The only way Vandy will ever leave the SEC is if their small minded president, whom they alumni are really hating right now, ever decides to drop out. The SEC would never even broach the subject, the PR hit they would take would be awful. Plus the fact that Vandy is a factor in just about every other sport and an original member of the conference. Same goes for the ACC, they would never think about putting Duke out to pasture.
Forget the Texas schools. Not gonna happen. With the demise of the Southwest Conference looming, UT and A&M started exploring their options. It was said that they courted the PAC 10, the Big 8, and had whispered conversations with SEC operatives. It became obvious very quickly that UT and A&M were not in control, rather the politicians held all the aces and were determined that UT and A&M weren't going anywhere without taking along the ugly sisters, AKA Texas Tech and Baylor. Voila. I don't think you help the conference image by bringing in a Miami or a Virginia Tech. :dis: Georgia Tech had their chance and bolted. Missouri and Okie State wouldn't leave the Big 12. Their history and their rivals are there.
The whole league can't have winning seasons, somebody has to lose. The SEC needs some teams that will happily lose for decades as Vanderbilt has. The SEC has 6 to 8 teams every year that get ranked and go to bowl games and always several national championship contenders. We beat up on each other in the SEC making it difficult to go undefeated, which hurts the league in the NC race. Vanderbilt and Kentucky are very necessary perennial doormats in football, but it must not be forgotten that they are both upper tier basketball schools and raise the SEC's basketball stock quite a bit. We don't need any more football contenders in the SEC.
Vandy is a charter member of the SEC and will in now way, shape or means be asked to leave the conference. The only way Vandy would leave (highly unlikely) would be under its own accord. In some aspects it wouldn't be all that surprising because in the last 15 years or so Vandy has slowly deemphasized athletics, much in the same fashion Tulane has done. Vandy dropped its college within in a college which housed a large number of its athletes. Then just a few years ago it dropped its Athletics Department absorbing it into the university under the title of Student Life instead of being a separate entity. But even with the deemphasis of athletics Vandy still gets a HUGE amount of money from being a member of the SEC. Every year the SEC's revenue from bowl payouts has increased and I don't think Vandy is ready to give up that kind of revenue.
Vanderbilt is one of the original founding members. I doubt they won't leave the conference unless it was by their own choice. If that is the case than Vandy will always be in the SEC. Unlike Ga. Tech and Tulane, they were stupid to leave the SEC. If they were force out please let me know. With that said Vany reaps max. financial benefit without producing a consistant winning program. LSUDAN
Let's hope and pray they don't or else any academic reputation we have will continue fall flat to the ground.
I don't know exactly where each school ranks but I don't believe that LSU is as low as you put it. Auburn is near the bottom considering they just got off probation and were near having their accreditation pulled.
