Greed is named as one of the seven deadly sins, and money is considered the root of all evil.
If these statements are true, then Mike Slive must be Beelzebub.
Slive, commissioner of the Southeastern Conference, is willing to sacrifice much of the league’s history and tradition so he can renegotiate the league’s already monumental television deal and make a few extra bucks.
Texas A&M will eventually become part of the SEC. While it may not be as soon as originally expected, the conference is going to expand, and the Aggies will be a part of that expansion.
Slive and the other money-grubbing school presidents are looking past how this will permanently damage the conference if it expands the wrong way.
Ideally, Texas A&M would join the SEC Western Division and the other addition will come in the form of an Atlantic Coast Conference team that would jump into the Eastern Division.
But this is not as easy as it seems.
First, current members Florida, Georgia and South Carolina have all said they will oppose adding new members from their respective states. This eliminates the most logical addition choices of Clemson, Florida State and Georgia Tech.
There is still the potential addition of North Carolina State or Wake Forest, who are looking to make some extra money and don’t have the same historical ties to the ACC’s basketball heritage as in-state partners North Carolina and Duke.  But neither the Wolfpack nor Demon Deacons bring much as far as football pedigree or expanded exposure to the table. Adding them would appear as a desperation move by the SEC rather than a power move.
The most intriguing ACC invitee would be Virginia Tech. The Hokies have plenty of clout in the college football world, and being just four hours from the Washington, D.C., area, carry with them a potentially large TV market.
But Virginia Tech is currently a huge fish in a small pond. If the Hokies stayed put, they could continue to be the alpha male of the ACC, go to BCS bowl after BCS bowl and rake in their own treasure chest of cash every year.
Moving to the SEC would put Tech in the middle of the pack in its own division, not to mention in the overall conference standings. There’s a good chance the powers-that-be in Blacksburg will decide against making the jump.
This leaves the SEC again attempting to pillage the soon-to-be defunct Big 12 to fill its vacancy. Here’s where disaster happens.
The SEC would move to make Missouri the league’s 14th team.
Should this happen, both the Aggies and Tigers would join the SEC West. This leaves unbalanced divisions, with eight in the West and six in the East. One team would have to shift to the East to balance things out.
This would come down to one of the two eastern-most teams in the West: Alabama and Auburn.
Just the idea of the Crimson Tide and Tigers in opposite divisions is enough to make a fan of SEC football quiver. But the problems run much, much deeper than that.
The conference would have to readjust the permanent out-of-division opponents to make sure the Iron Bowl is still played annually, if for no other reason than to quell the already riotous mob calling into The Paul Finebaum Show on a daily basis.
But in Scenario One, Alabama moves to the East. Auburn and the Tide become permanent opposite division opponents.
Auburn and Georgia are now forced to quit annually playing the longest-running rivalry in the conference. LSU fans lose their annual visitation rights with their ex, Nick Saban, and it might also mean LSU and Florida no longer play annually, either.
Now, if it’s Auburn that makes the move, Alabama will no longer get to play hated rival Tennessee every year. It also means LSU loses the rivalry with Auburn, a game that has produced such famous — and infamous, depending on your team of choice  — moments as The Earthquake Game, The Interception Game, The Barn Burner, The Cigar Game, Auburn kicker Damon Duval getting beaten up by an LSU tuba player, Ref-Gate ’04, Auburn kicker John Vaughn missing five field goals, Ref-Gate ’06 and Demetrius Byrd’s last-second catch in 2007.
Heated rivalries are what made the SEC great, and ruining them out of greed will snuff out the passion and pride the fans take in their teams.
Hopefully Satan or Slive has a change of heart before it’s too late.
Rob Landry is a 20-year-old mass communication senior from Mandeville. Follow him on Twitter @RobLandry85.
 
____
Contact Rob Landry at [email protected]