I wish there was more central oversight to this whole process. I think a lot of good could come from college football reorganizing, but not this way.
I wish there was more central oversight to this whole process. I think a lot of good could come from college football reorganizing, but not this way.
Newest News on the front is Baylor won't wave it's right to sue and thus holding up aTm's move to the SEC.
Oklahoma is flirting with the Pac 12. Pac 12 isn't sure about expanding.
And in the I can't believe Tobacco Road would be dumb enough to let this happen category...
Texas has begun talks with the ACC. Mainly Swofford is apparently willing to let Texas keep its network. Look at their track record and see what happened to the last couple conferences they were associated with. They would CRUSH most of the conference in their spending. FSU has responded with setting up a conference exploratory committee that would look getting into the SEC. Virginia Tech is also unhappy with this turn of events. The Pac 12 has USC/UCLA to keep Texas in check, no one in the ACC would provide that sort of check and balance to Texas.
Originally Posted by teamselig
I wouldn't assume that just because the ACC is doing some preliminary talking with Texas, that it will automatically go along with anything Texas wants. There is very definitely an existing power structure in the ACC. In fact, I'd wager there are a few schools who might not mind Texas as a counterweight to that existing power structure.
The "pod" idea is interesting, though, because it implies the ACC would be willing to consider other Big 12 or Texas schools for the sake of a southwest foursome.
Reading comprehension is not just an ability, it's a choice
I was debating this with my friends the other day. The big schools will get there's and the others will get hosed. Just for fun lets assume that the Big 12 disbands with Oklahoma heading to the Pac12. You would have to imagine that Oklahoma St. would follow suit and head towards the Pac12 as well. So by my calculations there are two big fish out there:
Texas - Armed with the Longhorn network they pretty much can do what they want. The can go independent and become self sustainable. But the issue I see is what happens if the NCAA goes to football super conferences? Texas would need to join a conference in order to be playoff eligible.
Notre Dame - Perhaps the biggest fish of them all. The NBC agreement lets them stay independent for as long as they wish. But with the super conference scenario they need to join a conference. The Big 10 is the likely landing spot for them. Heck it has been the likely landing spot for the past couple of decades. But here is where everything gets interesting. Armed with Notre Dame the Big 10 has now gotten every TV market across America. They are in NYC and LA. They are probably in Boston and Philly. The only question would be the Dallas area. If the Big 10 gets those markets they don't have a need to take in any other schools. What does Pitt bring that Penn State already doesn't? What does Missouri and Kansas and KSU bring that Nebraska and ND don't. Syracuse? Already have NYC what does Syracuse bring?
I think the SEC gets very very interesting. Do Miami and FSU make the jump? Two prestigious academic schools jumping to the SEC? Location wise them make sense but not academic wise. What happens with Virginia, UNC, NC State and Duke? Three very prestigious academic schools as well as NC State who won't be left behind. I don't see them making the jump to the SEC. Do they stay with FSU and Miami and invite the likes of Louisville, UC, WVU, and Pitt? What happens to Kansas, KSU, ISU? What do they really have to offer? Are they forced to join the Big East?
A big benefactor of all this may be Xavier and UD. They may head to the basketball Big East and join a power conference. A big question is what happens with UC? Where do they end up? There are a lot of options to kick around with all the realignment.
First the B10 has been way, way to silent during this process. There is little chance they're sitting back and thinking "we'll sort it out later" Jim Delany and the B10 brass has to be having conversations with multiple schools, some more realistic than others I'm sure, but I believe a lot of the future of conferences will be shaped by what the B10 does. Mainly, what the B10 does will influence the likelyhood of the Big East's survivol in football. If the B10 expands to 16, I'd have to think that 2 out of Notre Dame, Missouri, Texas and Kansas are involved. I'm also guessing they'd want to expand east to 2 of Maryland, Syracuse or Rutgers to capture the NYC/DC markets and the increased cable rights fees that go along with it.
Long term, I don't believe going independent is a real option for Texas moving forward. The P12 has moved to a 9 game conference schedule I believe. The B10 has plans to do likewise in the near future. The main driving force is the TV money is higher for a conference game than a non-conference game vs some scrub warm up type team. Assuming the 12 game season remains intact (perhaps a foolhearty assumption) that leaves only 3 non conference games for BCS teams if/when they go to a 9 conference game format. Those same teams will likely want 2 "buy" games to fill their stadium and coffers and provide warm up for the conference. That leaves 1 game, most often early in the season for an early season, regional rivalry or a national marquee matchup. Going Indy would make mid - late season scheduling tough for Texas. I think they'd at least need some sort of quasi-conference arangement like Notre Dame has w/ the Big East to ensure some decent mid-season matchups. You can only play the army and navy's of the world so often.
On top of that, I have my doubts on the long term success of the LHN. ND on NBC works, because people across the country turn into ND football. Few people care about Texas football outside of the SW. Sure I'll watch a Texas matchup if its on ESPN, but no way am I going to cash out additional money to get a premium LHN channel to catch any Texas game. ESPN is already finding trouble getting the LHN on texas cable, its going to be even harder getting. On top of that, limiting a channel to strictly Texas means you'll have very little inventory of programming. There's not much of an audience for women's lacross or swimming.
If it becomes apparent that the 16 team format is going to come about, I also don't think Notre Dame will have much of an option but to join a conference. As mentioned above, scheduling will become tougher than it is today and it would shut them off from much of the future of NCAA football. I don't quite understand why the BCS allows ND the advantages that they do today in the BCS (I think they get an automatic invite w/ a top 12 finish) Why share that money and opportunity when you can split it amongst the 4 "super conferences".
Having done a lot of reading lately, Florida State is definitely the clash point of the two schools of thought regarding why and how the SEC should expand.
The first says what you said -- the geographic footprint is all-important, and there's no point in adding schools where they already are. The thing that will get ESPN/CBS to fork over more money is to have more TV markets be SEC home markets. Using that logic, adding FSU makes no sense because the SEC is already in Florida.
The second school of thought says, that's old-expansion thinking. The big SEC TV deals are already national, not regional, so adding schools in Virginia or North Carolina won't get the SEC on TV anywhere it's not already on. The thing that will get ESPN/CBS to fork over more money is to increase national ratings by increasing the inventory of attractive national TV matchups. Using that logic, FSU is the best choice because it has the biggest national brand name of the schools available to the SEC. (Let's assume for a minute that Texas and Notre Dame aren't in this discussion.)
Danged if I know what the SEC is actually thinking. In the end, as long as TV is providing the money to make all this work, what TV wants is what's going to matter.
Reading comprehension is not just an ability, it's a choice
Unless it doesn't.
As a Seminole fan, I'm ambivalent about it because there are so many possibilities of how things could break, I honestly don't know what's best for the school. (I have plenty of company; at least where I hang out the most, there is little consensus on the issue.) I have no real fear of FSU being left out of the ultimate superconference party, but beyond that, it's like trying to see through muddy water.
Reading comprehension is not just an ability, it's a choice
Originally Posted by teamselig
In-state though, the SEC is already on TV in West Virginia as the Huntington/Charleston area has a Kentucky following and games are shown in the area.
WVU might have high ratings, but the SEC is already on in the state. Pittsburgh is the only draw that would entice the SEC because there is already a presence in-state.
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