We won't have to wait too long for Sankey to screw up...
A good defense is a good offense. The SEC may need to consider a pay cut to build a fortress around its geography and revenue base. Sure the Big10 can expand but its in places where the fan demand is much more tepid. They cant grow value in baseball or softball. They may not be able to grow value in basketball. Plus the Big10's academic snobbery would limit who they target.
To me if the SEC can expand but improve the revenue position of the bottom half of the conference it improves the whole conference. All the regional rivalries would be more valuable if they had conference implications.
People from the Midwest just arent going to care about southern football teams in the Big10. Indiana fans are to arrogantly dismiss Clemson much more than we would if they were members of the SEC.
I will put money behind passion before I put money behind potential. If people are not watching, they are of no value.
I would start off by saying recency bias is something to be avoided. For years, I expressed caution about Virginia Tech, even when they were seen as the top ACC football program. I said they'd come back to earth, and they have. Now they're even, perhaps behind Virginia, despite the lethargy of Virginia. The key there is what a program is once they join the conference. A Virginia can potentially bring more to the table purely because they still have support even when they suck, the same can't be said for a VT or a Clemson for example and that's extremely relevant because we're talking about a meat grinder conference.
I've watched things like attendance and ratings though so I do understand that for instance Clemson when they are good in football is worth more than Virginia. But the real question is what are they worth when they're not good in football? So you do need to be somewhat cynical when looking at these additions.
Missouri wanted to join the Big 10. They were trying to get included with Nebraska. That's why I said the SEC could add them (and should, along with A&M) over a year before it happened. Yes, they saw themselves as a better fit in the Big 10, but they were rejected and thus the SEC became the only alternative.
To me you start off by looking at who those snobs in the Big 10 would want to add. Virginia, UNC, Miami and Notre Dame all fit their profile as AAU members. Those are highly likely to be the top of the list teams. Wildcards include Georgia Tech, Kansas and Arizona. There's no great need to try to snatch up someone the Big 10 doesn't want anyway. Might the Big 10 take a break from being snobs and be more aggressive? Perhaps, but as long as those teams are on the board they have no reason to be.
That's why if I'm the SEC, I have to start by looking at Virginia and UNC and from there I honestly would look at Kansas before I looked at redundant territory (Kansas actually makes more than Ole Miss, Miss. State, Oregon and UCLA despite being in the Big 12). I think FSU is the only redundant program I'd really bother to go after, that is one move that's a mix of offense and defense. I would by the way settle for VT if push came to shove, I think Virginia is better, but if the Big 10 already snatched Virginia you can try to turn that into the battleground instead of just playing dead.
Hindsight is beneficial but I think Sankey should have gone all in and taken FSU, Clemson, UNC, and Virginia. By taking those teams, you’ve effectively killed the ACC, blocked the Big Ten from making meaningful expansion southward, and maybe opened yourself up to other possibilities such as Notre Dame (who would have lost its ACC half marriage).
There was a window of time where this was possible. That window is now shut. Sankey has since been outplayed in tv deals and the 9 game conference schedule. The SEC falls farther behind in NIL. The Big Ten took the gloves off a few years ago. The SEC has been flat footed and stumbling backwards ever since.
While we can debate Clemson a bit, I generally agree. If you're going to be aggressive, be aggressive. Taking Texas and Oklahoma was never going to be the last move, so why not be more proactive? Also, the handling of the ninth conference game is a textbook example of how the SEC keeps mishandling media deals. You only make that deal for a big payday.
