College football experts break down what Virginia would bring to SEC

Conference realignment has been ongoing in college athletics since the decision by Texas and Oklahoma to move to the SEC two years ago. The SEC itself may not be done either, especially if appealing ACC programs like Virginia become available given the uncertainty around that league.

The topic of conference realignment came up on the Paul Finebaum Show while Finebaum was at the SEC Spring Meetings in Destin, Florida. There, college football expert Brett McMurphy broke down what Virginia would actually bring to the SEC.

“It’s a state, flagship university,” Brett McMurphy said. “It’s in the footprint if you will — it’s in a state that the SEC is not located…You keep going up [if you added North Carolina].”

The Virginia program is a historic one, going back to 1888, and has longstanding rivalries with schools like Virginia Tech and North Carolina. Despite that, Virginia has had less success in recent seasons than schools like Texas and Oklahoma, which makes it an interesting succession to add for SEC fans.

“You can’t always bring in an Oklahoma and a Texas,” McMurphy said. “If you do, everybody’s just gonna beat themselves to death and that may happen anyway in the Big Ten and the SEC.”

This all comes as the ACC has major questions about its future, with Florida State and Clemson currently in legal battles with the conference. Their end goal appears to be leaving the ACC. However, there are plenty of other schools in the conference that are going to offer value to other conferences in future realignment too.

“This is off-the-field stuff. It’s not like the SEC is going, ‘Oh my God. We need the best available football product.’ No. We need the best available university that brings in all those different factors, and that is a prestigious university,” McMurphy said. “No doubt. The degree of difficulty when you go from the ACC to the SEC is certainly going to increase. It would be tough, but the alternative being in the ACC”

The SEC adding a school like Virginia would certainly raise eyebrows in the ACC. However, as McMurphy explained, it could elevate the conference to another level.

“When you’ve got 20 in a conference, you’re no longer a conference. You’re an association. I’ve had multiple athletic directors, administrators tell me, ‘Yeah, we go to conference meetings. Now, we should all have to wear name tags because we don’t know who’s coming and who’s going and that’s just the way of life.'”

For now, there are no immediate plans to expand the SEC’s membership. However, it’s clear that Virginia could get a serious look should that change in the future.