Texas A&M Rumored to (Still) be Interested in Moving to SEC

During the original rumor barrage that saw two Big 12 teams leave the conference, all the talk went to the football world, tv contracts and super-conference potential.

Now that the conference of 10 is set to start the 2011 football season in less than two months, more rumors are starting up - this time Texas A&M and Clemson going to the SEC. But from a women's basketball perspective, can you imagine a Gary Blair vs. Pat Summitt showdown? The "old guard" vs. "new"? Storied program vs. defending champion? That could be fun.

10 months ago Jessica Lantz 6 comments 0 recs |

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If the SEC were planning to expand

they should go after four schools to get it to 16. That way they could have two mini conferences of eight schools each, and I’m not going to get to how they’ll do that.

From a basketball perspective, this isn’t necessarily a good thing whether great coaches go against each other or not. We see that in the Big East non-football conference that it was just a conference that was just too big in number, geographical size, and by school type from catholic schools like Notre Dame, G-Town, Nova to large public schools like Pitt and WVU. At least the SEC is made up solely of large public research universities, except for Vandy, which is there for the “academic” reasons…..

by thewiz06 on Jul 19, 2011 12:21 AM EDT reply actions

that said, if Clemson got into the SEC, what's going to stop them from adding

schools like Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech for football reasons?

Then the ACC may have to pull a USF type move and grab James Madison University, a CAA school. To their credit, JMU did beat Virginia Tech last year, and they did win the 2004 Division I Football Championship, and they have a pretty vocal and supportive alumni base. I also find it funny if the ACC was forced to grab East Carolina, which the Carolina schools really don’t want to do because they do pride on their “academic reputation” and pretty much all the ACC schools are decent academic institutions.

by thewiz06 on Jul 19, 2011 12:25 AM EDT up reply actions

"...this isn’t necessarily a good thing whether great coaches go against each other or not."

If only this were about amateur competition between student-athletes and not TV contracts.

I bet these people look at the Big East schedule with their massive conference and say, “We’ll cross that bridge when it comes – for now, let’s just get that money!”

SwishAppeal.com for women's basketball...SB Nation Seattle for Seattle sports...and trying to maintain a Golden State of Mind about the Warriors. Twitter: @NateP_SBN.

by Nate Parham on Jul 19, 2011 12:41 AM EDT up reply actions

that is a sad thing indeed

And it’s clear every major division I conference is going for football money, but that’s how it is.

by thewiz06 on Jul 19, 2011 12:45 AM EDT via mobile up reply actions

and because that's so clear...

I do not believe that your James Madison suggestion would ever fly for a conference locked in to a BCS bid. Same thing with ECU. No way. IMHO.

by Jessica Lantz on Jul 19, 2011 12:49 AM EDT up reply actions

That's why BEast expansion irks me

We were born as a basketball conference, damnit! And while the big expansion had that in mind, both men’s and women’s (hello, DePaul), bringing in TCU… I’m not thrilled. I feel a fission coming on, and if it’s public/private, I’m going to be very :( at not seeing UConn, Rutgers, and L’ville anymore.

I am the victim of a basketball jones.

by Queenie on Jul 19, 2011 8:45 AM EDT reply actions