UGA football: Five teams the SEC needs to consider inviting

When the next round of conference realignment comes, UGA football could possibly gain more rivals as the SEC seeks a move to being a 16-team conference.

One day the SEC will give in and finally become a 16-team mega-conference. College football is a never-ending arms race and the conferences are now constantly looking for ways to expand into new TV markets.

The best way to claim those markets is to add nearby teams into the fold. Adding Texas A&M to the SEC forced the Big 12 to share the Dallas/Fort Worth and Houston markets, while Missouri’s inclusion brought the city of St. Louis into the SEC. When the SEC is ready to expand once again, here are a few schools it should consider inviting.

Cincinnati Bearcats

True, there’s nothing southern about Cincinnati, Ohio, but the city is on the Kentucky state-line and is certainly a major television market in the area. Plus, the Cincinnati Bearcats are pretty darn good at football.

Cincinnati has won nine games or more nine times since 2007 and is coming off back-to-back 11-win seasons entering 2020. With 14 conference championships and over 600 victories all-time, the Bearcats would bring an impressive pedigree into the SEC. Their football pedigree exceeds a few founding members of the SEC, and their stadium (Nippert Stadium) is one of the oldest in the country at 105 years old.

Once in the SEC, Cincinnati could form a competitive and entertaining rivalry with the Kentucky Wildcats. The two schools are separated by just 86 miles and met 34 times between 1894 and 1996.