The last time the SEC expanded, it started with a phone call.
Four years ago this month, R. Bowen Loftin, then the Texas A&M president, called SEC Commissioner Mike Slive late in the day during SEC Media Days.
Slive was relaxing at home with a cigar when he took one of the most important calls of his tenure. Loftin let him know that A&M wanted out of the Big 12 and into the SEC.
That call started a chain of events that allowed the SEC to expand its roster to 14 schools by adding Texas A&M and Missouri, which played a role in the conference's decision to form the SEC Network in partnership with ESPN.
Last week, another Big 12 president made some noise by saying he's not thrilled with the conference because of the vulnerabilities of its 10-school membership. He also expressed concerns with the Longhorn Network, which keeps the Big 12 from forming a league-wide television network like the SEC, Big Ten and Pac-12.
How unhappy is Oklahoma's David Boren? Unhappy enough to one day call Greg Sankey to discuss the possibility of joining the SEC?
If Slive said it once - before, during and after the league's expansion to 14 members - he said it a million times. SEC presidents and chancellors had no interest in raiding another conference, but if a school or schools in another conference came to them, they'd be willing to listen.
When Texas A&M and Missouri called, they did more than listen.
They would have to listen closely and act accordingly if Oklahoma called. The Sooners, with a quality athletics program overall anchored by a traditionally powerful football program, would seem to be a natural fit.
Can you imagine a 16-team SEC that included Oklahoma and, say, just for the basketball fun of it, Kansas? That would expand the conference's footprint to two new states and force some serious divisional realignment.
The SEC West could look like this:
- Arkansas
- Kansas
- LSU
- Ole Miss
- Mississippi State
- Missouri
- Oklahoma
- Texas A&M
The SEC East could look like this:
- Alabama
- Auburn
- Florida
- Georgia
- Kentucky
- South Carolina
- Tennessee
- Vanderbilt
Imagine an Alabama-Oklahoma SEC Championship Game with Bob Stoops trading barbs with Nick Saban. Or a Kentucky-Kansas SEC Tournament final in a John Calipari-Bill Self rematch of the 2008 national championship game.
The possibilities are endless and delicious.
At the moment, it's all just midsummer speculation, but that public speculation could turn to behind-the-curtain negotiation in a heartbeat. All it takes is a phone call.