SEC... A 14-Team Power Conference?

The Southeastern Conference (SEC) has been the workhorse of the college football world over the past half-century, bringing home the past five National Championships. As of recently though, other conferences have been losing and retrieving new teams as a possible way to keep up with the SEC. Teams that don’t automatically qualify (Non-AQ) for BCS bowl games; such as Boise State, Texas Christian (TCU) and Utah, have moved out of their previous conferences into new ones to gain the attention of voters. TCU and Boise State moved out of their old conferences into the Mountain West Conference (MWC) temporarily until they can move into the bigger conferences. TCU, who originally planned to move into the Big East conference as of 2012, has recently been in talks with the Big-12 conference. If TCU and the Big-12 come to an agreement, this could open the door for Boise State to move into the Big East (which in my opinion seems unintelligent). Utah, who was already a member of the MWC, moved to the PAC-12 conference, effective this year. But it’s not just the smaller schools that are moving. The University of Colorado recently moved out of the Big-12 conference into the Pac-12 conference to become the twelfth team (was recently names the Pac-10). The SEC has also been in talks with Texas A&M University, another Big-12 team. Texas A&M is almost guaranteed to join the SEC within the next few seasons, if not next season. The talk has been however who the 14th team will be. Rumors have swirled about the possibility of Missouri or Clemson being the 14th team, however none of these rumors have been confirmed. In my personal opinion, the following teams are the best candidates for the SEC’s 14th team.

• Clemson – The SEC currently has three states where two of the teams call home. (Alabama: Alabama and Auburn, Mississippi: Mississippi and Mississippi State, and Tennessee: Vanderbilt and Tennessee). Clemson could add a fourth state to the mix, with the SEC already having the University of South Carolina. Clemson also fits well in the SEC due to their location because of the conference alignment (Texas A&M will fall into the West while Clemson would fall into the East)
• West Virginia – Location again. Already located in the south (and could easily fall into the SEC – East), West Virginia fits perfectly. Also, the speed that the University of West Virginia seems to always have, would fit well in a fast paced SEC conference.

Look for the SEC to continue its supremacy as college football’s toughest conference, with or without the additions.