re: Finebaum: Arky was 3rd Choice for SEC Expansion

I have always viewed Arky as sloppy thirds.

and at least people know what state we're in

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Texas, Texas A&M, Florida State, Miami, South Carolina and Arkansas.

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On May 31, 1990, the SEC presidents voted to authorize expansion, identifying six schools as potential members: Texas, Texas A&M, Florida State, Miami, South Carolina and Arkansas. Ole Miss President Gerald Turner headed the conference’s expansion committee. He told the Washington Post that the CFA’s inevitable decline meant the SEC would negotiate its own television contracts in the future and that the “first step in that direction is minimizing the force of competing conferences in our geographic area.” In other words, the SEC wanted to keep the Atlantic Coast Conference and a potential Big East football conference out of the State of Florida.

But SEC Commissioner Roy Kramer also wanted to go on the offensive. Keith Dunnavant noted, “The SEC’s area of dominant influence fell short of the footprint desired by many consumer-oriented companies,” which Kramer sought as sponsors. To make the “footprint” more sponsor-friendly, Kramer wanted to move into South Carolina, Arkansas and especially Texas. By targeting Texas, Texas A&M and Arkansas, Kramer had effectively declared war on the Southwest Conference, where all three schools were members. It was one thing to recruit independent schools; the SEC was contemplating an unprecedented raid on a fellow conference.

Yet the time was ripe to strike the SWC, which then consisted of seven Texas schools and Arkansas. The SWC’s small footprint meant it wasn’t a terribly lucrative conference. Arkansas Athletic Director Frank Broyles said his school would make $1 million more a year by switching to the SEC. And the SWC was rocked by a series of scandals that enveloped most of its Texas members, notably Southern Methodist University, which the NCAA shut down in 1987. Arkansas was also eager to swap the low-level competition in the SWC — e.g., Rice and Baylor — for stronger SEC foes like Georgia and Tennessee. When the SEC formally approached Arkansas, there was no hesitation: On August 1, 1990, the school’s trustees unanimously voted to join the SEC, effectively the following July.

SEC expansion, however, meant adding at least one more school. The SEC planned to take advantage of a little-known NCAA rule that allowed a conference with 12 members to organize as two divisions and play a separate conference championship game. The rule was originally adopted for the benefit of a Division II conference, and no Division I-A conference had ever invoked it. Kramer and the SEC presidents quickly realized that a championship game would make a future television package far more attractive to the networks.

The magic 12th school would not come from the State of Texas. Although Texas and Texas A&M were on the SEC’s original expansion wish list, politics made either a non-starter. With Arkansas’ likely departure, the SWC would collapse without its two biggest Texas schools. That was unpalatable to Texas legislators — many of whom were alumni of the other five SWC members — and Texas and A&M were publicly threatened with retaliation if they left. Eventually, the SWC did dissolve, with most of the Texas schools merging with the Big Eight into the Big 12.

That left Florida State, Miami and South Carolina vying for the second invitation. Florida State was clearly the SEC’s first choice. The major roadblock was scheduling. On August 3, Bobby Bowden admitted to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “I like to win games, and I can’t think of a tougher place to do that than the SEC.” Under the proposed division alignment, Florida State would face Florida, Auburn and Alabama every year, which raised objections from FSU Athletic Director Bob Goin. “Most conferences have got two really strong programs,” Bowden continued, “but top to bottom there isn’t one close to the SEC.” Another report, by Mark Maske of the Washington Post, suggested Florida State refused to be in the same conference as Florida because the Gators “once fostered an SEC blackballing of the Seminoles.” In 2001, a Florida Times-Union retrospective quoted a FSU booster as saying, “There was quite a bit of feeling that we didn’t want to be entrapped; a feeling that among some fans that if we go into [the SEC]…we’d be kind of a stepchild.”

Things came to a head in September 1990. The ACC had dithered for months on the issue of expansion. On July 26 ACC Commissioner Gene Corrigan said there was “no rush” to expand, yet behind-the-scenes, he was fervently working to lure Florida State away from the SEC. On September 2, Corrigan made his presentation to FSU officials in Tallahassee. Nine days later, the SEC’s Kramer made his final push. The next day, September 12, things nearly blew up in Corrigan’s face when only three of the ACC’s eight athletic directors voted to expand at all. Corrigan needed at least six votes, and while he knew two members (Duke and Maryland) would vote no, three of the North Carolina schools had surprisingly abstained.

While Corrigan lobbied the three abstainers to agree to a second vote later that evening, Kramer quickly arranged a own conference call of SEC members to vote against inviting Florida State. Whether this was a face-saving move or an attempt to spite FSU (in the event the revote went badly) is unclear. But the SEC decided to move on. Corrigan got his revote and won, and on September 13, FSU officially joined the ACC.

Four days after spurning Florida State, Kramer met with Miami, one of the two remaining expansion candidates. South Carolina’s trustees had preemptively voted to accept an SEC invitation should one come. Miami was decidedly less enthused. Unlike the mostly public universities in the SEC, Miami was a private school that drew its student body in large numbers from the same geographic area as the Big East. Miami officials were also more interested in using Big East membership to improve its fledgling basketball program.

South Carolina was the last school standing. Kramer met with officials in Columbia on September 20, and on September 25, the Gamecocks received their official invitation. The SEC got its 12th member and a championship game — and in 1995, its own television contract with CBS — while South Carolina, which as an independent faced a $300,000 deficit the previous year, received a measure of financial security. When Miami officially joined the Big East on October 9, the Great Realignment of 1990 finally came to an end.

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Texas

you don't want texas in your conference. They are poisonous.

IT WOULD BE FUN TO SEE THEM AND BAMA TO TRY TO OUT frick EACH OTHER

what are you talking about? auburn's own tammy knows it all- she's the smartest one in the fanbase so they elected her to be 'famous' on the finebaum show.

I miss the original SEC teams -- all the newbies are trying way to hard to be cool and fit in, OK -- you may beat some of the originals from time to time, but you will never be genuine.
Yeah, I'm laughing at you Arky -- you old SWC (back then they wished they were in Texas) wannabees that just don't fit anywhere... tell Bill and Hillary "yello"

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Yeah, I'm questioning this. Why would this have changed in such a (relatively) short amount of time?

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What do you mean, are you implying it changed because we got A&M without Texas?

I'm sure the problem was that back then, Texas A&M wasn't an entity that could survive on its own. So you couldn't get UT without taking the tagalong.

Fast forward, and they don't care if A&M thinks it can thrive without Texas, misguided as it is. I doubt it was a reciprocal deal.

Yes we beat some bad originals like , Auburn. But everybody did this year? You better get use to it Little Feller! We love beating loudmouth trash talking Auburn fans. Lets face it, your just not as good as you think or you would have a huge lead over Arkansas.

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Apparently the choices were FSU and Texas. FSU got cold feet and Texas was required by legislature to bring Aggie so we took Arky and USCe instead

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he got the details wrong and it didn't all come down at the same time. FSU agreed to come to the SEC. or should I say Bowden agreed as he "owned" FSU. the problem was he wanted a bigger share of the revenue than the other teams got. he played the SEC against the ACC which did indeed agree with his terms. Bobby Bowden would have split the SEC up with his shite. could you imagine Bama accepting that deal?

so in the end it was the SEC turning FSU down.

then Texas and A&M were in negotiations with the SEC and it appeared they were ready to go. but the Tejas legislature said no way. there were just too many Baylor and Tech legislators that knew they were dead if those two left. so the legislature threatened to take away their funding and that quelched the "rebellion" pretty damn quick.

at this point, Frank Broyles at Arkansas stepped in and sold the SEC. I don't know how South Carolina got in except the SEC needed a 12th team to balance it out.

it has been a long time but I remember Bowdon's role and the Tejas Legislature's role very well. and I trust my damn memory more than Finebaum's attempts to get viewers with his scummy attempts at "journalism"