re: Texas and OU have apparently reached out to the SEC about joining the conference

AtM is gonna be so mad when Texas joins

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And I'm still confused on how this works with the LHN

Pretty sure that goes away and the ESPN considerations are taken into account with the new media deal so ESPN won't be upset and sue

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ESPN is 100% part of all these talks behind the scenes already. They will gain income and inventory by scraping the LHN with UT/OU to the SEC.

I honestly don't think anyone knows what exactly goes into the threshold needed to be accepted. I've seen like 11, and I've seen people suggest unanimous

But you usually don't reach out like this unless you have the votes

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This really sounds done based on the stuff coming from people.

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Got any links or directions to point me to? I was busy when all this broke, trying to get caught up.

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AtM is gonna be so mad when Texas joins

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Obviously I don't want them to join but I am not going to be stupid mad about it if it does happen. It's all about money- always has been, always will.

For those of you that are excited about Texas possibly joining though, you really have no clue. I mean, it's not as if that school destroyed a couple other conferences with its arrogance.

Zwerneman apparently did an interview at the media days and says he thinks it's going to happen. UT sites think it's going to happen. I'm not watching the SECN but apparently people like finebaum are saying its happening

And just as an observation, outside of the infamous pac 16 thing that fell apart, how often does stuff get this much seeming momentum from legitimate people only to fall short? Idk. There's definitely some stuff that needs to be ironed out but it looks like for the most part the sides are on the same page. But I can be reading it wrong

This seems like bullshite for legal and practical reasons but if they did it the scheduling would have to change massively. For practical reasons pods of 5 and 3 teams also make more sense. But the roommate switch probably still means 10 conference games per year before the SEC CCG.

Here's what they might propose with the pods abbreviated and the permanent opponent adjacent

Five team pods:
East 1 - Florida. PO. West 1 - LSU
East 2 - Georgia. PO West 2 - Texas
East 3 - Alabama. PO West 3 - Oklahoma
East 4 - Auburn. PO West 4 - A&M
East 5 - Tennessee. PO West 5 - Arkansas

Three team pods:
East 1 - South Carolina. West 1 - Missouri
East 2 - Kentucky. West 2 - MSU
East 3 - Vanderbilt. West 3 - Ole Miss

The complete rotation of at least one home and away game versus every team would be done in four years if ten conference games were played per year.

Let's use Florida as an example. Every year they play ten conference games with only seven of those being in division. So they have: four teams in their pod, their permanent opponent in an out of division game (LSU would be their hypothetical PO), the three team pod (East in years 1/2, West in years 3/4) scheduled in division, and two additional teams from the opposite five team pod in out of division games (e.g Texas & A&M in years 1/2, OU & Arkansas in years 3/4).

Similarly the three team pods also have a complete rotation in four years. South Carolina plays their two intrapod opponents (Kentucky and Vanderbilt) every year, their in division five team pod on the schedule (East in years 1/2, West in years 3/4), and out of division games against the other three team pod (Ole Miss, MSU, Missouri)

Nothing is perfect. This costs money since home games versus the midmajors are lost and each of those generates revenue for both the home team and the midmajor. Games like LSU versus Ole Miss and Tennessee versus Vanderbilt are also reduced to 50% of the time.

But it makes some geographic sense, rotates fully through the conference and allows a rational conference championship. You are also doing as much as possible to protect the lower tier teams in three team pods from having no chance of bowl eligibility since they get five probably tough opponents and five probably easier opponents. Similarly the Florida and Alabama type programs have a balanced in conference mixture of easier and tougher in conference games.

It all comes down to whether or not those schools did reach out. Like I said, if they did I'm sure it's an absolute take for the SEC. But nobody is going to come out and confirm that.

I'm not sure how long it would take for it to be "done." The big 12 and its members would surely file suit of some sort. You gotta figure Fox Sports takes issue with losing two of the most valuable brands in that TV deal so they'll be involved. Seems like there will be a lot of shite involved to get this finalized.

I’m interested to see who the Bitch10 conference goes after now.