Realignment Megathread (All The Moves)

[isucy86]

For what it's worth here's a quote from a source which had decades inside the P12 office...
"Longest conference road trip for LA schools was to Seattle, Pullman and Boulder. Each at 1,100 miles. Shortest trip in the Big Ten will be to Lincoln at 1,500 miles. Those schools will eat up that 100 million distribution in no time with charters and extended road trips. Ucla softball won't go to Maryland for a 3-game series and fly home. They'll be like a professional baseball team and hit Maryland, Rutgers and Penn State of a 10-day trip. Not easy on the STUDENT-Athlete, to be gone from campus for extended periods of time."

Big 10 will make it work. Baseball & Softball are toughest since they involve 3 games series. The the Maryland, Rutgers & Penn State road trip isn't going to happen. First of all, one of those teams will travel west. Second, cross country road trips will be spread out.

In other sports like soccer, volleyball, basketball, etc. the logistics have already been proven. The Pac10 does it today- USC travels to both Oregon & Oregon State for a Thu/Sat trip. Back in the day, the Big10 did this as well. Each school had a "travel partner". So Iowa would travel to LA and play both USC & UCLA. We already see basketball games 7 days a week. So we'll see Thu/Sat, Fri/Sun type game turnarounds.

Also, I am not convinced that a teams FB, MBB, VB & WBB conference will match up with Olympic Sport conference. AD's are smart enough to figure out in sports that don't generate revenue, there is no reason to send ISU to West Virginia for a tennis match. When they could just as easily travel to Mizzou.

 

[BCClone]

ALLIANCE- A REAL one, not a bs one - between ACC, big12 and pac12. Make a league.

Clemson, do you want to be the big dog in a 30+ team league, or the 10th team in SEC? We can call it the Knight League sponsored by Nike.

This may explain why we weren’t in the alliance at first. Fox had this planned. Keep us out so we can help kill the PAC and they take the big ten and big 12.

 

[Cloneon]

Big 10 will make it work. Baseball & Softball are toughest since they involve 3 games series. The the Maryland, Rutgers & Penn State road trip isn't going to happen. First of all, one of those teams will travel west. Second, cross country road trips will be spread out.

In other sports like soccer, volleyball, basketball, etc. the logistics have already been proven. The Pac10 does it today- USC travels to both Oregon & Oregon State for a Thu/Sat trip. Back in the day, the Big10 did this as well. Each school had a "travel partner". So Iowa would travel to LA and play both USC & UCLA. We already see basketball games 7 days a week. So we'll see Thu/Sat, Fri/Sun type game turnarounds.

Also, I am not convinced that a teams FB, MBB, VB & WBB conference will match up with Olympic Sport conference. AD's are smart enough to figure out in sports that don't generate revenue, there is no reason to send ISU to West Virginia for a tennis match. When they could just as easily travel to Mizzou.

Of course they'll make it work. BUT, the fact remains: travel budgets and student demands suffer. They may not eat through all of it, but non-revenue sports will cost a lot more.

 

[Acylum]

Can someone explain to me why we need Utah so bad when we already have BYU?

The perplexing one to me is Washington. I don’t get that at all.

 

[FriendlySpartan]

The biggest is title 19 equality if Iowa State doesn't land in the Big 10 and it is a carrot for Iowa to push membership. People argue that puts Iowa at a disadvantage. Nonsense. Barta already puts Iowa at a disadvantage much worse than this.

Do you mean title 9? If so that would have absolutely nothing to do with sharing media dollars, that is an institution by institution deal.

 

[JUKEBOX]

To kill the PAC 12. This move would be more to make sure we survive as the #3 conference than anything else.

Yes I think if the Big 12 gets a couple teams to sign on from the Pac, that conference is basically dead.

I think it will still exist, and they will probably invite teams like Fresno, Boise, etc. But it will basically be Mountain West +.

That would force the remaining teams like Cal, Stanford, Oregon, and Washington to either pray for a Big 10 invite, go to the Big 12, or nuke their athletic department.

 

[theshadow]

AD's are smart enough to figure out in sports that don't generate revenue, there is no reason to send ISU to West Virginia for a tennis match.

The Big 12 round-robin already extends to soccer and tennis, believe it or not.

 

[isucy86]

Can someone explain to me why we need Utah so bad when we already have BYU?

Money!!

Utah probably has as much TV rights value as any of the schools in the new Big12.

Every conference is trying to determine its average TV rights value/school. So if the Big12 thinks it can get $35M/year/school (2025 $'s), then any new addition should meet that $35M threshold.

Pretty sure Utah, Colorado and Az State all exceed that threshold. And I think Utah and Arizona State are probably far above if reports that Big10 could consider them.

 

[Cyforce]

To kill the PAC 12. This move would be more to make sure we survive as the #3 conference than anything else.

That's the wrong answer. We overreacted and took more than we should of last time. We should take the schools that benefit the conference best. Putting the PAC on life support is just as good. Of the 4 apparently available if you take one AZ and CO this could shake Oregon and Washington loose if the BiG isn't interested.

 

[RustShack]

Can someone explain to me why we need Utah so bad when we already have BYU?

Because they are a good program, ending the PAC will be very beneficial for the Big12, and really there aren’t many better options. We want to get to 16+ schools like the big boys.

Looking at Utahs record the last few years,

10-4
3-2(Covid)
11-3
9-5
7-6
9-4
10-3
9-4

Looks like a solid addition to me.

 

[Kinch]

Do you mean title 9? If so that would have absolutely nothing to do with sharing media dollars, that is an institution by institution deal.

Yes, title 9. extra 1 there. Institution by institution doesn't matter in love, war and politics, if they are governed by the same board, now does it.

 

[JP4CY]

The perplexing one to me is Washington. I don’t get that at all.

As in adding them?
ISU+tailgating on water=what could go wrong?

 

[RustShack]

That's the wrong answer. We overreacted and took more than we should of last time. We should take the schools that benefit the conference best. Putting the PAC on life support is just as good. Of the 4 apparently available if you take one AZ and CO this could shake Oregon and Washington loose if the BiG isn't interested.

Take all four. If Oregon and Washington don’t go to the B1G, then you take all six.

 

[Acylum]

As in adding them?
ISU+tailgating on water=what could go wrong?

Yeah I don’t get the alllure of them to any conference.

 

[FriendlySpartan]

Yes, title 9. extra 1 there. Institution by institution doesn't matter in love, war and politics, if they are governed by the same board, now does it.

Umm according to the actual law it does. If they are separate school systems like Michigan and Sparty then each school has its own title 9 compliance they don’t cross over

 

[isucy86]

The Big 12 round-robin already extends to soccer and tennis, believe it or not.

I realize that. But in the future does that change?

Athletic Directors haven't seen inflation at the levels we are seeing today and could see for an extended period of time.

How many people on this board know who was the Big12's champ in gymnastics, tennis, soccer, track, etc. etc. So why not treat big revenue sports differently from Olympic sports. Would ISU soccer be better served playing a conference schedule of upper Midwest teams? I would say the same for Iowa soccer.

Travel costs don't really add to the development of the athlete. Money can be better spend on coaching, training facilities, equipment, etc.

 

[Cloneon]

Take all four. If Oregon and Washington don’t go to the B1G, then you take all six.

No offense, but all this talk about adding the ones we want is babble unless in the back channels the media sponsorship is singing good future numbers. The options will follow the money. Fox and ESPN IMO are close to being spread too thin. Borrowing is getting too expensive. Unless additional money is injected into the B1G or SEC, I see them soon staying pat. The remaining question mark is how well is B12 management at soliciting new potential revenue. That should be the focus of speculation first. Not what teams we want.

 

[JP4CY]

Yeah I don’t get the alllure of them to any conference.

They're a pretty wealthy AD from what I've always heard.

 

[FriendlySpartan]

They're a pretty wealthy AD from what I've always heard.

Great AD, have had success in football in the recent past, exploding area, excellent academics. Plenty of good reasons to take them but man that would be an awkward fit.

 

[Kinch]

Umm according to the actual law it does. If they are separate school systems like Michigan and Sparty then each school has its own title 9 compliance they don’t cross over

They do if all of a sudden one institution is forced to get rid of one or two women's sports and the other institution increases the salary of its football coach to $10 million and the AD to $5 million. Guess who loses the lawsuit?