Report: 11 of 14 schools would have to vote yes for SEC expansion
On Wednesday afternoon, reports surfaced of a possible SEC expansion to 16 teams with the Oklahoma Sooners and Texas Longhorns interested in joining the conference.
This would be the next step toward college football consisting of 16-team super conferences. Each and every season the topic of conference expansion is brought up; the SEC securing both of the top Big 12 schools could be huge for the direction of college athletics.
The SEC increased from 12 to 14 teams in 2012 when the conference added the Missouri Tigers and the Longhorns’ in-state rivals, the Texas A&M Aggies. Of course, due to the long-standing rivalry between the Horns and Aggies, it appears Texas A&M wants nothing to do with Texas in the conference.
“We want to be the only SEC program in the state of Texas,” Bjork said. “There’s a reason why Texas A&M left the Big 12 — to be standalone, to have our own identity.” – per ESPN
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That report from Alex Scarborough also stated that expansion in the SEC would need 11 of the 14 members to approve the invite.
Bjork said he and fellow SEC athletic directors had not discussed bringing Texas and Oklahoma into the conference. According to the SEC bylaws regarding conference membership, “a vote of at least three-fourths of the members is required to extend an invitation for membership,” or in this case, 11 of the 14 schools.
It seems like a pretty clear indication the Aggies will not vote to approve bringing in Texas to the SEC. Nothing provided at this time indicates whether the Aggies would be against the Sooners joining the SEC.
Adding in two of the top eight schools in revenue per USA TODAY Sports’ database would do wonders for the Southeastern Conference. Based on that part alone, there should be ample discussions about extending an invite to two of college football’s blue blood programs.
