SEC Looks At "Super" 16 Conference Expansion (POLL)

Updated: April 26, 2010, 9:17 PM ET

SEC commish: We won't be left in lurch

Associated Press

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Southeastern Conference commissioner Mike Slive says the league isn't considering adding teams but is working on a plan to keep up with other conferences if they expand just in case.

The commissioner said Monday that the 12-member SEC hasn't talked to any institutions about joining and has no plans to do so. The expansion exploration is just an internal look at the potential advantages and disadvantages in case there is a "significant shift in the conference paradigm," he said.

Slive didn't elaborate on how much expansion would fit that billing.

"But I'll know," he said.

League expansion has been a hot topic since the Big Ten announced in December that it was considering expanding.

SEC teams have won the past four national titles in football and have lucrative TV deals with CBS and ESPN.

"That doesn't cry for change," Slive said. Any changes would only be made if the league deems it necessary to maintain its prominent position, he said.

"We've always been known to be a creative league, be on the cutting edge," Slive said. "We're not going to allow ourselves in any way, shape or form, to be anything less than what we are now."

He declined to talk about what factors the SEC might look for in potential new members.

"The important thing is we're paying attention, we're going to be strategic, we're going to be thoughtful, but we're not going to relinquish our role as one of the premier conferences," he said.

Slive spoke to editors and writers from the Southeast Region of the Associated Press Sports Editors across the street from his office in downtown Birmingham.

I voted Georgia Tech (they were once one of us)

I would possibly consider adding clemson..They are southern..And possibly Florida State....for strategic reasons of course..Florida is the richest recruiting state in the country...And the gators are the only SEC team in the state..might take some of the allure away from gators!..Georgia Tech..maybe..We are the elite..let's be picky!

I forgot to vote for clemson on the poll..I guess you can only vote once!..LOL

There's Multiple Voting For This Poll.

I Chose 3 Just Because I Could. I Took Georgia Tech, Florida State and West Virginia. Don't Want Clemson. Too Close to UGA and Georgia Tech and USC. Like FSU Because of Overall Sports Program And West Virginia Gives Us a Team Close To the Northeast But Still Southern Roots. Helps Us Spread Out a Little. I Almost Went With Virgnia Tech Because Of Their Great Footbal, But Just Not Much More To Go With That. Think Other Three Offer Much More. Considered Miami And Well, No.

SEC braces for expansion

Written by SETH EMERSON
semerson@thestate.com

Posted on 04.28.10

Alabama football coach Nick Saban reacts to his tee shot to the par-3 eighth hole as he competes in the Chick-fil-A Bowl Challenge golf tournament at Great Waters, Reynolds Plantation, in Greensboro, Ga., on Tuesday.

EATONTON, Ga. - A decade ago, Nick Saban was coaching in the Big Ten and thought the league should have expanded.

Now that it almost certainly will, the Alabama coach is confident the SEC will do what it needs to continue to thrive.

"(The SEC's) Mike Slive is a great commissioner; he's always ahead of the curve in what's going on," said Saban, who coached Alabama to the BCS championship in January and was at Michigan State in the late 1990s. "I'm sure that he's gonna do the due diligence to make good choices and decisions about what our league should do in the future."

Saban spoke Tuesday at the Chick-fil-A Bowl golf challenge, where he was one of a dozen coaches from the SEC and ACC.

The Big Ten and Pac-10 are considering adding schools to get to the minimum 12 needed to hold a football championship game.

But both leagues could go beyond that - possibly to 14 or 16 teams - in part to gain exposure to new television markets.

Among the scenarios being mentioned are four 16-team "super" conferences: SEC, Big Ten, ACC and Pac-10.

Slive said this week that while the SEC has not contacted schools, the league is examining the advantages and disadvantages of expansion in case there is a "significant shift in the conference paradigm."

Saban said super conferences could be feasible. But he added that he wasn't necessarily for or against it, believing it was important for the SEC to "protect" what it has, such as natural rivalries and the passion of its fans.

"I think whatever's best for the fans and whatever's best for the interests of college football would be what would be the best thing we could do," Saban said. "The more good teams you have in the leagues, and they play each other, you probably have less controversy at the end."

Teams from the SEC have won four consecutive national football titles and have TV deals with CBS and ESPN that will pay the league $3 billion over 15 years.

Several ACC coaches refused to predict which schools could end up going where, but everyone agreed change was afoot.

"There's gonna be realignment, there's no question about that," Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson said. "It's just a question of where everybody falls."

Georgia Tech is a school that has been mentioned as candidate to change leagues, given its proximity to the SEC and its football history. Johnson said he was happy in the ACC, calling it "a great league," b acknowledged that wouldn't stop people from talking.

Maryland coach Ralph Friedgen said he hasn't been paying much attention to expansion talk. His school is a charter member of the ACC but also has been talked about as a candidate to move.

"Somebody called (and asked me) me about us joining the Big Ten. Nobody's talked to me about it," Friedgen said. "But I'd probably be the last to know anyway."

Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer has been through this before, when the school moved from the Big East to the ACC in 2004 along with Miami and Boston College. He said this round of expansion could be much more widespread.

"If anything happens, dominoes start falling. I think if the Pac-10 gets involved the same way, there's a lot of dominoes falling," Beamer said. "I think it could be a real different time in college football in the next couple years."

It won't let me vote again!..:p...Why don't you want Clemson again?..NO to Miami for sure!..I don't know very much about the Virginia.. Virginia Tech schools..i need to read up more on them..They are southern though..Georgia Tech is a real possibility..They used to be in SEC didn't they? I remem hearing a story about the big rivalry between auburn and tech..Back long ago..The auburn students greased the railroad tracks when the Tech team arrived..so they missed the stop by a good ways! hahaha..