You can subscribe to their podcast, SEC Football Unfiltered, or check out the SEC Unfiltered newsletter, delivered straight to your inbox. John Adams is the columnist for the Tennessean. Where to listen to SEC Football Unfilteredīlake Toppmeyer is an SEC Columnist for the USA TODAY Network. He doesn’t buy Meyer’s coaching retirement claim. Is Urban Meyer coming to an SEC sideline near you? Adams says yes. Adams and Toppmeyer make their final pitch for the SEC to add a ninth conference game. The eight- or nine-game conference schedule debate will spill into the SEC spring meetings next week in Miramar, Florida. Adding the Hurricanes would be playing defense against the SEC’s super-league rival. But, would the SEC really want the Big Ten gaining a foothold into a football hotbed like Florida? No. It’s south of the South and doesn’t exactly fit the conference’s identity of rabid college sports towns. Miamiĭoes the SEC need Miami? Probably not. Blueblood UNC would provide a hoops remedy, while bringing Charlotte, a growing metropolis, into the SEC’s bosom. That weighs on SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey. That’s fine, because the SEC hasn’t won a men’s basketball championship since 2012. UNC is a significant brand, albeit known more for basketball. Grabbing the Tar Heels would grow the SEC’s footprint into a neighboring state, just like previous seizures of South Carolina, Arkansas, Missouri, Texas A&M and Oklahoma have done. In past rounds of expansion, the SEC has factored in location, fit and identity. A program already housing a rivalry with South Carolina probably would attract even more eyeballs playing against the likes of Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama.
ClemsonĮxcluding Notre Dame and teams in the Big Ten or SEC, Clemson ranks among the most-watched teams in college football. All this time later, FSU’s location, brand and football pedigree and passion still make sense for the SEC. The Seminoles were a prime candidate for the SEC when it wanted to expand from 10 to 12 teams, but Bobby Bowden favored the easier route in the ACC at that time. The SEC-FSU flirtation stretches back more than 30 years. Here’s the case for four ACC schools that make sense for the SEC: Florida State Probably, the ACC’s deal will continue to hold, but if the league fractures, the SEC cannot afford for the Big Ten to enjoy dibs on the top ACC fare.
TOPPMEYER: If ACC splinters, SEC must feast and stick Big Ten with the scrapsĪDAMS: Tennessee football will lose something meaningful when SEC drops division play The deal has shown itself to be binding enough to keep the ACC together, even as the SEC raided the Big 12 and the Big Ten penetrated the Pac-12. Of course, slithering away from that deal would come with multiple barriers, including a steep financial penalty. On this episode of “ SEC Football Unfiltered,” a podcast from the USA TODAY Network, hosts Blake Toppmeyer and John Adams highlight four ACC schools that should interest the SEC for further expansion, if those schools somehow find a way out of the conference’s media rights agreement. Navigating to either, though, would require clearance of a tall hurdle: The ACC’s media rights deal runs through 2036, and that deal has successfully glued its membership to the conference, so far. With schools like Clemson and Florida State exhibiting a wandering eye, there can be only two conferences on a waffling ACC school's dream destination list: the SEC or the Big Ten. At this point, it is warranted.Certain ACC members are unsatisfied with the conference’s third-fiddle media rights distribution, and several have examined the bonds of the conference’s media rights agreement. In the last 30 seasons, Ohio State has lost 66 games total under five head coaches, but only has two national championships. Sooner, rather than later is the best guess, though all the sorting out of the college football terrain could take a few years. A couple lucky law firms will get to bill each side a whole lot of hours. More on the minds of Crimson Tide and other SEC football fans is what will the league’s future bring and how soon. Alabama football fans have questionsĪlabama football fans are not particularly concerned about what the Big Ten does. The big plum for the Big Ten is Notre Dame, but the B1G will not stop there. A tipping point would quickly be reached if the SEC added Clemson and one more ACC school, particularly if it is Miami.
It might pull that off, though battling the SEC and the Big Ten for teams will be difficult. The ACC’s best hope is to expand and up its bounty. When (not if ) the Big Ten and the SEC grow to 20 to 24 teams, the team payouts from each conference will dwarf what the other three former, Power Fives will be able to provide. The ACC has always counted on the grant of media rights to prevent schools from defecting to Big Ten or SEC.
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