quality post, but brand-value is becoming more important...

Posted on: July 8, 2022 at 15:47:50 CT

than in past rounds of realignment, and arguably more important than expanding the league's footprint.

That's mainly due to the streaming/cord-cutting trend over the past decade.

Florida State (the Seminoles or "Noles") is a major national brand, as I'm sure you know. Furthermore, Florida is a huge state. The same reasoning applies to the SEC adding both Texas & Texas A&M.

Also, adding FSU wouldn't dilute Florida's brand. As an interesting historic note, the Big Ten added Michigan State in 1950 because it wanted to "dilute" Michigan's brand (dominance) at the time, but all it did was elevate Michigan State. Michigan's brand wasn't weakened at all, and now they have a meaningful in-state conference rival.

So I think the SEC would be very open to adding Florida State and Clemson, but I agree that their priority is adding Virginia and North Carolina, preferably via UVA/VT and UNC/Duke.

Again though, very good post.