The conference realignment drama may be heating up again. This time with Missouri at the center of speculation.

According to a report from the Kansas City Star that the Missouri Board of Curators could hold a meeting Tuesday. The meeting could deal with conference affiliation. According to the website, “The speculation – the informed speculation that is – anticipates that meeting dealing with Mizzou’s status in the college conference realignment picture.”

Why Missouri? Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News answered this question in a column late last night. Wilner wrote, “Why would Missouri want to join the SEC? Because of the long-term stability and because when the SEC signs a new TV deal — which cannot happen without expansion — then each school will likely receive $25 million-plus per year for TV rights. Why would the SEC want Missouri? Because it’s an Association of American Universities member and because there are 2 million TV homes in the state.”

Wilner provides more context for the entire conference realignment situation. So, be sure to visit the link above for more information.

16 thoughts on “SEC Expansion: Situation ‘extremely fluid’ in Missouri”

  1. I’m not sure I would want to go with Missouri, strictly from a scheduling standpoint.

    Now you move Alabama and Auburn to the East Division along with Florida, Georgia, Tennessee (when they are up).

    LSU stays in the West and plays a bunch of scrimmage games and then ends up in Atlanta every year. Not exactly fair.

    Bring in West Virginia or some other team from the East (South Florida?) and that keep the divisions somewhat balanced.

    1. I wouldn’t count out adding a couple of teams in the East.

      But remember the East has been pretty easy for Florida over the last decade anyway. Tennessee? Weak. South Carolina? Moderate. Georgia? Richt.

  2. Alabama will not be moving East it is only Auburn. The Iron Bowl will be moved up to late October or early November giving a few weeks between it and the SEC Championship just in case.

    Alabama’s “key rivalries” have traditionally been West teams (Miss. St.; LSU; Ole Miss) and Auburn’s have been East (Tennessee; Georgia; Florida). Each do have other divisional rivalries but these were the traditional ones. When the SEC formed the divisions it was necessary for a few teams to “pay the price”- Auburn being one who gave up their traditional rivalries. Many on the Auburn side have always wanted to be in the East as it fits our primary recruiting bases outside of Alabama- West Georgia and the panhandle of Florida.

    Even without Missouri (but in all reality I think they’re coming) Auburn will likely move East in the next year or two as a swap with Vanderbilt. It is a necessary swap to offer more balance to each side.

    Your likely divisions (if Missouri comes) are-

    East: Auburn, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Florida, Vanderbilt, and South Carolina (5 traditionally good teams)

    West: Alabama, Arkansas, Texas A&M, LSU, Miss. St., Ole Miss, and Missouri (4 traditionally good teams plus 2 better than average teams that could make a run at any time)

    2. Chris, not really sure where you get your history but the Alabama-Tennessee rivalry goes back to 1928. They don’t call it “the Third Saturday in October” for nothin’.

      Further more, to call Ole Miss & MSU “Key rivalries” for Bama is ludicrous.

      Only since the arrival of Nick Saban has the LSU game began to take on the semblance of a rivalry. Previously, LSU was just another SEC game.

      1. Notice I never negated the Alabama-TN cross divisional rivalry but simply indicated the majority of their historical SEC rivalries were West teams. The teams mentioned have historically been your “key rivalries” in the old SEC as you were dominantly recruiting in the same areas. As far as LSU I seem to recall a famous run at their home for Alabama. Seems to me it was a big deal for a while.

        Before the last 10-15 years when the SEC became a dominant national recruiter SEC rivalries were really about recruiting turf. Hence why playing some teams (whether you been them the majority of the time or not) were considered rivalries. In Alabama’s case it was Auburn, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Miss. St., Ole Miss, and LSU. Alabama owned much of the recruiting space incl. Birmingham, Mobile, Bilouxi, Nashville, Memphis, Jackson, etc. Remember “back in the day” these were premiere recruiting fields where beating other SEC teams meant you got the pick of the litter.

        And my source for all things Alabama is life long fan who is a former high school coach and very knowledgeable of the old SEC ways (I jokingly refer to him as the SEC jedi master).

  3. LSU plays scrimmage games?? Very laughable and shows you dont pay much attention. As of late, Arkansas OWNS LSU so that in itself is a hurdle. A&M is to be seen, as well as Mizzu if it does happen, i give it a 25% chance.

  4. Expansion won’t stop at 13 or 14. At 16, all you get is a bloated version of the current reality. Leaves me thinking of those movies where the original film was so cool and profitable that they go and make a sequel (12’s good, let’s go to 14). The sequel “works” great and the film company rakes in the cash so they decide, what the hell, and make a third installment. The third film is poorly written, the actors are over paid, and the public collectively agrees they should have stopped at 2 cause #3 sucked.

    If expansion only changes the # of schools in the conference without bringing something new and exciting to college football, then it is a terrible waste of time and energy.

    In 1991, the SEC expanded to 12. That allowed the conference to split into 2 divisions and stage a conference championship game (something new). Expanding to 14 or 16 teams doesn’t change the equation. All it does is shuffle money from one conference to another.

    I’m wondering which conference commissioner has the kahunas Roy Kramer had to change the equation.

    1. Here’s the questions I’ve been pondering when it comes to 16 team super conferences- In the end don’t we really get two 8 team conferences who are locked together in a bowl game disguised as a championship before the bowl games?

      If this is the case why shouldn’t the SEC just go ahead and acquire Texas, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State and create a Southeast division and Southwest division of a Super South Conference. You could have Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, OK. State, Arkansas, LSU, Ole Miss, and Miss. State in the Southwest; Alabama, Auburn, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and Kentucky in the Southeast.

      If you gonna do the 16 team thing might as well do it right!

  5. Some of you have lost your grip on reality. Not going to get into the realignment crystal ball thing, but as for the Iron Bowl it may be the most profitable tv game of the regular season. ESPN will never allow its demise. I don’t care what the divisions end up being. Now Tennessee I’d hade to see go, but LSU has gotten bigger in recent years and not just because of Saban. Tennessee is a poor recruiting state, not because we don’t recruit it but because the quantity of talent is not there. We are now raping talent rich Louisiana and Bama is full of stars from the Bayou State. With the new Texas footprint moving us West I expect to see even more talent coming from across the Mississippi. RTR!

    1. “We are now raping talent rich Louisiana and Bama is full of stars from the Bayou State.”

      I’ll have some of what you’re smoking. LOL.

      1. Other than Lacy who was sentenced to Alabama you don’t have one single star from Louisiana. Out of 5 players LSU only offered Sylve, but when Bama got him we had to settle for the 5 star receiver Jarvis Landry.

        I can’t wait to see LSU kick you behinds again this season- get used to it

  6. Has anyone considered the possibility that Vanderbilt would go west, and Alabama and Auburn would go east, keeping those two rivals together and preserving Alabama’s rivalry with Tennessee? Vanderbilt and Tennessee could then be paired as cross-divisional rivals (as could Alabama and LSU), so nobody would end up losing rivalry games.

  7. That sounds logical from a geographical standpoint, but it would make for a grossly lopsided powerbase and would hamstring the SEC’s best teams opportunities for the BCSNCG. The West would have only LSU and two teams Arkansas and Tex A&M who have not played in a conference championship game in 30+ years, while the East would have Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Auburn and South Carolina all of whom have played in or won the SECCG since the beginning of the BCS era. Not good dude. Believe me the money hungry powers that be will be considering this when they realign the divisions. RTR!

  8. Texas will ALWAYS want to do things their way and want a bigger piece of the monetary pie than all other schools. Don’t you guys understand what the problem IS in the Big XII? Apparently not. Its the University of Texas! You want to export it to your conference … unbelievable …

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