Mark Stoops probably would not mind if the expanded SEC did not help Tennessee. (Jeff Houchin Photo)
As soon as news broke that Texas and Oklahoma might want to join the Southeastern Conference, that has been the major topic of conversation on most sports talk radio shows even during the Olympics. Once it became official, the hype about the SEC only escalated about how the SEC now clearly was the gold standard in college football and probably a lot more sports.
However, one Kentucky fan posed an interesting scenario to me that I really had not thought about.
“I haven’t heard any talking head say anything about this and maybe it’s because it’s stupid — that’s why I haven’t called in the (WLAP Sunday Morning Sports) show and asked y’all online,” the fan said.
Yet her point does make sense now that she has made me think about it. See if you might agree, too.
“I think the team who may suffer in the SEC, given the two new teams, is Tennessee,” the fan said. “They are probably the only team on the way down right now.
“If they can’t get right-side-up before Texas and Oklahoma get in the mix, they will be in the bottom 25 percent of the league and, for kids who want to play in the SEC —and, now, who wouldn’t? — their recruiting just got harder.
“We, at least, can still pull from Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania where Momma can watch Junior play. Has anyone else predicted Tennessee’s demise?”
If they have, I have not heard it put exactly that way but it does make sense. Kentucky football clearly feels it has passed Tennessee. Missouri may feel the same. And you know Georgia and Florida in the East believe that along with most of the teams in the current SEC West.
So if Kentucky and others can keep the Vols down the next couple of years, could Tennessee be in for a long, long downtime?
2 Responses
Maybe so, but UT has beaten UK’s brains out in football until I am punch drunk, the exception being last year, and the 2012 UK win. UK and our fans need to worry about what UK will face in a new SEC, and let UT worry about their problems in this new alignment. As bad as I dislike UT, I must say they have been, and will probably remain, a force on the gridiron when the dust settles. UK needs a whole lot more wins against them and against SEC foes in general, in football, before I reach any conclusions about how bad things are at "rocky top."
I believe that Tennessee has been on a 20 year long slide, and I don’t see them reversing the direction of that program in the near term.
I believe UK has been on a steady climb over the same 20 years, with some slippage during the Joker years, and I believe UK’s program has passed Tennessee’s in terms of its average condition and the direction it is moving.
For these reasons, I agree with the analysis that the expansion of the SEC hurts Tennessee more than it will hurt most SEC programs. I think it will also hit Missouri harder than most, and probably Arkansas.
I think UK will find the rowing more difficult, but I also believe Stoops will continue to lift the UK football program and will succeed in his long term objective of SEC Championship competitiveness.