‘Dawg Debates: Was This Really Necessary?
Photo by Matthew Pearce/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images Welcome to ‘Dawg Debates, in which two of our staff members cross rhetorical swords to hash out a question of interest to Bulldog Nation. Today Lugnut Dawg and MaconDawg chew on this proposition: halfway through its first season is the new look 16-team SEC better than the prior version? Macon Dawg: It’s already been great to have the Longhorns and Sooners, and it’ll get even better Why was adding Oklahoma and Texas a great idea? First, because it beats the heck out of the alternative. The landscape of college football is changing. That’s no secret. Texas and Oklahoma are desirable properties on the Monopoly board that is the post-NIL world of college athletics. If the SEC didn’t snap them up the Big Ten would have. That wouldn’t have made the SEC a second class conference. But in addition to their other new members from out west it would have given the B1G a solid claim to being the preeminent sports conference in college football. Over the long term, the schools pay Greg Sankey to keep the SEC at the top and keep the checks growing. If that is the objective, the westward expansion of the league was never really optional. Second, over any reasonably long timeline adding the Horns and Sooners makes the conference better competitively. Both schools invest heavily in athletics, and have competed for national titles in football, baseball, and basketball (men’s and women’s). Oklahoma is a gymnastics powerhouse. If we’re serious about saying It Just Means More, then not adding these schools when the opportunity arose would be an act of branding hypocrisy. Third, and this seems like a crazy thing to throw in to some but it matters to me, both raise the research/academic average of the conference. Texas and Oklahoma are both large state universities with well-respected research and academic programs. The Longhorns boast one of the most robust graduate research programs in America, and UT joins Georgia and Florida as only the third SEC ranked by U.S. News and World Report as a top 20 public university. Finally, and this is more a thing to look forward to, do not underestimate how much fun Texas will be when they revert to being a conference punching bag again. If there’s any conference in America that can humble the hubris factory that’s the University of Texas and its army of breakfast taco eating sidewalk alumni, it’s this one. All of college football is counting on the SEC to ‘horns down until it hurts. We owe it to ourselves, and we owe it to America to put Bevo in a metaphorical pen. Lugnut Dawg: Adding Texas & Oklahoma was a bad idea then, and it still is now Con: Adding Texas and Oklahoma was a bad idea. What was the Jeff Goldblum quote from Jurassic Park as Dr. Ian Malcolm? “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.” Yes, there was nothing stopping the SEC getting Oklahoma and Texas to join. Just as there was no reason to shy from Mizzou and Texas A&M. Or let’s get further back - nothing stopped the league from going to two divisions and in turn, adding Arkansas and South Carolina. Do you know what makes the SEC special? It’s one word. Tradition. It’s The Grove in Oxford. It’s the parting of the T in Knoxville. It’s a Saturday Between The Hedges. It’s the tradition baked in years at Tuscaloosa. When you play these games, it means something. If you grew up a Georgia fan, it was almost a coming of age when you were old enough to not just go to a Georgia game, but when it was your first SEC game. These games mean something, because you knew their meaning over the years. Texas and Oklahoma have one deeply sewn common thread with Texas A&M and Mizzou. The have a long and storied football history, but it’s not in the SEC. With these teams, you think the Big 8 (or the Big 2 and Little 6) as well as the Big 12 or old Southwest Conference. These are great programs that it’s fun to play. Well...except for Texas A&M, which for ridiculous reasons Georgia still has not played on the road, yet. Adding Texas and Oklahoma is this - marquee games against exciting opponents that should have no impact on a conference schedule. Just this week, we saw that tradition can be sold to the highest bidder with Georgia Tech gladly taking money to move next year’s UGA game off campus. Making everything financially viable as possible may be the new norm of college football, but that does not mean that it has to be liked and sang a happy song and dance along the way. Go ‘Dawgs!!!
Welcome to ‘Dawg Debates, in which two of our staff members cross rhetorical swords to hash out a question of interest to Bulldog Nation. Today Lugnut Dawg and MaconDawg chew on this proposition: halfway through its first season is the new look 16-team SEC better than the prior version?
Macon Dawg: It’s already been great to have the Longhorns and Sooners, and it’ll get even better
Why was adding Oklahoma and Texas a great idea? First, because it beats the heck out of the alternative.
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The landscape of college football is changing. That’s no secret. Texas and Oklahoma are desirable properties on the Monopoly board that is the post-NIL world of college athletics. If the SEC didn’t snap them up the Big Ten would have.
That wouldn’t have made the SEC a second class conference. But in addition to their other new members from out west it would have given the B1G a solid claim to being the preeminent sports conference in college football. Over the long term, the schools pay Greg Sankey to keep the SEC at the top and keep the checks growing. If that is the objective, the westward expansion of the league was never really optional.
Second, over any reasonably long timeline adding the Horns and Sooners makes the conference better competitively. Both schools invest heavily in athletics, and have competed for national titles in football, baseball, and basketball (men’s and women’s). Oklahoma is a gymnastics powerhouse. If we’re serious about saying It Just Means More, then not adding these schools when the opportunity arose would be an act of branding hypocrisy.
Third, and this seems like a crazy thing to throw in to some but it matters to me, both raise the research/academic average of the conference. Texas and Oklahoma are both large state universities with well-respected research and academic programs. The Longhorns boast one of the most robust graduate research programs in America, and UT joins Georgia and Florida as only the third SEC ranked by U.S. News and World Report as a top 20 public university.
Finally, and this is more a thing to look forward to, do not underestimate how much fun Texas will be when they revert to being a conference punching bag again. If there’s any conference in America that can humble the hubris factory that’s the University of Texas and its army of breakfast taco eating sidewalk alumni, it’s this one. All of college football is counting on the SEC to ‘horns down until it hurts. We owe it to ourselves, and we owe it to America to put Bevo in a metaphorical pen.
Lugnut Dawg: Adding Texas & Oklahoma was a bad idea then, and it still is now
Con: Adding Texas and Oklahoma was a bad idea.
What was the Jeff Goldblum quote from Jurassic Park as Dr. Ian Malcolm?
“Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.”
Yes, there was nothing stopping the SEC getting Oklahoma and Texas to join. Just as there was no reason to shy from Mizzou and Texas A&M. Or let’s get further back - nothing stopped the league from going to two divisions and in turn, adding Arkansas and South Carolina.
Do you know what makes the SEC special? It’s one word. Tradition.
It’s The Grove in Oxford. It’s the parting of the T in Knoxville. It’s a Saturday Between The Hedges. It’s the tradition baked in years at Tuscaloosa.
When you play these games, it means something. If you grew up a Georgia fan, it was almost a coming of age when you were old enough to not just go to a Georgia game, but when it was your first SEC game. These games mean something, because you knew their meaning over the years.
Texas and Oklahoma have one deeply sewn common thread with Texas A&M and Mizzou. The have a long and storied football history, but it’s not in the SEC. With these teams, you think the Big 8 (or the Big 2 and Little 6) as well as the Big 12 or old Southwest Conference.
These are great programs that it’s fun to play. Well...except for Texas A&M, which for ridiculous reasons Georgia still has not played on the road, yet. Adding Texas and Oklahoma is this - marquee games against exciting opponents that should have no impact on a conference schedule.
Just this week, we saw that tradition can be sold to the highest bidder with Georgia Tech gladly taking money to move next year’s UGA game off campus.
Making everything financially viable as possible may be the new norm of college football, but that does not mean that it has to be liked and sang a happy song and dance along the way.
Go ‘Dawgs!!!
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