Rumors of Texas to the ACC just won't die

By Joe Ovies
Sep 13, 2011

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SEC commissioner Mike Slive thumbed his nose to the Big 12 legal beagles earlier this week when he officially accepted Texas A&M's application to join the conference. In a statement, Slive made it clear what was going down when discussing the possibility of a 14th member of the SEC.

"When Texas A&M joins our conference, we don't have immediate plans for a 14th member," said Slive.

Not if. When. Slive went so far as to discuss scheduling as well.

Now that the Aggies have the Big 12 in their rearview mirror, all eyes are on Oklahoma to keep the conference from imploding. Too bad the Sooners don't appear all that interested in keeping the band together.

Despite Texas and Oklahoma officials meeting over the weekend, the OU board of regents instructed school president David L. Boren to formally apply for admission to the Pac-12. Oklahoma State plans on being their traveling buddy out west, creating a new PAC 14.

Which gets us to how the ACC fits in all of this speculation.

According to the Austin American-Statesman, Texas established three criteria when it comes to finding a future home. The Longhorns are concerned about travel and would prefer to stick with the Eastern Time Zone. Maintaining their cash generating Longhorn Network is key. Texas would also want to keep some rivalries going, mainly their game against Oklahoma.

The ACC provides favorable travel and the all important Eastern Time Zone television slots. The conference has also come up with an interesting approach to conference games, according to the Austin American-Statesman.

A high-ranking Texas source said that the ACC has been in contact with Texas, but added that talks hadn't progressed to a mature phase. In fact, the source wasn't sure what other schools the ACC would look to add besides Texas. Don't take that to mean it won't work. The ACC is willing to talk about a unique conference format that has intrigued Texas. Instead of divisions, the conference could be divided into four pods, with each pod containing four teams, to aid scheduling.

As I've said before -- the Texas rumor isn't as crazy as it sounds. Conference realignment is about survival. Let Texas keep their network and use their brand to up television contracts in the future.

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RE: Rumors of Texas to the ACC just won't die

OK Badger, I want some love. You were talking serious trash about me and the ACC expanding, but now you are on board. I would love to see us get Texas, Kansas, Kansas St., and Missouri. OK St. will go with OK. I would still love to pull Tenn. out of the SEC. Keep in mind we may let BC go back to the Big Least, so we could pick up 5 and WV would be a good pull.

ACC is gonna come out smellin like a rose on this one and you boys are going to be kissing Swoffords rear after talkin so much trash about the man.

Hey, Hokie, how about VT being able to play Texas every couple years as well as some of the other big teams?

RE: Rumors of Texas to the ACC just won't die

You have to wonder if Mack Brown is somewhat involved in putting the ACC bug in the leaderships ear.....any thoughts guys?

RE: Rumors of Texas to the ACC just won't die

Four pods assumes 16 teams. If you are going to add Texas, you would want to add other teams in their area. I could see Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri filling the bill. After all, if geography doesn't matter anymore, why not.

Play the other three teams in your pod, then play two teams from each of the other three pods, and you have a nice 9-game schedule. What I can't figure out is how you pick a champion. Is it just the team with the best regular season record, using the usual tiebreakers? Do you have a playoff of the two teams with the best records? Or the two highest ranked teams?

It would be easy to arrange the pods geographically. BC, UVa, Va Tech and Maryland make a logical pod. So do the four NC schools. That leaves Clemson, Ga Tech, Miami and FSU as the final pod. But that doesn't make much competitive sense. Of course, if you only play one third of your schedule within your pod, that might not be as big a deal as I would make it out to be.
- Posted by Ken D.

I like the pod system also. I do think OU, Ok St. are going to the PAC12. The ACC would probably end up with one or two more Tx teams if Texas joined the ACC. Probably Baylor and TT. Just add Kansas to that Tx pod and leave the rest as it is. It's all conjecture, but actually possible.. just crazy.

RE: Rumors of Texas to the ACC just won't die

trade the Hokies for Texas, straight up.....
- Posted by dave437

Never happen...I hope. The politics that it took for VT is get into the ACC will not flush. We are here for a long time, I hope. The Governor of VA made it happen. We are doing pretty well in the ACC, especially football. Our basketball team is 4th overall since we entered the ACC.

We need 16 teams. Why trade VT for Texas? That doesn't make sense to me. We want 16 teams. We want to nail down 4 more teams in front of the SEC and others.

RE: Rumors of Texas to the ACC just won't die

One thing adding those four schools does is keep them out of the Big Ten or SEC. How does a conference that includes Texas, Oklahoma, Miami, Florida State and Virginia Tech stack up competitively with the other conferences? I think you'd have to say pretty well.

And adding those four schools would also bolster the ACC's sagging basketball reputation. It's not as far-fetched as it might seem at first glance.
- Posted by Ken D.

This makes a lot of sense to me Ken. I like the pod idea, and if we could get these teams we would be solid for years to come. Forget the SEC and all of the rest. The ACC will be in tact when this is all said and done.

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