Remember the old board game “Perfection?” I do. Players had to arrange three-dimensional puzzle pieces onto a board as a timer ticked down from one minute to zero. If the board was not completely solved by the end of the minute, the pieces went flying into the air — the players left not knowing where they would land.
Today, a real-life version of the game is being played out in the form of conference realignment.
The schools are the puzzle pieces, and the respective conference commissioners are the contestants. It’s only a matter of time before the conference format, as we know it, becomes obsolete.
After officially notifying the Big 12 last week that it would be leaving the conference after this season, Texas A&M was voted into the SEC unanimously on Wednesday, becoming the third team this year to announce its departure. Baylor is trying to block the move with a lawsuit, but the writing is on the wall.
Since then, the rumor mill has spun constantly as to which teams will jump to which leagues. Oklahoma and Oklahoma State are allegedly interested in joining the Pac 12, and if that happens, the Big 12 would likely collapse.
If the Big 12 does collapse, the remaining teams would be split up by the other power conferences. This would lead to four “super conferences:” SEC, Big 10, Pac 12 and the ACC.
Virginia Tech is also quickly becoming more central to those rumors. According to Chip Brown of Orangebloods.com, the Hokies are among a handful of targets in the SEC’s expansion plans. The Collegiate Times has confirmed that report through an anonymous source.
Should Tech make the leap from the ACC, a league it joined just seven years ago? In short, yes. But unfortunately the answer is not that simple.
In terms of football, the SEC is the cream of the crop. Each of the last five national champions has come from the league — eight of the league’s current 12 teams were ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 poll this preseason. The ACC, meanwhile, has won just one BCS bowl since 2000, which, by the way, was the Hokies’ win over Cincinnati in the 2009 Orange Bowl.
A version of this article appeared in the Sep 9 issue of the Collegiate Times.
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