Report: OU & Texas reach out to join SEC

[HFCS]

I'm really having issues seeing the workability of an 18 or 20 team conference. Just seems to water down the desirable match ups each year (even with the Big Ten at 14 teams, it seems like you have way too many years where good teams don't end up playing each other).

A big question with pods for the Big Ten is do you group Michigan, OSU and Penn State together because of geography geographically or separate them because it can even the balance of the league.

A pod of NW, Indiana, Purdue and Illinois is not good unless it gets Michigan, ND or OSU added to it. At least the western pod could have Iowa and Wisc as two consistent football programs.

I do see how the Big Ten could work with a 5 or 6 team pod from the Pac and filling in with a few teams like ND, ISU, KU or an ACC team if that becomes possible.

It's now likely impossible any conference can match the SEC on the field. Big Ten/Pac merger alliance probably beats them in some other ways.

They tried being a little loose with geography on the leaders/legends thing and settled at east/west instead.

 

[dunar]

When was the last time the B1G made a bold move? Adding Maryland and Rutgers was a "huh?" and even kNU, while logical, was anything but bold. The raiding the PAC-12 would be bold, especially if it makes a 20 team league. I just don't see it, B1G is slow, safe, calculated. Exact opposite of the "Wild West Conference" that someone proposed, which actually sounded like a college version of the XFL. And sounded fun.

 

[cyIclSoneU]

The most likely move IMO is the B1G getting all four California schools along with Oregon and Washington. Maybe Arizona has a chance here as well.

The left-behind merger would be 14 schools - us eight plus Washington State, Oregon State, Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, and Utah.

Add in a BYU or a San Diego State (for CA presence) in WVU’s place if they either get an ACC invite or just can’t deal with this geography

 

[theshadow]

When was the last time the B1G made a bold move?

Taking Penn State, since it was pretty much the first domino of Realignment Circus Part I.

 

[LivntheCyLife]

I struggle to see the Big Ten wanting to extend that far west, or the PAC 12 teams wanting to join up with a conference that far east. The Big Ten is already strong. The PAC 12 has a nice conference that simply needs to expand to strengthen it's standing and broaden its reach. Picking up four Big 12 teams would do that (I'm thinking ISU, KU, OSU and one other).

The answers are money and keeping up with the SEC. I continue to feel this comes down to what do the big schools in the Big 10 and Pac 12 want to do.

Is there ever a point they say screw the big tv contracts and the SEC, we have enough money, we're not really competing for National Championships against Alabama and the like, let's go back to trying to win the Rose Bowl.

 

[SEIOWA CLONE]

money .. much more if they move to the BIG most likely.

True but how much more? Without a doubt the Pac 12 network has under performed with how much money it has brought in, but a large part of that is that is not one Direct TV and I am not sure its on Dish either. You also have to deal with the fact that many people on the West Coast, are really not into college sports, there are just so many other things to do out there to keep a person engaged rather than college sports.

 

[CyLyte2]

Completely agree, at what point do the Vanderbilt, MSU, Ole Miss, Kentucky's going to start pushing back against their conference when they keep bringing in teams that will only push them further down. I don't know how many times I've seen ESPN graphics show only the top 5 teams in each division so you don't even see the bottom couple of teams. Is the money really worth being completely marginalized!?

They are getting paid to be the cannon fodder. Every conference needs cannon fodder so the top teams can have good records.

 

[iowastatefan1929]

They are getting paid to be the cannon fodder. Every conference needs cannon fodder so the top teams can have good records.

precisely why we have more leverage than we think, but we need to prepared to take a 10 year budget cut and be patient

here are latest scribbles:
-decentralized, seek to maximize the chaos and competition and fairness of College Athletics
-current NCAA head is on board, has been talking decentralization for a few years
-each school can buy one Wild Country coin for 20 Million, which goes into a fund controlled by 50.1% of the coins
-50.1% of the coins can enact a motion
-each coin can be subdivided into unlimited fractions
-but only the University President can cast a vote for each coin
-in accordance with University presidents, all NIL done through Wild Country coin
-so advertisers buy the coin from the university, and then give to players in exchange for marketing
-players can receive Wild Country coin from the University
-any payment to players with anything other than Wild Country coin will result in expulsion by having the University Presidents on board
-University sets the market and covers their admin expanses via the Bid/Ask spread for the coin
-scheduling based on a combination of results, tv ratings and in person attendance, algorithms written that 50.1% of the coins approve
-collective media etc. rights sold off for all coins to for example Google, then each coin receives its share based on a combination of tv ratings, results, and in person attendance
-unlimited # of motions and algorithms to govern the Alliance can be enacted, voting can happen at any time, once a motion receives 50.1% of the coin vote, it is enacted
-the Alliance can take in unlimited amount of teams, from G5, P5 or FCS, as long as they can buy in
-system built to be able to handle many different tiers of teams
-50.1% of the coins can enact a Brand Ambassador, like Bill Snyder
-each coin is responsible for its fair share, based on pre agreed algorithms to contribute to a marketing budget

 

[Cyclonepride]

The answers are money and keeping up with the SEC. I continue to feel this comes down to what do the big schools in the Big 10 and Pac 12 want to do.

Is there ever a point they say screw the big tv contracts and the SEC, we have enough money, we're not really competing for National Championships against Alabama and the like, let's go back to trying to win the Rose Bowl.

I know it is a cast as some kind of a grand competition, but it's really not. If the Big Ten schools can make great money without sticking their necks out too far, that might just be okay for them. They'll still be competitive and get their share of shots at it, even if the SEC takes home more money and titles. I'd say the same about Fox. Stability has value too.

 

[cygrads]

I struggle to see the Big Ten wanting to extend that far west, or the PAC 12 teams wanting to join up with a conference that far east. The Big Ten is already strong. The PAC 12 has a nice conference that simply needs to expand to strengthen it's standing and broaden its reach. Picking up four Big 12 teams would do that (I'm thinking ISU, KU, OSU and one other).

Agree, the Big10 can afford to stand pat for awhile but the PAC 12 needs to do something before they become completely irrelevant.

 

[HFCS]

When was the last time the B1G made a bold move? Adding Maryland and Rutgers was a "huh?" and even kNU, while logical, was anything but bold. The raiding the PAC-12 would be bold, especially if it makes a 20 team league. I just don't see it, B1G is slow, safe, calculated. Exact opposite of the "Wild West Conference" that someone proposed, which actually sounded like a college version of the XFL. And sounded fun.

Penn State was a big and massively successful addition that outweighed the eventual scandal for them.

I think in hindsight with this OU/Texas move their idea to add ACC teams based purely on population of tv market rather than strength on the football field and entire athletic department is looking pretty dumb. Rutgers was definitely a mistake. Maryland is too early to be sure. Clemson, Virginia and UNC would have been better and in that climate of instability they all would have jumped.

 

[SEIOWA CLONE]

A big question with pods for the Big Ten is do you group Michigan, OSU and Penn State together because of geography geographically or separate them because it can even the balance of the league.

A pod of NW, Indiana, Purdue and Illinois is not good unless it gets Michigan, ND or OSU added to it. At least the western pod could have Iowa and Wisc as two consistent football programs.

I do see how the Big Ten could work with a 5 or 6 team pod from the Pac and filling in with a few teams like ND, ISU, KU or an ACC team if that becomes possible.

It's now likely impossible any conference can match the SEC on the field. Big Ten/Pac merger alliance probably beats them in some other ways.

They tried being a little loose with geography on the leaders/legends thing and settled at east/west instead.

If the Big 10 expands by picking over the Pac 12, they will not be expanding with Big 12 schools or ACC schools, and while they would give their left nut to get ND they are off the table and will never go to the Big 10. The ACC offered ND the two things that the Big 10 never will, independence in Football and allow them to retain the TV deal with NBC. No way the Big 10 allows either of them, no mater that they are located in the middle of the conference.

 

[HFCS]

Agree, the Big10 can afford to stand pat for awhile but the PAC 12 needs to do something before they become completely irrelevant.

Look at last year's NCAA tournament.

Pac was selected and seeded like it was the 6th or 7th best conference. It showed out as possibly the #1 conference.

Every year there is some conference that gets overseeded, that's normal, but I have never seen a conference remotely outperform their seeds the way the Pac did. I mean not even close.

 

[HFCS]

If the Big 10 expands by picking over the Pac 12, they will not be expanding with Big 12 schools or ACC schools, and while they would give their left nut to get ND they are off the table and will never go to the Big 10. The ACC offered ND the two things that the Big 10 never will, independence in Football and allow them to retain the TV deal with NBC. No way the Big 10 allows either of them, no mater that they are located in the middle of the conference.

If they took 5 or 6 out there, they have 14 existing teams to divide into 3 pods.

They'd need 1 or 4 depending on 5 or 6 team pods.

Just adding 2 west coast teams and sticking them in B10W seems like the least likely. It would be a pod.

 

[Dandy]

“A lot of work…” ??????? It’s been like 6 days. Thanks for helping the Big 12’s future lawsuits.

 

[cyrocksmypants]

money .. much more if they move to the BIG most likely.

I don’t know how much USC is overly concerned about that.

 

[isucally]

An undeniable law of physics when it comes to college football (or basically any form of competition) is that one team's success must come at the expense of another team. And this simple law of physics is the fatal flaw of the superconference.

The "blue blood" programs became blue bloods because they had a long history of success in their respective conferences. They achieved this long history of success because their conferences included weaker programs.

When you stack these blue blood programs into the same conference, the majority of them will no longer enjoy that degree of success. Their fans will become unhappy and their coaching staff will turn over. Of course, all these blue blood programs think they'll still be successful, but it's mathematically impossible.

Having many conferences stocked with programs of varying levels of success is vital to the ecosystem of college football. ESPN and the SEC have just destroyed this ecosystem because they no longer feel that $50+ million per year in TV revenue is satisfactory.

College football as we know it is about to die and greed will be the cause of death.

This is the most spot on post of this entire thread!

 

[Cloneon]

Imagine if the Big 10 had gotten in bed with ESPN instead of Fox.

Here is the irony. Disney is, supposedly, the embodiment of ethics.

 

[cyIclSoneU]

I'm really having issues seeing the workability of an 18 or 20 team conference. Just seems to water down the desirable match ups each year (even with the Big Ten at 14 teams, it seems like you have way too many years where good teams don't end up playing each other).

The best approach for $$$$ would be to just guarantee four or so opponents every year and then rotate through the rest.

20 team B1G = Iowa plays Nebraska, Minnesota, Wisconsin, (random school here) and Ohio State plays Michigan, Penn State, Illinois, USC every year; then they rotate through 5 of the remaining 15 teams. Oregon plays Washington, Cal, Michigan, (someone else). Something that that.

Use CFP committee rankings as a tiebreaker for CCG berths. Two best records get in otherwise. CCG isn't quite as important anyway with a 12-team playoff.

 

[AlumfromAmes]

The rumor is 4 to 6, they are interested in USC, UCLA, Oregon, Washington, and then 2 of the following Cal, Colorado, Utah and maybe Stanford.

That leaves the Big 12 the Arizona schools, Wash. ST, Oregon St. and two of Cal, Colorado, Utah or Stanford. Now which one of those schools is going to be an anchor school for the conference? Maybe Cal or Stanford, with who from the remaining Big 12 OSU, ISU, TCU, what network is going to pay 40 million for those schools?

This option is bad but not horrible like dissolving the conference or adding in ACC and MW teams.

Are all of the rumored “4 to 6” AAU schools?

When was the last time the B1G made a bold move? Adding Maryland and Rutgers was a "huh?" and even kNU, while logical, was anything but bold. The raiding the PAC-12 would be bold, especially if it makes a 20 team league. I just don't see it, B1G is slow, safe, calculated. Exact opposite of the "Wild West Conference" that someone proposed, which actually sounded like a college version of the XFL. And sounded fun.

When was the last time the Big 10 made a “good” move to improve the quality or prestige of its athletic power?! That’s a conference with a totally different philosophy. SEC is about collecting the most trophies and Big 10 is about collecting the most eyeballs. In the end, they’re both making money for their schools.