I wonder how Mike Anderson feels about Mizzou to SEC?

[DAWG61]

If Mizzou becomes the 14th member and is in the SEC West with Arkansas I bet Mike doesn't want to play them every year. How much stronger does the SEC West become in basketball too with Auburn to the East and aTm and Mizzou added to the West. With Tennessee firing Pearl and the East adding Auburn now make the West stronger top to bottom in basketball than the East? Alabama, Arkansas, LSU, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Missouri seems better to me in basketball than Kentucky, Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, Vanderbilt, South Carolina, Auburn.

 

[tupelotim]

The SEC will be one 12-team basketball league beginning in the 2011-12 season with the top four teams getting first-round byes in the conference tournament.

The conference’s athletic directors approved a recommendation from SEC coaches Wednesday at the annual spring meetings in Destin, Fla., to do away with the divisional alignments in basketball beginning with the 2011-12 season and have one 12-team format.

 

[esplanade91]

It won't matter in basketball because conveniently the divisions are done away with, but I'll be interested in how aTm and Mizzou integrate in SEC baseball. Should make it easier for SEC schools to pick-pocket Texas and Missouri high schools for talent.

 

[DAWG61]

The SEC will be one 12-team basketball league beginning in the 2011-12 season with the top four teams getting first-round byes in the conference tournament.

The conference’s athletic directors approved a recommendation from SEC coaches Wednesday at the annual spring meetings in Destin, Fla., to do away with the divisional alignments in basketball beginning with the 2011-12 season and have one 12-team format.

but I'm excited for the additions of 2 top 50 basketball teams.

 

[Todd4State]

Texas is the college baseball team in that state. But A&M holds their own. As long as they have a competent coach, they will be fine in the SEC as far as baseball is concerned. Intersting fact- Nolan Ryan was committed to Texas A&M, but signed with the Mets out of high school. Chuck Knoblauch also went there. They are comparable to MSU in baseball- we may even have a better tradition, actually. They always seem to have someone like Shelby Miller committed to them that signs a pro contract.

Mizzou is a lot more inconsistent. They're a good program in general- they've had some good players such as Aaron Crow- All-Star this past year with the Royals, Dave Silvestri and Phil Bradley also played there in the past. They are in a good baseball recruiting area in between St. Louis and Kansas City and within a reasonable distance of Chicago. Lots of good baseball players in that area- we are getting one in William DuPont from St. Louis in fact. Their problem is they do not have the support that the other teams in the SEC have for baseball- they would much rather go drive to a Cardinals or Royals game, and that is something that is very difficult for them to compete with. They also do not have the facilities that the other teams in the SEC have. Being in the SEC will help their program in the long run though. It's all going to depend on how much they want to invest into it. They will focus on basketball and football before baseball though. Also, weather is going to be an issue for them in Feb. I would expect them to be decent some years and bad other years in the SEC- the schedule is going to be really tough for them to handle unless they have another guy like Crow waiting in the wings.

 

[esplanade91]

I know aTm is a consistent regional team, and that they just got a new stadium. But teams like Mississippi State, Kentucky, and Tennessee should see a lot of benefit in recruiting from those states with them coming to the SEC. Much more exposure, and I'm sure a St. Louis baller would rather play in the state of Tennessee than Mizzou.

 

[Dawgzilla]

I think if the SEC ever goes to 16, then basketball divisions will be a certainty. At 14, the schedule will still be very unbalanced (we're not going to play 26 conference games), so I think the idea of divisions might be revisited.