The foundation of SEC expansion was actually laid several years earlier, in 1984, when the U.S. Supreme Court ended the NCAA’s monopoly over college football television broadcasts. A group called the College Football Association (CFA), which included the SEC schools, sued the NCAA to in effect “deregulate” television rights. The CFA’s legal victory enabled the group to negotiate a single-network contract with ABC in the late 1980s.

But in February 1990, Notre Dame withdrew from the CFA and signed its own exclusive contract with NBC. Shortly thereafter, the Federal Trade Commission challenged the CFA’s contract as a violation of federal antitrust law — a dramatic twist, given the CFA previously won its freedom by arguing the NCAA had violated antitrust law. The FTC lawsuit never went anywhere, but by the spring of 1990, it was becoming clear to all the major players in college football that the days of organizing TV rights along national lines was over, and going forward it would be up to the conferences to maximize their television exposure and dollars.

At the same time, a number of eastern schools were still independents in football. In addition to Notre Dame and Penn State, there was Boston College, Cincinnati, Florida State, Louisville, Memphis, Miami, Pittsburgh, South Carolina, Rutgers, Syracuse, Virginia Tech and West Virginia. Most of those schools belonged to either the Big East or Metro conferences in other sports, and both leagues were eyeing an expansion into football. College football writer Keith Dunnavant said that Mike Tranghese, who became Big East Commissioner in the summer of 1990, got the job after “bluntly” warning league presidents that football was no longer an option, but a necessity. “If they weren’t prepared to get Miami,” Tranghese said, “and build a base for other football schools, we were going to be out of business. It was that simple.”

For its part, the SEC wasn’t going to sit idly on the sidelines. On May 31, 1990, the SEC presidents voted to authorize expansion, identifying six schools as potential members: Texas, Texas A&M, Florida State, Miami, South Carolina and Arkansas. Ole Miss President Gerald Turner headed the conference’s expansion committee. He told the Washington Post that the CFA’s inevitable decline meant the SEC would negotiate its own television contracts in the future and that the “first step in that direction is minimizing the force of competing conferences in our geographic area.” In other words, the SEC wanted to keep the Atlantic Coast Conference and a potential Big East football conference out of the State of Florida.

But SEC Commissioner Roy Kramer also wanted to go on the offensive. Keith Dunnavant noted, “The SEC’s area of dominant influence fell short of the footprint desired by many consumer-oriented companies,” which Kramer sought as sponsors. To make the “footprint” more sponsor-friendly, Kramer wanted to move into South Carolina, Arkansas and especially Texas. By targeting Texas, Texas A&M and Arkansas, Kramer had effectively declared war on the Southwest Conference, where all three schools were members. It was one thing to recruit independent schools; the SEC was contemplating an unprecedented raid on a fellow conference.

Yet the time was ripe to strike the SWC, which then consisted of seven Texas schools and Arkansas. The SWC’s small footprint meant it wasn’t a terribly lucrative conference. Arkansas Athletic Director Frank Broyles said his school would make $1 million more a year by switching to the SEC. And the SWC was rocked by a series of scandals that enveloped most of its Texas members, notably Southern Methodist University, which the NCAA shut down in 1987. Arkansas was also eager to swap the low-level competition in the SWC — e.g., Rice and Baylor — for stronger SEC foes like Georgia and Tennessee. When the SEC formally approached Arkansas, there was no hesitation: On August 1, 1990, the school’s trustees unanimously voted to join the SEC, effectively the following July.

SEC expansion, however, meant adding at least one more school. The SEC planned to take advantage of a little-known NCAA rule that allowed a conference with 12 members to organize as two divisions and play a separate conference championship game. The rule was originally adopted for the benefit of a Division II conference, and no Division I-A conference had ever invoked it. Kramer and the SEC presidents quickly realized that a championship game would make a future television package far more attractive to the networks.

The magic 12th school would not come from the State of Texas. Although Texas and Texas A&M were on the SEC’s original expansion wish list, politics made either a non-starter. With Arkansas’ likely departure, the SWC would collapse without its two biggest Texas schools. That was unpalatable to Texas legislators — many of whom were alumni of the other five SWC members — and Texas and A&M were publicly threatened with retaliation if they left. Eventually, the SWC did dissolve, with most of the Texas schools merging with the Big Eight into the Big 12.

That left Florida State, Miami and South Carolina vying for the second invitation. Florida State was clearly the SEC’s first choice. The major roadblock was scheduling. On August 3, Bobby Bowden admitted to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “I like to win games, and I can’t think of a tougher place to do that than the SEC.” Under the proposed division alignment, Florida State would face Florida, Auburn and Alabama every year, which raised objections from FSU Athletic Director Bob Goin. “Most conferences have got two really strong programs,” Bowden continued, “but top to bottom there isn’t one close to the SEC.” Another report, by Mark Maske of the Washington Post, suggested Florida State refused to be in the same conference as Florida because the Gators “once fostered an SEC blackballing of the Seminoles.” In 2001, a Florida Times-Union retrospective quoted a FSU booster as saying, “There was quite a bit of feeling that we didn’t want to be entrapped; a feeling that among some fans that if we go into [the SEC]…we’d be kind of a stepchild.”

Things came to a head in September 1990. The ACC had dithered for months on the issue of expansion. On July 26 ACC Commissioner Gene Corrigan said there was “no rush” to expand, yet behind-the-scenes, he was fervently working to lure Florida State away from the SEC. On September 2, Corrigan made his presentation to FSU officials in Tallahassee. Nine days later, the SEC’s Kramer made his final push. The next day, September 12, things nearly blew up in Corrigan’s face when only three of the ACC’s eight athletic directors voted to expand at all. Corrigan needed at least six votes, and while he knew two members (Duke and Maryland) would vote no, three of the North Carolina schools had surprisingly abstained.

While Corrigan lobbied the three abstainers to agree to a second vote later that evening, Kramer quickly arranged a own conference call of SEC members to vote against inviting Florida State. Whether this was a face-saving move or an attempt to spite FSU (in the event the revote went badly) is unclear. But the SEC decided to move on. Corrigan got his revote and won, and on September 13, FSU officially joined the ACC.

Four days after spurning Florida State, Kramer met with Miami, one of the two remaining expansion candidates. South Carolina’s trustees had preemptively voted to accept an SEC invitation should one come. Miami was decidedly less enthused. Unlike the mostly public universities in the SEC, Miami was a private school that drew its student body in large numbers from the same geographic area as the Big East. Miami officials were also more interested in using Big East membership to improve its fledgling basketball program.

South Carolina was the last school standing. Kramer met with officials in Columbia on September 20, and on September 25, the Gamecocks received their official invitation. The SEC got its 12th member and a championship game — and in 1995, its own television contract with CBS — while South Carolina, which as an independent faced a $300,000 deficit the previous year, received a measure of financial security. When Miami officially joined the Big East on October 9, the Great Realignment of 1990 finally came to an end.

Here are my five reasons why I hate the Big East:

1. Figuring Out Who Plays In The Big East Is Annoying

The Big East has 16 teams. The Big East has 8 teams that play football. Huh? Yes, that is stupid. TCU will make it 17 and 9 when they join the Big East.  Meanwhile one of the 16/17 teams is Notre Dame who does play football, just not in the Big East. This is confusing.

2. The Name Big East Makes No Sense With TCU Addition

I understand the reasons for adding TCU into the conference. The Big East needed football legitimacy. But, this is just silly. TCU is in the middle of the country. TCU gets an automatic path to the BCS potentially, and the Big East possibly saves its auto-qualifier status in the BCS. Perhaps, the Big East should consider Montana as well.

3. Sketchy Coaches

I don’t trust coaches that stay at Rutgers despite getting job offers for the best college football programs in the country. Greg Schiano was one of the hottest names in coaching for a while. He decided to stay at Rutgers, despite Rutgers being a terrible place. Rutgers was 1-6 in the Big East last year and finished dead last in the conference. That’s what you call a major error in judgment.

Moreover, the West Virginia coaching personnel is downright hilarious.  It’s a wonderful example of how the coach-in-waiting thing works extremely well. First the current head coach attempts to hire a reporter to dig up dirt on the coach in waiting. Then the coach-in-waiting gets booted out of a casino in the middle of the night right before getting named to the head coach position a year early. Awesome.

4. The Year 2007

If you’re a college football fan, you remember the 2007 regular season where it seemed there was a stupid Big East team ranked near the top of the polls each week. USF hit the #2 ranking in the country then lost three games. The country was briefly “gripped” by exciting Thursday night games which made the Big East participants appear to be legitimate teams.

5. Going To A BCS Bowl After 2010 Season Almost Bankrupted UConn

As we talked about last December, UConn lost a ton of money by getting into the BCS. The schools are required to purchase tickets for these games, and the tiny UConn football fan base wasn’t very interested in flying across the country to Arizona to play Oklahoma. It was a great example of how there should be some minimum requirements for an AQ Conference champion to meet in order to get into the BCS.

ACC – Florida State

FSU returns a ton of talent on both offense and defense. If the Seminoles do not win the ACC this year, it will be a major letdown for their team, staff and fan base. Everyone says FSU is “back”, and we’ll find out this year.

Big East – West Virginia

Is the Big East even relevant? LSU does travel to WVU this year, so we will know what kind of football team the Mountaineers have and how they stack up against the SEC in week four.

Big Ten – Nebraska / Wisconsin

The Big Ten did not choose a preseason predicted winner at the Big Ten Media Days; however, the general consensus heading into the season is that Nebraska will win the Legends division and Wisconsin will win the Leaders division. Finally this league has a championship game.

Big 12 – Oklahoma

The consensus is that Oklahoma will be the “other” team that will play the SEC in New Orleans for the National Championship. The Sooners return their star quarterback Landry Jones and wide receiver Ryan Broyles. It will be a high-powered offense, but the Sooners usually choke in big games.

Pac-12 – Oregon

Everyone will find out week one what this Oregon team is all about because they will get a taste of the LSU Tigers. Oregon should end up winning the Pac-12, but could an early loss to LSU hurt their BCS standings?

Other

Obviously, we’ll find Boise State and TCU making some noise from the Mountain West before it’s all said and done.

UCF or SMU will win C-USA. Remember the Knights defeated the Georgia Bulldogs in last year’s Liberty Bowl…crazy.

I love SEC football. I record the games each week and watch them all, devouring every play call, every down. Because of my passion for all SEC football, I feel that I can discuss each team objectively, despite being a die-hard Kentucky fan that will bleed blue until the day I die. However, when it comes to schools that reside elsewhere; I have little use for them. Occasionally, I will watch the Red River Shootout, or a few of the other intense rivalries, but for the most part it’s all SEC, all the time. The most unwatchable of the BCS conferences is by far the Big (L)East, which manages to finish behind non-BCS schools in end-of-season conference rankings year-after-year. In the SEC, college football is a religion. In the Big Least, it’s a 4^th option on Thursday nights.

However, there is one Big Least game I have to watch each year and it’s the annual in-state rivalry game between my beloved Kentucky Wildcats and the Louisville Cardinals (also known as the “Harvard of South Floyd Street” to current students and alumni). Before I discuss the different units on each team, let me state that the Cardinals have, without a doubt, the most ignorant fan base in all of college athletics. Brad Wilkerson discussed this with some detail earlier this summer, but it cannot be emphasized enough. I’ve been a visiting fan in almost every city in the SEC, spent time in places like the Old College Inn in Knoxville and always have been able strike up an intelligent football conversation with groups of rival fans. This is an impossible feat within the Louisville city limits. Intelligent conversation is an oxymoron when you hit the local sports bars and the only discussions which last longer than 15 seconds are about the 2007 Orange Bowl. UL fans ignore the current state of the “program” use their appearance and victory in the lowest-rated BCS Bowl in history as a crutch for any football-related discussion. It’s gotten to the point where every time I see an orange at the grocery, I get an instant migraine. For all you Georgia fans thinking about making the road trip for UGA vs. the Cards in 2012, prepare yourself for the absurdly irrational fans and a poorly designed stadium that has enough corporate logos to make you think you’re at Nascar race. After the game, you’ll be calling every Florida fan you know to say “Hey, you all aren’t as bad as I thought.” Personally, I’d advise you wait until the first Saturday in May and come up for the Derby….

Drew hit the five must know facts before the game earlier this week, but I am going to dig a little deeper and compare the different units for each team and discuss some key players and positions.

Louisville Offense: Coach Strong recently named Adam Froman as his guy to start the season at quarterback. His statistics from 2009 aren’t horrendous, but Froman was 2-5 as a starter last season and threw just as many interceptions as he did touchdowns (five) while completing 60 % of his passes (91/150). The Louisville front line has some good experience, with four seniors starting and heralded sophomore Mario Benavides at center. The OLine has 51 starts between them but allowed three sacks per game last year and just a 3.7 yards-per-rush average. UL is thin at the WR spot, having lost two of the top five receivers from 2009 (Scott Long and Trent Guy), but return a couple experienced ball catchers in WR Doug Beaumont and TE Cameron Graham. In 2009, Louisville had a running back by committee philosophy, with Victor Anderson, Bilal Powell and Darius Ashley all putting up similar stats. Since Ashley was moved to defensive back, it will be up to the Anderson and Powell to shoulder most of the load. Both guys are on the Doak Walker watch list for the top NCAA running back and have lofty expectations this season. Powell and Anderson are guys that have decent speed and could make trouble for the Cats if they find holes in the defensive line. Louisville’s offense is light-years away from anything resembling an SEC team, but it should field a decent squad that keeps them in a few games against other lowly Big Least teams, but not against the Cats on Saturday.

Kentucky Offense: Mike Hartline recently got the starting nod at quarterback after a battle with Morgan Newton and Ryan Mossakowski throughout spring and fall camps. Hartline is a senior with the most experience, but I wouldn’t be shocked to see Newton on the field at times in the “Wildcat” formation. When you think of the Kentucky offense, it begins with WR Randall Cobb and RB Derrick Locke. Last season, the pair combined for 731 receiving yards, 1548 rushing yards and 22 touchdowns, not counting special teams. These two are the engine that powers the UK offense and a key to the season is both remaining healthy. Cobb and Locke will give the Louisville defense fits all day as they both have great speed with an array open-field moves to avoid tacklers. Chris Matthews will line up opposite of Cobb and is expected to be a big threat this season.  The offensive line lost five players with a combined 123 starts, but there is enough talent waiting to step in where the Cat’s won’t experience too much of a drop off in production.  The UK offense should eviscerate the Louisville D and Hartline will have the opportunity to perfect his hand off as the UK ground game dominates the play calling.

Louisville Defense: Louisville’s defense was atrocious in 2009 and it doesn’t look to make any great leaps this season under Charlie Strong. He may have coached a top-five defense in Gainesville, but the Ferrarri is still parked in Urban’s garage. Strong inherited the keys to Kragthorpe’s 1998 Kia in Louisville, and it has transmission problems. Opponents made 43 trips to the red zone against Louisville last year and scored 37 times (86%). Louisville lost their top four tacklers but bring back six starters from the 2009 squad that allowed their opponents 371 ypg and 26.2 ppg, including defensive “star” senior Johnny Patrick, fresh off his arrest this summer for assault. With inexperience at virtually every position, it’s difficult to imagine how the Cards manage to contain Kentucky’s dynamic duo of Cobb and Locke. Look for Kentucky to run the ball, then run the ball, then run the ball some more.

Kentucky Defense: Kentucky has developed some depth on the defensive line, but will rely heavily on seniors Ricky Lumpkin and DeQuin Evans as they attempt to stop the rush, where UK gave up 183 ypg in 2009. And, of course, DE Taylor Wyndham, famous for concussing Tebow, returns and hopes to build on a successful freshman campaign. UK lost a great deal of talent at linebacker with the departure of Micah Johnson and Sam Maxwell, but Danny Trevathan brings experience with six starts at WLB in 2009. Ronnie Sneed and Qua Huzzie are still battling it out for the MLB starting spot. The secondary has some experience with Randall Burton and Winston Guy, but are young unit. It will take a lot of work to make up for the departure of Trevard Lindley, who helped make the UK passing defense 17th in the nation last year at 177 ypg. A number of guys who have seen playing time over the past couple seasons, along with a few newcomers, will be first-time starters this year and how they perform on the big stage will be the key to Kentucky’s season. Having said that, performing against the equivalent of a second-rate high school team from the Big Least is not the same as battling with SEC powerhouses each week, and the Cats should manhandle the Cards on Saturday. I predict Mychal Baily has a break out game and becomes a force for the rest of the season at free safety.

Louisville Special Teams: UL lost Special Teams Mr. Everything Trent Guy and hopes Anderson and Beaumont can pick up his slack with punt and kick returns. K Chris Philipot has a strong leg, which will come in handy, as I predict UL will be attempting a lot of field goals this season.

Kentucky Special Teams: UK workhorses Cobb and Locke anchor the return teams, both having a special teams touchdown last season. Punter Ryan Tydlacka returns as the starter and everyone had high hopes for kicker Joe Mansour, but he did not make the PAT\FG depth chart.

Final Thought: Kentucky has a clear advantage over Louisville at virtually every offensive and defensive position, with the x-factor will being first-time head coach Charlie Strong’s playbook. Adrenaline will be pumping on both sides of the ball come Saturday, but the Cats take down the Filthy Cards in Papa John’s Stadium as Kentucky racks up 200+ yards on the ground as the Legend of Cobb continues to grow. Final Score: 34-10

There is much debate about which is the best recruiting agency in America for rating high school football players individually as well as ranking teams after the recruiting season has ended in February. There is no debate, however, that on the week of the opening kickoff of the 2010 season, SEC football programs are snatching up the best players in the country for the 2011 recruiting cycle. The SEC is getting the best players earlier than other major conferences.

Rivals100 – The SEC is leading the Rivals100 commitments with 17. The rest are as follows: Big Twelve has 14, ACC has 9, Big Ten has 4, PAC-10 has 8, and the Big East has 1.

Scout100 – The SEC is tied for the lead in Scout100 with 15 commitments. The rest are as follows: Big Twelve has 15, ACC has 8, Big Ten has 8, PAC-10 has 6 and Big East has 1.

ESPNU150 – The SEC is leading the ESPNU150 commitments with 28. The rest are as follows:
ACC has 18, Big Twelve has 17, PAC-10 has 10, Big Ten has 7, and Big East has 0.

As you can see by the numbers above, the rankings are debatable depending on which site you pledge your allegiance to, but there is no debate about the SEC snatching up the best players in the country earlier than other major conferences. The debate will continue about which is the best recruiting agency and which one got it right last year or this year, but one thing is true – the SEC recruits the best players in the country and the best players are committing earlier to the best conference.

Of the 150 members that make up the early ESPNU150, the SEC was leading in the number of commitments that were made for the 2011 recruiting class. The SEC currently has 28 commitments and the next closest one is the ACC with 18 commitments. The Big 12 has 17 commitments, the Pac-10 has 10 commitments and the Big Ten has 7 commitments.

What is interesting is that the SEC and ACC have very similar territories and all are located primarily in the southeast portion of the United States. You can tell the best players in the country want to play for the best conference in the country, which is obviously the SEC.

Texas and Oklahoma out of the Big 12 South primarily make up the 17 commitments between the two for the Big 12.

Does this surprise you? Or is it to be expected?