By: James Jordan

                The Southeastern Conference needs an attitude adjustment.  I have the answer.  Start with an already solid conference.  One which can recruit the fertile south; has at least ten football schools in and around it, and plays football early enough in the day that the majority of those in the Southeast can watch.  I don’t make the rules here, folks.  College football is king in the Southeastern United States.  Certainly there are pockets of fanaticism around Ann Arbor, Los Angeles, Columbus etc. but the Mecca of college ball is south of the Mason-Dixon and east of Austin, TX.  You see where I’m headed with this?  There’s only one solution: The Big 14.

                The fun begins with building the Big 14.  Starting with the Big 12 and including West Virginia and Texas Christian we presently have the following teams:  West Virginia, TCU, Baylor University, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas and Texas Tech.  That’s ten of the requisite 14 teams meaning another conference needs to be raided.  I’ve got just the one!  The Atlantic Coast Conference is a weak football conference at best.  With terrible marketing, scheduling, officiating and TV deals, the ACC has made it clear that it is a basketball conference first; time for the Big Boys to leave.  A revised Big 12 (14) would look like this:

Texas                                    Florida State

Oklahoma                           Clemson

Oklahoma State                 West Virginia

Iowa State                           Virginia Tech

Baylor                                  Texas Christian

Texas Tech                          University of Miami

Kansas State                      University of Kansas

                That is a power conference.  The Big 14 would rival the Southeastern Conference in revenue, talent, viewership, athlete development, facilities and would create a dynamic that college football desperately needs.  The PAC 12 and B1G would be forced to merge their powers and the three super conferences would emerge.  Let me not get ahead of myself here, back to the SEC vs. the Big 14.  Think of it:  For every Alabama, there’s a Texas.  Florida?  Florida State.  LSU?  Oklahoma.  Georgia?  Virginia Tech.  Tennessee?  West Virginia.  Auburn?  Oklahoma State.  Vanderbilt?  Iowa State.  How could we go wrong?  Rivalries are preserved.  Intra-Conference rivalries enhanced.  Now Texas vs. Texas A&M and Florida vs. Florida State are cross-conference rivalries vs. the same conferences. 

                Are you salivating yet?  Think of it … the conference allegiance dynamic would no longer be an SEC-only phenomenon.  We would all get to play.  Of course, the whole world would be rooting for the good guys in the Big 14!