Williams/Blum Quarantine Pod: Realignment? Bulls/ISU. California / COVID recruiting
- Thread starter ChrisMWilliams
- Start date
I enjoyed the talk about realignment being good for the Big 12 for once. I could definitely see Arizona, ASU, and Colorado coming over, maybe paired with West Virginia leaving amicably for the ACC. We might end up in a division with the new schools + the Kansas schools.
Another note if Arizona joined the Big 12 in the near future is that Paul Rhoads could coach against Iowa State.
I could see the Pac replacing those schools with Boise State, UNLV, and Colorado State or maybe BYU.
Another note if Arizona joined the Big 12 in the near future is that Paul Rhoads could coach against Iowa State.
I could see the Pac replacing those schools with Boise State, UNLV, and Colorado State or maybe BYU.
Last edited:
To @brentblum, re: Nebraska basketball: Zero NCAA Tournament wins in history. Highest seed was #3 in 1991, lost to Xavier in first round.
Whoopie Goldberg will be elected the next Pope before the California Pac-12 schools will admit Boise State, UNLV, and BYU into their elite academic fraternity. May be an athletic conference, but the academic snobbery is intense. Colorado and Utah got in only because they are highly regarded academic institutions and AAU members.
Don't see Colorado coming back or the PAC taking Boise or BYU - they don't want religious schools and to them Boise is not in their league academically. Also don't see ACC taking WVA due to academics. One move that I would like to see is the SEC send Missouri back and Big12 send WVA to the SEC. This helps both leagues from a geographic standpoint.
If you are talking about looking to go from 12 to 14, sure. If your conference just got raided and you’re down to 9 institutions, it’s a whole different ballgame. The Pac-12 doesn’t even have the same pre-Nebraska “AAUs only” status that the B1G had. And there are zero AAU options available to the Pac-12. Maybe they would take Boise State for football only, Gonzaga for basketball only, and stick at 9 for the non-revenue sports. Who knows. But there aren’t really a lot of options in that situation and they are going to have to pick one of them (in this hypothetical).
What does adding of those schools do the Pac12 if they’re down to 9? Gaining a conference championship game isn’t worth diluting what’s already a threatened pot of money. How much inequitable of a payout would it take to keep the other 9 whole?
Suppose they need to "promote" schools like BYU, Boise St. and maybe UNLV, Wyoming, or Utah St to fill the void and be viable. Obviously that would only work if ESPN would accept a diluted PAC12 product to keep the network or be able to void the contract. I would be really curious if USC would go independent rather than stay in an unprofitable college model.
Didn't know the Coach Rhoads was now the Arizona DC. Good for him. He has moved back up the ladder pretty quickly.
I agree, he still has a chance to be a head coach again if the UA defense is successful.
If the Big 12 poaches Pac12 schools and USC goes independent, one could seen it to cascade into not only conference realignment, but intercollegiate athletics Armageddon. Maybe not, but we’ve been heading that direction for awhile.
I still think that this virus thing has accelerated the split between the haves and have nots. I think the P5 schools have to break away and form a newer league in order to work together. Many, many challenges and it will behoove all to work together. So I think this will be much less acrimonious between the leagues and instead they work together. Ultimately I think we get to major reorganization not about the leagues but about geography, because that is the best solution.
No they wouldn’t.
P5 conferences aren’t going to subsidize anymore programs than they have to already. The P5 isn’t expanding the next round. It’ll be realignment or contraction.
The Big 12 will not make those additions and I'm surprised Chris and Todd mention it. You tell me the last highly rated ASU or AZ game. Colorado isn't much better. The value to the tv contracts is the T1 and the 1 or 2 best T2 games of the week. ASU & AZ won't help the tv numbers that much if any. Colorado doesn't do much more either, maybe there could be a little nostalgia against OU at first but thats about it. Assuming their mediocre status, I don't think it does much for the tv contracts and probably in likelihood decreases revenue per team not increases.
The league would have to split the playoff money, and bowl money more ways and even if the league gets another bowl game or two they will be the lower tier ones you don't make anything off of. The only reasons to make a 3 team addition like that is the "appearance of stability" and to a lesser extent those states are growing but they are not going to be population centers anytime soon.
If the Big 12 doesn't get a Southern California school, I can't see where it will make sense from a tv revenue standpoint. Oregon & Washington could have decent ratings but they wouldn't come without a Southern California school also.
Below are the tv ratings for every game last year.
https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/college-football-tv-ratings/
There’s literally been talks of completely changing conferences for the teams that can play, since it sounds like California could be out this year. It’s not about money right now, it’s about proximity and just playing in general for the year.
