The SEC needs Missouri more for image than for football
Former Mizzou man Sean Weatherspoon, now a Falcon. (AP photo)
Missouri’s curators voted Tuesday to ponder the school’s Big 12 exit. Put simply, Missouri’s curators voted — unanimously, FYI — to bail on the Big 12. At issue now is what the school would bring to its new home, which is apt to be the SEC.
Here were pause to note that some folks see Missouri as a better fit in the Big Ten — the Tigers already have a heated basketball rivalry with Illinois — but the Big Ten hasn’t been overt in its ardor to expand. The Big Ten might be happy as is. The SEC needs a 14th member to offset Texas A&M.
The SEC also needs Missouri for another reason: This whole round of conference-hopping has given big-time college sports the look of me-first-and-everybody-else-last Wall Street, and that’s not the look you want in the year 2011. (It’s reality, but it’s still an unseemly image for institutions of supposed higher learning.) Missouri plays pretty good football and good basketball, but that’s not its greatest lure for the SEC.
Missouri is a state school in a state — heck, a region — where the SEC doesn’t have an outpost, and it would also deliver the St. Louis and the Kansas City television markets. (That’s an upgrade over A&M, which delivers the less-prestigious College Station market.) Those are nice things to have, but they’re not essential. Of greater importance: The SEC views Missouri as another vehicle in its quest to spruce up its academic image, which could use sprucing.
If it adds Missouri, the SEC will count four schools among the high-minded Association of American Universities. That’s double from a month ago. Texas A&M is an AAU member, and so are Florida and Vanderbilt. Both the Aggies and the Tigers play good enough football that they won’t sully the SEC’s brand, and the SEC doesn’t need an Oklahoma or a Texas to burnish its standing as the best football league. (Check the latest Associated Press poll: SEC teams are ranked first, second, 10th, 15th, 17th and 18th.)
The SEC has been measured in its approach to School No. 14. It didn’t fall over itself when Texas and Oklahoma were making eyes at the Pac-12. It didn’t so much pursue Texas A&M as it allowed itself to be pursued. Adding a 13th member just sort of happened. Adding a 14th will be a considered choice.
Adding Missouri would do more for the SEC’s image off the field than on, and that’s a consideration a lot of us missed when this whole round of choosing-up got going. The SEC is often regarded as the root of all collegiate evil, but this is one time when the league ruled by football is trying not to act as if football is the only thing that matters.
By landing Syracuse and Pittsburgh, the ACC all but destroyed the Big East. The SEC doesn’t need to destroy anything to ensure its survival; it’s the biggest conference today, and it’ll be the biggest 20 years from now. Mike Slive, the SEC’s commissioner, didn’t always carry water for King Football. He was the AD at Cornell and assistant AD at Dartmouth; he was also commissioner of the Great Midwest and Conference USA.
Slive is 71. He’s at an age where thoughts of legacy loom largest. (Indeed, at the SEC Media Days in Birmingham this summer the hot rumor, quickly refuted, was that Slive would announce his retirement.) He has presided over a decade of massive SEC growth, and now he wants to make sure that growth won’t be regarded, in the cold eye of history, as rampant pillaging.
When Mike Slive leaves this conference, he wants to be able to say, “We tried to do it the right way.” Others will quibble over the definition of “right,” but if the SEC pairs Missouri with Texas A&M it will be harder to make the case that the biggest league was utterly craven in its desires. Those are two good schools. They’ll broaden the base without rendering the league top-heavy. They’ll make the SEC not just bigger but better.
And that’s the key. As fascinating as the notion of the SEC with Texas and/or Oklahoma would have been, it would also have given rise to the charge of overkill. At some point the best league has to realize, “We’re good enough.” Slive and his associates have come to that quiet conclusion. If Missouri is indeed No. 14, the SEC will have done something the SEC doesn’t often do: It will have made a subtle splash.
By Mark Bradley
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506 comments Add your comment
Delbert D.
October 5th, 2011
10:35 pm
As to the ACC picking off basketball schools from the Big East, imagine the approach-avoidance conflict they must be going through with respect to UConn.
Expert Opinion
October 5th, 2011
10:36 pm
@Delbert D.
RE: Dark Sun
Sounds interesting.
Expert Opinion
October 5th, 2011
10:37 pm
Delbert,
Do you think that expanding to 16 is still on the table for the ACC?
Expert Opinion
October 5th, 2011
10:40 pm
I’ll check for a response in the morning. Bedtime for Bonzo.
Good night all
Delbert D.
October 5th, 2011
10:42 pm
Expert Opinion – Well, heck. I perfectly well knew and understood that strategy ala the Big 12 demise. I guess it’s late, and I really am losing my mental agility. The Big East was to be lukewarm leftovers, and Iowa State, Baylor and Kansas State scrambling for meaningful existence. Kansas was to be a Big Ten invitee (they have the AAU seal of approval for joining that conference.)
Expert Opinion
October 5th, 2011
10:42 pm
Yawn… Sleepy
Mañana!
Delbert D.
October 5th, 2011
10:45 pm
Exper Opinion – I do expect that, but later. Unless Notre Dame decides they want to be in the ACC, that is; then adding UConn for basketball prowess and ND with their football history would solve the ACC’s conflict. I don’t buy the Penn State scenario that some have pushed.
Delbert D.
October 5th, 2011
10:46 pm
Same here. Delbert, over and out.
NCDawg90
October 5th, 2011
10:52 pm
All of a sudden, every half-rent sports writer is dropping the AAU into conversations about conference realignment and how being in the AAU is the only arbiter of academic quality. How about this: There are 6 SEC schools ranked above Missouri in the current US News and World Report’s list of Top 100 universities. That make Mizzy or Mizzou or whatever they call themselves in the middle of the pack of the SEC academically. (By the way UGA is ranked above numerous AAU members in the US News’s list) Missouri brings nothing other than TV markets. They are run of the mill academically and athletically.
I’m sick of the SEC getting hammered on academics. There are now more SEC schools listed in the US News’s list of Top 50 public universities than there are schools from the Big 12 or Pac 12. The ACC and Big Ten still have us, top to bottom, on academics, but the gap is closing fast. As far as the ACC goes, Duke is just a party school for Ivy League rejects (I live in Durham, NC, and see these kids every day. Anyone ever heard of Duke lacrosse?), and UVA and UNC are hard to get into, but a breeze once you are in. Plenty of their alums say it.
IL Jacket
October 5th, 2011
11:16 pm
NCDawg, no one is forcing Missouri on you. I thought the SEC was in the catbird seat and could get anyone they wanted. As per my earlier post, this is the result of an ill thought out strategy by Slive.
NCDawg90
October 5th, 2011
11:19 pm
Mark, your comment about Texas A&M only bringing College Station TV market shows that you are not the brightest bulb.
By that logic the University of Houston, Rice and TCU are more attractive, TV market-wise, than the University of Texas, because Austin isn’t as big as Dallas and Houston, where those other schools are. Is Vanderbilt more valuable to the SEC than Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Auburn, because it’s in a bigger TV market than Tuscaloosa, Gainesville, Athens and the Little Turd on the Plains?
By the way, Columbia, MO isn’t much of a TV market, either.
So is Minnesota (Minneapolis) more valuable to the Big Ten than Michigan (Ann Arbor)? You see how idiotic that remark of yours was? It calls your entire take on sports world into question. Oh, that’s right, you’ve done that every time you’ve opened your mouth over the past 3 decades, all the way back to when you had that ridiculous ‘fro in the 80s.
Dalton
October 5th, 2011
11:24 pm
It will take awhile for A&M and ANY 14th team to really feel like part of the SEC fabric. Heck, Arkansas is just beginning to grow on me, and how long have they been a member? If it’s Mizzou, so be it. It’s going to take awhile for them to catch up in football, though.
Hey Mizzou, we’re looking for a 14th member…wanna go with?
NCDawg90
October 5th, 2011
11:28 pm
IL jacket- Huh? I didn’t even see your post. I was hammering Mark Bradley, who had probably never heard of the AAU until a month ago, for stating that the University of Missouri was some kind of academic powerhouse. It’s tied at #102 with Florida State on US News list! Everywhere you look you see these sportswriters dropping the AAU. Look at the AAU’s website. Most of their members came in almost 100 years ago. They’ve added only two members in the past 10 years (TAMU in 2001, and Ga Tech, a damn good school by anybody’s reckoning, but evidently the AAU didn’t think so until last year). Not a real dynamic organization we are talking about here.
I don’t want Missouri. Can you think of a more undistinguished athletic program, in a more undistinguished state? What are they? Southern, Midwestern? Who knows? They were a slave state that didn’t leave the Union, putting them with those other “What are they’s?” Kentucky and Maryland.
NCDawg90
October 5th, 2011
11:33 pm
Hard to believe that Mark thinks Texas A&M only brings the College Station TV market. Heard of Houston? Dallas? And if your reasoning is that Texas A&M doesn’t bring those markets, then how does Mizzou, located in Columbia, bring in KC and STL?
UGA just brings Athens public access, you know, it has no impact in ATL.
IL Jacket
October 5th, 2011
11:36 pm
That’s why I say let the dust settle a little before rushing into something that the SEC will regret later. Sure 13 is a little difficult to deal with, but I still think the Pac12 is inherently unstable and if one waits something better may come along. Like I said, the BigTen waited and ended up with the real trophy-Nebraska.
cb
October 5th, 2011
11:46 pm
I wish this were March Madness! Mark would actually read the comments and make a comment from time to time.
Ed
October 6th, 2011
1:11 am
Absolutely a terrible idea.
RealityCheck
October 6th, 2011
1:16 am
I think you meant the Houston and Dallas TV markets.
Harry P
October 6th, 2011
1:36 am
Mark Bradley is an idiot who can’t read a map.
Expert Opinion
October 6th, 2011
6:52 am
@IL Jacket
Nebraska doesn’t look like it’s winning any trophies in the B1G anytime soon. The Huskers do have a storied football tradition, but what have they done lately? Like Notre Dame, if they don’t find a way to get back to a winning tradition, then they’ll eventually wind up in the dustbin of football history.
Legacy is an important building block in creating a football powerhouse. You could even argue that it is the very foundation for doing so. Still, history alone doesn’t overpower the competition. Unless an institution leverages their football fame to assemble a premiere staff and keep their athletic facilities up-to-date, then they won’t be able to maintain their reputation indefinitely.
Right now, I’m more impressed with little upstart Boise State than with either Notre Dame or Nebraska.
Hmmm… I can’t seem to post this comment. Don’t know if it’s the filters, or if I’ve been blackballed, but I’m trying again.
Filter Test
October 6th, 2011
6:56 am
1… 2… 3…
Filter Test
October 6th, 2011
6:58 am
@IL Jacket
Nebraska doesn’t look like it’s winning any trophies in the B1G anytime soon. The Huskers do have a storied football tradition, but what have they done lately? Like Notre Dame, if they don’t find a way to get back to a winning tradition, then they’ll eventually wind up in the dustbin of football history.
Legacy is an important building block in creating a football powerhouse. You could even argue that it is the very foundation for doing so. Still, history alone doesn’t overpower the competition. Unless an institution leverages their football fame to assemble a premiere staff and keep their athletic facilities up-to-date, then they won’t be able to maintain their reputation indefinitely.
Right now, I’m more impressed with little upstart Boise State than with either Notre Dame or Nebraska.
The Poster Formerly Known As “Expert Opinion”
Expert Opinion
October 6th, 2011
7:03 am
For some reason, I can’t post a comprehensive reply. Therefore, I will simply say that if Nebraska is a “trophy”, then that trophy is covered in dust and cobwebs.
GR82BAG8R
October 6th, 2011
7:07 am
Look at the side of Texas A&M helmets….it says aTm – - thus they are the automatic teller machines.
AAU membership is all about money, how much research (mostly non-agricultural) is done at the school. Thus, you could have a school with a robber baron alumnus who endows the school with billions and they are soon in the AAU club.
As far as TV markets, it’s not the market per se, but the size of the school, their footbal stadium and how well their alumni attend games and travel. Many say the SEC already has South Carolina – - implying that Clems(paw)n fans watch USCe games. Adding Clems(paw)n would add a lot of fans in the state.
IL Jacket
October 6th, 2011
9:02 am
Expert, sounds like you have never been to Lincoln on a fall Saturday or had experience with the Sons of Corn-one of the most energized in college football. My point is that of the teams in the Big12, the only team to prefer to Nebraska is Texas and they aren’t going anywhere-certainly not the SEC. So yes, Nebraska is a trophy brand.
GR8, endowments are not the same as winning competitively awarded research dollars, which is what the AAU is primarily about.
jmb99
October 6th, 2011
9:29 am
The comparison of TV markets, although intended to be a bit tongue in cheek, is ridiculous. Playing in the SEC, Tex AM delivers bigger TV markets than probably any school in the SEC currently.
atl
October 6th, 2011
9:49 am
Missouri has a better football program then 5 sec schools, The past four years they have the 4th most wins in all of college football, sence 2003 they are 7-0 vs the sec Beating arkansas 3 times 2 bowls and once in fayetville, they also have wins at ole’ miss, vs LSU in a bowl game, vs South Carolina in a bowl game, and winning at Mississippi State.
atl
October 6th, 2011
9:52 am
they also already have a rivalry with Arkansas which is just 2 hours south of Kansas City, about 2 and a half hours away from the campus in Columbia, mo.
Expert Opinion
October 6th, 2011
10:31 am
@IL Jacket
I’m pretty old. I remember when Nebraska was relevant in CFB, but it was a long time ago. Their Children of the Corn ritual may be nice, but so what?
Texas isn’t going anywhere only because they have now discovered that nobody else wants them. Texas and Oklahoma are the anchors of the Big-12. Nebraska and Colorado are has-beens that were once proud football programs.
IL Jacket
October 6th, 2011
10:56 am
Expert, well up until last week there were ranked 8th in the polls-didn’t sound like a has been to the voters. With Pelini they are on the way back. With respect to Texas, everyone would love to have Texas, just not on the terms Texas was offering. I think it finally occurred to UT and OU that they really have no good alternatives other than staying joined together. Let’s see how the Nebraska-OSU game works out this weekend.
Expert Opinion
October 6th, 2011
11:05 am
I’ve been looking for Nebraska to make a big comeback since Tom Osborne left — hasn’t really happened yet. Miami beat OSU. That alone tells you how much this weekend’s game means.
As for everyone loving to have Texas, if that’s true, why then are they trying so desperately to glue back together the pieces of the conference that they single-handedly destroyed?
8th-generation Georgian
October 6th, 2011
12:16 pm
lots of “who’s a yankee?” comments. People claiming MO is not yankee, but midwestern. Sorry, there’s no difference, because they’re from “off”. Anyone not from the South–and real southerners know where that is–is a yankee. Even if they’re from Arizona or something. Just ask somebody in Brunswick if they think Atlanta is yankee or not.
Expert Opinion
October 6th, 2011
12:27 pm
People are worried about getting out of Iraq and Afghanistan, yet now we discover that the Civil War is still raging?
Sheesh people, Fergit Already!
8th-generation Georgian
October 6th, 2011
12:42 pm
Didn’t say anything about the civil war. Southern culture is rural and very closed. That’s why it’s always been the last to prosper. We don’t trust outsiders. Sorry, that’s just the way it is.
Don’t discount southerners’ concern with national interests. Most always do their “service”. Listen to a TV interview of a senior officer, you’ll hear some y’all’s in there.
Expert Opinion
October 6th, 2011
12:56 pm
@8th-generation Georgian
I didn’t really intend to direct my comment exclusively toward you, but to the entire discussion that took place on this blog regarding whether Missouri qualifies as “Southern”.
As for your comments, I don’t really understand the point that you’re trying to make. Have you ever even been to Missouri? You’ll hear some “ya’lls” there as well.
Does that mean it’s okay to let them into the conference?
Raul
October 6th, 2011
1:02 pm
Looks like A & M will be bringing a larger TV audience than College Station, does anyone know how many aggies are around the world.
Expert Opinion
October 6th, 2011
1:27 pm
@Raul
The TAMU fan-base is huge. It’s going to be interesting to watch this new SEC.
8th-generation Georgian
October 6th, 2011
1:33 pm
Sorry Expert, I get defensive when people imply I should fergit where I’m from. I believe everybody should be proud of where they’re from, ugly or not.
I’ve been to MO. I haul hay and sell cattle there. The “y’all” line ends at the southernmost row of MO counties; it doesn’t include Springfield or points north. I’ve nieces/nephews at Mizzou; I don’t see the area suddenly enjoying any link to the SE, and vice-versa. Can you picture the SEC game of the week against FL in November being played in snow? I think MO had more in common with their Big-8 members before that was blown up with the addition of the TX schools.
However, if the goal is simply to add a school for #14/revenue, the regional differences don’t really matter.
BTW, as Tech ‘86, I also disagree with the folks here wanting to get the Jackets back in the SEC.
Expert Opinion
October 6th, 2011
1:49 pm
@8th-generation Georgian
I don’t live in Georgia, but my great-great-grandfather died in the Civil War and is buried in Macon. Conference realignment absolutely IS all about the money. As for regional cultural differences, there are plenty of those among the existing members of the SEC.
Mizzou isn’t my first choice as a 14th member of the SEC, but it looks like they’re coming — whether we like it, or not.
rockdawg
October 6th, 2011
5:31 pm
Florida state would be a perfect addition to the east! Missouri would be a good homecoming game for the west and east…
sec $$
October 7th, 2011
1:25 am
it’s all about ratings and money–improving academics will not make the SEC a dollar—just “show me” the money or don’t come in–very simple.
KPz
October 7th, 2011
2:55 am
I realize this is merely geography, but since the middle of the US is Lebanon, Kansas and 90% of Missouri is south of that point (and 100% is east), I think that puts the ‘Southeast’ comments to bed.
That being said, this move is about the number of television sets in Missouri and the monetary windfall a prospective SEC network would get from those tv sets; the academics are just a bonus.
I fully comprehend that we’ll never convince everyone that we’ll be a good fit for your conference. Heck, we only have about 70% of our own fanbase on board because they are dreaming about an invite from the B1G that will never come. But if you approach this with an open mind, you’ll find that Missouri has some pretty solid athletic programs and will do just fine in the SEC.
Finally, our school is probably going to lose ALL of our rivalry games in this move. We already lost a 118 year rivalry when Nebraska went to the B1G. Our only hope is to save the Kansas rivalry in non-conference (it’s a year older), but Kansas is making noise like if we leave, they no longer want to play us. So to those of you losing rivalries, believe me when I say Missouri fans are very understanding of that pain. And for the record, I’d be down with the East with A&M as our rival.
chazzo
October 7th, 2011
7:20 am
Move Auburn to the East. Get TAM. Done.
chazzo
October 7th, 2011
7:25 am
Wait. I see. Add TAM and Mizzou. Move AU to the EAst. done.
Why not an NC team? FSU would be interesting. Have any ACC teams expressed any desire to move?
Mizzooka!
October 7th, 2011
12:58 pm
Hey, Browncoat. Why is your alias name Browncoat? Are you a Nazi sympathizer? From your comments on this message board I would assume that a bit of sympathizing runs in your blood.
And, I must tell you Browncoat, your history is incredibly false. I bet when you were a little boy you learned southern history while playing dressup as a ghost. It was probably fun.
Except, when Halloween came around each year you would ask your Daddy, “Daddy, why do all of the other kids only dressup on Halloween? What if I don’t want to be a ghost anymore? Maybe I want to be Superman!”
And then your Daddy forcefully said, “Shut up, son! You’ll be a ghost as long as you live and you’ll wear that sheet proudly! You understand, son? It’s part of our history.”
Yeah, Browncoat, we all know how you learned your history.
AFDawg
October 7th, 2011
2:05 pm
Missouri will be a good fit for the SEC — but not because of their AAU rating. The AAU rating is a fickle thing — you’re only one big research grant being pulled from the school from getting dumped, to a whole list of arbitrary reasons that don’t matter for anything from being in. I used to live in Missouri — I hope they make it in simply because they play and act like a SEC school.
Woody
October 7th, 2011
5:07 pm
I liked Calipari’s choices for the last 3 positions required to make 16: Missouri, Virginia Tech, and Maryland
Ag in Waco
October 8th, 2011
8:39 am
If the writer is saying that Texas A&M does not attract Tv viewers in Dallas, Houston and every other market in Texas, then he’s just a braying jackass.
Robert C. Ritter, Jr. ( MU Football: 61-65 )
October 8th, 2011
8:40 am
IN 1961, I turned down ” Bear Bryant ” of Alabama to play for Dan Devine at Missouri. Being from Montgomery, Alabama, that was a big deal then !! The decision was made on Missouri’s strong athletic academic focus, strong coaching, the rich tradition of Missouri football and the overall high standing of the University.
I would prefer to see Missouri in the BIG 10 where they match better in tradition and academics but that probably won’t happen. Moving to the SEC would be like moving into a bad neighborhood, stepping down a few notches or being demoted. Missouri needs to stay where they are if they aren’t invited into the BIG 10 and maintain their academic focus and rich tradition of an outstanding university that places other factors over football and athletics.
Bob Ritter
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