SEC content to wait, watch

T’S STRANGE TO see the SEC take a cautious stance in conference expansion talks.

After all, this is the conference that was years ahead of everyone else in splitting into divisions and staging the cash cow known as a football championship game. The SEC plays in the biggest stadiums, is in the second year of a $3 billion TV deal and has produced the past four national champions in football.

Yet, SEC commissioner Mike Slive and the schools’ presidents appear content to stay on the sideline — initially, anyway — to see how expansion in the Big Ten and Pac-10 shakes out.

Florida president Bernie Machen said last week at the SEC spring meetings in Destin, Fla, that the league would be “reactive, not proactive” on expansion. That said, Slive will be prepared to shift from reactive to proactive mode in less than six seconds.

He better keep his foot on the clutch.