Virginia Tech And NC State To The SEC? Prepare For Some Political Battles
January 27th, 2012 11:12 AM║ Posted By: John Pennington ║ Permalink ║ Tags: Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vanderbilt
In the last hour a pair of emails have dropped into the MrSEC.com inbox asking if NC State and Virginia Tech are “really” going to join the SEC. After a little digging I found that the folks over at OutkickTheCoverage.com have posted a story today predicting a 16-team SEC with four divisions, semifinals for football, and the Hokies and Wolfpack as the most likely entrants into the league.
Now, we first wrote about the possibility of SEC football semifinals back in August of 2009. And we still believe that the SEC could someday end up with 16 schools, but only if the landscape changes elsewhere. After speaking to people at schools across the conference, we do not believe the SEC is fishing for new members at the current time. In any way.
In our view, if a 16-school is being discussed in the press, that’s a long-range discussion. Especially with the BCS system sitting on the verge of change that might slow the current realignment push to a halt.
That said, if the SEC expands again, stretching into new markets and new territories is clearly the goal. That was the goal when Arkansas and South Carolina were added. It was the goal when Missouri and Texas A&M were annexed. It’s been the goal of every league throughout the expansion/realignment process. Our readers know we’ve been beating that drum for two years now. (Only Florida State — in our opinion — would offer enough name brand value to make them a viable option from inside the existing SEC footprint.)
Looking outside the league, Virginia Tech does make a great deal of sense for the SEC. But the Hokies used up a lot of political capital to gain an invite into the ACC. It’s hard to imagine them having the clout or the intestinal fortitude to jump leagues again anytime soon. Especially after Tech officials made it very clear this summer that their school is better off in the ACC from a travel perspective and an academic perspective.
As for NC State — a school oft-mentioned because no one believes North Carolina and/or Duke would move to the SEC — there would be some serious political issues to work out as well. NCSU is a “constituent institution” of the University of North Carolina system. In other words, the schools have a connection. We’re not talking Texas and Texas A&M, here.
State has a 13-person board of trustees. One member is the president of the student government. Four trustees are appointed by the governor. The remaining eight NCSU trustees are elected by the UNC board of governors.
If State’s administration decided that their school would be better off in the SEC, it appears from afar that at least two of the eight trustees put in place by UNC’s board would have to okay the move. And that’s if all the other non-UNC-elected trustees favored the move. And that’s if a vote to switch conferences only requires a 7-6 majority.
Is it possible that State would move from the ACC to the SEC? Sure, anything’s possible. Especially when millions of dollars are on the table.
But it would appear Virginia Tech and especially NC State would have to wage some large-scale political battles to exit their current league.
If they even wanted to switch leagues.
If the SEC decides to expand again.
The talk of 16 schools is fun and it’s always good for pageviews. Trust us, we know. But for now, there’s nothing to suggest that the league will be expanding again in the short-term.
(Usual caveat: Never say never.)
If the BCS takes Notre Dame's sweetheart deal off the table it looks like all bets would be off with ND looking for a place to land. ND could not risk their strength of schedule depending upon how other teams fare alone. Due to the capricious nature of the strength of college football teams, ND risking their relevance in, and participation in, the national spotlight on their merits alone seems unlikely. A conference affiliation in either the B!G or the ACC would assure them a place.
Once ND comes into play the final act in this round of realignment begins.
It will be interesting to see if the big conferences are ready to set things in motion. We'll see if they throw ND overboard.*
* This would also help curtail teams like Texas, BYU, Boise State and so on from going independent and demanding/litigating for equal treatment and generally being a PITA.
As someone pretty familiar with what went on to get VT into the ACC, I think the whole "can't move due to political reasons" is WAY overblown. VT's last move was made in desperation to avoid what was believed to be a sinking Big East ship. UVA was positioned to help get them into the ACC and Virginia's politico's were rallied to the cause to assure it happened. A VT move to the SEC is a completely different animal. First, UVA can't do much to keep VT in the ACC and many UVA fans would just as soon see them leave. Sure, they'd probably raise a stink, but only because it gave them an opportunity to degrade VT, not because they wanted them to stay in the ACC. Politically, I just don't see there being much will to fight a VT move to the SEC. 1) It would more than likely bring more money into the state with bigger football games and more fans traveling from the SEC schools to VT. 2) The ACC would still remain a viable conference, no one is predicting their demise like they were the Big East back in 2003. This means the politicians won't be whipped up to stop the move like they were to force the VT move to the ACC. 3) More VT fans than UVA fans = more VT voters vs UVA voters.
That being said, the writer is much closer to a real reason for VT not going anywhere when he talks about VT administration comments this past summer. The academic reputation of the ACC has the VT administration pretty star struck and I don't see the current regime wanting to move without bone head moves by the ACC or the SEC putting together a package that dwarfs the money offered by the ACC (and even then I'm not entirely sure)
if somehow, Mike can get VATECH and NCSTATE come to the sec. so should we call this `The Confederate model`
jrclick4233 Perhaps. Perhaps not. But, it's not unfair to refer to Slive by his Sith name, Darth Dixie!
I agree that the landscape would have to change. The landscape change would have to be the Pac-12 adding four schools from Texas / Oklahoma or the B1G adding more teams. If the B1G expanded and took teams from the ACC, then the ACC would become destabilized. Imagine the B1G picking off Syracuse, Virginia, Maryland, Notre Dame, or the likes. That would make other schools in North Carolina or Viriginia reevaluate their situation. All I know from the last couple rounds of realignment is that fear of being leftout makes a lot of schools move conferences.
I don't buy the wait on AQ status being rescinded. It's still about television money. If we are on hold for going to 16 its because it is more profitalbe after this renegotiation to wait and renegotiate again after we add two more. There are only a couple of schools that if they came into play early might speed up the process. If Virginia Tech or FSU (I know footprint) came into play by the Big 12 (remote) then the SEC might move early. If UT or ND decided to move, or OU & OSU suddenly wanted to bolt then we might make an early play. Look for the ACC to add two more before the SEC moves and look for two years to pass before we ask to renegotiate TV revenue due to such a move.
Re-alignment will definitely continue...... It will all begin again..... I really would not be surprised to see those 16 team conferences, and who knows what will happen with the teams from the MAC, USA, BE, etc..... those teams will want a piece of the pie as well....... Who knows, conferences could consist of 20 teams.......
There were some rumors on some message boards the past couple of days about Clemson and Florida State joining the Big 12, making for future east coast match ups with the non basketball powers. I suspect it is somehow related to the pending court fight with WVU leaving the Big East. Try and get the pot all stirred up and BE scrambles to protect the future instead of holding on to WVU and the past. The NC State and Va Tech avoids the "can't add schools from existing SEC states" argument.
Conversation from Twitter
thedudeofwv I don't think expansion depends on the SEC. it comes down to play and money. lots of reasons to leave ACC for B12
[...] in Part I, there are blogs already thinking about division and pod breakdowns. But there are political issues with such a move. Then there are Florida State, Georgia Tech, and Clemson. Each of those [...]