MIRAMAR BEACH, Fla. – The SEC prominently projected its pinwheel logo featuring 16 school pennants onto a hotel wall this week throughout the conference’s spring meetings.
It’s a visual reminder of Oklahoma and Texas joining the nation’s most powerful conference.
Whose pennants will join that pinwheel next?
I asked Commissioner Greg Sankey on Tuesday about the SEC’s appetite for further expansion. I didn’t expect Sankey would publicly declare that the SEC covets a particular school. Sure enough, Sankey said the SEC’s focus is on its 16 members.
More interesting, though, is what Sankey didn’t say. He didn’t say the SEC will stand firm at 16 in perpetuity or that the conference is disinterested in further expansion.
That’s notable.
If brands the SEC might privately desire become available, I expect the conference to pounce – just as the SEC did with Oklahoma and Texas.
“We respect that there are agreements and situations that prevent a lot of movement, so our focus has been on our 16,” Sankey said.
“But, I pay attention,” he added.
I pay attention, too, and I notice Florida State’s discontent about its paltry media rights distribution from the ACC, in comparison to the SEC’s mega payday. FSU and Clemson are suing the ACC over its media rights deal, which runs through 2036.
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Why are Florida State, Clemson suing the ACC?
So far, that sticky rights deal prevented any ACC members, like FSU or Clemson, from vamoosing into the Big Ten or the SEC. But, I’ll eat a football tee if FSU calls the ACC home more than a decade…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/more-sec-expansion-coming-why-100450254.html
Author : The Tennessean
Publish date : 2024-05-30 10:04:50
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