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
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
506 comments Add your comment
Delbert D.
October 5th, 2011
4:42 pm
Expert Opinion – That is a good point. In Georgia, legal and illegal immigrants are in the work force, performing construction labor, agricultural work and general low-pay work that the indigenous population is unwilling to do.
Joe
October 5th, 2011
4:43 pm
MU would be a fine addition to the SEC. West Virginia would be awful, bad academics and the worst redneck fans in the country.
Atlanta Gator
October 5th, 2011
4:44 pm
“OK, Gator, I just walked down and pulled that book in the library . No where on those three pages does he say that the Missouri splinter group’s vote had any legal effect. In fact on page 293, he points out that Missouri was decidedly pro-Union, with 3/4 of all white men who fought enlisting in the UNION army. Nice try though.”
“Legal effect?” Missouri’s fate was not decided by legal niceties, but by the Union army’s occupation of the state and de facto martial law. The newly elected governor was pro-Confederacy, as was the state legislature in 1861. The 1861 government fled the state rather than be captured. As for enlistment in one army or the other, most pro-Confederate Missourians who were inclined to fight joined the guerrillas to fight in Missouri, not the regular Confederate Army to fight elsewhere. The governor and legislature’s actions were at least as legitimate and “legal” as the Union Army’s occupation of the state. “Legal” in the sense of clearly constitutional and in accordance with the established laws of the state had little do with the actions of either the secessionists or the Union occupation. These were clearly extraordinary times in the history of Missouri, and the actual history is as complicated as Missouri’s fractured politics were. That the legislature, with the elected governor’s support, passed an ordinance of secession in 1861, that it was acknowledged by the Richmond government, and that its representatives were seated in the Confederate Congress is unquestioned. That there were competing pro-North and pro-South state governments of Missouri until the end of the war is also fact. Blunt force ultimately determined the outcome.
Please note that Prof. McPherson does not characterize the legitimately elected governor and legislature of Missouri as a “splinter group.” “Battle Cry of Freedom,” the book cited, won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1989, and McPherson was a noted Princeton University professor of American history of long standing. Anyone with more than a passing interest in the U.S. Civil War will recognize the authority of both author and text.
Delbert D.
October 5th, 2011
4:45 pm
All of what is now Missouri was included in the Louisiana Purchase. All of what is now Louisiana was not. Iowa was, so how about Iowa State? The hits to the Big 12 just keep on coming.
Atlanta Gator
October 5th, 2011
4:46 pm
“The ACC would accept Florida, I think.”
That would be like turning Patton loose on the Italian army.
Ouch. My sides hurt.
Delbert D.
October 5th, 2011
4:49 pm
Atlanta Gator – Heh-heh.
Walker, Texas Ranger
October 5th, 2011
4:50 pm
Only Auburn would move, to even things out. The Auburn UGA rivalry would be intact and each school would add 1 perminent partner in the other half i.e Alabama – Auburn. The rub here would be Auburn & Alabama could play back to back weekends if both ended up in the SEC championship. Tenn v. Alabama would end though
Herestomizzou!
October 5th, 2011
4:51 pm
Mr. Obvious obviously needs to take a history lesson. I’ll gladly give him one. The number 12 star on the field is Missouri not Kentucky. If you count partisan rangers, almost 90,000 men fought for the cause of Southern independence from Missouri. Only two Southern states withstood more damage through the course of the war than Missouri: Tennessee and Virginia. All stats aside Mr. Obvious, please come to Arrowhead and watch Mizzou play Kansas. You will see our bitter border war fought not just on the field but in the stands and parking lot as well. Most rivalries pat each other on the back after the final whistle. We do not. It truly is hate for the other team which is the living embodiment of a war we were fighting here long before any states ever seceded. Many, MANY good men from Missouri died in a grey uniform. Please do not spoil their legacy by calling me a Yankee. As long as we can beat Kansas in a noncon every year and keep the rivalry alive, I truly hope Mizzou goes SEC. We should be back together again.
Expert Opinion
October 5th, 2011
4:52 pm
Delbert D.
October 5th, 2011
4:42 pm
I was involved in a new recovery boiler project at a paper mill in Alabama back in the 1970’s. The work force on that project was almost exclusively native born Americans, with the bulk of the workforce comprised of locals.
When I returned to that plant for a rebuild of the boiler in 2005 a slim majority of the craftsmen on-site spoke no English whatsoever.
Delbert D.
October 5th, 2011
4:56 pm
In the movie I saw, starring Tobey Maguire the raiders attacked the Union Army outpost in Lawrence, Kansas with specific orders to burn the school. The portrayal was very interesting with regard to the raiders’ occupation of Lawrence.
Paddy
October 5th, 2011
4:59 pm
John….bring in w. Virginia!! We don’t need any more yankess in our conference. We already have Kentucky, thats enough!
chris
October 5th, 2011
5:04 pm
Bad Moon. Come and dont act like missouri is going to be worse than Vandy and old miss. I just did some research and since 2005 missouri is 4-0 vs the SEC and has blown the teams they played out by a score of 148-70. The teams they played were Ark, Old Miss (2) and S. Car. They arent going to win the conferece, but they arent going to be the doormats either. They will compete. As far as tradition or history is concered, i did some more research and missouri is 20-8-1 against the SEC all time. Thats a pretty good tradtion. While we are on history, they played bama 3 times and won 2 of them. I am all for Missouri in the SEC. I think is a good addition and makes sense and after watching the missouri-oklahoma game last year, I think they have enough passion for the big time.
OldTech
October 5th, 2011
5:05 pm
Missouri was one of the 13 stars on the flags of the Confederacy, even though they never seceded (just like Kentucky).
rally
October 5th, 2011
5:06 pm
West Virginia has no bulit-in TV audience with a total state population of 1.8 million and thus are dead to both the SEC & the ACC.
richmondDawg
October 5th, 2011
5:07 pm
I would agree that Clemson and FSU pass the eyeball test in terms of their football programs, but it ain’t gonna happen…We are going to end up with a bunch of geographic and cultural outliers to service the TV market gods…It would be nice to see Auburn back playing Tenn and Fla every year, and it won’t affect the dawgs too much, but losing Ala-Tenn is not going to make fans happy…
Cyrus
October 5th, 2011
5:07 pm
Paddy – Morgantown is up by the Pennsylvania border – heck, half of Ohio is south of Morgantown, which is almost due east of Columbus. Many West Virginians are fans of Pittsburgh’s pro teams. They ain’t exactly part of the Deep South.
MUfan
October 5th, 2011
5:09 pm
Chris:
I agree. I was brought up in Columbia, MO, and what’s now a solid program will only get better in the SEC. The OK game last year is more of what we’d see. With a succession of teams like TN, AL, Auburn and LSU visiting Faurot Field, you’d actually see the potential fan-base in the state realized. It would generate a lot of excitement. There’s a lot of pro-team fans in MO who would join the cause.
Brrowncoat
October 5th, 2011
5:10 pm
Again, you ignored my point. Legally, Missouri never left the Union as evidenced by the fact that after the war it did not have to be readmitted, as did Georgia. The book you used to support your position that Missouri left the Union, in fact contradicted your position.
Brrowncoat
October 5th, 2011
5:12 pm
McPherson does not agree with you that Missouri ever left the Union, sorry, blowhard
Delbert D.
October 5th, 2011
5:12 pm
Expert Opinion – I’m not a big fan of labor unions, having been a member of IBEW, Burlington, NJ Local 1368 as an ex-Navy guy. I worked at the Salem nuclear plant while it was under construction. 2 years later, I had changed companies and worked as an engineer for 3 weeks at the Farley nuclear plant under construction near Dothan, Alabama. I was shocked at the difference in work practices. In Alabama, scraps of plywood were being used on scaffolding. In New Jersey, scaffold-grade lumber was required, with no visible splits or checks in the ends. That made me change my opinion somewhat.
OldTech
October 5th, 2011
5:15 pm
BTW to all you fans that say that Missouri has too many Yankees and you don’t want them, are you going to kick Florida out for the same reason?
1eyedJack
October 5th, 2011
5:15 pm
I’ll take Missouri Guerillas over Kansas Redlegs any day.
If Auburn moves to the East, who will be Georgia’s permanent game in the West? We’ll be the only one having to choose a new dance partner. Missouri or A&M?
Delbert D.
October 5th, 2011
5:16 pm
Both of guys should join Civil War reenacting groups to settle this.
Thick As A Brick
October 5th, 2011
5:17 pm
ATL Gator – I think you’ve presented strong, convincing points (at least to one who is not acquainted with the history of Missouri’s Civil War politics), but I don’t think you’ll make any headway with your particular audience.
Delbert D.
October 5th, 2011
5:18 pm
Jack – there’s going to be a lot of competition among the East teams over Ole Miss and Missy State.
rally
October 5th, 2011
5:19 pm
If the SEC keeps the policy of one permanent rival from the other division and moves Auburn to the east, Tennessee will also need a new rival since Alabama & Auburn will be permenant rivals.
Expert Opinion
October 5th, 2011
5:20 pm
@Delbert D.
One thing that old age and experience has taught me is that there is far more gray area in life than there are simple black and white choices. I feel that Mizzou to the SEC is another of these issues that has both it’s pros and cons. It doesn’t matter what the fans think — this is probably going to happen. I’m not enthusiastic, but I’m also not losing any sleep over it.
Bill
October 5th, 2011
5:22 pm
Missouri was one of the original 13 States that made up Dixie. They’ve got just as much right to set at the table as any of us.
Delbert D.
October 5th, 2011
5:23 pm
For the short version of the Missouri troubles, read the Wiki on the movie, “Ride With the Devil.” Pretty good movie directed by Ang Lee. The first paragraph is enough. Bushwhackers vs. Jayhawkers.
Atlanta Gator
October 5th, 2011
5:23 pm
Okay, Brrowncoat, where does McPherson state that the actions of the duly elected governor and legislature of Missouri were without “legal effect?” There is no such contradiction to be found. As I said before the outcome was not determined legal niceties, but by force. And the Union won that argument. Given that President’s Lincoln’s government recognized the pro-Union government of Missouri as the legitimate one, of course Missouri did not have to be readmitted to the Union in 1865.
I cite written authority for a living and do quite well. Name-calling by you does not help your argument.
BTW, is that “Brrowncoat” as in “Thomas Brown?” If so, your pattern of argument becomes obvious to any of us who have been on the AJC sports blogs for more than three or four years.
1eyedJack
October 5th, 2011
5:23 pm
rally, I forgot that. It’s like trying to do long division in my head.
Delbert, I know you were being witty there, but I believe Missy St. and the Black Bears already have permanent partners. Tenn-Missou and Georgia-A&M?
1eyedJack
October 5th, 2011
5:24 pm
Maybe since the states look similar, Georgia-Missouri? That’s logical enough.
Expert Opinion
October 5th, 2011
5:26 pm
Perhaps Browncoat = Sturmabteilung?
Or maybe it’s just a Firefly thing…
Atlanta Gator
October 5th, 2011
5:27 pm
“ATL Gator – I think you’ve presented strong, convincing points (at least to one who is not acquainted with the history of Missouri’s Civil War politics), but I don’t think you’ll make any headway with your particular audience.”
Thanks, Thick. I get that. But I do have a blog reputation to uphold as always being right (even if the “particular audience” can’t bring himself to acknowledge it). LOL
Brew13
October 5th, 2011
5:29 pm
***I’m going to lay out a list of things that everyone should read so that they are clear:***
1. SEC already announced that they would NOT add another school already in an SEC state (footprint).
2. To call Missouri a “Northern” state is like calling Texas a “Western” state. There maybe a connection to the North (MO)/West(TX) but there is also a deep connection to the South for both though they aren’t technically geographically in the South..
3. Only 1 school from the West would move to the East– NOT 2 schools.
4. Auburn makes complete sense to move to the East because of their previously established (pre-1992), traditional rivalries with East teams (Georgia, Florida, Tenn, etc…) and the fact that they are farthest East geographically and farther East than even Vandy.
5. Alabama and Auburn would be permanent inter-divisional rivals.
6. Alabama will either get over not playing Tennessee every year OR the SEC will establish 2 permanent inter-divisional rivalries for each team. (Which could very well happen because of the new 9 conference game system)
7. Adding Texas/Oklahoma would have ruined the SEC. One reason because of overkill and Two because of the very reason the Big12 doesn’t work. TEXA$ will destroy any conference they are in because they refuse to share.
8. Texas/Oklahoma would never have joined anyways because of competition and #7.
9. We aren’t going to change the name of the Southeastern Conference because of name recognition regardless of the fact that Missouri isn’t technically regarded as in the Southeast. I wouldn’t say that Colorado is a Pacific team (PAC-12) or that TCU is in the East (Big East)
10. Of course we don’t want West Virginia! Do we really want fans that look like they are their own Grandpa?
Atlanta Gator
October 5th, 2011
5:30 pm
“Perhaps Browncoat = Sturmabteilung?”
Perhaps he chose a blog handle that references Hitler’s Nazi stormtroopers of the 1930s? Well, that’s comforting.
Actually, I believe those were the “brownshirts,” but I digress . . . .
Delbert D.
October 5th, 2011
5:30 pm
Expert Opinion – The SEC fans now aren’t the same fans I knew over 50 years ago. Seems like the wrong part of the attitudes are being brought forward, such as isolationism.
Expert Opinion
October 5th, 2011
5:31 pm
@Brew13
October 5th, 2011
5:29 pm
RE: 10
I must admit that I am curiously intrigued by the prospect of burning a sofa.
Delbert D.
October 5th, 2011
5:32 pm
Atlanta Gator – When Hitler consolidated power, the brownshirts wore effectively destroyed by the SS.
Atlanta Gator
October 5th, 2011
5:37 pm
Yes, Delbert, I know. Where are your going with that?
Atlanta Gator
October 5th, 2011
5:38 pm
“I must admit that I am curiously intrigued by the prospect of burning a sofa.”
Well, there you have it. What more needs to be said?
Delbert D.
October 5th, 2011
5:42 pm
This post be me didn’t read at all clear: “When Hitler consolidated power, the brownshirts wore effectively destroyed by the SS.”
Hitler’s SS didn’t destroy the actual “shirts”; they destroyed the organization.
wreckmaniac
October 5th, 2011
5:43 pm
Mark, the American Associations of Universities ? Come on. The AAU is an elite group but that means nothing in the SEC. Don’t kid yourself by thinking that any SEC school other than Vandy values academics.
Delbert D.
October 5th, 2011
5:44 pm
Atlanta Gator – Going nowhere with it. It just appeared in my brain while reading the blog. That’s often quirky thing with me.
1eyedJack
October 5th, 2011
5:44 pm
I burnt a sofa on my back forty, and an old chair I loved that my ol’ lady said I had to get rid of and part of a desk. It ain’t all that.
Delbert D.
October 5th, 2011
5:46 pm
Atlanta Gator – Probably because I read “27″, by the late William Diehl. I find that sometimes well-researched fiction gets to the point quicker than nonfiction.
Atlanta Gator
October 5th, 2011
5:46 pm
“Atlanta Gator – Going nowhere with it. It just appeared in my brain while reading the blog. That’s often quirky thing with me.”
Okay. There’s a certain entertainment value to that. LOL
Cyrus
October 5th, 2011
5:48 pm
“Mark, the American Associations of Universities ? Come on. The AAU is an elite group but that means nothing in the SEC. Don’t kid yourself by thinking that any SEC school other than Vandy values academics.”
Florida is an AAU institution. Wonder how that happened, since (i) only Vandy values academics and (ii) Florida is not Vandy.
No wonder the Dawgs can’t stand you insufferable clowns.
Voice of reason
October 5th, 2011
5:59 pm
This argument wholly ignores that Missouri is ranked 90th in U.S. News’ rankings. That puts it below Vanderbilt, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and Auburn, and well in the middle of the SEC academically. AAU is a silly club. Real measures of academic worth completely undercut your position.
Expert Opinion
October 5th, 2011
6:03 pm
@Voice of reason
October 5th, 2011
5:59 pm
“Real measures of academic worth completely undercut your position.”
Irrelevant. In public relations propaganda, truth is secondary to perception.