Realignment Megathread (All The Moves)

[2speedy1]

And puts the Pac 10 at about $25 million. Not sure they would leap to the Big 12 for $5 million more.

Except, every other place I have seen says, Big 12 is projected at $40M+ as we sit right now after a new contract in 2025 with the 4 new adds and OUT.

Also reported that ESPN has offered/valued $220M for the 10 PAC schools, meaning $22M per.

I'm not math genius, but my daughter is, so I consulted with her and she said she was confident that 40M > 22M, by a substantial margin.

 

[isu81]

so I will be conservative and use the low end, 500 mil. The payout would be 31 mil per school?

Low end of 500 is $28/school.

 

[isucy86]

Outside of ND and Clemson. Is there a school outside the SEC or B1G worth adding that wouldn't dilute the school payouts?

Top candidates: UNC, Oregon... Seems like after that you would want the new school to take a smaller piece

Ideally, if a school would take a smaller payout, then they might be more attractive to the Big10. In the case of Stanford, if they are serious about sports, why wouldn't they agree to a half share of Big10 revenue? After all, as of August 31, 2021 their university endowment was 37.8 BILLION. They could skim 30 basis points off their endowment returns and generate $100,000,000.

If Notre Dame comes on board, that gives the Big10 some flexibility. Their media value is probably higher than Ohio State. So adding ND allows the Big10 to add multiple schools that are right at or even slightly lower than the $100M average payout/school.

 

[LeaningCy]

It really doesn't matter. I get that the PAC and Big 10 don't want to have an Ole Miss in their league, and like to have their leagues be top academic schools, but the two really have nothing to do with each other.

I know CW keeps bringing this up about Nebraska being in the Big 10 gives them research dollars, or UCLA going to the Big 10 was going to help Iowa get research dollars, but I can assure everyone, there is ZERO impact of what athletic conference you are in to research. Not that there isn't much, very little, or a tiny amount, but zero. I'm sure he's looking at that Big 10 alliance page where they say something $X in research. That's simply a sum of research dollars the individual universities got. That Alliance basically gets a discount on journal library access and software licenses through economies of scale.

As someone that's been in research including with schools from all major sports conferences, and as someone who reviews proposals, athletic conference membership has absolutely, and completely no impact on research. None. The Big 10 research alliance has absolutely and no impact on research dollars. None.

Zero research dollars are granted to an athletic conference. Hell, outside of MIT and probably the ivies and maybe Stanford, Very few research dollars even flow to the Universities.

Research is almost exclusively developed by faculty. They work together with colleagues that fit what they are doing. There is no thought to athletic conference. They might not even know what an athletic conference is. Nor do the people reviewing and awarding these.

Totally agree with this. As someone in industry who routinely partners with university professors on research proposals, I give absolutely no thought to their athletic conference. Zero.

The things we value in a partner are similar to any other line of work (expertise, unique capabilities/skillets, proximity, communication, rapport, etc.) I'm a huge ISU fan and work with lots of diehard college sports fans from other schools; none of us let our fandom interfere with putting forth the most competitive research team possible.

 

[LLCoolCY]

Low end of 500 is $28/school.

Just to note I believe the B12 is selling the Tier 1/2 rights and letting the schools own/shop their Tier 3 like as we have seen in the past. IF that is still the case the west coast presence of AppleTV/Amazon could raise the value for individual schools substantially.

 

[CyCrazy]

MHVer is the QAnon of realignment.

Reminds me of a year ago when people were reading tea leaves and drawing wild conclusions to get Iowa State in the B1G. It was B1GAnon. The comforting thought that an insider is sharing secrets with you and everything is going to work out wildly better than the haters believe.

Ya he has been a dumbasss for a decade. I remember him saying Clemson and FSU were a lock to join the B12

 

[iowastatefan1929]

Demand from ACC potential leftovers to get into the B12 appears to be growing in your various social medias.

Sorry I guess if the 4 corners isnt serious time to go East and give WVU some buddies.

 

[Gonzo]

Ideally, if a school would take a smaller payout, then they might be more attractive to the Big10. In the case of Stanford, if they are serious about sports, why wouldn't they agree to a half share of Big10 revenue? After all, as of August 31, 2021 their university endowment was 37.8 BILLION. They could skim 30 basis points off their endowment returns and generate $100,000,000.

If Notre Dame comes on board, that gives the Big10 some flexibility. Their media value is probably higher than Ohio State. So adding ND allows the Big10 to add multiple schools that are right at or even slightly lower than the $100M average payout/school.

Endowments are highly restricted as far as what the funding can/can't be used for, not something you can dip into whenever for whatever.

 

[isu81]

Just to note I believe the B12 is selling the Tier 1/2 rights and letting the schools own/shop their Tier 3 like as we have seen in the past. IF that is still the case the west coast presence of AppleTV/Amazon could raise the value for individual schools substantially.

I keep seeing that Apple/Amazon have some west coast preference. It's not like they're some local startups. They will go where it makes sense financially. Am I missing something?

 

[scyclonekid]

ESPN wants the deal, F them keep shopping and keep going after those other schools and keep 3rd tier open for apple and the likes. Let them get their feet wet and if it’s a success they hopefully go all in.

 

[Stormin]

My fear is that ESPN will look to combine the ACC and PAC leftovers into the #3 conference. No way are they going to seed #3 spot to FOX.

PAC and ACC leftovers might be a lesser Conference than Mountain West. And involve a hideous amount of travel. Wake Forest versus Oregon State. Gameday for that epic matchup.

 

[isu81]

Endowments are highly restricted as far as what the funding can/can't be used for, not something you can dip into whenever for whatever.

I also don't think the B10 would begin a precedent of non-equal revenue sharing. Sure, can be a delay in getting to full share, but schools will all get there IMO.

 

[Gorm]

Demand from ACC potential leftovers to get into the B12 appears to be growing in your various social medias.

Sorry I guess if the 4 corners isnt serious time to go East and give WVU some buddies.

Honestly, I think PITT would be a good addition to the conference.

 

[agrabes]

Just to note I believe the B12 is selling the Tier 1/2 rights and letting the schools own/shop their Tier 3 like as we have seen in the past. IF that is still the case the west coast presence of AppleTV/Amazon could raise the value for individual schools substantially.

Didn't that practice end in 2019? Well, partially end? It seems like 8 of the 10 schools packaged up their tier 3 rights to ESPN to have them broadcast on ESPN+. The deal was for $40M/year so $5M/school, but it excluded Texas and OU. I would imagine the deals being quoted today probably include the tier 3 rights.

Big 12 heading online for new Tier 3 media deal with ESPN+ - WV MetroNews

The Big 12 entered a new media-rights arrangement with ESPN. Here's what it means for West Virginia.

wvmetronews.com

 

[isucy86]

I really think you need to abandon geographic divisions somehow. UCLA is set up to struggle in this and they'll want USC playing the premier east schools at least as often as the west schools.

Iowa plays Ohio State like every 7th year right now it seems.

I can't remember how they did it when they had 11 teams and 2 rotated off. Probably do some kind of more complex version of that and matchup #1 and #2 of entire conference the way every other league is moving toward.

Yea, it seems like the best approach is determine protected rivals and then have a computer complete the schedule taking into account strength of opponent and last time they played. Personally, seems like playing 4-5 protected rivalries helps create more rivalries an then fill out a 9 game conference schedule. Who knows, if conferences grow to 20+ teams, maybe it makes sense to play 10 conference games. Especially if the conferences TV contracts are all held by different TV Partners.

If we get to the point where conferences have 20 teams, not sure why people feel it is important to play all teams with some frequency. Does it really matter if Iowa doesn't play Ohio State? I doubt Ohio State fans give a rip. Maybe Iowa fans do because it's their opportunity for David to beat Goliath. The important thing is for all conference teams to have a similar SOS.

 

[cyfan92]

Cincy was a great team last year, no doubt.

Since 2018*

 

[twojman]

Ya he has been a dumbasss for a decade. I remember him saying Clemson and FSU were a lock to join the B12

Supposedly this was true until Texas and Oklahoma said no on expansion. Obviously we'll never know that for sure though. Nobody will go on record for that for I am guessing like a decade.

 

[WhoISthis]

Oh yea, I was more wondering how it appeases the leftover ACC teams. They're gonna hate that.

Just my opinion, but I disagree

But given they are otherwise on a 2016 deal for 14 more years, and then a few are homeless, I think they’d quickly love it

It’s basically the Big 18+ACC leftovers we want, that we’ve heard will make much more than current ACC deal, but swapping out lowest value in Big 12 and replacing it with lowest value of ACC. (All saving ESPN some transaction costs too)

The leftover ACC will make more over the next 14 years AND remove risk they are left out. Huge win

 

[Stormin]

Honestly, I think PITT would be a good addition to the conference.

Football attendance isn’t all that great. Pittsburgh is a Pro Sports City. Pittsburgh is huge. But do people care? I think they are okay. We have 2-4 spots max. Wake Forest, Syracuse, Boston College are SOL. How many do B1G and SEC take? The others might be vying for limited spots at the #3 Table.

 

[2speedy1]

Didn't that practice end in 2019? Well, partially end? It seems like 8 of the 10 schools packaged up their tier 3 rights to ESPN to have them broadcast on ESPN+. The deal was for $40M/year so $5M/school, but it excluded Texas and OU. I would imagine the deals being quoted today probably include the tier 3 rights.

Big 12 heading online for new Tier 3 media deal with ESPN+ - WV MetroNews

The Big 12 entered a new media-rights arrangement with ESPN. Here's what it means for West Virginia.

wvmetronews.com

It is still considered a separate deal/contract I believe. Dont know if moving forward that will be the case. My guess is whoever they make a deal with will want to be able to put that content on their streaming platform etc.