A few years ago conference realignment was all anyone was talking about in the college football landscape. The SEC added Texas and Oklahoma to their conference, but the Big Ten made a big move by adding four west coast schools as well.
Nearly every other conference made changes to their list of members as well, but since then no further realignment has taken place. On3's Brett McMurphy reported on Thursday though that some of the smaller conferences could make some changes to their roster soon. This would't impact the SEC or Georgia all that much, but then he threw in a little nugget that if the SEC expands again that North Carolina and Virginia would be at the top of their list.
Conference realignment never sleeps. More G6 moves ahead. SEC & B1G no immediate plans but if/when they do, UNC & Virginia top SEC's wish list; Big Ten would consider “usual suspects (from ACC & Notre Dame), maybe a high academic school out West or Texas school for…
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) October 15, 2026
Proposed additions to the SEC would not be a challenge for Georgia
North Carolina and Virginia make sense as SEC additions based on geography. Sure they aren't in the south like every other school, but they are relatively close to the SEC's eastern most schools. Their additions wouldn't be as crazy as the Big Ten adding the four west coast schools or the ACC adding Cal and Stanford either.
These two schools are interesting choices though because they are not known for being good football programs. The SEC prides itself on being the best football conference, that's why adding Texas and Oklahoma made a lot of sense. North Carolina and Virginia however wouldn't add much strength from a football perspective.
This means that Georgia's reign at the top of the SEC would not be impacted much at all.
These two schools however would be great additions in men's basketball. North Carolina is one of the best programs of all time and Virginia has found recent success as well which includes winning the 2019 national championship.
Both programs would make life more difficult for the Georgia basketball program, but the Bulldogs' football team wouldn't be impacted all that much.
Other schools the SEC could consider adding
If the SEC eventually expands to more teams there are a few other schools who might make more sense than North Carolina and Virginia. Three schools that immediately come to mind are Miami, Florida State and Clemson.
These three school are all in the same geographical region that the SEC is already in and they are much better football programs which seems like the thing the SEC has cared most about when expanding in the past.
Two other schools that make sense to add as well would be Virginia Tech and Duke. Instead of adding North Carolina and Virginia individually it might make more sense to bring their rival along with them. If the SEC wants to only add two teams than pairing North Carolina with Duke or Virginia with Virginia Tech would make more sense to keep current rivalries in place.
The SEC doesn't seem motivated to expand right now, but if other conferences like the Big Ten do then they might have no choice but to follow suit. Regardless of what happens Georgia will expect to remain the top football program in the SEC, and thankfully there aren't many other realistic programs the SEC could add that would change that.
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