MrVolunteer

The bluebloods of the "new" SEC are most of the 8 listed, but not all. We're talking only football, as that is the major revenue producing sports. As Steve Spurrier said a couple of years ago on the radio, half of the SEC wakes up every morning thinking they should win the league in football, & half know they will never win it or rarely get the chance to even play for it in the SEC Championship Game. The schools that are the 8 bluebloods of the SEC will be, in alphabetical order, Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, LSU, Oklahoma, Tennessee, & Texas. The ones that will virtually never have a chance to play in the SEC Championship in this expanded 16-team league are, again in alphabetical order, Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Missouri, South Carolina, & Vanderbilt. Where does that leave Texas A&M? They have a great deal of money, but no tradition in winning National Championships in football like all of the other bluebloods. However, if we're limiting the blueblood group to just 8, half of the 16, then there's a chance A&M could supplant Georgia, because remember that Georgia has only won two National Championships in football in their entire history, & one was with Herschel, the Heisman winner. Also remember that Florida could easily slip back to being a non-blueblood, because before Spurrier came & the SEC broke into East & West Divisions in 1992, which was 60 years after the SEC was formed in 1933, it had never won an SEC Championship in football or men's basketball. They may be reverting to what they were historically, just an also-ran. The teams that have proven historically they can & have consistently won National Championships in football, both in the past, such as the Neyland years at Tennessee & the Bryant years at Alabama, & the Wilkinson years at Oklahoma, & the modern years, too, are even far fewer than 8. There are really only Alabama, Oklahoma, & Tennessee. Outside of A&M, those are still the only 3 schools that consistently have the money to continue to compete & be the true bluebloods in the SEC after it expands to 16 or even after it expands more, unless that expansion means taking on Notre Dame, Michigan, & Ohio State, which may very well happen, & will add all 3 of those as bluebloods, too. In addition, those 3 are the only ones that have won 6 or more officially recognized National Championships in football. Check the records of all 16 teams if you don't believe me. It isn't arguable at all. Only those 3, Alabama, Oklahoma, & Tennessee are the only 3 of the 16 that have won 6 or more officially recognized National Championships in football. That speaks for itself.