The college sports landscape is continuing to rapidly shift as the conference carousel spins around faster and faster.
About a week or so ago, we at Rocky Top Insider wrote about how the initial move from Texas and Oklahoma into the SEC has created a domino effect that slowly has been climbing to the boiling point that is late summer 2023.
That article primarily focused on Texas and Oklahoma moving to the SEC while UCLA and USC were set for the Big Ten. Colorado was the most recent storyline at the time as the Buffaloes are set to move from the Pac-12 to the Big 12.
Since then, though, much more has happened.
The Big 12 has now added Utah, Arizona, and Arizona State. Meanwhile, the Big Ten added Oregon and Washington.
Ultimately, with only four teams left (Stanford, Cal, Oregon State, and Washington State), the Pac-12 has been absolutely gutted in the last two weeks or so.
The ACC is also in a bit of bumpy water as well with continuous drama involving their own teams such as Florida State.
SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey did address some of the expansion conversation at SEC Media Days in Nashville in mid-July. Those statements did fall before the crumbling of the Pac-12, though.
“My view is we know who we are,” Sankey said at media days. “We’re comfortable as a league. We’re focused on our growth to 16. We’ve restored rivalries. We’re geographically contiguous with the right kind of philosophical alignment, and we can stay at that level of super conference. When you go bigger, there are a whole other set of factors that have to be considered, and I’m not sure I’ve seen those teased out other than in my mind late at night.”
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Sankey said during SEC Media Days that there is no desire to make moves to grow into a super conference because he believes the SEC is already a super conference. That being said, though, Sankey and the rest of the SEC higher-ups do have an eye on the landscape of college sports.
“Do I think it’s done?” Sankey said about the SEC’s growth in the future. “People will say, well, I get to decide that. Right now it appears others are going to decide that before we have to make any decisions.”
Since making that statement, the other teams in reference such as Colorado, Washington, and Oregon have made and executed their decisions. We’ll just have to wait and see what continues to happen around the landscape to see if the SEC will make any future moves down the road.
