Boy, the college sports world is about to be completely flipped upside down here in a few short years.
So far, we’ve seen Texas and Oklahoma announce that they’re leaving the Big-12 and joining the SEC by 2025, UCLA and USC announce they’re leaving the PAC-12 and joining the Big Ten by 2024, Arizona, Arizona State, Utah, and Colorado are looking to join the Big-12, and the ACC is talking with the PAC-12 about a “loose partnership,” which will involve a few crossover games and a “championship in Las Vegas.”
For the college sports progressives, they’re foaming at the mouth, while the traditionalists are weeping and gnashing their teeth at the thought of megaconferences being the future of college athletics…
But it’s not done yet.
A source has told SwimSwam that Clemson, Florida State, Virginia, and North Carolina are talking about leaving the ACC, and joining the SEC, while ESPN is attempting to void their 20-year TV deal with the ACC.
The source tells the outlet that money is the biggest reason for the idea, along with recruiting clashes, which you can imagine considering the SEC is the wealthiest conference in the NCAA.
However, Florida reportedly doesn’t want Miami in, Tennessee doesn’t want UNC, and Kentucky doesn’t want Louisville.
Florida and Miami, and Kentucky and Louisville make sense, considering the schools have an agreement to block other in-state schools from joining the conference. However, Texas found a loophole with that, as Texas A&M was apart of that same agreement, so it’s not far fetched to see some of these other schools joining the conference as well.
Although Virginia and UNC (And Florida State right now) aren’t dominant in football at the moment, their women’s sports have been.
Virginia’s women’s swimming program are two-time defending National Champions, and have a trio that medaled at the 2022 World Championships last month, so that could be a big revenue booster for the SEC if the deal goes through.
Needless to say, things could get very, VERY, interesting really soon.
