I could see most of that. He's waiting for the ACC to crumble to grab the states that he wants....which I would assume are NC & VA.

The states aren't the issue so much as the teams within them.

North Carolina and Virginia would sure look better than NC State and Virginia Tech.

I resemble that remark!

tl;dr

Here's how I think it will eventually play out:


Big 12 adds FSU and Clemson

Big 12 comes to agreement with Notre Dame to phase them in completely by 2016 (Olympic sports until then)

Big 12 invites Louisville who gives the Big East their 27 month notice to avoid a penalty payment and sinc up with Notre Dame

SEC invites V Tech and NC St to be the first to 16, wants to increase TV market for their planned network while remaining a regional conference

Big 12 invites G Tech and Pitt to be the second to 16, both schools have historic ties to ND

B!G invites Syracuse/Rutgers, Maryland, UNC and Virginia to be the third to 16

PAC will probably stay at 12 due to the availability of schools. If the BCS sets up a system that somehow favors 16 team conferences, they may add "football only associate members" to get there.

Conference semi-finals are adopted for 16 team conferences, champions go to the national round.

I don't think they will ever abandon their games with USC and Michigan. Those rivalries are too big and too old for ND to even contemplate abandoning them. IF and this is a big IF ND were to join a conference, I imagine that they will schedule those two games every year as OOC.

This is interesting.

Clemson AD states ESPN ACC contract is 80% football. FSU responsible for more $ than UNC + Duke combined. #Big12

Or on any board. The KU board on scout.com continuously has threads related to Missouri, which is impressive considering KU fans supposedly don't care about Missouri anymore and they are supposedly no longer rivals.

Clemson AD Terry Don Phillips just said on SiriusXM that the talk of #Clemson and #FSU to the #Big12 is "completely blown out of proportion"

Sure the teams are big part...no way they'd take Duke to get the state of NC....but you're fooling yourself if you don't think the TV market size isn't the largest part of it.

I'm sure it goes both ways. Phog.net has a few decent posters over there, but they are some of the whiniest KU fans I have ever seen.

Why do you think the SEC would invite NC State and Virginia Tech instead of North Carolina and Virginia?

The rumors I've heard contradict this (not that any source can be considered reliable), the SEC would go after NC State and Virginia Tech.

They wouldn't. It is widely believed that UNC and UVA would be the SEC schools of choice, but these schools might not want the SEC. VT is all left in VA worth selecting and NCSU is preferrable over WF and Duke.

Just to expand on my opinion a bit....

Obviously this whole conference realignment is about nothing more than more money. Conferences want bigger TV contracts - and the SEC wants it own network - and they get that by adding large viewership areas. Hence why MU was added.....and why Texas A&M was added....and why they'll likely go after the top schools in NC/VA. It's also why they aren't looking at FSU.