A&M had always had a bad case of little brother syndrome, going all of the way back to the SWAC days. The sheer number of fake titles they’ve bestowed upon themselves is proof of that.
Yeah, if they were to just add the two teams and not realign, then that SEC West would be brutal. That’s why I think the conference might need to redefine “East” and “West”, possibly pushing Alabama and Auburn over into the SEC East while keeping LSU, Miss St, and Ole Miss in the West.
LSU would lose its rivalry with Alabama, but that’s been a pretty one-sided ‘rivalry’ since 2009, winning only once since 2011 and it took arguably the best team in school history to pull that off. I’m guessing the Tigers wouldn’t miss 'em that much, though Bama fans would miss their chance to talk trash in Baton Rouge, lol.
The Iron Bowl would still happen. Bama would gain two new division rivals in Georgia and Florida. Meanwhile, in the West, you’d have the Red River Shootout and Arkansas would get a chance to renew its SWC rivalries.
The more I think about it, I think it would be great for the Conference and great for Texas and OU. I don’t think they’d be pushovers the way some people think, either. Assuming Bama and Auburn leave, your current class of the division (usually) LSU and A&M would gain very credible opponents. I think what you’d see is Texas and OU adapting their style of play to fit their new conference, so they’d probably get more of a pass rush and use more of a balance between running and passing, though there’s just a lot more passing throughout the NCAA anyway.
Well yes, but Alabama and Tennessee could resurrect their (one sided as of late) rivalry. And Auburn-Georgia can regain prominence as division rivals.
It might be Arkansas. Although I would love to see the Texas/Arkansas rivalry re-started, if Texas and Oklahoma were to join the SEC, it might make recruiting tougher for the Razorbacks. Now, Arkansas can pick up a few recruits from Texas and Oklahoma (the states not the schools) because the recruits would want to play in the SEC. If those schools join the SEC, that will make it a bit tougher to pickup some of those out of state recruits.
The other thing that seems likely is that with more teams in each division, that leaves fewer ragdoll opponents for elite SEC programs. So no more Billings Community College for Alabama. No more Vermont State for LSU.
A&M is sure to vote against this. This is their nightmare. They’re the younger sibling who spent their whole lives in their older sibling’s shadow, but finally found their own clique with whom they could establish their own identity. And then yesterday they walked into school to find Big Bro sitting at their lunch table regaling their friends with cool stories and making eyes at their girlfriend.
It was the epitome of cowardice when Bama scheduled Mercer University as an opponent.
I certainly get that feeling. For Arkansas, I guess you could say we were the cousin, to a family with 9 kids. And I certainly think Texas A&M would be a no vote. I just hope Arkansas would be the second. So 12-2. Can we a few more nays on board.
No they’re going to split into four pods most likely.
Ah, interesting.
If one pod is TAMU, Arkansas, UT and OU, that would be fabulous.
Four pods, as opposed to two divisions? What good would that do? The reason divisions exist is so they don’t have to play every other team in the conference (or beg the NCAA for an exemption) in order to be able to have a conference championship game that doesn’t count against the 12-game limit. You still have to play every team in your division, and a conference is not allowed to have a two-round conference championship tournament in football. If there are only 16 teams, two 8-team divisions shouldn’t be a problem.
As a Razorback, I don’t really care about Oklahoma other than they NOT be in the same “POD” we never really played against OU. And it is nice to have a bit of the old SWC rivalry back playing A&M every year. I don’t think we need to kick off the UT rivalry again though. The Big 12 can keep them.
Texas legislators representing Texas Tech, Baylor and TCU have filed a bill to block any conference realignment by UT. It’s an empty gesture – right now our legislature can’t pass anything because of the Democratic walkout over voting rights. And because they’re in special session, it would require Governor Greg Abbott to add conference realignment to the “call” of issues the Legislature can consider. Apparently, Abbott is not returning phone calls from Republican Legislators representing these schools.
Obviously UT would have kept Abbott advised on the negotiations and got his private blessing on the move. And they intentionally waited until the regular session of the Legislature (during which legislators can address whatever they wish) was over to break this.
And the lesson in all this is that by the time you hear the rumor, it’s already a done deal.
This. Think of the money Texas could throw at Saban, if even just for a 4-5 year stint to get back on top.
Saban already said before that he’s entrenched at Bama and doesn’t want to coach Texas. He said he’s too old to have the energy to start all over again at a new program.
Saban will probably retire, but Texas could still benefit nevertheless. They’d probably get more serious consideration from recruits in the other Gulf Coast states. As an LSU guy, I’ve gotten used to LSU dominating in-state recruiting, with Alabama being the only program that reliably poaches our best high school prospects. I could see Texas and OU doing some poaching of their own.
Yeah, coaching a few more years at a program he’s already established is one thing; quite another matter to rebuild another program. I think Texas will eventually get a coach capable of building a program.
I think several other SEC schools could go on a dominant run post-Saban but Texas is in a unique position because of the size and caliber of its home state recruiting base.
As several others have noted, Alabama isn’t always the Alabama of Saban. True, there’s a lot of tradition and support there that helps the Tide’s overall competitiveness even in down cycles but it is a testament to Saban’s abilities that the football program is so successful at a school with only the fifth biggest population base in the conference. And with a fierce instate rival dividing even that up.
At this point, I think it’s a foregone conclusion that the Big 12 is over. There are reports that OU and UT were offered 150% of conference money compared to the other 8. If so, it’s quite the embarrassing Hail Mary.