Realignment Megathread (All The Moves)
- Thread starter ISUcyclones11
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ESPN+ is very much here to stay. Particularly in basketball. In fact, it will probably expand its big 12 catalog with two extra games per week.
Hey at least it's not Longhorn Network.
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CycloneErik
Well-Known Member
It's very evident these 2 have a strange working relationship. Crow very subtly directs some of Anderson's answers. In the PAC circles, it sounds like Anderson is looked at as one of the worst AD's in the league, and Crow from an athletics standpoint is also one of the worst league presidents.
Not shocking, but just goes to show what people really think behind closed doors.
It looks like he left ISU as a professor the same year that I graduated. It's kind of creepy the way he followed me.
And not just being the clear #3, I think it is helpful in ensuring playoff access and avoiding an explicit breakaway by the Big 10 and SEC. It took this chaos to finally start hearing some of the media come around to what we've been saying on here for a long time. College football is a successful product because you draw fans from around the country to watch games. You essentially have a 60 ish team league that draws viewers from fans of NEITHER school.
Locking down as much geography as possible is a good move by the Big 12. I've always been in favor of adding all four corners for that reason. Way more difficult to lock out pretty much the US Southwest, Mountain region, and western plains, as well as some good, passionate Big 12 fanbases.
And while we will never match up with the viewership of the SEC or Big 10, the Big 10 additions have diluted two major factors in fan interest - regionality and rivalries. BYU and Utah will instantly be the most hateful rivalry in the Big 12. Arizona and ASU get soft viewership in most of their games, but the in-state rivalry game is big. And it sure seems like Houston and TTU freaking HATE each other. That's also why I want to see the ACC get poached and have the Big 12 pick up Pitt. Pitt-WVU will be epic.
ISU-KSU, KSU-KU are great rivalries. Renewing rivalries with CU will be great. This is going to be a fun league, and it's going to have passion that can't be manufactured. That comes through when you watch, and the Big 12 is going to gain in interest and reputation.
Does CF have a location of links to conference members' message boards (preferably ones which are not paid access and decent activity)? It would be nice to read what the others are talking about this subject, without having threads blocked as I'm not a paying/registered member.
For being a conference that prides itself on academics, they sure don't know how to do simple math. "Can you take all 9 of us except for two of us". So...you mean 7.
Honestly, probably just getting the preliminary vetting out of the way in case something happens down the road that we don't see coming.
Feels a lot like 2016 when we vetted a bunch of schools and had them ready to go at the snap of a finger when OU/UT left.
As other have said, the only expansion I could be down for is if somehow we make it work to get UConn/Gonzaga basketball only (which I don't even know if possible tbh).
Posted earlier, but he was at ISU during the Gordon P. Eaton regime, so he may have a similar mindset when it comes to athletics - ie sports are for unwashed peasants and not worthy of an academic institution.
But yet it sounded like he was actually an athlete during his own time as a student here. So much of what I hear from this guy just leaves me puzzled.
Having the backyard brawl in conference would be terrific.
I do think the new-to-the-conference, yet traditional, rivalry games will increase interest. Nebraska v Iowa just isn't becoming a passionate rivalry at all despite the attempts to manufacture it.
The good thing is, any additional adds wouldn't take full price.
The Big12 TV money will be north of $60M after the 12 team playoff goes out to open market for 2026 season.
I think G5 schools will be between $15-$20M and that's contingent if P4 conferences continue to give G5 schools 20% of CFP media rights $.
So gotta believe Pac4 schools, UConn or SDSU could be added on the cheap. Just a matter what are ESPN's (After Dark) and FOX's (Hoops?) programming needs.
That struck me as odd as well, but maybe the math was Pac10 less ORWA plus SDSU?
I had to stop watching when he described Apple as a 23rd century company because they can digitize games and make them available anywhere at the touch of a button.
Wait til this dumb **** discovers YouTube TV, or the internet for that matter.
