Who will vote NO in the SEC meeting on Texas & Oklahoma?

[Golddore68]

Jared Stillman was talking about this last week on his radio show and his arguments made sense.

He said there is a possibility three SEC teams will vote NO on Texas and Oklahoma joining the conference. That would keep them from being able to join, as there have to be YES votes from 12 of the teams.

The SEC would have four four-team “pods” with 16 teams instead of SEC East and SEC West divisions.

According to Jared, the teams which have a possibility of voting NO are:

1. Texas A&M. They don’t want to have to compete in the same conference as Texas, those schools hate each other as much as any rivals.

2. UT. The new proposed “pod” would have Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Alabama and Auburn. UT doesn’t want to have to compete for first place in this pod with Alabama every year. UT hasn’t beaten Bama since the ‘90’s.

3. Missouri. Depending on the proposed pods, Missouri may end up in a “pod” with Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas. Missouri coach Drinkwitz complained last year that the SEC added the two toughest teams in the SEC West to their schedule when they went to a SEC-only schedule because of Covid, He made a remark at the SEC Media Days that “the SEC will find a way to stick us in the same pod as Oklahoma and Texas, we always get a raw deal,” (to paraphrase), and he wasn’t happy about that. Possibly Missouri may fight this by voting NO.

Jared also mentioned Vanderbilt might vote NO for the same reason as UT, but with the money each SEC team would receive, I don’t think Vanderbilt would turn that down.

[ScottGVU]

I think you could see Florida vote no hoping that, in a reciprocal fashion, A&M would help them keep Florida State and Miami out.

[buffy]

UTAustin is a cancer. They crap on everything they touch. I hope they get turned down, but I don't think they would have made this leap without some assurances of the result. They need us more than we need them. Shocking that Alabama would get Vanderbilt's School for the Blind in their pod.

[Doreknox]

I think A&M will be the lone no vote, if there are any. It appears the SEC told ATM to shut up and put up. The Aggies will probably play nice.

With the additions of TX and OK, there could be $25 million more added to the money the SEC distributes to each school. Who doesn't need that extra revenue? The eastern SEC schools will not be much affected by the two new members. Some of the western schools - UM, MSU, MO, AR - have no choice. Who is going to take them into a Super Conference. LSU knows it can hang with anyone.

Buffy, I might be a little too cynical with my views and hope you were not offended. But you are 1000% right about TX. They are a stage five cancer. However, I really look forward to watching them get their asses handed to them by some big time SEC opponents.

[Nashmann]

Hope VU votes no!

[OldDude]

An old farts perspective (c'mon every discussion needs this) : If it's not broken , don't fix it. The SEC has plenty of areas that are broken and need improvement, but adding two more problem children isn't going to fix anything. The impact of NIL is still very undetermined so welcoming two more $100 hand shake cultures just seems stupid at this point. When I think of prioritizing academic integrity versus athletic competitiveness , neither of these two occur to me.

[coachinwaiting]

Jared Stillman was talking about this last week on his radio show and his arguments made sense.

He said there is a possibility three SEC teams will vote NO on Texas and Oklahoma joining the conference. That would keep them from being able to join, as there have to be YES votes from 12 of the teams.

The SEC would have four four-team “pods” with 16 teams instead of SEC East and SEC West divisions.

According to Jared, the teams which have a possibility of voting NO are:

1. Texas A&M. They don’t want to have to compete in the same conference as Texas, those schools hate each other as much as any rivals. Sankey will remind A&M that they are still new to the conference and to mind their manners

2. UT. The new proposed “pod” would have Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Alabama and Auburn. UT doesn’t want to have to compete for first place in this pod with Alabama every year. UT hasn’t beaten Bama since the ‘90’s. It was 2006, but I get your drift

3. Missouri. Depending on the proposed pods, Missouri may end up in a “pod” with Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas. Missouri coach Drinkwitz complained last year that the SEC added the two toughest teams in the SEC West to their schedule when they went to a SEC-only schedule because of Covid, He made a remark at the SEC Media Days that “the SEC will find a way to stick us in the same pod as Oklahoma and Texas, we always get a raw deal,” (to paraphrase), and he wasn’t happy about that. Possibly Missouri may fight this by voting NO. [b]It's going to be hard for the SEC to come up with a full schedule for Missouri of like teams. They should have thought of that before they joined the league.[/b]

Jared also mentioned Vanderbilt might vote NO for the same reason as UT, but with the money each SEC team would receive, I don’t think Vanderbilt would turn that down.

There's one person who always likes to hear what Stillman thinks about things. It's Stillman. Be that as it may, I seriously underestimate the abilities of Sankey if he let this out and he didn't know he had the votes to make it happen. I'm not a fan of anything that includes the university of Texas, but changes are coming, one way or the other. I'd just prefer OU and anyone else and let Texas go to the PAC or B1G to be a cancer there.

[Ndorefin]

Jared Stillman was talking about this last week on his radio show and his arguments made sense.

He said there is a possibility three SEC teams will vote NO on Texas and Oklahoma joining the conference. That would keep them from being able to join, as there have to be YES votes from 12 of the teams.

Jared is full of hot air as well as other substances….I find it very difficult to listen to him. I believe there has to be 4 “No” votes to keep out Ut and Ok…..it’s gonna happen, they are in. If there are pods, I certainly hope we are teamed with Kentucky. There are more sports other than football and UK doesn’t really have any real rivals outside of ut and VU, although we haven’t beat them in a while.

[charlestonalum]

An old farts perspective (c'mon every discussion needs this) : If it's not broken , don't fix it. The SEC has plenty of areas that are broken and need improvement, but adding two more problem children isn't going to fix anything. The impact of NIL is still very undetermined so welcoming two more $100 hand shake cultures just seems stupid at this point. When I think of prioritizing academic integrity versus athletic competitiveness , neither of these two occur to me.

Actually, Texas is a very fine academic place -ranked higher than any other SEC Universities aside from us.

[AuricGoldfinger]

1. There will be either 13 or 14 votes in favor.

2. We won't know the final vote.

[FayetteDore]

1. There will be either 13 or 14 votes in favor.

2. We won't know the final vote.

I agree. I gotta think that the way these things work, it was already decided before the word "leaked" out in Houston last week. There may or may not be a paper trail that turns up with public records requests at the individual universities. My guess is there were a LOT of telephone calls and perhaps in-person meetings going on for weeks, perhaps even months, before it surfaced last week.

[commadore]

Almost all the talk is about Texas, but I remember a coach from Oklahoma 5-6 years ago saying "the SEC thinks they are all that and no one can beat them, but we are just as good." Not a quote, but you get the meaning. I think most of the Okies thought that. They will get a surprise, playing LSU, Auburn, A&M, Georgia, Alabama, and Florida, not to mention the others that will wear your butt down even if they don't beat you. That will be fun to watch.

[mathguy]

An old farts perspective (c'mon every discussion needs this) : If it's not broken , don't fix it. The SEC has plenty of areas that are broken and need improvement, but adding two more problem children isn't going to fix anything. The impact of NIL is still very undetermined so welcoming two more $100 hand shake cultures just seems stupid at this point. When I think of prioritizing academic integrity versus athletic competitiveness , neither of these two occur to me.

If this is your goal, it's already broke, so that doesn't apply.

If your goal is to prioritize academic integrity over athletic competitiveness, then we should be leaving the SEC (and possibly Division I altogether) because that is sadly just not going to happen in big time college athletics anytime soon.

[FayetteDore]

1. There will be either 13 or 14 votes in favor.

2. We won't know the final vote.

I agree. I gotta think that the way these things work, it was already decided before the word "leaked" out in Houston last week. There may or may not be a paper trail that turns up with public records requests at the individual universities. My guess is there were a LOT of telephone calls and perhaps in-person meetings going on for weeks, perhaps even months, before it surfaced last week.

Auric, one of the best Tennessee sportswriters ever, Marvin West, agrees with us:

From his latest column in KnoxTnToday: https://www.knoxtntoday.com/oklahoma-an ... ct-change/

"The SEC has almost certainly conducted a straw poll and found 13-1 willing to extend formal invitations."

But he also asks:
"Does Tennessee and other teams in the bottom half of the SEC realize that the Sooners and Longhorns will make it two losses harder to reach mediocrity? Texas and Oklahoma are no help to Alabama’s pursuit of national championships. Do Georgia, Florida and LSU really need more competition?"

[Johnmn555]

I'm sure TX and OK made sure they had the votes before they made formal applications.

Not looking forward to a return of the annual Alabama atrocity of yore.

[dallasdore]

Actually, we were quite competitive with Bama (although we always lost) through the 90s even though we weren't good, and had an offense that some high schools could beat.

It seemed that it was always the first game of the year. I remember Bama fans sweating the game because of Woody's defenses especially. Some years it was one of their narrowest wins of the year.

[OldDude]

An old farts perspective (c'mon every discussion needs this) : If it's not broken , don't fix it. The SEC has plenty of areas that are broken and need improvement, but adding two more problem children isn't going to fix anything. The impact of NIL is still very undetermined so welcoming two more $100 hand shake cultures just seems stupid at this point. When I think of prioritizing academic integrity versus athletic competitiveness , neither of these two occur to me.

Actually, Texas is a very fine academic place -ranked higher than any other SEC Universities aside from us.

Yes, I am aware that UT Austin is highly ranked. Guess my main concern was the feeling that Texas is one of the many programs that don't play particularly straight with the rules as to recruiting, etc.

[HopsLikeHolwerda]

I've seen the pods broken out differently. Nobody really knows where it will land, But what I saw was:

SEC-East - Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Kentucky
SEC-North - Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Vandy
SEC-South - Alabama, Auburn, Ole Miss, Mississippi State
SEC-West - LSU, Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma

8 Conference games - play your pod every year, and then the other 3 pods rotate. In essence, you'd play each team once every 3 years. Then you have a permanent rival for the 8th game. If your permanent rival is in your annual rotation that season, then you amend the schedules for the conflicted teams only. And the permanent rivals look like this:

Auburn-Georgia
Florida-LSU
Oklahoma-Missouri
Tennessee-Alabama
Vandy-Ole Miss
Texas A&M - South Carolina
Texas - Arkansas
Kentucky - Mississippi State

It also protects the SEC Championship because each team in a pod grouping plays the same schedule each year, except for the permanent rivalry game. For instance, if East and North were grouped one year, and South and West...you simply take the team with the best record in those pairs of pods, and they play in the Championship. No additional game needed.

I think the pods will probably shake out differently than we've seen, but I'm pretty sure this is going to be the format, at least while we are only playing 8 conference games. All that being said, if they start adding more teams, which is very possible, this will all go out the window.

[Vandy84]

Dallas Morning News reported this morning that A&M's Board of Regents voted in favor of admitting both to the SEC by a vote of 8-1.

[mnvandy]

Presidents & Chancellors have voted unanimously 14-0 to invite Texas & OU.