Or should I say 'blood in the water'. Rumor has it that Texas A&M will announce shortly it is joining the Southeastern Conference. That's fine, good school, good rep, the next president of the U.S. might hail from there. Makes sense until you realize that would make the conference uneven. That is until you add 3 more teams!
The Seminoles, Clemson, and.......Missouri? Why not Georgia Tech? Why not the Yellowjackets before Clemson? Did they not want to join? Were they out studying when the phone rang? Or do some teams still hold a grudge against GT for leaving the SEC back in the Sixties?
Clemson is the bigger school but GT the bigger market. Tech has a better tradition. The Tigers have a more rabid fan base. It'll be very interesting to hear all the behind the scenes gossip as to how this goes down, when and if it does, and it probably will.
A 16-team Super Conference, the first but not the last. If this is true and these are the four teams to join, just think of the confusion. The SEC already has two teams called 'Tigers' and two teams called 'Bulldogs'. Now there will be FOUR teams known as the Tigers.
Here's my solution to this name numbness:
LSU becomes the Bayou Bengals, which they’re known for anyway. Auburn ends the confusion and adopts War Eagle as their cry and their team moniker. Clemson will have to keep the name Tigers because their fan base is too 'challenged' to learn another word at this point.
Which leaves us with Missouri. I give them two choices, let it never be said that I am not a fair arbiter in these matters. Either they become their other nickname, Mizzou, or the James Gang, for the state’s greatest citizens, Jesse and Frank James. Or maybe a third option is possible. Since they’re famous up there for the James boys and Josey Wales maybe the Outlaws would be apropos. Then when the NCAA hits them up for their biannual probation they truly can say they are indeed an outlaw program. Problem sol-ved as Inspector Clouseau would say.
Or is it. Let’s face it, Missouri being in the Southeastern Conference makes about as much sense as Auburn being part of the National COLLEGIATE Athletic Association.
Is it even really a state? What inhabits the area between St. Louis and Kansas City? You leave the Arch, set the cruise control, settle in for a nap and wake up a few hours later in K.C. Nothing in between but billboards and bovine.
It is known for its school o’ journalism, but given the state of the media today that may not be something they want to crow about. It’s like Texas A&M bragging about their coeds, some things are better left tied up in the stockyard.
Check out more on the SEC schools, including the newbies Florida State, Clemson, and Texas A&M in the new book 'The Totally Biased Guide to Southern College Football' by Pete Davis, available for under a buck at: Amazon.com/dp/B005FRFMYW
Curtis Kitchen pointed out that if you bet on the Tigers to win the SEC you would have a 25 percent chance of being right!
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