This makes no sense for the SEC and I'm highly skeptical. First, has nothing to do with FOOOOOTBALLLLL. It only makes sense for eyeballs and clicks. ESPN (and Fox) already have the Big 12 and that media rights deal expires in 2025. Texas and Oklahoma aren't going to appear on TV unless the Big 12 agrees and ESPN agrees. Again, ESPN already has Texas and Oklahoma, what does it get? What does the SEC get? The conference gets Dallas. That's a plum. #4 largest metro area in the US. No one lives in Oklahoma, and the SEC has Houston via aTm. The SEC just signed a new media rights deal with ESPN that goes into effect in 2023. 14 + 2 = less ESPN revenue for the current 14 schools. And if ESPN isn't paying the Big 12 enough to broadcast Texas and OU games, why would it pay the SEC more so that (a) the current SEC schools don't lose revenue on this expansion, and (b) Texas and OU get more than they currently do from the Big 12 media rights deal with ESPN and Fox? And, Texas/ESPN would let the Longhorn Network die (but I think that's 2025 also, but it's also $14 million in revenue that Texas is going to want to join the SEC). All that the SEC gets are the eyeballs of Dallas. It's all about the eyeballs and clicks, which only gets more important as more people cut the cord and just stream.
Currently, the SEC is in two of the 10 largest metro areas - Houston #5 and Atlanta #9. Like I said, this only gets the SEC #4 Dallas, and ESPN already has that. Why are they going to pay up for it? By comparison, the Big Ten currently has four of the top 10 metro areas - NYC #1, Chicago #3, Washington DC #5, and Philadelphia #8, plus Detroit #14 and Minneapolis #16. The SEC has no metro areas in 10-20, except it shares St. Louis #20 with the Big Ten. So Big Ten currently has six of the top 20 and another five or 11 of the top 35 (Baltimore #21, Cincinnati #30, Columbus #32, Indianapolis #33, and Cleveland #34). SEC currently has only three of the top 35 metro areas (Houston, Atlanta, and Kansas City, which it also shares with the Big 12 (Kansas)). Nashville is just outside at #36.
It's ludicrous to think that Ohio State and Michigan would join the SEC. This is just insanity. Ohio State revenue last year was $7.5 BILLION, and only $250 million of that was from the athletic department. Football and basketball are a drop in the bucket compared to the billions in medical research revenue that Ohio State would lose by leaving the Big Ten and joining the SEC.
Mark my word. The Big Ten will expand. Their last expansion was East to get the eyeballs and clicks of NYC and WDC. The Big Ten has always looked West and rumors are discussions are now starting. Both the Big Ten and Pac 12 media rights deals with Fox and ESPN end in 2024. It's going to be USC and/or UCLA (word is UCLA has already reached out), plus Colorado and Oregon (also rumored to have reached out to the Big Ten), but the Big Ten is going to want Arizona State (for Phoenix #10 metro), probably UW (for #15 Seattle), and the biggest prize of all as far as the research consortium is concerned, Stanford. Athletics has always just been a way for the Big Ten to expand its research consortium where the real money is.