SEC Expansion: Texas A&M Has Votes To Join; Who's Next?

According to Chip Brown of orangebloods.com , Texas A&M has the votes to move to the SEC and could announce the decision as early as next week.

According to a report from ESPN.com , both Oklahoma and Texas "still have all options open." Other reports indicate that Texas A&M was not the SEC's top choice for expansion and that Texas and/or Oklahoma would have been.

In this ever-changing atmosphere of reports and speculation, things are almost never as they seem, but so far, Chip Brown, has been spot on the entire way.

It is still being reported that Oklahoma, Texas, Texas Tech, and Oklahoma State will join the Pac-10-plus.

With A&M reportedly heading to the SEC and with the conference's reported "top choices" apparently headed West, will the conference add three more teams to get to 16? Will it just add one more team to get to 14? Will it stay at 13?

It is my understanding that the SEC is not interested in Missouri or Kansas. And there's really no other team in the Midwest that would fit the bill as a premier, money-making entity for the SEC.

The ESPN.com report cited an SEC athletic director who indicated the SEC had no plans for raiding the ACC to add Georgia Tech, Clemson, Florida State, or Miami. The report stated that the source added that it was doubtful that Virginia Tech could be "pried away from Virginia" as well.

Would the SEC go with just 13 teams? Would it be desirable to go through all of this stuff just to add Texas A&M?

I don't think so.

With the four ACC teams mentioned as not being in the SEC's plans, who would make sense as the 14th team?

Since the Midwest holds no premier teams that would be available, the SEC should go East.

Virginia Tech should be the top priority right now, that is if the SEC feels it needs to go to 14 teams. It owns the state of Virginia as far as college football is concerned. It gets SEC football into the Washington, D.C., market. It just makes too much sense for the Hokies not to be at the top of the SEC's list.

If Virginia Tech says no, as the source indicated to ESPN.com , then it has to be West Virginia . The program is a little north of the SEC's footprint, but if new markets and money are the goal, then the Mountaineers just make sense.

Morgantown, WV, is situated in a region with Pennsylvania to its immediate north, Ohio to the west, along with Maryland and Virginia to the east and south. It would have two geographical rivals in Kentucky and Tennessee. 

The truth is, no one knows what will happen at this point. We have reliable information leading us to believe the SEC will add at least one team. But it seems the SEC is being very choosey when it comes to expansion. As SEC beat writer, Wes Rucker, of the Chattanooga Times-Free Press tweeted today, "The SEC is a Blu-ray conference. No need to buy DVDs."

Has Virginia Tech or West Virginia upgraded yet? We could soon find out.