SEC Expansion and Academic Rankings
By William Boot
With Texas A&M joining the SEC next season, many fans have speculated about the identity of a 14th team. At one point, the league hinted that it was not actively looking for another team, but no one believed them. This led to fans assaulting the message boards of several sports sites with laundry lists of reasons why some teams should, or should not, be given an invitation into college football’s best conference.
Earlier this week, someone from the SEC posted an article announcing Missouri as the 14th team – but the article was retracted in a matter of minutes. Although no official announcement has been made, I am ready to throw my hat in the ring for Missouri.
Sure, Florida State might be a nice fit and Georgia Tech has a past connection to SEC rivalries but, let’s face it, those are not going to happen (yet). While they are great competitors, neither team adds to the leagues qualifying measure of success — television markets. The SEC already has teams in Georgia and Florida.
A lot of fans have been squawking about the possibility of adding West Virginia. I have never been a fan of this idea. Geographically, WVU is fairly close to Tennessee, which could make for an interesting Hatfield and McCoy hillbilly rivalry, but WVU would enter the conference with the lowest academic ranking. They would also offer little in the way of television markets, which translates to less revenues for the conference. As a side note, WVU has announced an intention to join the Big 12.
Let’s pretend that more was involved than television markets and look at the academic standings of the SEC schools, including the new additions of Texas A&M and, presumably, Missouri.
According to US News, one of the most reputable college ranking sources, the schools rank as follows:
#17 Vanderbilt
#58 Florida
#58 Texas A&M
#62 Georgia
#75 Alabama
#82 Auburn
#90 Missouri
#101 Tennessee
#132 Arkansas
#111 South Carolina
#124 Kentucky
#128 LSU
#143 Ole Miss
#157 Mississippi State
Source: US News.com/rankings
It should come as no surprise that Vandy ranks on top of the SEC academically. They are also very good in basketball and baseball. Football is improving too. Arbitrarily, Georgia Tech would follow top rated Vandy with a 36, FSU would tie UT with a 101 and WVU would trail the whole conference with a 164. Of course, we know that academic rankings fall below potential revenues in the real world system of conference expansion, but it is interesting to see where each school stands. Tech and FSU are no more than message board fodder, for now, but Missouri is likely to be added at any moment.
Missouri brings approximately 5 million potential viewers into the SEC fold through the St. Louis and Kansas City metro areas. Texas A&M, of course, brings the Dallas/Ft. Worth market and opens more of the valuable Texas recruiting base to the conference.
Will the conference make it official for Missouri? I think so. Will it end there or continue to expand? No one knows, but I don’t see conference-hopping ending any time soon. Both schools have good reputations in more than one sport. Welcome to the SEC.