From this day forward, whenever the topic of any conversation turns to the many aspects of delusion, you will now have a ready example of what it looks like in it's most grotesque form. Link: RC Johnson on U of M: "We deserve" to be in SEC - Action News 5 - Memphis, Tennessee
It's a desperate plea based on misguided reasoning. A team deserves to be in a conference because its addition to a conference would be good for the teams already in the conference. Memphis doesn't fit that bill.
Not really. The appropriate response is - HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
Geographically, they make a lot of sense. They would be in the top tier of basketball schools, and if this conversation were being held 3 years ago, they could at least pass the laugh test about the football team, if not the facilities. The problem is that the member schools in the conference don't want them. The SEC already owns the not that terrific Memphis market, so that isn't really a plus. Tennessee doesn't want them, as it is much easier to tell recruits and boosters and the rest of the world that the school is second tier if they are on the outside. Arkansas and the Alabamas and Mississippis would rather not have to share the city from a recruiting basis with a hometown team in the SEC, either. Compare that to A&M, a brand new TV market with respectable programs in all major sports, who will give the member schools a greater connection with Texas recruits and fans simply by competing in their back yard every year. Memphis makes sense in a way nobody wants.
