Could North Carolina and Duke, along with Texas and Texas A&M, join the Southeastern Conference as the push for mega-conferences (and the subsequent implosion of college athletics as we know it) begins?
That’s SEC commissioner Mike Slive’s “dream”, according to Ken Medlin over at WRAL, who references a blog post from the Austin American-Statesman. According to a “well-placed Southeastern Conference official”, Slive’s vision, however unlikely, would be to bring those four into the SEC fold. Other scenarios mentioned were standing pat at 12 teams, or possibly adding Florida State, although the official noted that Florida “might throw up a roadblock” over the Seminoles.
It’s ironic that I read this piece this morning, as I had the exact same thought last night after watching Kirk Herbstreit discuss conference expansion on Pardon the Interruption. Herbstreit, like most observers, does not expect the SEC, who pioneered the 12-team conference, to sit idly by while mega-conferences form all around them. The conventional wisdom, as Herbstreit espoused yesterday, is that the SEC would try to poach Florida State and Miami from the ACC.
But if the push is for new money and new markets, then FSU and the U do the SEC do no good, since the SEC has the state of Florida on lockdown with the University of Florida. Miami has more of a national following, but FSU is a lot like Florida. No, I figured, the SEC would chase money into new markets, like Texas or North Carolina. Both moves make far more sense than FSU or even Miami, and it appears Slive is of the same opinion.
Texas is, well, Texas – populous, crazy over football, and mostly of an SEC-mentality anyway. UNC and Duke would open up Charlotte and Raleigh TV markets (both in the top-30) , have a national following, and would provide instant credibility for the SEC as a basketball league, lining up with Kentucky to give the SEC three of the top 5 or 6 all-time top college basketball programs.
Meanwhile, UNC and Duke are not of an SEC mentality. Clearly as academic institutions, no one the SEC is really in Duke or Carolina’s same area code and the faculty at both schools would probably not look kindly on such a move. In fact, Medlin notes in his piece, “When asked about a just such an SEC scenario, one UNC official told me ‘we might not even answer the phone call.’”
On the other hand, as Medlin also points out, if you’re going to be left without a chair when the music stops, your thought process on this issue might change. The fun is only beginning in this installment of College Athletics Armageddon 2010™…
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We might actually have a chance in football to be a contender in the ACC. God help us if we had to play SEC teams each week. We’d never have a chance to sniff a BCS bowl again. Especially if you threw Texas into the mix.
[...] Tar Heel Fan pointed out this SEC wish list in the Austin American Statesman (via WRAL) and I find it quite disturbing. The SEC, pioneers of the 12-team conference and not wanting to be left behind the Pac-whatever-it-is-now, could be eying expansion and targeting UNC and Duke. This, according to THF would be a boon to their basketball prestige giving them three of arguably (well, arguably as far as Duke and Kentucky ) the best teams in college basketball history in the same conference. It would also look to boost its football stature by adding powerhouse Texas and it’s little brother Texas A&M (not to mention Butch’s boys in blue). [...]
Hell, if half VT, Miami, GT and F$U were to bail for the SEC, we’d actually have a chance to own this conference in football.
The idea that Carolina and Duke would consort with alleged institutes of higher learning like Kentucky, Alabama, LSU, Arkansas, and Miss. State is absurd. They would join the Ivy League and give up major college sports before getting in the muck with those glorified community colleges.
“Clearly as academic institutions, no one the SEC is really in Duke or Carolina’s same area code.”
This is mostly true, but there are a few exceptions. Vanderbilt is, by any metric, and ELITE university. Texas, if they joined, is a really, really good school with T20 B and L schools, and a terrific chemistry department. Florida also has a T10 chemistry department.
“Clearly as academic institutions, no one the SEC is really in Duke or Carolina’s same area code.”
Dook would object to being linked to Carolina in this respect. USNWR has Dook ranked 10 and UNC ranked tied for 28.
I have no use for Dook, its arrogance and its culture, but there you have it.
‘Twas not ever thus. When I was in Chapel Hill, we were ranked about 15, and Dook was slightly behind us. If you were an out-of-stater trying to get in, it was the functional equivalent of Harvard.
The reason we’ve slipped is that the state legislature just would not come up with the money for us to compete for top faculty. It’s a darn shame. Given Chapel Hill’s beauty, the mild climate, the outstanding sports tradition, and the prosperous and energetic Research Triangle, there is no good reason we should not be a top-ten academic school.
Of course the Rat has gone to restaurant heaven, so that counts against us.
“Vanderbilt is, by any metric, an ELITE university.”
Yeah, but their membership in the SEC is merely an optical illusion. Vandy and Florida are the only SEC schools with membership in the AAU, however.
“When I was in Chapel Hill, we were ranked about 15, and Dook was slightly behind us…The reason we’ve slipped is that the state legislature just would not come up with the money for us to compete for top faculty. It’s a darn shame”
A lot of state universities have slipped on the USNWR list for just the reason you mention, Rath. UNC is almost always between 3 and 6 on the public list, but some of the state schools are not where they used to be on those kinds of lists, either. On the 2010 list, the first public school doesn’t show until #21.