re: I think the SEC is sitting pretty...A&M was a huge grab...

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VT is tied to the UVA via politics

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maybe, but they weren't tied when VA Tech was in a different conference.

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I think we should add VA Tech and stop at 14

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ahh come on man, we have had this discussion at length why it wont be VT

its fairly obvious at this point #14 is WVU

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Why would the SEC pay 20 mil for one team when they could add wvu and all the positives that come with them?

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West Virginia is practically in Pennsylvania...

i would be shocked if we took usf.

i think it's pretty obvious wvu will be number 14 at this point.

after that who knows.

The FSU president was the one who voted up the increase of the buy out

Now why would he do that if he had intentions of leaving the ACC??

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Now why would he do that if he had intentions of leaving the ACC??

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I dont think you are reading what I am writing/comprehending. Some/a lot of that buy out COULD be (Im not saying it is just saying I saw this in another post and it sounded plausible) a ploy to help the ACC look stable to find a couple of other teams and then they bolt with a negotiated down buy out. THey scratch the accs back the acc scratches theirs. I saw somewhere that A&m was supposed to pay 30 mill but negotiated it down to 10 or 15

West Virginia Positives:

-Students attend WVU from all parts of the world. Approximately 57% of our students are residents of West Virginia. Students attend from all 55 counties of West Virginia, more than 90 different countries, and 49 states. Most out-of-state students will come from West Virginia’s neighboring states (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland)."

-WVU is classified as a Research University (High Research Activity) by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

-While West Virginia doesn't bring the biggest TV market, it does expand the market north, which is what it's all about. There are people who follow West Virginia outside of the state, and everyone follows the SEC.

-Bringing in West Virginia will put other SEC games in more television sets in DC and Maryland, maybe even in southern Pennsylvania. Mostly, West Virginia has been a consistently good basketball and football program, and that will bring more money in.

-Twenty-five WVU students have received Rhodes Scholarships for study at Oxford; few public universities have produced more Rhodes Scholars than WVU.

-WVU ranks nationally for prestigious scholarships – 25 Rhodes Scholars, 21 Truman Scholars, 33 Goldwater Scholars, two British Marshall Scholars, two Morris K. Udall Scholars, five USA Today All-USA College Academic First Team Members (and 11 academic team honorees), eight Boren Scholars, five Gilman Scholars, three Department of Homeland Security Scholars, two Fulbright Scholars, and one Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Graduate Scholar.

-While the state of West Virginia has a Southern culture in many parts, Morgantown is in no way a "Southern" town. Most of the out-of-state kids are from Jersey, NY, and PA. I could just always see WVU being viewed as the odd team "from up there," kind of like BC in the ACC, which never made any sense other than the Boston TV market. WVU has a huge presence in the Pittsburgh, DC, and Virginia markets, and has traditionally preformed great in Charlotte and ATL markets.

WVU actually has a decent history of playing southern teams. They were once apart of the Southern Conference, and regularly played now ACC and SEC teams. Outside of Virginia Tech, I don't see another team available that would help the SEC more. They do have instant geographic rivalries with Kentucky and Tennesse, and as another poster said, basketball rivalries with Kentucky, Florida, and Vandy.

-WVU brings huge parts of the the Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and Washington DC TV markets, as well as residual parts of the Philly/NY/NJ markets.

-largest Thursday and Friday night ratings in the history of ESPN college football involve WVU games

-West Virginia' academics are not that bad, with more Rhodes Scholars than any SEC school.

-WVU gives the SEC the biggest fan following in the Northeast outside of Penn State, a school with recent BCS bowl wins over Georgia and Oklahoma, and a tremendous fan base.

-WVU also would not bolt to the Big 10 like Missouri would.

- WVU fits in the SEC footprint and after some research you will find their academics are on par with most SEC members and they have no hurdles to clear they will be available immediately.

-West Virginia has a top notch basketball program that could come in and immediately compete with Vanderbilt, Florida and Kentucky—creating instant rivalries there.

-There is also, of course, their football program. If they were in the SEC East this year, they'd be competing with South Carolina and Florida for the SEC East crown.

-West Virginia is a nearly perfect fit for the SEC and it may end up being the final piece of a 14 team SEC super-conference.

-morgantown only an hour from pittsburgh and have a huge following in western pa, pitt has no fan base to speak of

-The DC area is full of wvu fans due to many grads moving there or the larger amount of students/alumni from the area and same goes for NY/NJ

-WVU won a share of the Big East title in 6 of the 20 years of the conference. That's a pretty good run. WVU is a for real football squad.

-West Virginia doesn't have a pro football team.

-WVU is THE team the whole state watches

-majority of its fans/alumni dont even live in the state any more or never spent more than their college years there.
The 2 million tv sets in the state of wv is just an added bonus

SEC should add (in order):

WVU - for the reasons mentioned a few posts above

Louisville - BIG TIME basketball addition and big "southern" city, also above average football (not SEC average) and baseball programs. Natural rival for UK.

USF - big school, rising football rep, and in a good city/market. I am not crazy about directional schools in a conference like the SEC though.

Missouri (if OU is out of the stratosphere) - good TV market in the state and has been good in basketball

Of course, the obvious choices of UT and OU would be above all of these, but not listed due to the westward lean.

Why is Louisville NEVER mentioned as a possible addition? Am I not seeing something? Their basketball brand is HUGE, and the school brings in $$ for facilities. They have been to BCS bowls in football and college world series in baseball within the decade.

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Why is Louisville NEVER mentioned as a possible addition? Am I not seeing something?

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1. Slive wants to expand the SEC's media footprint to additional states. Louisville does not do this.

2. Nobody cares about Louisville enough to make an exception to #1 (see: FSU)

Clemson has similar problems.

a worse option just because of the media footprint?

What about the Basketball juggernaut? Isn't Louisville basketball one of the biggest brands in ALL of sports?

I am VERY out of the loop, but would prefer Louisville over Clemson. I don't like the similarities with LSU especially the addition of ANOTHER Tiger.

Louisville is a big southern city and the school brings in tons of money to build facilities.

Just curious. I guess the media footprint overlaps lexington too much, but does get you into big 10 country a little more.