The 14-team Southeastern Convention has yet one more yr on the open circuit. The baker’s dozen plus one variety of full-time members lasted 12 years, when Texas A&M and Missouri departed the Massive 12 for the SEC. Outdated habits are onerous to interrupt and as a substitute of poaching faculties that already felt like outsiders in their very own convention, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey oversaw the inclusion of the Massive 12’s two strongest manufacturers, Texas and Oklahoma, to carry his league to 16 groups beginning in 2024.

That’s proper, as a substitute of ready 4 years like initially agreed upon two summers in the past, the Sooners and Longhorns will come to the SEC subsequent yr. That’s so fast, however actually, who anticipated them to remain in a league with secondary firepower? These strikes are all about soccer and have a look at the nationwide championship recreation for proof in case you doubt how a lot additional forward of the Massive 12 the SEC at the moment is. And that distance is probably going solely to develop. Nothing says the long-term well being of a convention in its greatest sport to have 4 additions and none come from different Energy 5 Conferences. Are you aware how badly you could need out of a convention to forego $50 million every? With the SEC’s anticipated yearly payouts to varsities anticipated to boost to shut to $70 million with its new tv deal, that price ticket is oddly chump change to these faculties and a needed expense.

A 16-team FBS convention is uncharted territory, particularly with the possible nationwide champion amongst them. Think about in the event that they’re capable of safe Clemson and Florida State within the coming years. The SEC may separate and begin its personal playoff. How the convention might be cut up into divisions, what number of convention video games every crew will play, and what assured matchups we’ll see yearly are nonetheless unknown. Let’s be actual, there’s no interplay of the long run SEC the place the Iron Bowl and Pink River Showdown don’t happen yearly. When the addition of Texas and Oklahoma was initially reported, straight in the course of SEC Media Days, the place it went from bullshit rumor dismissed by Texas A&M athletic director Ross Bjork, to accepted truth later that evening, hypothesis ran rampant as to how the convention would reshuffle. Whether or not it’s 4 pods of 4, including Oklahoma and Texas individually to the SEC East and West, or an entire reimagining of the two-eight crew divisions, every has its professionals and cons to how the long run finest convention in soccer, and most sports activities, is formed.

Geography be damned in new look conferences

The ability shift that comes together with Texas and Oklahoma shifting to the SEC, alongside USC and UCLA shifting to the Massive Ten, provides a transparent prime two within the Energy 5 Convention system. Geography is about to be damned in school athletics. The Massive 12’s addition of West Virginia signaled {that a} decade in the past, however that’s going to look tame in comparison with a midweek volleyball journey from Los Angeles to New Brunswick, New Jersey. The closest journey for UCLA and USC, past one another, can be to Lincoln, Nebraska. I assume a lot of airline miles might be utilized by somebody in these athletic departments.

Oklahoma and Texas switching conferences one yr earlier don’t seem to be it ought to change a bunch in school athletics by having totally different affiliations for 12 months. That considering can be flawed. For instance, the SEC would declare any championship the duo wins. Jocelyn Alo would’ve been hitting house runs on the Ladies’s Faculty World Sequence for an SEC college, not one from the Massive 12. That thrilling September Alabama-Texas soccer recreation would’ve had added drama as a result of it might’ve been a convention matchup. And whereas Texas and Oklahoma didn’t come near profitable a convention championship this season, which doesn’t bode properly for profitable one in a greater, deeper league, Massive 12 sports activities with out video games in Austin and Norman might be odd in a manner Columbia, Missouri and Faculty Station, Texas don’t evaluate. Shedding these manufacturers was robust, however not irreplaceable. The departure of Oklahoma and Texas will both be the start of the tip of the Massive 12, or an enormous blessing in disguise. We simply get to look at the primary a part of no matter that journey is three hundred and sixty five days sooner. And I’m keen to wager the Sooners and Longhorns received’t be the final to leap ship.