SEC Football: 4 expansion candidates after Big Ten adds USC, UCLA

The fact that the SEC football conference got the jump last year on this round of conference realignment by adding the Texas Longhorns and Oklahoma Sooners out of the Big 12 looks like a really good move at this moment. Last summer, the SEC shook the college sports landscape as a whole by poaching Texas and Oklahoma out of the Big 12.

Little did we know at the time that this round of conference realignment would move along as fast as it has this summer, just one year after the Longhorns and Sooners left the Big 12 for the SEC. The next major domino fell in this round of the conference realignment conversation with the news that the USC Trojans and UCLA Bruins will be leaving the PAC-12 for the Big Ten.

It looks like USC and UCLA will be out of the PAC-12 to compete athletically in the Big Ten by 2024. USC and UCLA could actually be competing in the Big Ten before Texas and Oklahoma are able to officially leave the Big 12 for the SEC.

New expansion candidates worth considering for SEC football after the Big Ten expands with UCLA and USC

Moreover, this round of conference realignment is likely going to see more movement across what is now considered to be the Power Five. And it looks like the PAC-12 and ACC are going to be firmly in the crosshairs in terms of their top programs getting poached by the burgeoning super conferences that are the Big Ten and SEC.

With that in mind, here’s a look at four of the best expansion candidates for the SEC in this round of the realignment conversation.