ESPN's Chris Low explains why UNC, Virginia are more likely to join SEC than Clemson, FSU

SEC Media Days in Dallas began and ended with Greg Sankey discussing realignment. On Monday, he said the SEC’s present and future are set at 16 teams. To close out the event, Sankey shot down the idea of Florida State joining, wondering why the pie would be split into even more pieces.

Clemson has been grouped together with Florida State in realignment talk. Both schools are suing the ACC, attempting to get out of the Grant of Rights and presumably leave the conference. From a brand perspective, most would believe those two would be the biggest names out there.

ESPN’s Chris Low believes if the SEC were to expand, Clemson and Florida State would not be the first two phone calls. Sankey would likely call two other ACC programs to become members. And not for football purposes.

“I think there’s a better chance you would see more of an appetite for North Carolina and Virginia in the SEC,” Low said Thursday on The Paul Finebaum Show. “‘Wait a minute. Clemson, Florida State, both football-centric schools.’

“There’s other factors at play here. New footprints. You get the state of North Carolina, the state of Virginia. Both academically elite schools. You have the basketball factor. You get a little bit of the Charlotte TV market, maybe a little bit of the (Washington) D.C. market.”

Now, does this mean Clemson and Florida State does not end up in either the Big Ten or SEC? There have been talks in recent weeks about the Big 12 welcoming the Tigers and Seminoles, something ESPN’s Pete Thamel called “July fodder.”

Right now, there might not be too much interest but in Thamel’s eyes, one of the Big Ten or SEC will eventually grab Clemson and Florida State.

“Is there a future in college football where they’re not in one of the two main leagues? When you look at the forces of gravity, eventually, those two brands who have either won conference titles or national titles in recent years… I just feel like they’re going to end up on the right side of the river in one of the Power 2 leagues. Where that happens, how that happens — I’m not sure,” Thamel said.

In that scenario from Thamel, which conference winds up grabbing the duo? Sankey’s thoughts have clearly been made but if the Big Ten were to grab Clemson and Florida State, they would be going into SEC country from a geographical standpoint.

A lot more questions than answers at this point in time.

“Does it become a situation where the SEC isn’t excited to take them but they don’t want the Big Ten to plant their flag in their backyard? That’s a scenario we’ve written about over the years,” Thamel said. “Does that come into play?”