Candidates to join an SEC 20-Team Super Conference

Almost 365 days ago Texas and Oklahoma were the first dominoes to fall in the greatest conference realignment shift in the history of college sports. You might have thought that was hyperbole until today.

With a 16-team SEC jockeying for dominance in the college sports landscape, the Big Ten has struck back to even the playing field. Thursday afternoon reports surfaced that USC and UCLA will break away from The Alliance by leaving the Pac-12 to join the Big Ten, creating a second 16-team conference. Days of geographically aligned conferences are long gone. And yet, this form of realignment is only getting started.

Just got off the phone with someone who believes this eventually leads to two megaconferences — the Big Ten and SEC — with 20 or more members apiece.

— Nicole Auerbach (@NicoleAuerbach) June 30, 2022

Eight schools will be jockeying for the profitable prize to prevent from being left behind. It will take time to get there, but which schools could soon become Kentucky’s counterparts? Let’s find out where else it just means more.

Clemson and Florida State

When conference expansion conversation is brought up in your local barber shop, these two schools will be the first to surface. After all, Clemson’s six appearances and two CFB Playoff titles are second only to Alabama. Florida State has plenty of tradition on the gridiron and a National Championship in the last decade.

These schools make the most sense on paper, with one problem. ESPN played a role in SEC expansion. They also are heavily invested into the ACC Network. Negotiating that minefield will create headaches for all parties involved as college football walks into a new world order.

North Carolina

The football schools can’t have all of the fun. You need to add at least one blue blood. The SEC already has Vanderbilt. The league can’t add Duke too, another subpar football school with an ivy league attitude. Kansas football makes Vanderbilt look competent. North Carolina provides enough firepower in each sport, while also extending the conference’s footprint into Charlotte, the home of the SEC Network.

Not Louisville

Since joining the ACC the men’s basketball team has not won a regular season or conference tournament title. On the football field they are exactly .500 in league play while playing in a half-empty home stadium. Louisville fans preferred to watch their team dominate C-USA competition anyway. It’s in everybody’s best interest to keep the Cards from playing the best of the best.

Oklahoma State

The Cowboys make too much sense. The SEC has already syphoned off two of its biggest rivals from the Big 12. Now that the SEC has the Red River Shootout, it needs to add Bedlam to its marquee matchups. Bring back Bedlam and let Mike Gundy’s mullet fly from Stillwater to Rocky Top and everywhere in-between.

Ohio State and Michigan

Want chaos? I’ll show you chaos. Everyone thinks the Big Ten will be a counterpart to the SEC in this new college football hegemony. How do you destroy the B1G Death Star before it’s operational? Hit it at its heart. By ripping away foundational pieces of the Big Ten, Greg Sankey can definitively say that in the SEC, It Just Means More.