Reporter trolls that Alabama is leaving SEC to join the Pac-12
It’d be a cold day in hell before the University of Alabama-Tuscaloosa ever leaves the SEC for far less green pastures — particularly in the dying Pac-12, which just had two of their flagship programs (UCLA, USC) poached and could have six more (Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, Oregon, Utah, Washington) snatched up by the Big 12 imminently.
In a troll tweet that would simply be unfathomably huge if true (it’s so not) Mike Tanier of Football Outsiders ‘reported’ that Alabama would be leaving the SEC to join the Pac-12. In this hypothetical, Notre Dame and Boston College would be joining them.
Of course, Notre Dame–which owns a TV rights deal with NBC that runs through 2025 and draws approximately $15 million per year–is the main independent that conferences are hoping comes to them. Boston College, on the other hand, brings in $32 million as a college football program, right at the national average.
Here was Tanier’s troll tweet, complete with an accompanying faux TV deal and a follow-up for the ages:
SOURCE: Alabama, Notre Dame and Boston College to join rebuilt Pac-12. Amazon to bid $475-million on exclusive streaming rights.
— Mike Tanier (@MikeTanier) July 7, 2022
Harvard, La Salle (Philadelphia) and Starfleet Academy are also involved in the discussion.
— Mike Tanier (@MikeTanier) July 7, 2022
No team will ever voluntarily leave the SEC
Just so we’re clear, the SEC is like the exclusive penthouse nightclub you wait in line hours to get into. It’s not a conference you leave on a whim after claiming its championship in football last December.
Alabama is a torch-bearer for the SEC, and while the rest of the conference would like to see its fans shipped to the opposite coast, its presence in the conference as a founding member will always persist.
Keep dreaming folks. Alabama is to the SEC as taxes are to a functional American financial system: annoying and borderline criminal, but ultimately necessary for the collective to survive monetarily.