Miami wants into the B1G but will settle for SEC. If not...will go Indy

This, he says, is why Miami is now positioning itself for a move into college athletics's top financial and social stratosphere, the SEC and Big Ten; why the school (and several others in the ACC) has been forced to explore aspects of football independence; and why the university, despite rebuke from congressional lawmakers and those connected to the White House, is fighting against a federal bill that stands to prevent further realignment in the industry.
"You cannot lock us into a conference," he says, flatly.

"The fact is that we won about every game you could win last year and maxed out in revenue in our current [ACC] sharing model. And we made the same amount of money as other institutions [in the Big Ten and SEC] whose football programs operate at different levels of investment and performance."

If projections are accurate, Echevarria says, the Big Ten and SEC, already distributing an average of $25 million more to each of their schools than the ACC, will almost double their edge when they renegotiate their television contracts in 2030 — the year that the SEC may execute a look-in clause with ESPN and when the Big Ten's current media rights deal expires.




As an AAU research institution, we line up with the Big Ten's profile," he says, in a jarring comment from a prominent executive about potential membership in another conference. "We have an exceptionally strong profile that compares favorably with leading research institutions across the country. On the geography idea, we line up better with the SEC."

In the SEC, expansion conversations among executives — not at all formal — have often centered around other schools outside of the state of Florida. North Carolina and Virginia provide the league with a presence in two new states, high achieving academic brands and strong basketball programs.

Within the league, Florida and South Carolina stand as threats to any addition of other in-state programs such as FSU, Miami or Clemson.
A similar situation unfolded years ago with Texas A&M. The Aggies privately objected to the SEC's pursuit of Texas.



"If we have to go independent, I like our chances because we are a national brand," he says. "I wouldn't like to do that because scheduling [other sports] is really tough. It's great for football but what about track, volleyball and the golf team?"

Let them go to the Big 10

Not a good fit culturally and they don’t add much to the SEC that we don’t already get with Florida.

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Let them go to the Big 10

Not a good fit culturally and they don’t add much to the SEC that we don’t already get with Florida.

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Yeah Miami is 1000% a better fit for Yankee land. You know what they say about Florida:

The further south you go, the further north you get

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I don't understand why they would want to change the status quo for themselves. They're a lock to make the playoff every year.

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Why do anything anymore.... $$$

Miami is a helmet school with infinite money and the SEC would be stupid to hand them to the B1G.

That school does not belong in the SEC.

If we thought the Big 12 teams weren't a culture fit, wait for Miami.

frick. That.

They would bring nothing to the SEC that we don't already have

I know they arent great football programs but its going to be sad when teams like NC state and Oklahoma state are cut off from major college football. It basically already happened to Oregon state and Washington state. There's a handful of acc and big 12 teams that are at least better than the bottom big ten teams and vanderbilt that are going to get left behind.

Where will Miami, FSU and Clemson land?

SEC seems to favor UNC and UVA

I don't disagree with any of that but the game is now about collecting brands like Pokemon. Nobody (including UNC and UVA) gives a rat's arse about UNC and Virginia football and they would only dilute the viewership numbers.