Grunts
by Ronald Sitton
MONTICELLO, Ark. — The recent hubbub about possible conference expansion just goes to show how smart Roy Kramer was back in the olden days, you know, 1992. You definitely can’t argue with the results: With the last four National Championships and a television contract Lucifer would kill for, Southeast Conference football holds no peers.
But everybody else wants a piece of the pie as the Entertainment Sports Network, i.e. ESPN, sits in the catbird seat, waiting to capitalize.
USA Today’s 2003 timeline shows how conference expansions brought us to this point . Yet not quite a year after the SEC’s Faustian bargain with the ESPN, Sports Illustrated’s Andy Staples suggested that howls from Bowl Championship Series’ critics would cease if the Big 10 and Pac 10 would simply expand. A little more than a week later, ESPN’s Pac 10 blogger Ted Miller linked to a blog post suggesting Utah should join the Pac 10. By December, SI’s Stewart Mandel stirred the expansion pot by discussing the Big 10s need for expansion just to remain relevant in the weeks leading up to the BCS National Championship.
A day later, ESPN beat the drum for Big 10 expansion. Miller provided the “same old, same old” report that the Pac 10 would consider expansion. As the Aughts ended, the Bleacher Report forecast the effects of Big 10 expansion by 2013.
By February, Rival’s Dr. Saturday produced a “hypothetical” user’s guide to expansion. (College Sports Info keeps an updated table on schools most likely to consider expansion). Miller claimed upcoming media contracts fuel the Pac 10’s expansion talks. CBS’ Dennis Dodd noted the Pac 10 may benefit from expansion, but playoff controversy would cease. SI’s George Schroeder thinks the Pac 10 should dismiss the idea of expansion if the league cannot attract Texas.
In a move that will either inflame or stifle the controversy he helped stir last summer, Staples suggests dumping the NCAA and creating a superconference that doesn’t need a playoff nor the weight of trying to help every member institution.
The old rumors of Arkansas running back to its former Southwest Conference brethren recently reappeared. But ESPN’s Chris Low videoblogged on the subject, noting TV contracts will keep Arkansas from leaving the SEC. He believes Clemson and Florida State would be good additions to the league, but both schools reside on the East Coast and wouldn’t necessarily increase exposure. Besides, what SEC East team will move to the SEC West? Vandy?
Scout’s Brian Harbach wants any SEC expansion talk to stop, noting a bigger conference may not be better as 12 teams seems to be the right number. He also worries about weakening rivalries and suggests the league let other leagues play guinea pig.
And at that point, I decided to chime in. First, I find it less than amusing that ESPN and CBS continue to flame expansion talks. Both outlets stand to gain from the expansion, while any idea of a college football playoff stands to lose from the same. Where’s an ombudsman when you need him?
But since the genie’s out of the bottle, I don’t believe the SEC should sit back and wait for other conferences to make a move. The strength of the SEC has been it’s savvy skill in making the most competitive conference mix with the most passionate fans in America.
The SEC could strengthen rivalries and the conference by adding four teams: Clemson and Florida State in the Eastern Division, and Oklahoma and Texas in the Western Division. Imagine: eight teams per division, three inter-divisional conflicts instead of nonconference matchups. We wouldn’t even need Staples’ proposed superconferences when the SUPER conference would be all that anyone would care to watch.
And … unfortunately, most importantly … the pie would only get bigger the next time the conference met to discuss it’s media contract.
