The Lions' Pride

It might just be me, but for some reason i just don't think Texas A&M would fit into the SEC...is the big 12 just going to fall apart?

Seems like Big 12 will fall apart..
Not only A&M but Okl to follow..
Also read another article which id try to find and link, would have Mizz knocking on the Big Tens door.
Then Texas would have to choose going Pac-12 or Independant...
Cant understand why those southern schools dont get along.. Its the old SWAC all over again

http://collegefootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/07/20/rumors-surface-once-again-connecting-am-sooners-to-sec/

Nebraska being booted from the AAU might help a school like Missouri get in, although I wonder if the conference is putting pressure on Nebraska to get back into the AAU.

I'm not sure I favor further expansion on a western basis. Might be time to look at some of the eastern schools if a move to 16 is in the cards.

Personally, regardless of what happens with the Big XII, I don't think the Big Ten will expand further. Why? Because regardless of what happens, I think the Big East will be safe. In fact, if the Big XII falls apart, I could see the Big East getting KU and KSU (and probably UCF) to round out at 12 teams. If the Big East is safe, ND's non-football athletics are safe. In that case, ND will remain independent, and the Big Ten will stay put.

I could see the breakup going like this...

-KU and KSU to the Big East
-aTm and Mizzou to the SEC (they would want OU, but not taking OSU would make them not go)
-OU and OSU to the PAC-12
-Texas Independent
-ISU, TTech and Baylor to the MWC (sucks for them).

Of course, these predictions will prove to be WAY off .

Just seen @McMurphyCBS tweet that IF the Big 12 would've split last year, the Big East approved invites for KU, KSU, Mizzou, and Iowa State. Interesting, to say the least. Especially the last two schools.

I agree about OU and OSU going to the Pac 12. I think that day is imminent, especially when Texas goes Indy.

JMO, but aTm moving to the SEC isn't a very good idea.

OU is much more like to go PAC-12 than SEC. Boren, the president of OU, doesn't like the SEC's academic reputation nor their recruiting practices. He has a lot of influence over athletic decisions too, so I doubt OU to the SEC would happen.

Texas would probably go Pac-12 too, as they are head and shoulders above every SEC school outside of Georgia, and maybe Florida. Big 12 is falling apart because of Texas' doing. Apparently the reason Osborne told Nebraska they should leave was because Texas vetod every TV contract proposed. Its unfortunate the commish let's Texas drag him around on a leash.

JMO.

Texas will go independent before they go to the Pac 12 now that they have a huge TV deal. Plus the Pac 12 would want Texas sports for their own network when it gets up and running.

That is likely not true. Consider these two quotes from SEC commissioner Mike Silve:

"Obviously when we did our deal we set the pace, and in our contract we have a concept called look-ins," Slive said. "At periodic points during the life of the contract, we can sit down with ESPN and take a look-in and look at the status of television, technology, all aspects of television, and at that point make adjustments that the parties agree are appropriate to make sure that everything that we intended to achieve with the contracts would in fact be available to us."

"Let me try to answer that in a way that's consistent with our contractual obligations," Slive said. "There are confidentiality clauses in almost all of these contracts. Having said that, it's not unusual in a contract to have a clause that talks about the composition of the league, what it is at the start and then what might happen if the league were to get smaller or grow larger."

If the SEC expands, it appears as though they can go back and renegotiate their contract. Because of this, expansion is even more likely as the SEC is in only the second year of a very long contract that currently has them being paid only the 3rd most money per team of the BCS conferences. That's not good, and I highly doubt that they will just sit back and watch other conferences earn significantly more than they do.

Not surprised at all. I think Texas and ESPN are two entities that regularly overvalue themselves. That said, I also think ESPN would be willing to lose money just to keep the super-conferences from forming and using their own networks.

Texas A&M is going to the SEC.

SEC has interest in Clemson, Florida State and Virginia Tech from the ACC but probably just takes one.

With all the talk of the BIG poaching the Big East, it is the ACC Delaney is after.

BIG is after North Carolina, Duke, Maryland and Georgia Tech. BIG wants 2 before they re-offer Notre Dame with a last chance.

The Big East is after Boston College and Maryland first and if they say no will take the Kansas schools and 1 other.

If the ACC falls apart the Big East is sitting VERY pretty.

The next few years are going to be very interesting! Count our blessings PSU is in an elite conference that could never be broken up.

me neither. I am a big basketball fan, though. I am not sure how the football centric fans would feel. UNC, Duke, UVA, and ND would be my picks.

Interesting post from PURPLE BOOK CAT on Northwestern's rivals site. For those not familiar with PBC, he was all over the expansion issues last year. So much so, that Jim Delany complained about leaks out of the Big Ten Headquarters after one of his posts. Anyway, he has the scuttlebutt surrounding the possible additions of Texas, ND, and aTm. His post as follows:

"Today was a very busy day in Park Ridge. For the Big Ten, the writing has been on the wall: we're going to 16-team super-conferences.

Invitations to join the conference remain in the hands of the appropriate parties at Notre Dame and Texas. The Big Ten believes that Notre Dame will join once Texas joins the conference. Texas wishes to join the Big Ten with its Longhorn Network, as a non-participant in the Big Ten Network. This scenario remains feasible.

The Big Ten is now operating under the presumption that A&M currently plans to leave the Big XII for the SEC. However, there is haste to consider an invitation to A&M immediately. The message to A&M has not yet been met with adequate response by the relevant parties at A&M. Though an invitation has not been settled upon, one likely will soon be forthcoming to Texas A&M. The Chancellors and Presidents have a conference scheduled to give provisional approval to invite A&M to the conference. It is expected that the Big Ten Chancellors and Presidents will find that A&M would add a unique level of tradition and academic prestige to the conference.

Separately, A&M stands to benefit the most from joining the Big Ten conference. In particular, A&M would reap the benefits from the Big Ten Network - which Park Ridge thinks would vastly outweigh the benefits that A&M would receive from the SEC. In particular, the Big Ten Network's reach is and likely always will capture a vastly wider audience than the Longhorn Network, and with A&M's addition to the Big Ten, will include the geographic footprint of the entire state of Texas.

With regard to the benefits A&M stands to gain from Big Ten membership, the Big Ten feels that the Big Ten Network would obviously more than offset the competition for eyeballs of recruits in the state of Texas from the Longhorn Network. The terms of the offer given to Texas include the right for Texas to maintain and independently operate the Longhorn Network, and thus not share in the financial benefit of the BTN. (Texas would receive equal voting rights and treatment in all other operations and activities of the conference aside from participation in the BTN.)

If A&M left the Big XII for the SEC, the Big Ten believes that the resulting political circumstances in the state of Texas would enable the University of Texas to leave the Big XII to join the Big Ten conference, regardless of the decisions made by the other Texas universities (with regard to the Big XII conference).

The Big Ten is actively pursuing the relevant parties at A&M and expanding discussions. This week, for the first time since the conference explored expansion possibilities, the notion that Texas and Texas A&M could join the Big Ten instead of Texas and Notre Dame as members 13 and 14 were openly considered. In such circumstances, the Big Ten believes that once Texas and Texas A&M join the conference, Notre Dame almost certainly would immediately follow, and several universities are in consideration for the sixteenth member, as I mentioned on the Rock. Should Texas and Texas A&M commit simultaneously to the Big Ten, the Big Ten expects to jointly announce the addition of four teams total to create a 16 team conference shortly thereafter.

We're currently in a period of acceleration of activity much like that which came before the invitation extended to Nebraska. The Big Ten seems poised to act immediately if A&M responds to certain overtures."