The SEC rushed to fix its website late Thursday night after a page announcing the addition of Missouri to its conference surfaced without warning.
It wasn't a dummy page and didn't appear to be a hack. It was an official page from the SEC website, logos and advertisements included.
The weird thing about it? The page was dated Oct. 22 and the text referenced a Monday announcement. It could have been a template, since Oct. 22 was a Saturday and this template was similar to the one used for the Texas A&M announcement. But it was quite thorough regarding the history and culture of Missouri ? the Show-Me State does barbecue and country music, too, y'all ? and what the move meant to both entities.
The SEC has played coy about announcing any new membership beyond Texas A&M, though it seems like just a formality for the conference and Missouri to say their "I dos" and bind themselves together till further realignment do them part. But neither has been willing to make their relationship official until some unlucky web worker published the wrong page at a time when at least one person happened to be looking at the SEC website.
The page was down within an hour, of course, but not before me and several other folks got screen shots of the error for all to see.
So what does all this mean? Well, other than the fact that the on-again off-again relationship between Missouri and the SEC is the worst-kept secret in college football right now, it also means that a day after the university's Board of Curators gave chancellor Brady Deaton the OK to move the school out of the Big 12, the SEC was ready to announce the arrival of its newest member.
What has changed since then? It's tough to say, especially since several other conferences seem to be waiting on Missouri and the SEC to make the first move before setting the dominoes in motion.
And for an hour Thursday night, it seemed like that move was a done deal.
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Graham Watson is on Facebook and Twitter: Follow her @Yahoo_Graham.
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