SEC Football: Top 5 expansion candidates for the conference

Perhaps the biggest geographic gap in the SEC’s attempt to dominate football below the Mason-Dixon Line has been the Tar Heel State. The conference added South Carolina as part of its 1992 expansion to 12 teams, convincing the Gamecocks to give up independence in the process. Getting North Carolina to jump to the SEC, though, would be more difficult.

The Tar Heels have been members of just two conferences in the entire history of the school’s athletic programs. North Carolina was independent until 1921, when they became a charter member of the Southern Conference. After that league ballooned to an unsustainable size, North Carolina branched off with seven other schools to form the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Since 1953, UNC has been anchored to the ACC. The two have become intimately intertwined over time, and it would be a difficult disentanglement to switch affiliation. But just like with Miami, moving to the SEC would provide North Carolina with significantly more annual revenue.

As their move from the Southern Conference to the ACC proved back in the 1950s, charter membership is not an anchor linking a team permanently to its conference. The right pitch could ostensibly convince North Carolina to jump ship on its longtime home. In a situation where realignment recommences, locking down the one southeastern state still outside of the fold would be a major boon for the SEC.