A friend sent me this SI article, which I have not seen discussed here. I found it interesting in that SI ranked each school in the Power 5 based on desirability for conference affiliation.
To complete their analysis, they ranked all 69 Power 5 schools based on five criteria:
1. Football Ranking
2. Academic Ranking
3. All Sports Ranking
4. Football Attendance
5. Broadcast Viewership
Using those criteria, the 16 SEC schools ranked as follows:
1. Texas 4th overall
2. Georgia 5th overall
3. Florida 6th overall
4. Oklahoma 8th overall
5. Alabama 10th overall
6. Texas A&M 12th overall
7. Auburn 13th overall
8. LSU 14th overall
9. Tennessee 24th overall
10. Ole Miss 28th overall
11. Arkansas 34th overall
12. Kentucky 39th overall
13. South Carolina 42nd overall
14. MS State 43rd overall
15. Mizzou 53rd overall
16. Vandy 63rd overall
I actually think their end results are a little better from an Ole Miss perspective than some here might have expected, as we beat out Arkansas, Kentucky and South Carolina.
Interestingly, they also raise the prospect of the SEC and Big 10 both adding and cutting members. Personally, I am not a fan of going beyond 16 schools, as we would never play too many conference opponents. I also like our current footprint better than that of the Big 10, as all our schools are in contiguous states. But I must admit, I can see the appeal in cutting weaker members to upgrade the conference’s value overall.
Obviously, the first cut in such case would be Vandy, which despite coming in 4th in academics, trailing only Stanford, Northwestern and Duke, gets killed in all four other criteria. Even their baseball program could not elevate their all-sports ranking above 59th, while they were bottom 5 in football ranking, football attendance and broadcast viewership. Mizzou, which scores in the bottom half in every criteria, would be the clear second cut. So based on this analysis, TV markets in themselves are not really a driver.
State actually edges us out in football ranking, which is based on a 5-year average and thus picked up the Luke years, but we beat them badly in overall sports rankings and then academics. I would expect the difference between the two schools will widen as the Luke years roll off.
We beat South Carolina in football rankings, overall sports rankings and broadcast viewership, while we bested Kentucky because of a wide difference in broadcast viewership. Finally, we beat Arkansas because of a higher ranking for football and academics, even though Arkansas beat us in all-sports and attendance.
If you were going to do a 16-team SEC with the top 16 logical candidates, we would still slide in, although much closer to the bottom. The SEC would probably first pick up Clemson at #16, Florida State at #19, and UNC at #22 and drop Vandy, Mizzou and MS State. After that, it gets trickier. Oklahoma State and Miami come in at a tie for 25th, but I am not sure there would be that much appetite for either, especially Miami as the article points out. Then NC State and Virginia come in at #30 and #32, respectively, behind Ole Miss and ahead of Arkansas.
I don’t personally see any teams getting cut, but purely from a financial and competitive standpoint, dropping Vandy, Mizzou and State for Clemson, Florida State and UNC makes sense. Then, since Clemson covers South Carolina, you could drop USC and add Virginia or one of OSU, Miami, or NC State.
At any rate, I just found their analysis both interesting and a little reassuring as an Ole Miss fan. For those interested, here’s the article:
www.si.com
To complete their analysis, they ranked all 69 Power 5 schools based on five criteria:
1. Football Ranking
2. Academic Ranking
3. All Sports Ranking
4. Football Attendance
5. Broadcast Viewership
Using those criteria, the 16 SEC schools ranked as follows:
1. Texas 4th overall
2. Georgia 5th overall
3. Florida 6th overall
4. Oklahoma 8th overall
5. Alabama 10th overall
6. Texas A&M 12th overall
7. Auburn 13th overall
8. LSU 14th overall
9. Tennessee 24th overall
10. Ole Miss 28th overall
11. Arkansas 34th overall
12. Kentucky 39th overall
13. South Carolina 42nd overall
14. MS State 43rd overall
15. Mizzou 53rd overall
16. Vandy 63rd overall
I actually think their end results are a little better from an Ole Miss perspective than some here might have expected, as we beat out Arkansas, Kentucky and South Carolina.
Interestingly, they also raise the prospect of the SEC and Big 10 both adding and cutting members. Personally, I am not a fan of going beyond 16 schools, as we would never play too many conference opponents. I also like our current footprint better than that of the Big 10, as all our schools are in contiguous states. But I must admit, I can see the appeal in cutting weaker members to upgrade the conference’s value overall.
Obviously, the first cut in such case would be Vandy, which despite coming in 4th in academics, trailing only Stanford, Northwestern and Duke, gets killed in all four other criteria. Even their baseball program could not elevate their all-sports ranking above 59th, while they were bottom 5 in football ranking, football attendance and broadcast viewership. Mizzou, which scores in the bottom half in every criteria, would be the clear second cut. So based on this analysis, TV markets in themselves are not really a driver.
State actually edges us out in football ranking, which is based on a 5-year average and thus picked up the Luke years, but we beat them badly in overall sports rankings and then academics. I would expect the difference between the two schools will widen as the Luke years roll off.
We beat South Carolina in football rankings, overall sports rankings and broadcast viewership, while we bested Kentucky because of a wide difference in broadcast viewership. Finally, we beat Arkansas because of a higher ranking for football and academics, even though Arkansas beat us in all-sports and attendance.
If you were going to do a 16-team SEC with the top 16 logical candidates, we would still slide in, although much closer to the bottom. The SEC would probably first pick up Clemson at #16, Florida State at #19, and UNC at #22 and drop Vandy, Mizzou and MS State. After that, it gets trickier. Oklahoma State and Miami come in at a tie for 25th, but I am not sure there would be that much appetite for either, especially Miami as the article points out. Then NC State and Virginia come in at #30 and #32, respectively, behind Ole Miss and ahead of Arkansas.
I don’t personally see any teams getting cut, but purely from a financial and competitive standpoint, dropping Vandy, Mizzou and State for Clemson, Florida State and UNC makes sense. Then, since Clemson covers South Carolina, you could drop USC and add Virginia or one of OSU, Miami, or NC State.
At any rate, I just found their analysis both interesting and a little reassuring as an Ole Miss fan. For those interested, here’s the article:
Ranking all 69 Power 5 schools by college sports value - Sports Illustrated
If the college sports started over, who would be most coveted? We break it down with a formula.
www.si.com
