ShareThisAs a point of full disclosure: Yes, I've been heard to gripe and moan about traveling to Starkville, Miss. and Auburn, Ala. and Oxford, Miss.
But they're family. You might not want to spend Thanksgiving at Uncle Rudy's, but you go. He's family. You have a history.
History doesn't count for much any more. Not in the fast-changing, big-bucks world of college football.
The Southeastern Conference is on the verge of moving into Texas and it's not going to stop there.
Twenty years ago, the SEC was doing just fine as a 10-team league. But adding Arkansas and South Carolina got us a championship football game and, as an aside, made geographic sense.
Arkansas also brought a rabid basketball fan base, which was a needed counterweight to Kentucky. South Carolina was at least a scenic drive for Tennessee fans.
I don't think TV sets were the driving force then. The Columbia and Little Rock markets aren't game-changers.
For some SEC schools, it's a good thing there wasn't a TV much less a TV market when the league was spawned in the 1930s.
Think Auburn would have gotten in? Hey, you already get Birmingham and Mobile with Alabama.
Mississippi State and Ole Miss? The Jackson market ranks No. 90. They're all yours Conference USA.
Nashville tunes in for Tennessee games. Who needs Vanderbilt?
But in the absence of ESPN the SEC somehow formed and bonded and thrived. Now Toomer's Corner, The Swamp, The Grove and cowbells are a part of us, too.
We have a history with Archie Manning and Steve Spurrier and Pistol Pete and Kyle Macy. Dwayne Schintzius may have been a goofball but he was our goofball.
By now, Razorbacks and Gamecocks are part of our history too.
Unless a legal threat by one or more frightened Big 12 schools intervenes, Texas A&M is about to stretch the SEC to the southwest.
There's no telling which direction a 14th member -- and possibly 15th and 16th -- will stretch it.
What we know is that it won't be anybody logical in the Southeast. Those TV markets are already on board.
The ACC folks, especially those with the untapped markets in North Carolina and Virginia don't seem interested. So it might be Missouri or West Virginia. If only New York University had a football program.
But the bigger the SEC gets, the more the family concept suffers.
In a 14-team league, how often would Tennessee play anybody in the West? As it stands now, the Vols go four years without seeing old rivals Ole Miss, LSU or Auburn. If it gets to 16, we might hear a stadium calling the Hogs just once a decade.
Even at 14, the SEC should expand the conference schedule from eight to nine games. The downside would be Tennessee fans can forget about marquee series with teams like Notre Dame or UCLA.
Nothing against Texas A&M. The Aggies can match just about anyone when it comes to tradition.
I've been there and let me tell you it's not an easy trip from Knoxville or Lexington. In comparison, Starkville is just around the bend.
But that's beside the point, really. The point isn't who actually goes there. The point is who watches on TV.
(Contact the Knoxville News-Sentinel's Mike Strange at strangem(at)knoxnews.com. Follow him at http://twitter.com/strangemike44 and http://blogs.knoxnews.com/strange.)
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