discussions with the SEC around the time the Big East Football Conference (BEFC) was in the process to get the members to recommit for another term. At the time, the SEC was exploring the idea of expanding to 16 members with Miami, VT, and WVU being mentioned as 3 of the 4 schools in that package deal. The CT even wrote an article about the discussions and what it meant for the BEFC which I thought was great because it would have meant VT would have found a home in a football-first conference. Miami balked at the idea for whatever reason and killed the deal, VT used the discussions to leverage full membership in the Big East as a condition for renewing its commitment to the BEFC, and the rest is history. I believe it was a mistake for VT to not pursue SEC membership back then because I think VT would have been better off in the long-run if it had made the move. However, I think it was Weaver's mindset back then that it was in VT's best interest to be a member of a conference with a presence in the northeast region because that is where VT gets most of its out-of-state students from. At least that helps to explain why VT accepted a membership in the Atlantic 10 when it was kicked out of the Metro instead of pursing a membership with another conference. ** Edited by VTHokie2000 at 6/25/2025, 12:03:35 PM