Afteroon A&M, SEC Expansion Update

People need to realize that this is a strategic move for both TA&M and the SEC. For the Aggies the long term benefits greatly outweigh and short term setbacks.

For the SEC they are also positioning themselves for the future. The Big 10 has fired the first shot and that is the competition. Delany is attempting to regain prominence through expansion because he knows he cannot do it otherwise. Should the SEC be left out of the expansion feast by the Big 10 and Pac 12 it could bring a shift to the college football landscape. Slive is afraid of being "regionalized", especially as the Big 10 correctly identified expanding into new regions rather than existing areas as key to their agenda. The ACC basically shares the same footprint as the SEC so there is limited value there. The Big 12 is the real prize here and it's proven to be vulnerable to raids.

In the short term the SEC doesn't need to prove that the league has "increased value". All they really need to do is renegotiate at existing "fair market" value. They inflated contracts signed by the Big 12 and Pac 12 now make the SEC vastly undercompensated. The SEC set the bar but then competition gave the ACC, Big 12, etc, roughly equivalent contracts despite inferior programs and much lesser ratings. If the SEC can now get their value from CBS and ESPN, it will be a win. Or CBS could go hardline and risk losing their cash cow. When you look at other programming, networks have proven again and again that they will overpay for a product rather than risk losing it altogether. The networks know who is king of college football and they will strive to keep the king satisfied and happy.

Those of you who discount the impact of the D/FW and Houston TV markets on SEC football with the addition of A&M have your head in the sand.

Hey John,__What does UT think about Texass A&M joining the SEC? I would imagine that Vol AD Cronnan has an opinion on the defending national champion Lady Aggies coming into the Lady Vols conference. Quite a few people in Arkansas believe that Pat Summitt had a hand in Gary Blair's firing at Arkansas since a Pat Summit alum took his place and UT secured Strickland in the process. I'm sure Blair is licking his chops to play the Lady Razorbacks.

The TV exec is right, between ESPN and CBS - the SEC is already in the Texas TV Market, in addition there's a large number of LSU and Arkansas alumni living and working in Texas. Don't forget that if A&M joins the SEC it's not 8.3% additional revenue that needs to be generated, its more bc when you take A&M, you will eventually have to take team #14 as well. So the league really needs to generate 16.6% additional revenue to maintain the status quo. That's a more difficult proposition - if the SEC uses the extra games inventory to launch their own cable network it would seem possible. I have a feeling that team 14 is still pretty hard to find at the moment, the candidates all have major flaws. FSU doesn't want to join, VaTech can't leave UVA for political reasons, GaTech/Clemson don't bring much and are in SEC states, if you take Mizzou, you are taking a team the B1G passed on and you are destroying the Big12. WVU might be a decent choice, but they're a Big East team, might not be able to deliver the Pittsburgh/Virginia/Washington DC markets and seem tied to Pitt.

The CNBC guy is right-

even if we do take on aTm, they are unlikely to ever be in the marquee games of the week on TV.

I hope they like 11:20 AM "SEC Network" Kickoffs

I really dont want A&M

the "TV Markets" argument always seemed to be a stretch to me... and the Longhorns will always be on peoples televisions no matter what conference the aggies are in

That money has to be lost by flying the girls volleyball team etc. from the East coast to "middle of nowhere" Texas and back twice a year

IMO the aggies have little to offer the rest of the SEC, and if its true the "TV Markets" argument they've been spewing is a bunch of bs... why dont we just tell them to check out the WAC

I still find it hard to believe that Slive would have allowed the talks to progress to this point if it was not going to be for the benefit of the conference. We don't know the wording of these contracts. Slive might be rolling the dice on the move in regards to renegotiation of the contracts. It might be that expansion allows renegotiation - however if the SEC is not satisfied with the new amounts then it will allow the SEC to announce the end of the contract and re-open the bidding to all parties. Kinda of how the Big East is right now. They were not satisfied with the offer that ESPN put on the table so they will be opening up their contracts to all bidders. The SEC might be positioning themselves for the same process. It would mean a short term loss, but allow them not to be committed to TV contracts for the next 15 years that will end up putting the conference behind in revenue.

What would you expect a tv exec to say?

Much ado, about nada. A&M needs the SEC much more than the SEC needs A&M.

I said when the SEC signed that long term agreement that it was a mistake. All they had to do was go backward 15 years and see how fast things changed and things are changing even faster! I never thought of the TCU angle that Wetzel threw out there. IF the former exec is right, than wouldn't that significantly change things? 25 million Texas households should be a big enough sway to boost TV revenue more than 8.3%. I still say there are forces out there muddying the waters to stop this from happening. There are too many organizations (NCAA, CBS, ESPN/ABC, Fox, NBC) that will be hurt financially should this come to pass.

How does the Florida thing work on Sun Sports?

Why doesn't the SEC start a network like the Big 10 or Pac 12? Seems there's money to be made there.

I still say the only way I will believe Texas A&M is joining the SEC is when I hear it from SEC Commissioner Mike Slive's mouth.

The question that needs to be asked here is... Are the TV exec's blowing smoke to keep this from happening? Isn't in their best interest to not have to re-open the contract. They do it for one, than other leagues start poaching and all the contracts are re-opened.