If it’s the SEC on their own and the Big 10 stays with everyone else, it would be hilarious
Realignment Megathread (All The Moves)
- Thread starter ISUcyclones11
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One of them wouldn’t survive, as-is, if it occurred
They’ll leave in tandem, just not officially
I agree. This would absolutely be a disaster for them, because you are regionalizing the sport to one of the poorest areas in the country.
You’d lose all casual fans from the rest of the country and may be slightly more successful than NASCAR (which would actually still have larger reach than the SEC). They have to bring the Big 10 if they’re going to do this.
And I still believe media rights are a bubble about to burst, which would lead to a consolidated Super League
It seems to me that the Big10 hates the SEC and would love the opportunity to make holier-than-though statements about how the SEC is selfish and doesn’t care about academics or athlete wellbeing. It would also make it easier for the Big10 to win national championships and rub it in the SEC’s face.
I kind of hope the SEC leaves and the Big10 stays. Reading all of the whining from SEC fans on Twitter would be hilarious.
The South is growing, and certainly rich enough to watch TV. Poors tend to be good markets for ratings
They won’t lose all casual fans. A good amount of casual fans will still watch them, given casual fans tend to watch the biggest brands. The SEC has more of the biggest brands than any conference
Imo if they do separate, expect there to eventually be a AFC vs NFC type Super Bowl that’s a boon for ratings and keeps nearly all the casuals
Count me in the minority I guess. I don't care about Bama v. Michigan in the Tires Plus Mega Football Championship Bowl presented by State Farm.
I think a good portion of the casuals will drop off (maybe not all, but a lot)- but I get the impression that the $EC and B1G's logic is driven by the idea that the fans of other schools (B12 and ACC) programs will keep watching and simply become fans of other programs. I don't think that logic is going to hold up over time.
The South may be growing, but it is extremely poor. 8 of the top 10 states with the highest poverty % are SEC states. Only 6 of the top 30 Nielsen DMA markets and only 12 of the top 50 are located in the SEC states. That cannot sustain a league at its current investment levels.
I strongly disagree casual fans will watch the SEC in large amounts. There needs to be a tie-in still for the casual viewer to maintain interest. Typically that is geographic, but it could be alum-based or individual popularity based. College sports viewing hasn’t traditionally been individual based with notable exceptions around players with personality + skill: Manziel, Tebow, Caitlin Clark, and Deion as a coach.
The Premier League is a good example. Soccer is popular in the U.S. 66M people in the U.S. watched the World Cup final across networks, which is 3x the average college football championship. And yet Premier League, the best and most popular soccer league in the world, averages 535K viewers per game in the U.S. Because there isn’t that geographic tie to the league in the U.S. That is what the SEC would be staring at if they breakaway without the B10.
Agreed B10 vs SEC would be like AFC vs NFC in NFL and could be great for ratings. I think it would severely limit the long term growth of the sport, but it would maximize short-term revenue for the individual brands.
As previously and clearly explained to you, the premium from CBS or NBC for the #1 GOTW would have more than offset any reduction from ESPN/Fox for the rest of the inventory, especially given neither network have made the B12 #1 game a priority given the weekly shuffling of it between time slots and networks.
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Per Josh Brooks, UGA AD => "We can't collude".
Got it this time?
With the Protect College Sports bill finally in hand, SEC leaders are discussing contingencies
As a bipartisan Senate bill to regulate college athletics gains traction, the SEC is already plotting its own radical roster-building workarounds
www.cbssports.com
I comprehend. I just think your takes are wrong and typically not rooted in reality.
You read someone on Aweful Announcing writing that a fixed window is only & best approach and take it as gospel. NBC priced the Big10 deal knowing they would predominately hold the Saturday night game, but NBC also knew it wasn't fixed because Notre Dame games could also be televised at night. But NBC achieved their goal of having Big10/ND games on for a 6-7 hour window on Saturday afternoon/night. Reality.
Sure it would be nice if every week FOX would show a Big 12 mid-afternoon game. But they can't because they have MLB Playoffs. And ESPN is showing a tri-fecta of SEC games. No brainer for ESPN because of SEC viewership levels vs. Big 12. More views means higher ad rates, which means more profit for ESPN.
Whether the Big 12 GOTW is at 3 or 7, Big 12 viewership is maximized by having a great lead-in game more than a consistent time.
You constantly say that FOX has effed over NBC & CBS in their Big 10 deal. Corporations in America are COMPETITORS. FOX wouldn't be a profitabily company if it didn't try to get-one-over on NBC/CBS. And it's CBS/NBC's job to make sure their media rights contract protects how NBC/CBS priced their $350M investment in Big 10 games.
Your explanation that NBC sold their rights to the 2026 Big 10 Championship Game as evidence that NBC is upset about their relationship televising Big 10 games. But the more likely explanation is NBC saw it as a profitable business transaction. NBC put the word out that they would sell the game for $70M and Amazon & Netflix were quickly mentioned. In the end FOX paid $45-$55M to NBC plus gave NBC another regular season game to televise. Sounds like a profitable decision by NBC recouping 20percent of their 2026 investment and a game. And who knows if Amazon was interested or if NBC could have legally sold the game.
Again clearly. Your example is not rooted in reality!!!
ESPN/FOX own 100percent of Big 12 inventory. So CBS or NBC would have ZERO opportunity to go directly to the Big 12 and buy a GOTW. But ESPN or FOX could sublicense the game and keep that premium for themselves!
If your idea is based on hypothetical that the Big 12 did not extend back in 2023 and went to open market. Sure the Big 12 could have segregated game inventory to have a GOTW. And could have sold it to the highest bidder. But that overlooks:
- If there was a sugar daddy for a GOTW back in 2023, don't you think Yormark and his media consultants would have got word? So back to reality, there was no deep pockets looking to spend on Big 12 sports.
- You also assume that if Big 12 went to open market and sold GOTW as a distinct piece of inventory that both FOX and ESPN would still be interested in rest of Big 12 media rights. It's just as likely that FOX & ESPN walk away or negotiate down.
If that's your 'gotcha', you're going to need to dig deeper. A throw in quote at the end of an article that has nothing to do with anything other than the SEC wanting to move enforcement in house isn't the smoking gun you want it to be.Per Josh Brooks, UGA AD => "We can't collude".
Got it this time?
With the Protect College Sports bill finally in hand, SEC leaders are discussing contingencies
As a bipartisan Senate bill to regulate college athletics gains traction, the SEC is already plotting its own radical roster-building workarounds
Again. This is conjecture.
If that deal existed you think Yormark and his team of media consultants wouldn't have known about it?
In the last negotiations, the big 12 and pac 12 played a game of chicken like the coyote and roadrunner. The big 12 turned like the roadrunner and said good enough whereas the coyote kept going and then ran off the cliff.
You still don't get it that an ideal OTA GOTW opportunity for the B12 evaporated when NBC and CBS engaged with Fox before the B12 deal was renewed with ESPN/Fox.
The what if being discussed is whether CBS or NBC would have been better off engaging with the B12 for its #1 GOTW at a presumed reduced price than engaging with Fox for primarily #2 or #3 games. And there is plenty of evidence that suggest one of them would have been better off despite your continued and weird mission to vigorously defend that CBS and NBC are satisfied with their Fox deals (obviously Fox is happy with their fleecing). And the #1 goal for the B12 in the next deal is to established a consistent OTA weekly home for its GOTW. It is how the SEC significantly grew its brand back in the 90s with their GOTW on CBS.
This is your problem, you take "ifs" and say it as a fact.
I want a lot of your posts to be right I just choose to live in reality.
Ratings only matter if the people watching will actually buy the products you’re advertising for. So, they may get eyeballs, they aren’t getting advertising dollars because of the demographic of being in a poor region.
This why the casual fan is so important. They don’t tend to be the die hard “all I live for is football because nothing else in my life makes me happy” crowd. Which trends to more of a middle to upper class demographic with disposable money.
Read post 38,235 slowly and carefully so you completely understand it.
I will cut and paste the relevant info and it wasn't a throw in quote at the end since you obviously didn't even read the linked article:
Similar ideas have been discussed within the Big Ten, but the conferences are not working together.
"We can't collude," Brooks said.
Yeah, that's why they aren't going to break away.
They're big enough to survive without everyone else, but they will make less money when all the people who are fans of other schools outside of those brands quit watching, and they know that.
They're getting Big 12, ACC, and G6 eyeballs without having to share a penny right now.
You're just so hopelessly divorced from reality that it's becoming more difficult than it already was to attempt to have a rational conversation with.
