The Southeastern Conference changes for good Monday

At 12:01 a.m. Monday, Texas and Oklahoma will officially join the Southeastern Conference, a move that only solidifies the SEC as the best and most dominant league in the country but Greg Sankey as the smartest guy in any room where college athletics are being discussed. The Big Ten has more members (18-16) and for the moment, more money, but that doesn’t equal better. Long term, the difference between the two leagues will only become more profound and there will be a polar reversal of the current money gap.

The Big Ten distributed $58.8 million per school in 2023 but Maryland, Rutgers and Nebraska didn’t get full shares. The SEC, meanwhile, distributed $51.3 million with everyone getting a full share. And, that included continued payback of the $23.7 million the SEC loaned each school during the COVID year to ensure nobody had to cut back on sports or scholarships.

The new SEC contract kicks in this year. In a 14-team league, the new contract would pay each school $17 million more than a year ago, but with Texas and Oklahoma joining, their equal share will come from the new increase. Figure that will last a year or two, at which time ESPN/ABC/Disney will renegotiate the SEC deal based on the increase in revenues from a league which will have at least one or two playoff caliber football games every single weekend.

Under the Big Ten media contract, Fox will get the No. 1 game every weekend at noon with CBS getting the second best game at 3:30 and NBC getting the No. 3 game at night. Meanwhile, the Southeastern Conference will have ABC, three ESPN networks, two SEC Network channels and the array of Disney-affiliated channels at its disposal.

There is no way the Big Ten can compete with that. You can all but bank on the SEC having more teams in the College Football Playoff, which expands to 12 teams this year and potentially to 16 in the near future. That is more millions to the SEC.

Football is the driving force when it comes to revenue, but all these networks will assure a constant stream of SEC competition in the other sports once football season concludes. That will drive more revenue to the SEC, which will only have to distribute to 16 teams while the Big Ten will have to deal with 18.

Here is a look at the national championship programs Texas and Oklahoma bring to the SEC:

Football: Oklahoma brings the tradition of seven national championships and seven Heisman Trophy winners to the league while Texas brings four national championships and two Heisman Trophy winners.   

Women’s basketball: Texas has won one national championship.  

Women’s gymnastics: Oklahoma has won six national championships.  

Men’s gymnastics: Oklahoma has won 12 national championships.

Women’s volleyball: Texas has won five national championships.  

Baseball: Texas has won six national championships and has been to the College World Series a record 38 times. Oklahoma has won two national championships.  

Softball: Oklahoma has won eight national championships including the last four.  

Men’s swimming: Texas has won 15 national championships.

Women’s swimming: Texas has won nine national championships.

Men’s golf: Texas has won four national championships. Oklahoma has won two.

Men’s tennis: Texas has won one national championship.

Women’s tennis: Texas has won four national championships.

Women’s track and field: Texas has won six indoor national titles and six outdoors.  

Women’s cross country: Texas has won one national championship.  

Women’s rowing: Texas has won three national championships.

Wrestling: Oklahoma has won seven national championships.

UF BASKETBALL: Gators sign 6-11 freshman big man

The tallest team in America just got taller. Todd Golden has signed Viktor Mikic (6-11, 240, Belgrade, Serbia/Chattanooga, TN Hamilton Heights Christian Academy), who averaged 14.3 points, 10.2 rebounds and 1.3 blocked shots per game last season for a Hamilton Heights Christian Academy team that finished 29-5 while winning the NACA national championship.

Mikic, who will enroll in Summer B at UF on Monday,  is the seventh Gator on the 2024-25 roster who is at least 6-9. He is the 12th scholarship player. Golden has one scholarship remaining. It should also be noted that 7-1 Micah Handlogten will take a medical redshirt this season while continuing to rehab from the fractured leg suffered in the Southeastern Conference Tournament championship game against Auburn back in March.

2024-25 roster

Big guys: * Micah Handlogten (7-1, 235, JR); Sam Alexis (6-8, 240, JR/TR); Alex Condon (6-11, 230, SO); Thomas Haugh (6-9, 210, SO); Rueben Chinyelu (6-10, 250, SO/TR); ** Olivier Rioux (7-9, 298, FR); Viktor Mikic (6-11, 240, FR)

* Will take medical redshirt in 2024-25

** Walk-on

Perimeter (6): Alijah Martin (6-2, 210, GR/TR); Will Richard (6-4,206, SR); Walter Clayton Jr. (6-3, 195, SR); Denzel Aberdeen (6-5, 190, JR); Kajus Kublickas (6-2, 171, SO); Isaiah Brown (6-4, 195, FR)

UF BASEBALL: Gators land Clemson starter Billy Barlow

Kevin O’Sullivan landed his second starting pitcher in a week Friday when he got a commitment from Clemson righthander Billy Barlow. Earlier, O’Sullivan landed Southern Conference Pitcher of the Year Michael Ross.

Barlow is a third-year redshirt sophomore with a career 8-6 record. After a 2-4 freshman campaign in 2022, Barlow pitched in three games in 2023, taking a medical redshirt. He came back in 2024 to go 6-1 with a 4.28 ERA in 15 games, 10 of them starts. Barlow actually pitched 2/3 of an inning against the Gators in the Clemson Super Regional. He came on in the 11th, got two out, then walked consecutive batters before he was relieved.  

The Barlow news comes on the same day six Gators elected to transfer including lefty Cade Fisher, who had a sophomore slump after going 6-0 with a 3.10 ERA as a freshman in 2023. The Friday night starter when the season began, Fisher couldn’t get people out in 2024, going 4-3 with a 7.13 ERA. Fisher gave up 67 hits in 59-1/3 innings and compounded matters by walking 29 and hitting 13 batters. The other five transfers are all freshmen, the most experienced Alex Philpott, who went 2-2 with a 6.90 ERA in 14 appearances.

Incoming: RHP Billy Barlow (RSO, Clemson); RHP Michael Ross (SR, Samford); CF Kyle Jones (FR, Stetson); OF Blake Cyr (SO, Miami); 2B Justin Nadeau (SO, Jacksonville); SS/DH Landon Stripling (FR, Texas Tech)

Outgoing: CF Michael Robertson (RJR); LHP Cade Fisher (SO); LF/RHP Landon Russell (RSO, to Stetson); RHP Grayson Smith (FR); IF Sammy Mummau (FR); RHP Hunter Jones (FR); IF John Martinez (FR); LHP Robert Satin (FR); RHP Reilly Witmer (FR); RHP Alex Philpott (FR); LHP Jacob Gomberg (FR); OF Blake Brookins (FR)

UF GYMNASTICS: Wong 8th at Olympic trials; 2 Gators injured

Leanne Wong is in eighth place after the first day of the US Olympic Trials. The trials will continue Sunday. Fifteen women are competing for five spots on the US team.

Friday night, Gator Kayla DiCielo was wheeled out of the arena after suffering a landing on vault. Incoming freshman Skye Blakely suffered a torn Achilles tendon training for her floor exercise routine on Wednesday.

ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Paul Finebaum has weighed in once again on Florida State’s attempt to get free from the grant of rights contract with the Atlantic Coast Conference that runs though 2036.  Florida State, along with Clemson is trying to wiggle out of a 20-year contract it willingly signed back in 2016. FSU wants out because the Atlantic Coast Conference doesn’t have a decent media deal and could be as much as $50 million per year behind the Southeastern Conference once the SEC renegotiates its deal with ESPN, perhaps in a year or so.

Florida State believes it will be a hot property if it can legally worm out of the ACC deal, but Finebaum doesn’t believe the Seminoles will be invited to join the SEC. He also doesn’t believe FSU would fit in with the academic profiles of the Big Ten.

“I’m not convinced they will want Florida State,” Finebaum said. “I know Florida State thinks they’re heavily in demand, but there are some questions about exactly what they bring to the Big Ten. They don't fit the Big Ten model … The Big Ten, I believe, other than Nebraska, has highly accredited schools, and I don't think Florida State really qualifies for that."

FSU people point to the US News & World Report ranking (No. 53 nationally), but the Big Ten bases its academic reputation on membership in the American Association of Universities. Of the 18 Big Ten schools, 17 are AAU members while Nebraska is a former member trying to petition to regain AAU status.

There are three AAU members in the state of Florida – University of Florida, University of Miami and University of South Florida.

Finebaum a couple of weeks ago said he isn’t sure Florida State is a good fit in the Southeastern Conference.

"It's about the fit, and really, what I've heard just from idle SEC fans is that there is negativity toward Florida State because of the way they've tried to get out of the ACC," Finebaum said. "I think the same thing is applicable to Clemson."

The bigger question is what would Florida State or Clemson bring to the Southeastern Conference? Neither FSU nor Clemson will move the SEC TV needle all that much. The SEC already owns the state of Florida because of UF and when it comes to the state of South Carolina, at best it’s a tie between Clemson and the University of South Carolina.

Okay, both FSU and Clemson are much better brands than Vanderbilt, but Vandy was an original SEC member and was a football power back in the days when FSU was FSCW and Clemson was a cow college in western South Carolina. So despite the fact Vandy basically freeloads off the SEC except for baseball, golf and tennis, it has standing because it was an original league member.  

With 16 teams in 12 states that are connected, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey has an exceptional model for scheduling. Realistically, the SEC doesn’t need more schools to remain the most powerful conference in collegiate sports. If the SEC decided to expand, it would make far more sense to look to North Carolina and Virginia, which would expand the TV footprint.