SEC unanimously accepts A&M; Big XII blocking move? (Updated 8pm)

ACC & Other119

Now that it’s official that A&M will become the 13th member, it’s absolutely certain the SEC will at least add a 14th member, and probably soon (ESPN):

The member presidents of the Southeastern Conference unanimously voted to accept Texas A&M Tuesday night as the league’s 13th member, but the Aggies’ official acceptance has been delayed by the potential threat of legal action.

The SEC’s presidents want assurances that no individual Big 12 school will sue for contractual interference over Texas A&M’s departure. Baylor has not given that assurance to this point, according to sources.

“We were notified yesterday afternoon that at least one Big 12 institution had withdrawn its previous consent and was considering legal action,” University of Florida president and SEC chairman Dr. Bernie Machen said in a statement released Wednesday. “The SEC has stated that to consider an institution for membership, there must be no contractual hindrances to its departure. “

The only holdup to this becoming official is potential legal action by Baylor, which stands to lose the most of all Big XII members should the conference become defunct, as expected (Yahoo!):

A threat of legal action by Baylor has, at least temporarily, held up Texas A&M’s move to the SEC. The SEC’s presidents voted unanimously Tuesday night to extend an invitation to Texas A&M to become the league’s 13th member, but that invitation is contingent upon all of Texas A&M’s Big 12 counterparts waiving their right to a legal challenge.

A source said Baylor had broken ranks with the remaining Big 12 members, which decided last week to waive their right to legally challenge a move by Texas A&M. In a statement, Florida president Bernie Machen, the chair of the SEC’s presidents group, said the SEC would not accept Texas A&M as a member until the potential legal roadblocks were cleared.

The question for State fans: how will this affect the ACC, and thus, State? Sources indicate that Virginia Tech may be the target for the 14th member, so the dominoes may begin to fall very soon now.

There’s been much discussion on SFN about State promoting itself as a target for SEC expansion. LRM says the ACC should raid the Big XII rather than the Big East; maybe the ACC thinks that’s the right idea.

*****

Dan Wetzel asks if bigger is better (Yahoo!):

To call the proposed 16-member leagues “superconferences” is a painful misnomer. Bigger isn’t better for anyone who isn’t getting a bonus based on a television contract. It’s not good for the athletes, the coaches, the alumni or the general fans.

College football’s enduring appeal includes history, tradition and regional rivalries, all of which are currently being spit on by the warring conference commissioners and duped university presidents, a group that likes to refer to itself as the “guardians of the game”

Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops on Tuesday had to shrug at the possibility that the storied Oklahoma-Texas “Red River Shootout” – first played in 1900, usually in Dallas at the Texas State Fair – could cease to exist.

“Sometimes that’s the way it goes,” Stoops said, noting the decision is beyond his control.

Already the Texas-Texas A&M rivalry, which began in 1894, is in jeopardy. Even schools that wind up safe in a big conference will play their long-time rivals less.

And the impact here on other sports – most notably men’s and women’s basketball – could be brutal. Essentially the people who think the BCS is a good idea are threatening the fabric of March Madness.

It may be inevitable, but there are very few positives about any of this. Football is football, so the product will deliver in the end, but the people running the sport are trying their best to maim the appeal.

“I feel like further consolidation and more stability would be a healthy thing for college football,” Pac-12 (or will it be Pac-16?) commissioner Larry Scott said Saturday. “Right now there’s obviously some instability that I don’t think is a particularly healthy thing in certain parts of the country.”

Nice line, but it’s the consolidation that is causing the instability. The Big 12 was fine until Scott came calling in 2010 in an effort to bolster his soon-to-be negotiated media rights deal. While conference membership has occasionally shifted through the years, there was never a free-for-all like this, one that threatened the very collegial purpose of college athletics.

*****

Looks like the Big XII members are going to block the move…at least until Oklahoma decides its future (ESPN):

Texas A&M’s move to the SEC ultimately would happen if Oklahoma stays put in the Big 12, but until that occurs eight of the remaining nine Big 12 schools will not waive their right to pursue litigation against the SEC and A&M, a source with knowledge of the situation told ESPN.com.

During Wednesday’s conference call of the Big 12’s board of directors, the source said it was made clear that the SEC was unwilling to accept the Aggies until the rest of the Big 12 schools waived their right to sue. The confusion arose from a letter that Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe sent to SEC commissioner Mike Slive on Sept. 2, in which Beebe stated that the Big 12’s board of directors — not the individual schools — wouldn’t pursue litigation.

“This is the first time to my knowledge that a conference has been requested to waive any legal claims toward another conference for any damages suffered with a membership change,” Beebe said in a statement Wednesday. He added that the waiver “did not and could not bind the individual member institutions’ governing boards to waive institutional rights.”

Stay tuned…

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ACC & Other

119 Responses to SEC unanimously accepts A&M; Big XII blocking move? (Updated 8pm)

  1. camel77 09/08/2011 at 9:36 AM #

    I am more in favor of being proactive and going ahead expanding to 16 or 18 teams. I don’t know much about the academics of the schools in the SEC, but when I think about a SEC school (except Vanderbilt), I think of win at all cost(bending , breaking rules, and cheating. When you hear an ACC school mention, you think about academics and good athletics. Academics is the main reason that universities were formed, not as the minor league for the pros.

    I think the idea of 4 mega-conferences is better than 3. With a four 18 team conferences, you would include 72 of the 120 Division 1 teams and cover a wider fan base and therefore more viewers. That is what the networks want. If I don’t have a dog in the fight, I am not spending my money to watch. So let the ACC be the fourth.

  2. camel77 09/08/2011 at 9:52 AM #

    With the way Wolfpack Nation is, they would not be happy not winning no matter how much money being in the SEC brings. As far as keeping our state best recruits, they still will go to the schools they are going now because they compete for national championship. So until NC State does, this will continue.

  3. HPWolf 09/08/2011 at 10:25 AM #

    The SEC is not an option. They do not want us and currently we have little to offer as a football program. The whole SEC bandwagon is built on the current perception of their strength as a football conference. If the ACC can win a National Championship this year or next then everything changes. It doesn’t matter who, us, FSU, Clemson. All we need to be relevant again is a BCS championship. As far as expansion goes it has to be a possible scenario. Texas and Oklahoma are not coming to the ACC. We are more likely to steal an SEC team than get a heavyweight from the Big 12. We are best served by adding to what we have. If our Adm. Is dumb enough to petition the SEC we will either be embarrassed by rejection or embarrassed on the field. We are not ready for the SEC and frankly we don’t fit in well.

  4. LRM 09/08/2011 at 10:44 AM #

    Texas and Oklahoma are not coming to the ACC. We are more likely to steal an SEC team than get a heavyweight from the Big 12.

    Sorry, this is way off. They probably wouldn’t come to the ACC, but you’re saying the ACC is more likely to steal a team from the most powerful football conference (SEC) — one that currently pays its members $20+ million and soon $25+ million — than one that will be defunct within weeks, as soon as the pesky legal obstacles are cleared (Big XII)? Texas A&M is already out, Oklahoma has publicly acknowledged its looking at options while Texas will find a home where its Longhorns Network will be welcomed or become independent; once *either* of the latter two happens, the Big XII is done. Those teams are all in play, and they’ll follow the money.

  5. HPWolf 09/08/2011 at 10:59 AM #

    LRM, let me clarify, I don’t think there is even a slim chance of the Big 12 teams heading our way or an SEC team looking to jump to the ACC. Why would they? Why would a football school jump over other good football conferences to join a non football conference. Its not going to happen. The big 10 or the SEC will expand and get them before they would travel all the way to the east coast. They are not desperate and they would have to be and out of options.

  6. LRM 09/08/2011 at 11:07 AM #

    HP, I do agree with that — *unless* the ACC is willing to alter is equal revenue-sharing model to get Texas.

    You can bet any future expansion will be very strategic — ie, new TV markets. Presidents won’t approve any model that reduces the revenue per school, so it will be formulaic:

    If X = current revenue, Y = future revenue with 14, Z = future revenue with 16, then expansion will only happen in the following manner:

    Is Y/14 > X/12? If no, stay at 12; if yes, then is Z/16 > X/12? If yes, then is Z/16 > Y/14? If yes, then it will be 16; no, 14.

  7. whitefang 09/08/2011 at 11:27 AM #

    What people don’t seem to be able to accept is that adding 3 or 4 Big East or even the remote possibility of adding several Big 12 teams may not be enough to keep the ACC relevant. This is because while you may believe State is better off in the ACC you better believe our ACC brothers are exploring options behind the scenes. The ACC will likely lose a couple of teams in a best case scenario.
    Also it is TV MARKET that can make us attractive. Sure we aren’t sitting on a cabinet full of NC trophies, but do you think Missouri is? Even TAMU is not a perennial powerhouse. The NC TV market is not to be sneezed at even if you believe our football program should be.

  8. 61Packer 09/08/2011 at 12:31 PM #

    In the best case scenario mentioned above, which teams will the ACC likely lose?

  9. HPWolf 09/08/2011 at 1:06 PM #

    I’m hoping the ACC is being proactive and thinking big. Our best play is to hold on to the schools we have, absorb the best the big east has to offer. Maybe a few select others. Then pull for one of our ACC teams to pull off the perfect season. I hope of course this could be NCSU but in all reality FSU has the best chance. If FSU wins a BCS championship then the ACC is immediately relevant in football again. If this happens we are less likely to be cannibalised by other conferences. Yes I know those are big ifs but damn, we are due.

  10. LRM 09/08/2011 at 1:07 PM #

    In the best case scenario mentioned above, which teams will the ACC likely lose?

    It’s really hard to say, because it would be based on a combination of factors, and nowadays everyone is looking out for themselves first while blaming everyone else for being greedy. Like the Big XII right now, it would probably become a domino effect.

    At least some folks believe that Maryland (and possibly Georgia Tech) were at least considered as targets by the Big Ten last year; the Duke-Carolina machine would be a target of both the Big Ten and Big East, and Carolina by the SEC; Boston College has been rumored as a potential Big Ten target. Florida State won’t sit idly by while the ACC crumbles; gentlemen’s agreement or not, they’ll try to join the SEC. Virginia Tech is a likely SEC target.

    $30 million annually can overcome a lot of detachment to tradition. It really depends on how solvent the ACC can remain against the Big East. At this point, the winners of the Big East/ACC merger would at least have a (small) chance; the losers, none. The Big East will probably get raided by the Big Ten (Syracuse, Pitt, Rutgers) and maybe even the SEC (West Virginia), but with TCU and some creativity, they may come out of this stronger than the ACC — that’s the concern.

    An ACC with Navy, Central Florida, and Memphis instead of Maryland, Virginia Tech and Florida State isn’t going to negotiate its way into the BCS picture. It’s very possible that in a few years the ACC will look very little like it does now, and nothing like it did in the 80s.

    That’s why a lot of us aren’t getting hung up on the tradition of being a charter member of a potentially-flailing conference and think NC State should do whatever is best for NC State.

  11. CaptainCraptacular 09/08/2011 at 1:37 PM #

    LRM, what I have been saying is that if the ACC expands in such a way to get strong programs – take for instance a foursome of ND, Pitt, WVU, and Oklahoma. A renegotiated deal should put the ACC on very good footing payout wise.

    Look at the PAC deal. If they can do it the ACC sure can.

    If the ACC is competitive with present and future payouts – there’s no reason at that point for existing member schools to consider jumping to the B1G or SEC.

  12. LRM 09/08/2011 at 2:16 PM #

    LRM, what I have been saying is that if the ACC expands in such a way to get strong programs – take for instance a foursome of ND, Pitt, WVU, and Oklahoma. A renegotiated deal should put the ACC on very good footing payout wise.

    Look at the PAC deal. If they can do it the ACC sure can.

    If the ACC is competitive with present and future payouts – there’s no reason at that point for existing member schools to consider jumping to the B1G or SEC.

    Capt, good point, I agree.

  13. VaWolf82 09/08/2011 at 2:54 PM #

    what I have been saying is that if the ACC expands in such a way to get strong programs – take for instance a foursome of ND, Pitt, WVU, and Oklahoma.

    I tend to ignore any post that starts with the speculation of ND joining the ACC. That possibility is far less likely than the SEC contacting NCSU about joining.

  14. 3boys 09/08/2011 at 3:46 PM #

    Guess I am still old school and need to get to the 21st century – I still like the old regional conferences – no way that ND is on the “Atlantic Coast.” I understand tv has made the world smaller and money has made college sports a business and not an “extra cirricular activity” – but miss the old days. Did not even like when GT was brought in . . . .sigh.

  15. 61Packer 09/08/2011 at 4:21 PM #

    The most likely 16-team ACC, if the current members remain, would include Pittsburgh, West Virginia, Syracuse and either Connecticut or Rutgers. If FSU and/or someone else departed, bring in South Florida or Louisville.

    I don’t see any SEC teams ending up in the ACC, let alone any Big XII teams. That league is on the verge of extinction, and I think the only team that can save it is Oklahoma. If OU goes, and I believe they will head west, OSU goes with them, and even Texas Tech could go also. Texas then might have a choice between the Pac 12 and the SEC, if they were willing to dump the thing that started this whole expansion mess, their greed and resulting Longhorn Network.

    I think Missouri would be best suited for the Big Ten, and if that league added 3 more besides Mizzou, I’d guess Kansas, K-State and Iowa State. The Kansas teams will go somewhere together, and Iowa State, although not attractive to many, would be pushed by Iowa for Big Ten inclusion, like UVA pushed for VT in the ACC. Notre Dame is the best fit for further Big Ten expansion, but the Irish seem to still perceive themselves on some sort of Mount Olympus, with the rest of the college football world somewhere beneath their holy feet.

    The SEC and Big Ten will come out the winners if things keep heading where they’re apparently going. The SEC will probably remain intact and its new members will be geographically and culturally similar. The Big Ten isn’t likely to take a new member from outside the Midwest, period, unless it was Pittsburgh or maybe Syracuse. The Pac 12 will benefit some by getting Oklahoma, but is any league big enough to hold both USC and the Sooners?

    The ACC and Big East, plus a few Big XII teams, are the ones who’ll be without a chair when the music stops. The ACC and Big East would probably combine, and no remaining ACC member would likely be left out. Pitt, WVA, Syracuse and either UConn or Rutgers would probably move to the ACC, but teams like Cincinnati, Louisville, South Florida, Baylor and possibly Iowa State would be left in 16-team super conference expansion hell, with nowhere to go. It’s why Baylor is trying to block Texas A&M, which won’t happen.

    The one sure thing about all this is that Baylor likely won’t see any SEC teams on its schedule for a long, long time.

  16. CaptainCraptacular 09/08/2011 at 4:41 PM #

    Ignore to your hearts content Va, but there will be a day:

    Conference Payout w/ND in the conference
    = or >
    independent ND TV contract + BCS payout every 4 years (average) + value of ND independent tradition.

    If the deal the Pac-12 received is but a percentage of a future mega conference deal, this day will come sooner rather than later.

    Don’t laugh at the prospect of ND joining one of the mega conferences. It’s not as far away as you may think.

  17. VaWolf82 09/09/2011 at 8:40 AM #

    Don’t laugh at the prospect of ND joining one of the mega conferences.

    I didn’t. I am laughing at speculation that ND would join the ACC and help make it one of the super conferences. The B10 has far more to offer ND than the ACC both financially and from historic match-ups. There may be ways to keep the ACC in the BCS auto-qualifier category, but ND isn’t one of them.

  18. Pack Mentality 09/09/2011 at 8:46 AM #

    “There may be ways to keep the ACC in the BCS auto-qualifier category”

    And this is the only realistic option for State.

  19. highstick 09/11/2011 at 1:08 AM #

    Options:

    1..Fire Debbie Yow, rehire Lee Fowler
    2..Build some more fucilities and maybe we can into some other conference cause we can’t compete in the SEC or the ACC.
    3..Form our own conference and pretend we’re in the Ivy League..Maybe we can even get the Tarholes and Dookies to join us…
    4..Quit playing football and become a French University with a focus on grape horticulture.
    5. Grow some balls and play football!

    Oh, forget Number 5, we just got beat by Wake Forest today! Holy freakin’ Christ! Now you know why although I love my alma mater, I buy football tickets elsewhere!

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