FSU, Miami, Clemson, Notre Dame. If Clemson, FSU, Miami, and Notre Dame had equal funding compared to their competition in the SEC things could get interesting. There are a lot of championships shared among those teams since the 80s. Getting those teams would give the B1G a permanent foothold in southeastern and Florida recruiting. FSU helps the B1G with Bama, South Georgia, and North Florida recruiting. Miami helps the B1G with South Florida recruiting. And Clemson would help the B1G recruit North Georgia and the Carolinas. Several teams in the B1G would be getting games in front of all of those audiences. It might be smart for the SEC to take on Clemson, FSU, and Miami simply to play defense and lock the B1G out of the southeast. Additionally, there are some natural rivalries, due to proximity and history, that could arise from taking on those teams. Clemson-UGA, FSU-UF, UF-Miami, FSU-Miami, Clemson-Bama, FSU-Auburn, FSU-Alabama, Clemson-Tennessee, etc. The number of former national championship games on the docket would be pretty insane.
In theory Notre Dame has unlimited money and have a much larger fan base than any other team. They should be the super power regardless of history, and likely money speaks louder to the recruits and their parents than 40+ year old history.
I think it is a fallacy that it is the SEC is in a battle with the B1G for supremacy. The SEC believes, rightly it's already won. Teams will only be added if they add pro-rata revenue without increasing expenses for travel. Those teams don't cut it. SEC would take Virginia and North Carolina.
Since we are not in the big tv markets of NC and DVM currently it helps us more than adding another FL team or SC team.
But adding teams that no one cares about doesn’t do much. We aren’t cavemen, we watch what we want to see. I’d watch the gators if the were on Neptune network
The point of getting into new areas is to get those new areas watching SEC games. I watch Florida games first, SEC games and other rivals games second, and then top outside games 3rd. If UNC and a Virginia school are in the SEC, then you start to get those eyeballs on other SEC games as well instead of on other ACC games.
I don’t often tune in to Vandy , miss state, usce…. I do however watch Ohio state or Clemson. I watch teams that have playoff implications. I’m not going to watch Bama play Vandy when Ohio state Michigan is on. We need big matchups that are on prime time slots. I get it about new areas but new areas without top teams doesn’t move tge needle much.