LITTLE ROCK — What SEC Commissioner Mike Slive and the 12 member presidents and chancellors are looking for in a 14th member is a mystery.
Jeff Long, vice chancellor and athletic director for the University of Arkansas, spoke briefly about conference expansion Monday at the Little Rock Touchdown Club, but Long has a talent for giving a little information but not too much.
He said the SEC wants a 14th school, the desire is to have no duplicity (bye-bye Florida State) and that several schools are interested in joining the SEC, but that was the gist of it.
Obviously, these are delicate times, and because the cards are being held so close to the vest, all that is left for the curious and interested is to speculate.
So Missouri, a fine institution, and West Virginia, an institution, have been rumored to be potential candidates.
The New York Times was reporting Tuesday that Mizzou applying to the SEC for membership is imminent.
The Tigers are a good fit, and they would bring a lot of St. Louis and some Kansas City televisions.
To be brutally honest, that just isn’t true with West Virginia, especially if the SEC powers have an academic eye on this.
This is not to indicate the SEC is ever going to be confused with the Ivy League in the classroom, and definitely not on the football field.
According to U.S. News and World Report’s Best Colleges list, Ivy League schools ranked Nos. 1-4.
SEC schools rank Nos. 1-2 in the Bowl Championship Series.
Of course, that doesn’t mean the SEC doesn’t have some strong academic programs. Vanderbilt was ranked No. 17 among the best colleges.
Considering the report included 194 ranked colleges and 98 unranked, that’s great.
The SEC certainly helped its academic standing when it accepted Texas A&M. It will enter the league tied with Florida for second among SEC schools ranked in the best colleges report at No. 58.
West Virginia wouldn’t help. It is ranked No. 164, which is higher than Mississippi State at 157, which has the worst ranking of all the SEC schools.
The other SEC schools are: Georgia (No. 62), Alabama (75), Auburn (82), Tennessee (101), South Carolina (111), Kentucky (124), LSU (128), Arkansas (137) and Ole Miss (143).
Missouri ranked 90th.
There has been one other school lightly rumored to be interested in joining the SEC, and to be perfectly candid, every conference east of Texas should be interested in the North Carolina Tar Heels, currently a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference.
The Tar Heels are believed to be upset with the ACC for adding Pittsburgh and Syracuse without notifying all its members first. Common sense would say they are not interested in adding Texas with its own television network.
Granted, North Carolina has been hit with an NCAA investigation and the football program has slipped, but the Tar Heels have great potential and a huge share of the TV market, plus it has great basketball.
North Carolina is also one of the best-priced educations in the country. In-state tuition is $7,008, which would make it the fifth-best in the SEC, and it was ranked No. 29 on the list of best colleges.
Maybe the Tar Heels are a long shot to join the SEC, but they would be an extremely attractive dance partner for just about any conference.
And all we have now is speculation about what the SEC will do. When you are the premier football conference, you can be patient and picky.
Sports, Pages 21 on 10/19/2011