Texas and Oklahoma join the SEC: Will Atlanta lose the SEC Championship Game? (Fayetteville: home, construction)

[Born 2 Roll]

The massive earth-shifting sporting news of the week is the news that founding Big-12 member schools, UT-Austin (the University of Texas) and OU (the University of Oklahoma) were officially accepted as members into the SEC (Southeastern Conference) after reportedly approaching the SEC about membership more than 6 months ago after the conclusion of the 2020 college football season.

With the addition of two massive institutional entities such as UT-Austin and OU into the fray, the geographical center of gravity in the SEC appears likely to be pulled westward by UT, OU and the 3 other former Big-12 Conference/Southwest Conference/Big-8 Conference schools (Texas A&M, Missouri and Arkansas) in the conference.

The addition of UT-Austin and OU into the SEC also appears to have at least a few Texas Longhorn, Oklahoma Sooner, Texas A&M Aggie and Arkansas Razorback fans calling for either the SEC Championship Game to be permanently moved to AT&T Stadium (a.k.a. ‘Jerryworld’ where the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys play their home games) in Arlington, Texas near Dallas.

The SEC Championship Game is the crown jewel and mother of all college football conference championship games and a Super Bowl type of event that Atlanta gets to host annually (currently at Mercedes-Benz Stadium) and has hosted annually every year since 1994.

Before Atlanta announced the construction of Mercedes-Benz Stadium in 2012, there were reports that Dallas Cowboys owner (and University of Arkansas alum Jerry Jones) was courting SEC leadership with weekly lunches at the league office in Birmingham with the intent of trying to convince conference leaders to move the SEC Championship Game to his then newly-constructed AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas near Dallas.

The addition of UT-Austin and OU to the SEC has given the conference a more strongly defined westward tilt and appears to have rekindled and strengthened calls (particularly from the SEC’s newly enhanced western geographical footprint) for the SEC Championship Game to either be permanently moved from Atlanta to Dallas, or rotated out of Atlanta to Dallas and other major cities in the expanded SEC geographical footprint (Dallas, Houston, New Orleans, etc.).

The SEC Championship Game is scheduled to be played annually at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta through 2026.

With OU and Texas joining, the balance of power in the SEC should move West. The largest viewership will probably be in Texas, so we should push to move the SEC Championship to Jerry World. There's no doubt that Arkansas, Missouri, and LSU would be in favor of this. The Mississippi schools might be in favor too, even though it's not really closer (but would increase their brand in the state). If they're going to force Texas and OU into the SEC, we should start demanding more conference events take place in the state of Texas.

Move the SEC Championship Game to Dallas (Texas A&M/TexAgs)

How long before Texas wants to move Conference tournaments ... To Dallas? (The Big Spur/247 Sports)

SEC Championship - Does the SEC keep the championship game in Atlanta or try to make it more central or move it to Dallas some years. Jerry’s World is loosing a big time conference championship now (CSNBBS)

[Born 2 Roll]

John Clay, sports reporter for the Lexington Herald-Leader, which covers SEC-member University of Kentucky football and basketball games, is one of the seemingly growing number of voices that is suggesting that the SEC Championship Game be rotated between Atlanta and Dallas to take advantage of the very large viewership base in Texas.

▪ Rotate the SEC championship game between Atlanta and Dallas. With Texas and Oklahoma joining the league, the conference needs to explore the possibility of using AT&T Stadium as a site for its title tilt.

With the SEC expanding to 16 teams, here’s what realignment should look like (Lexington Herald-Leader)

[Born 2 Roll]

Will Atlanta be able to maintain its status as the host of the SEC Championship Game each year, or will Atlanta lose the game to other major cities (namely Dallas) in the expanded SEC geographical footprint every other year or most years?

Or, might Dallas even be able to make a successful play to become the permanent host of the SEC Championship Game now that the SEC will have at least 6 member schools that are located closer to Dallas than Atlanta?

The 6 SEC schools that will be located closer to Dallas than Atlanta are:

> University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX (194 miles to Dallas, 928 miles to Atlanta)

> Texas A&M University, College Station, TX (176 miles to Dallas, 825 miles to Atlanta)

> University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK (190 miles to Dallas, 860 miles to Atlanta)

> University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR (332 miles to Dallas, 705 miles to Atlanta)

> Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA (427 miles to Dallas, 525 miles to Atlanta)

> University of Missouri, Columbia, MO (580 miles to Dallas, 682 miles to Atlanta)

[First24]

My bet would be on a rotation after 2026. Atlanta and Dallas will be heavy in the mix. New Orleans and Houston will want in the action also.

I cannot imagine the championship site will change year to year. Maybe every 2-4 years.

[arjay57]

Thanks for these enlightening posts, B2R.

I'd sure hate to see the ATL lose the SEC championship. As you say, it is the crown jewel of college football championships.

[Born 2 Roll]

I know that the University of Texas, with its well documented history of exceedingly selfish prima-donna/diva behavior that has now lead to the destruction of two conferences in the erstwhile Southwest Conference and the present-day Big-12, is very likely to (and very likely most assuredly will) take the lead in rallying the SEC’s expanded western flank to lobbying the league to pull the SEC Championship Game out of Atlanta at least most years.

Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas A&M and LSU are very likely to join Texas in lobbying league officials to pull the SEC Championship Game out of Atlanta at least most years.

[aries4118]

Texas (and Oklahoma and Missouri) ain’t even in the Southeast!


GTFO.

[aries4118]

What the SEC should be:
1. Georgia
2. Florida
3. Alabama
4. Auburn
5. South Carolina
6. Tennessee
7. Vanderbilt
8. LSU
9. Arkansas
10. Kentucky
11. NC State
12. Virginia Tech
13. Mississippi
14. Mississippi State


What the ACC should be:
1. Georgia Tech
2. Florida State
3. Miami
4. Clemson
5. North Carolina
6. Wake Forest
7. Duke
8. Virginia
9. Maryland
10. Syracuse
11. Boston College
12. *Penn State or Rutgers or UConn



Alternative ACC from above:
1. Georgia Tech
2. Florida State
3. Miami
4. Clemson
5. North Carolina
6. Wake Forest
7. Duke
8. Virginia
9. Maryland
10. Syracuse
11. Boston College
12. Penn State
13. Rutgers
14. UConn

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by aries4118

Texas (and Oklahoma and Missouri) ain’t even in the Southeast!


GTFO.

States and schools like Texas and Oklahoma and Missouri (and Texas A&M) may not be in the Southeast, but the Southeast is where the money and power and prestige is, particularly in the most popular sport of big-time college football.

So states and schools like Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Texas A&M feel (and know) that it is in their best interests to align themselves with Southeastern states and schools.

Though it should be mentioned that the universities of Texas and Oklahoma talked to the Pac-12 and Big Ten (and maybe even the ACC?) about joining those conferences before talking to the SEC.

Texas and Oklahoma joining the SEC appears to be motivated purely by those universities’ pursuit of even larger (massive) sums of television money from telecasts of SEC football games on ESPN.

After their (decidedly self-centered) efforts to seek membership in the Pac-12 and the Big Ten fell through it looks like Texas and Oklahoma decided just to go for the money, because both Texas and Oklahoma know that (with the exception of less competitive football teams like Kentucky and Vanderbilt) the level of competition is going to be much more challenging in the SEC than in conferences like the Big-12, the Pac-12, the Big Ten and the ACC.

[MichiganderTexan]

Most of the teams that matter in the SEC are closer to Atlanta than they are to Dallas. Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Auburn, Tennessee are all traditional powerhouse schools in the conference. Even the Mississippi schools are closer to Atlanta not to metion SC, Vanderbilt and Kentucky. Only LSU, Texas Texas A&M and Oklahoma and Arkansas and Missouri are closer to Texas with only Oklahoma, the Texas schools and Arkansas being significantly closer to Dallas. It makes absolutely no sense to move the game to Dallas or another Texas city permanently. The most they can do is agree to rotate it every once in a while. Once again Texas arrogance has it feeling more important than it is. Texas and Oklahoma really do not belong in the SEC but money has the final say in all of this. Clemson or Florida State fit better with the culture of the SEC than Oklahoma or Texas does.