Realignment Megathread (All The Moves)

[cykadelic2]

Pour one out for the SCORE Act....

Trouble With The SCORE Act

Many expected a House floor vote next week. That is no longer expected.

collegesportsmoney.substack.com

How could anyone have possibly seen this coming?

This is a good thing as I previously posted but you boys just focus on headlines.

As noted in the FOS article, Cody Campbell wants SCORE to be amended with SBA (not explicitly mentioned by FOS which is lazy reporting) and he has aligned both Dem and Republican support for that which increases the odds of a joint SCORE/SBA passage.

Of course, the ESPN/Fox puppets, Sankey and Pettiti, are fighting against the addition of SBA (which enables full FBS media rights pooling) and there is growing recognition of their bullying tactics and why they are against the SBA amendment.

Why is the SCORE Act in limbo? College sports’ long wait for help from Congress continues

After so much work has gone into pushing for federal legislation about college sports, the pressure is on to keep the momentum going.

www.nytimes.com

 

[Al_4_State]

What is the benefit to the B12 for a straight merge if the brands are gone. Pick who you want and leave the rest

I don't think Wake Forest and Boston College are going to be along for the ride

 

[1UNI2ISU]

This is a good thing as I previously posted but you boys just focus on headlines.

As noted in the FOS article, Cody Campbell wants SCORE to be amended with SBA (not explicitly mentioned by FOS which is lazy reporting) and he has aligned both Dem and Republican support for that which increases the odds of a joint SCORE/SBA passage.

Of course, the ESPN/Fox puppets, Sankey and Pettiti, are fighting against the addition of SBA and there is growing recognition of their bullying tactics and why they are against the SBA amendment.

Realignment Megathread (All The Moves)

I’m shocked that BYU is so low given their national, yet religiously niche fanbase

cyclonefanatic.com

Realignment Megathread (All The Moves)

I’m shocked that BYU is so low given their national, yet religiously niche fanbase

cyclonefanatic.com

I read the article. The main point is good luck getting anything passed that isn't some weird amalgamation of a whole bunch of different ideas that doesn't make anything better.

And as I, and several others, have mentioned be careful what you wish for on opening up the SBA. The NFL is way more powerful than Cody Campbell ever hopes to be and that's how you end up with the NFL on Fridays and Saturdays which just crushes your product.

 

[cykadelic2]

I don't think Wake Forest and Boston College are going to be along for the ride

They won't be the only ones from the ACC left behind. And if the top brands in the B12 truly wanted to best monetize payouts in the 2030s, they would merge with remaining top brands in the ACC and ditch the likes of UCF, Houston and UC.

And the current proceedings in DC suggest that Fed intervention is ongoing to possibly prevent additional relegation and destruction of existing P4 schools.

 

[cykadelic2]

I read the article. The main point is good luck getting anything passed that isn't some weird amalgamation of a whole bunch of different ideas that doesn't make anything better.

And as I, and several others, have mentioned be careful what you wish for on opening up the SBA. The NFL is way more powerful than Cody Campbell ever hopes to be and that's how you end up with the NFL on Fridays and Saturdays which just crushes your product.

LOL, your juvenile fascination with the NFL wanting to modify the SBA immediately after CFB gets SBA approval is senseless. Do you really think the Feds would approve that scenario and completely undercut the intent of CFB SBA approval.

And as being reported, there is obvious growing bipartisan agreement that saving Olympic and non-rev sports across all of FBS and combining SBA with SCORE will enable that. So it's not some kind of "weird amalgamation" as you suggest, you just refuse or are incapable of understanding it.

 

[CascadeClone]

I think a Big 12/ACC merger after the Big 10 and SEC pick the top ACC brands is inevitable.

I think this is what BY is strategizing for. You want the B12 to be the much stronger league when it happens, so B12 can set the rules for the ACC left behinds - and maybe skip a few if needed.

The football money is an issue, but if you end up with a #1 bball league you can parlay that into exposure and cash and success.

 

[cykadelic2]

Great summary here from Campbell and he is actually meeting with Sankey:

 

[cykadelic2]

Cody Campbell: The moment to save college sports is here. Congress must act now | Opinion

Modernize the Sports Broadcasting Act, dismantle the NCAA’s outdated model, and build a governing body where student-athletes aren’t pawns but partners.

www.usatoday.com

 

[CascadeClone]

What is the benefit to the B12 for a straight merge if the brands are gone. Pick who you want and leave the rest

Strength in numbers for one. Also you can do divisions, have your own 4 teams FB playoff for more revenue.

For basketball, imagine a 24 team B12 in cahoots with the 11 team Big East. You'd basically be a mini-NBA. Tons of games, tons of brands, tons of success. Travel is manageable because Big East is mostly in midwest and you gain exposure in the northeast. There's lots of interest and money in that.

Just because Syracuse and GTown have sucked lately, doesn't mean they always will. They just need good coaches. They have the history, the potential is there.

 

[2speedy1]

I think a Big 12/ACC merger after the Big 10 and SEC pick the top ACC brands is inevitable.

That league will get a few teams in the playoffs, be part of the NCAA tournament, and make a lot less money. They won't be locked out of the future, but they'll be at a permanent economic disadvantage.

Which honestly, most of them have been fighting their entire existence.

I dont know if it will be a full on merger. It may be a B12/SWC type merger at that point too. Where a few teams from one or both conferences get left out. The problem with full mergers is you have to take the really low value, least desirable teams too. And I dont know if that is viable moving forward. But again a lot can change.

I do think there are a few teams in both the B12 and ACC that would be really worried in that scenario.

 

[Al_4_State]

I dont know if it will be a full on merger. It may be a B12/SWC type merger at that point too. Where a few teams from one or both conferences get left out. The problem with full mergers is you have to take the really low value, least desirable teams too. And I dont know if that is viable moving forward. But again a lot can change.

I do think there are a few teams in both the B12 and ACC that would be really worried in that scenario.

I think there are schools in the ACC that will voluntarily drop out of higher level college athletics at some point. Wake Forest and BC in particular.

As another poster said, it seems like there are winds swirling to prevent schools from being kicked out. But some may back out because they have no ability to stick around.

 

[FinalFourCy]

What is the benefit to the B12 for a straight merge if the brands are gone. Pick who you want and leave the rest

Depends on the alternative.

If that’s what espn wants, there is a benefit.

 

[CycloneT]

I think there are schools in the ACC that will voluntarily drop out of higher level college athletics at some point. Wake Forest and BC in particular.

As another poster said, it seems like there are winds swirling to prevent schools from being kicked out. But some may back out because they have no ability to stick around.

The only schools I can see form the ACC voluntarily dropping down would be Cal and Stanford and a whole lot of stuff would have to go wrong for that.

 

[1UNI2ISU]

LOL, your juvenile fascination with the NFL wanting to modify the SBA immediately after CFB gets SBA approval is senseless. Do you really think the Feds would approve that scenario and completely undercut the intent of CFB SBA approval.

And as being reported, there is obvious growing bipartisan agreement that saving Olympic and non-rev sports across all of FBS and combining SBA with SCORE will enable that. So it's not some kind of "weird amalgamation" as you suggest, you just refuse or are incapable of understanding it.

This is from Frank the Tank. Noted sports business columnist that also happens to be a lawyer. (@frankthetank111)

I believe that this is firmly in the land of unintended consequences for Cody Campbell.

The reason why Campbell would want the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 to be changed is to enable a vision of a 72-team or so perpetually misnamed “Super League” funded by private equity that essentially equalizes all of the P4 or some other mechanism where the P4 would pool all of their TV rights together.

The first question that should always come to mind with every single proposal in college sports: why would the Big Ten and SEC ever agree to this?

The second question if you believe that the Big Ten and SEC would agree to this, isn’t it because they would now be allowed to sell their TV rights together on their own as a P2-only media rights package and keep all of the money themselves as opposed to joining a 72-team Super League?

The third question that comes to mind with respect to any reopening of the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961: isn’t this inviting the NFL to come in to say that the law is totally from a different universe (which it very much is as it came two decades before cable starting getting into households at a material level, much less the Internet and streaming) and, therefore the restrictions on the NFL playing on Fridays and Saturdays in the fall should no longer apply (as the networks that the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 is supposed to protect would LOOOOOOOOOOOVE NFL games every single day of the week)?

I honestly can’t believe that anyone other than the NFL, Big Ten and SEC would ever think it’s a good idea to amend the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961. There is severe naïveté in thinking that the Big Ten and SEC would ever agree to pool rights with the Big 12 and ACC teams again when they can just pool their rights into a P2-only package and keep far more money.

 

[Al_4_State]

This is from Frank the Tank. Noted sports business columnist that also happens to be a lawyer. (@frankthetank111)

You get the SEC and Big 10 in on this by making the payouts merit based.

Payouts would be based on generated revenue (IE ratings) and how much a given school brings to the table. So if you're Texas or Ohio State and this whole pooling of rights has created a larger overall pile of money, and you're getting paid out what you bring to the table instead of getting the same cut as Vanderbilt and Rutgers.

Those mid to low tier SEC and Big 10 schools would likely oppose this (although there's opportunity for them to do better if they earn it), but if you pitch it that way you would have the entirety of the ACC and Big 12 + the blue bloods on the same side of the issue, and the SEC/Big 10 mid to lows their only opposition.

I don't think any serious person is suggesting Ohio State and Texas are going to sign up for equal pay with Wake Forest and Houston.

 

[FinalFourCy]

This is from Frank the Tank. Noted sports business columnist that also happens to be a lawyer. (@frankthetank111)

Frank doesn’t have a good track record on realignment since the conference network based moves 15 years ago

He argued against USC to BIG being likely , didn’t see the PAC falling, was an “ironclad” guy on ACC, etc

He’s also tends to view things from an Illinois fan point of view, which naturally makes his Overton window quite narrow on this topic

 

[1UNI2ISU]

Frank doesn’t have a good track record on realignment since the conference network based moves 15 years ago

He argued against USC to BIG being possible, didn’t see the PAC falling, was an “ironclad” guy on ACC, etc

He’s also tends to view things from an Illinois fan point of view, which naturally makes his Overton window quite narrow on this topic

No disagreement. Just wanted to point out the the NFL stuff is out there, he was just the most readily available voice on it.

 

[cykadelic2]

This is from Frank the Tank. Noted sports business columnist that also happens to be a lawyer. (@frankthetank111)

Frank isn't a noted mainstream sports business columnist. Secondly, he is overly pro-B10 and always has been.

Thirdly, he doesn't think through the NFL angle. As previously posted, there is no effin way the Feds would grant a SBA amendment for the NFL that would undercut SBA amendment approval for CFB, especially given the free farm system that CFB provides to the NFL.

And finally, the B10 and SEC don't get their Anti-Trust exemption if they don't agree to the SBA amendment that enables full FBS pooling (not just SEC/B10). That's why SCORE won't be approved without the SBA amendment.

 

[cykadelic2]

Frank doesn’t have a good track record on realignment since the conference network based moves 15 years ago

He argued against USC to BIG being likely , didn’t see the PAC falling, was an “ironclad” guy on ACC, etc

Frank was right about the ACC GOR being ironclad. It still is as is the B12's. What changed was the reduction in agreed upon exit fees, not the GOR.

 

[CascadeClone]

You get the SEC and Big 10 in on this by making the payouts merit based.

Payouts would be based on generated revenue (IE ratings) and how much a given school brings to the table. So if you're Texas or Ohio State and this whole pooling of rights has created a larger overall pile of money, and you're getting paid out what you bring to the table instead of getting the same cut as Vanderbilt and Rutgers.

Those mid to low tier SEC and Big 10 schools would likely oppose this (although there's opportunity for them to do better if they earn it), but if you pitch it that way you would have the entirety of the ACC and Big 12 + the blue bloods on the same side of the issue, and the SEC/Big 10 mid to lows their only opposition.

I don't think any serious person is suggesting Ohio State and Texas are going to sign up for equal pay with Wake Forest and Houston.

His 2nd point is the most critical. Not only would the P2 be capable of doing the collective bargaining on their own and shank the others, the buyers would prefer it!