By: JJ Lanier

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

“The Minneapolis Lakers moved to Los Angeles where there are no lakes. The Oilers moved to Tennessee where there is no oil. The Jazz moved to Salt Lake City where they don’t allow music”.

Even though those statements from the movie BASEketball are referencing teams moving to larger cities for profit, it also pertains to college conferences and the schools they’re affiliated with. (Missouri isn’t really in the South or the East.)

If you were to rearrange the conferences so the SEC was based on teams only from this region (NC, SC, Georgia, and Florida) instead of money, how would that look, and would it be more advantageous for all those involved?

Currently, the ACC and SEC are home to eleven teams from the area- UNC, Duke, NC State, Wake Forest, Clemson, South Carolina, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Florida, Florida State, Miami- so they would automatically be included.

You could stop there, but due to their recent success in the football field, and the fact I like conferences to have an even number of teams, I’m going to throw Appalachian State in as well.

Now that we have the conference teams set, it’s a matter of how would this new lineup compare to the real ones. And even in the land of make believe, you start and end with football.

If you’re looking at the current overall picture, it would be a downgrade for the three teams presently in the SEC since they would be replacing programs like Alabama, LSU, and Auburn for basically Clemson and a cast of not ready for primetime players.

Of course, if I’m Georgia or Florida I’m not too upset because my path to the playoffs just became that much easier. However, that might not always be the case.

The thing that intrigues me about this lineup, and was essentially the basis for this article, is how potentially dominant this hypothetical conference could be.

I think just about everyone expects Clemson, Georgia, and Florida soon enough, to become some of the best programs in the country. Florida State and Miami may never get back to the level of dominance we saw from them during their heyday, but becoming perennial top 25 teams isn’t out of the realm of reality.

The remainder of the league would be comparable to the rest of the current SEC, if not a tad bit better, in a majority of the comparisons.

I haven’t referenced the ACC teams’ point of view because I’d like to think it’s pretty obvious, they would benefit from this configuration compared to their current one.

Much like this would be an improvement for the ACC teams in football, the same can be said for the SEC teams with basketball.

Although it may not be the most fortuitous move for those teams already playing in arguably the best basketball conference in the country, there would definitely be more exposure for Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina.

I’m sure nothing like this particular alignment will ever come to fruition because as much as the NCAA loves to spout about how much they care for the student athletes, it’s all about the money.

So, instead of making the moves that would actually benefit the students and regions these schools represent, conference alignment will continue to look like it was decided by the creators of South Park and The Naked Gun movies, and the outrageous humor that goes with it.