNC is reading the tea leaves and they’re not liking what theyre seeing . They are definitely highly coveted and the most desirable school in the next round of realignment , I don’t consider Notre Dame to be a legitimate school willing to join a conference.

The sad truth is that there is no reason the ACC should be struggling. Had the ACC kept Maryland (the PR blow is more important than the program) and their Football programs stayed successful (i.e. FSU and Miami kept their 1990s level performance), I think ACC would be still a top dog.

Hard to feel sorry for ACC as they were responsible for collapsing the Big East and have made terrible decisions regarding TV contracts.
 
Football wise I agree, even though they have made great strides recently. They are definitely spending the $$ to be as competitive/successful/relevant as Duke can be in football. They just spent about $8 Million on the transfer QB from Tulane, but it just couldn’t compete in the SEC. I think they would be more competitive in the B1G versus the likes of Northwestern, Purdue, Rutgers etc.. If we’re being honest, Duke isn’t a cultural fit in the SEC, I don’t think UNC is either, or UVA or Miami. NC State would fit in more, Va Tech, Clemson and FSU. I think those 4 would be great football additions, while Duke, UNC, UVA and Miami would fit in really well in the B1G. The others should just join the Big 12 and start the Big East football conference again .

UNC has the facilities to fit. They feel like UK 2.0. Duke does not. Duke has a high school level Football Stadium. Despite that, their Basketball is very attractive and they have a mainstream name.

NC State just hasn't been successful enough overall (that tends to be a trend with the ACC. ACC had the potential to compete with the SEC but failed to do it).
 
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We do so well recruiting the Carolinas, Maryland and Virginia that I don’t want the UNC or Clemson in the SEC. That is a bad addition for us IMO because we can’t leverage the conference as a recruiting tool. Maybe I am missing something.
What youre missing is the SEC doesnt care how adding teams makes life harder on Tennessee. They just want to get into those markets.

What I dont get is why they arent going harder after Georgia Tech and that Atlanta market.
 
What youre missing is the SEC doesnt care how adding teams makes life harder on Tennessee. They just want to get into those markets.

What I dont get is why they arent going harder after Georgia Tech and that Atlanta market.
Because Atlanta is already a UGA/SEC town. They don’t add enough eyeballs to justify splitting $ with them.
 
UNC has the facilities to fit. They feel like UK 2.0. Duke does not. Duke has a high school level Football Stadium. Despite that, their Basketball is very attractive and they have a mainstream name.

NC State just hasn't been successful enough overall (that tends to be a trend with the ACC. ACC had the potential to compete with the SEC but failed to do it).
Duke now has a much nicer stadium than it did 10-15 years ago, and it seats about 5k less than Vandy. Overall, It’s not a great Gameday atmosphere, I have likened it to a Triple AAA baseball game. I’ve brought my 4 year old to a game there and felt comfortable doing so. I wouldn’t dream of doing that in Neyland.
As far as State goes, they are starved for an identity. They would latch on to anything that they could and would love to get out from the shadow of UNC and Duke . Even if all 3 joined the SEC, none of them would sniff an SEC championship. They don’t have the history, pedigree or the commitment. UNC fans thinks they do, but they don’t have the stomach for it. They’re still scarred from the Butch Davis academic fraud stuff.
 
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That’s for sure about Duke. As a guy who has lived 5 minutes from Duke’s campus for a good portion of my life I selfishly just want them to stay w/ UNC. I was hoping this would be avoided altogether , but I think UNC is reading the tea leaves and they’re not liking what theyre seeing . They are definitely highly coveted and the most desirable school in the next round of realignment , I don’t consider Notre Dame to be a legitimate school willing to join a conference.

Notre Dame doesn't want to and the SEC will do whatever is needed on the playoff format to prevent them from feeling like they need to join a league. Because ultimately if they do its the B1G and a B1G with Notre Dame opens up a sizeable TV revenue gap on the SEC.

I wouldn't be surprised if in 5 years the SEC doesn't have a scheduling agreement with Notre Dame for 4-5 games.
 
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If your adding 4, It will be UNC & NC State along with Virginia & Va Tech. Both of those states will require they go as a pair, unless both schools agree. Even then its highly unlikely due to politics. Plus it would enable me to see the Vols even more, since I live in Raleigh.
 

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