Hey, SEC Clones

Terry in Crapchester · Tue Apr 04, 2006 6:24 pm

Something I found while looking up something else. Thought you might be interested.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/colle ... 3052c.html

Big East & SEC near series deal

INDIANAPOLIS - The ACC-Big Ten Challenge is about to get one-upped.
The Southeastern Conference has engaged the Big East in discussions for a similar series that one insider told the Daily News "are looking pretty serious." The SEC also has explored a series with the Big 12 as a possible fallback.

Were the SEC and Big East to consummate their deal - with a series of 8-10 games annually - it would bring together two conferences that sent a combined 14 teams to this year's NCAA Tournament.

"One of the things that could make it work is that fact that all the teams involved play in the same two time zones," a second insider said. The games would be broadcast on ESPN should the sides reach an agreement.

MgoBlue-LightSpecial · Tue Apr 04, 2006 7:38 pm

The SEC also has explored a series with the Big 12 as a possible fallback

I laughed.

Terry in Crapchester · Tue Apr 04, 2006 7:54 pm

MgoBlue-LightSpecial wrote:
The SEC also has explored a series with the Big 12 as a possible fallback
I laughed.

I hear ya, but in fairness I think it had something to do with time zones.

Both the SEC and the Big East have the majority of their teams in the Eastern time zone, with a handful in the Central Time Zone. The Big 12, by comparison, has most of its teams in the Central Time Zone, and Colorado and (possibly) Taco Tech are in the Mountain Time Zone (not sure about Taco, I drove through the Texas panhandle a few times, but that was several years ago, and I don't remember exactly where the time zone changes).

Now that I think about time zones, I think the SEC is split 6-6 between the Eastern and Central, whereas the Big East is split 14-2 between the Eastern and Central. But if the challenge involves only 8 games, and includes all SEC teams in the Eastern time zone plus DePaul and Marquette (the only Big East teams in the Central time zone), you wouldn't have any team have to leave its time zone.