President says SEC content at 14 schools
USC — along with all other SEC schools — will play nine conference football games each year due to Missouri joining the Southeastern Conference, President Harris Pastides said Sunday.
The Gamecocks will face Missouri for the first time next year, as the Tigers were placed in the Eastern Division. The game will be in Columbia — but whether that’s Columbia, Mo., or Columbia, S.C., is still unclear, Pastides said.
USC will now play only three nonconference football games each year; that number was previously four. Pastides only guaranteed USC would keep Clemson on the schedule but will break its contract with another nonconference team. In 2012, that means USC either won’t play Wofford, East Carolina or UAB as originally planned. Should the university lose money breaking the contract, which seems almost 100 percent guaranteed, the SEC will reimburse the money lost, Pastides said.
“Missouri is a fine university academically, and they are competitive athletically,” Pastides said. “They have a great following of fans. We want every team in the SEC to have a large and boisterous following.”
The president also said he expects the SEC to now put the brakes on expansion. No official stance has been taken, but Pastides said “most of the presidents feel like me.”
“This adjustment to 14 is a big bite, a big step forward,” Pastides said. “I don’t want to be thinking about a 15th or 16th anytime soon.”
Adding Missouri to the SEC does create travel concerns for the university. Missouri and South Carolina are more than 14 hours apart; 871 miles, according to Google. USC must ensure all athletes, cheerleaders and the marching band have affordable travel that doesn’t cause excessive class absences. But he contends that Missouri is “still within reason for the footprint of the SEC.”
Fans will likely travel to Texas A&M and Missouri at least once for the experience, he said. But whether they’ll fork up the money to go again will depend on a variety of circumstances: how the opposing fans treat USC, how many attractions are there and how the Gamecocks play, at least according to the president.
The move to add Missouri came during a Thursday conference call, Pastides said. Adding Missouri was a no-brainer for several reasons, he said. Missouri provides the SEC with a valuable television market — the St. Louis and Kansas City area. For a conference title game, the NCAA requires leagues to have balance in both divisions. With a 13-team league, the SEC would have been required to apply for a special waiver to hold the annual game in Atlanta. And this: Missouri wanted to join the league.
The move currently hasn’t guaranteed more money for the university and the SEC, Pastides said, but he expects the move to eventually profit USC.
“Money does matter at a time when resources are so constrained,” he said.
The president also guaranteed USC would keep its annual matchup with Arkansas.