Conference Expansion

They'd be the darlings of the Mountain West

 

No disrespect intended, to the conference, but the Holes might fit better (also be middle-of-the-pack) in the Sun Belt. LOL!

 

Is this where it’s all headed? It would blow college football up, imho.

Third-party influence may soon shake foundation of college football impacting conferences, programs

 

Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse…

 

Just to throw my 2 cents in…Itah doesn’t look kindly on the Big 12 for multiple reasons.

It’s starts with having absolutely no history of any kind with 90% of the big 12. We would get our rival back in conference but what good does that really do when we play them most years anyways.

2nd is most of Utahs alumni base is in the pac 12/west coast footprint. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to move all our sports away from the donors on the west coast. Especially when it’s not a significant step up in money or prestige.

None of that matters as it seems Utah isn’t going to have much choice or say in the matter. Utah is working hard behind the scene with the B1G, just don’t think it will work out for us and will basically be forced into the Big 12. It has not been a happy time on our message boards and forums. Fall camp has started and it’s been a complete afterthought due to the fear of being relegated even farther down the college football latter.

 

And this is why I hate what is happening. Essentially schools are killing interest in their own programs because they are chasing money.

What good does it do us to be in the SEC if we only play Auburn twice every 20 years? We could do that anyway. Instead we play Texas A&M what feels like every other year. I don’t give a crap about the Aggies. What does any Utah fan care about playing Kansas State? Or any Washington fan getting up for a big game against Rutgers?

At least when it’s a one-off or home-and-home it’s interesting because of the novelty.

 

It's probably a ploy to test and see if Sankey falls for it... he's not the sharpest tool in the shed, after all he fell for the one network deal... A deal that does NOT guarantee more money for SEC teams than any other conference with the same number of teams in it. That was a dumb (one conference) deal...

 

When OU and Texas joined the SEC, they kept a low-profile leading up to the decision and quietly negotiated with the SEC until the deal was done.
When USC and UCLA joined the B1G, they kept a low-profile leading up to the decision and quietly negotiated with the B1G until the deal was done.
When Mizzou and aTm joined the SEC... well you get the point.

So for FSU to be doing the exact opposite, complaining to anyone who will listen, well its not a good look.

 

I'm not liking any of this superconference talk...but I'll take it if it relegates FSU/Miami to third tier status.

 

I hope the playoff stays away from conferences and the big 10 doesn’t get an automatic final appearance. How bout play in instead of backing in.

 

It is a race but bottom feeders don’t help much. Get teams that win titles or at least make the effort.

 

The 12 won’t be a super conference, just a pile of leftovers.

 

It’s different, though. FSU has only one choice to extricate itself from the ACC, which is to make itself so unlikable and disruptive that nobody wants them to hang around anymore. I truly believe that is their strategy - be as loud and obnoxious as possible so that the University President snobs get so annoyed they toss them out.

 

I’m sure I’m in the minority, but I actually enjoy watching Big 12 football. Even without OU/Texas, there is some really good and entertaining football.

 

I think the counter to that argument is, assuming the ACC GOR isn't broken, where will those programs outside the SEC/Big-10 be in 10 years? SEC/Big-10 schools will have over $300 million more than non SEC/Big-10 schools to invest in their athletics programs. Those schools on the outside are unlikely to be in a better place comparatively than they they are now. The gap between the SEC/Big-10 vs the ACC/Big-12/Pac-12 is likely to be much wider in 10 years.

I also believe that at some level, there are some informal agreements between the Big-10 and SEC on where they're going and who they're targeting. As I mentioned earlier, I think outside of Notre Dame, there is a very small handful of schools the Big-10 and SEC have interest in and there's relatively minimal overlap of schools they'd fight over (Notre Dame and UNC maybe?), even at a reduced payment.

Just my opinion, but I don't think either conference is going to take anybody for fear of missing out.

The super conference idea is highly unlikely to happen because I think not much of anything is likely to happen that requires any renegotiation with the TV networks. The TV networks blew their wad on the SEC, Big-10 and even the Big-12. I'm telling you, the Big-12 has arguably been the most shrewd of any conference on their TV deal. But now with what's going on with cord cutting etc., I don't think any of the TV sports networks have any money to give or TV inventory to sell.

Maybe you could get some non-sports TV network to carry more games, line TNT has, but how much could they pay. Other than maybe the remaining four corners going to Big-12, and the rest of the Pac-12 figuring out what to do, and a lot of bitching from FSU, I'm not sure much else happens.

Completely agree that if UW and Oregon get into Big-10 at half rate, which I think there's a decent chance will happen, it's a win-win for the schools and Big-10. UW and Oregon survive as tier 1 powers and the Big-12 totally owns the Pacific Coast night game TV slot. But as I've stated before, the monetary value of that late night TV slot is greatly diminished because most of the East and Central time zone audience is asleep by halftime. But it still has value.

You kinda lost me here. From what I've read, it doesn't sound likely that the Big-12 is going to add anybody beyond the four corner schools and it already has UConn on standby if Utah or ASU don't come. I think Utah and ASU would be crazy not to go to the Big-12 right now. They really don't have much of an alternative. SDSU is a large school, but it's a metro school and they don't have a particularly strong fanbase. I don't see SDSU or Fresno State driving a lot of TV viewership for the Big-12. At that point, I think it's likely the Mountain West Conference that tries to pick up the Pac-12 scraps, WSU and Oregon State in particular.

Personally, I think Cal, Stanford, UW and Oregon might all be better off keeping their options open by going independent if the Big-10 passes. Utah maybe as well. Maybe they can be an informal conference and do a scheduling arrangement with the ACC like they've discussed.

 

Arizona Board if Regents are meeting today, closed door, to discuss allowing both Arizona and ASU to leave the PAC. No decision will be announced today, but the rumor is Arizona to the BIG12 is 90% done. Today's meeting will mean it's 99% done, and the last step is the announcement.

ASU will likely bolt too. They have less desire to leave, but what options do they have, especially if the PAC dies?

 

It’s some good football, just no longer a power conference. There will only be two.

 

So we'll soon effectively have 3 pretty well defined levels of FBS college football:

Level 1 - SEC and Big-10
Level 2 - Big-12 and ACC
Level 3 - MWC, CUSA, MAC, AAC and Sunbelt