Expansion

[Buzzilla]

Miami is/was very strong in SE FL and had a nationwide following of guys who wear wife beater t-shirts and gold chains. Hopefully those fans will go extinct over the next few years.

Wife beaters, excessive gold jewelry and chains, and vicariously sourced arrogance way beyond achievement is an archetype that sadly will never go extinct. But "duh U" might after Hurricane Ruiz is done.

RIP Miami

stingtalk.com

 

[andrew]

If we need 8 to leave to break the GOR, why not have 8 leave together to create new conference. No need to join another. Negotiate own new TV deal. GOR is eliminated. Partner with CBS/CBSSports/Paramount/Paramount+/Pluto TV. We get live channels for games. Paramount+ to have stream anytime all games library. PlutoTV can have dedicated channels to broadcast all games that are at the same times. It's a free service so everybody can watch every game anywhere.

Split the 8 into groups of 4. Those 4 play twice every season. Home and home. That's 8 games. 4 OOC to get to 12. Winner of each pool plays in the championship game.

Looking at the media deal the PAC-10 was offered, I'm not sure this new conference would make the teams involved much more money than the current ACC deal.

 

[ClubSeats]

Eyeballs. NCST has some eyeballs.

 

[stinger78]

Looking at the media deal the PAC-10 was offered, I'm not sure this new conference would make the teams involved much more money than the current ACC deal.

So, if the issued is "inventory," why not keep the regional conferences and work out media packages for games between conferences. This could be like the ACC-B1G challenge at the beginning of each basketball season. The conferences could rotate between each other for who plays who each year, or every other year, if a home-home is scheduled.

For instance, in 2023-2024 we could have the SECheat and B1G play HtH matchups, the B12 and the ACC play HtH matchups, and the P12 play the best of the G5/Indy teams. In 2025-26, the ACC and B1G play, the SECheat and P12 play, and the B12 and G5/Indy play. That would generate a lot of inventory and interesting games if ESPN would write a multilateral agreement with all conferences. It would also reward the top of the G5.

This way, ESPN gets their money as do the conferences, yet we preserve the regional conference structure.

 

[andrew]

So, if the issued is "inventory," why not keep the regional conferences and work out media packages for games between conferences. This could be like the ACC-B1G challenge at the beginning of each basketball season. The conferences could rotate between each other for who plays who each year, or every other year, if a home-home is scheduled.

For instance, in 2023-2024 we could have the SECheat and B1G play HtH matchups, the B12 and the ACC play HtH matchups, and the P12 play the best of the G5/Indy teams. In 2025-26, the ACC and B1G play, the SECheat and P12 play, and the B12 and G5/Indy play. That would generate a lot of inventory and interesting games if ESPN would write a multilateral agreement with all conferences. It would also reward the top of the G5.

This way, ESPN gets their money as do the conferences, yet we preserve the regional conference structure.

Because the Big X and SEC would rather have all the money for themselves than share it with other conferences.

 

[WracerX]

How many more years were left on the pac contract? Do the four remaining schools get to split a season’s worth of revenue and televised games?

 

[zippyGT]

How many more years were left on the pac contract? Do the four remaining schools get to split a season’s worth of revenue and televised games?

None. It expired, which is why this happened.

PAC went to market with 1) terrible games at historically terrible time slots, 2) without the LA TV market, and 3) at a time when there is industry uncertainty over cord cutting. They received a terrible offer which forced teams to jump ship.

AppleTV offered the PAC $23m per school per year. ACC/XII are paying about $35-40m, B1G/SEC are paying about $60-70m. The other conferences are paying about $5m per school.

 

[Supersize that order mutt]

Mark Bradley speaks ---

Bradley’s Buzz: With all its changes, is college football still college football?​

Credit: TNS​

​

If we didn't love college football, would we even like college football? This question, we concede, could be a function of age. One translation of "everything's so different" is "I'm old and crabby." But, when the issue is college football, everything IS different. There's a playoff now. That has been good for everybody. The playoff is about to expand by eight teams – maybe not so good if you're Georgia or Alabama or Ohio State. There's a transfer portal, useful for players if not those who coach those players. There's NIL money, which is great for players but has rendered this amateur sport a professional enterprise without oversight. Maybe that's neither good nor bad. Maybe that's just reality. There's also the matter of conferences. Recalling the time when a team's affiliaton mattered is the greatest age signifier. If you recall the days when Georgia and Auburn met in Columbus, Ga., you also remember when the Dodgers were based in Brooklyn. Everything changes. Stop whining. But what are we – meaning everybody in this world – to make of a conference based in Chicago that wil include four teams from the coast, and we don't mean the Jersey Shore. (Though that conference also counts an outpost there.) If we dip into numbers, we dive down the rabbit hole. The Pac-12 is down to four members. The Big Ten is almost the Big Twenty. The SEC, which has never seen itself as small, watches with chagrin as the Big 12, even with the departures of SEC-bound Texas and Oklahoma, has matched the enrollment of the league where It Just Means More. Here's how we know the SEC is miffed: Greg Sankey invoked the G-word. Speaking with ESPN, the haughtiest of commissioners said: "We know who we are. … We're geographically contiguous with the right kind of philosophical alignment." Geography? Philosophy? A conference so old-fashioned might as well break out the leather helmets. (Oh, and that noise you heard was Sankey yelling, "Get me FSU on Zoom, stat!") Geography no longer counts. The only operative philosophy is borrowed not from Amos Alonzo Stagg but the fictional Gordon Gekko: Greed is good. Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah just upped sticks because they'd rather not play on Apple TV. Oregon and Washington are Big Ten-bound, and never mind that their student-athletes – in our time of NIL, can we retire that euphemism? – will face three- and four-hour flights for every league road game? For "conference," we say "ATM." For "tradition," we say, "Huh?" Still, the World Series used to play only day games. Everything changes. Stop whining. A final whine before we go: Conferences came to exist because of a shared ethos, much of it traceable to geography. The SEC was a collection of like-minded institutions from a specific region. So was the Big Ten. So was the Pac-12, which was once the AAWU, which wasn't a root beer but the Athletic Association of Western Universities Geography and ethos gave way to programming. College football exists not as a celebration of regional pride but as blocks of television. We'll watch whatever's on. Kickoff is whenever the network says it is. What began in 1981 with a lawsuit filed by Georgia and Oklahoma against the NCAA's control of media rights has seen its final battle. Big shock. TV won. The Pac-12 disintegrated because it couldn't rustle up a decent contract. Florida State put the ACC on notice, though still unclear is what, beyond huffing and puffing, the Seminoles can do about it. Even the SEC, accustomed to leading every parade, is asking, "Did we just fall behind?" It's fascinating to watch, but it's fascination laced with dread. Does college football without borders remain college football? And if it's not college football, should we just pretend it is?​

And in a separate short piece --- Enough philosophy. Let's talk pragmatics​ Credit: UCLA quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson (1) tries to break out of the grasp of a pair of Stanford defenders in the first half at the Rose Bowl on Saturday, Oct. 29, 2022, in Pasadena, California. (Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times/TNS)​ ​ Is there any way the Pac-12 retains Power 5 status? Does one of the Group of 5 become a P5er? (Note: The American just lost Cincinnati, UCF and Houston to the Big 12.) How does the ACC, stuck on 14 football members, take a run at Stanford and/or Cal? Does all this motion mean anything to Notre Dame? Not counting anything involving Hawaii, has there been a longer flight for a conference game than Baltimore-Seattle?​

 

[WracerX]

None. It expired, which is why this happened.

PAC went to market with 1) terrible games at historically terrible time slots, 2) without the LA TV market, and 3) at a time when there is industry uncertainty over cord cutting. They received a terrible offer which forced teams to jump ship.

AppleTV offered the PAC $23m per school per year. ACC/XII are paying about $35-40m, B1G/SEC are paying about $60-70m. The other conferences are paying about $5m per school.

Damn, didn’t realize it has been a year since usc/ucla jumped ship. No wonder the remaining teams were so desperate to find a home. It is probably also the reason espn and Apple were low balling them.

 

[GoGATech]

 

[smokey_wasp]

Cal and Stanford are good cultural fits for the ACC, but how would this not reduce everyone's slice of a pie that's already too small? ESPN going to throw in more money solely for a few late night games? We'll see.

 

[WracerX]

Cal and Stanford are good cultural fits for the ACC, but how would this not reduce everyone's slice of a pie that's already too small? ESPN going to throw in more money solely for a few late night games? We'll see.

1.Cal and Stan in
2. wake/UL/BC/Cuse/duke out
3. Profit

*Note: ND/Stan does not count towards ND 5 game ACC slate. Backdoor into one extra Nd game.

 

[GoGATech]

Cal and Stanford are good cultural fits for the ACC, but how would this not reduce everyone's slice of a pie that's already too small? ESPN going to throw in more money solely for a few late night games? We'll see.

This has been my question all along for these conference expansions... for instance B1G with their big new TV contract, doesn't that slice get smaller for everybody when they keep adding schools? By the way, I did read that Oregon and Washington are signing on knowing they will receive smaller payouts than the rest... ~30mil IIRC, so they won't be making any more than ACC teams, but bright side I guess is they feel they are in one of the 2 power conferences (even though ACC has been more productive as far as championships go for the last 15-20 years).

 

[GTLiebs]

This has been my question all along for these conference expansions... for instance B1G with their big new TV contract, doesn't that slice get smaller for everybody when they keep adding schools? By the way, I did read that Oregon and Washington are signing on knowing they will receive smaller payouts than the rest... ~30mil IIRC, so they won't be making any more than ACC teams, but bright side I guess is they feel they are in one of the 2 power conferences (even though ACC has been more productive as far as championships go for the last 15-20 years).

tbf, from what I remember reading the 30mil is still an upgrade over the PAC proposed deal with apple.

 

[smokey_wasp]

If you thought we were in bad shape, wow, Cal really does need a lifeboat.

 

[THWUGA]

I feel really, really bad for ORST and Wazzu fans. I worry that without Cabrera and Batt orchestrating GT's ACC exit strategy, we'll find ourselves in the same spot in a few years. But yeah, that sucks for them. Thoughts and prayers to the die-hard beavers and cougars out there, no pun intended.

 

[Buzzilla]

This just doesn't make any sense to me. I just don't get expanding the ATLANTIC Coast Conference to include two teams somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 miles away next to the Pacific Ocean.

Not to mention, it's pretty sad and desperate to pick up the last scraps left in the pizza box after everyone else has taken what they want.

I don't like it alt all. I don't think the culture of these two left coast schools fits the ACC either.

To Hell with California.

 

[coit]

The worst realignment move ever is worse than you thought

Rutgers’ time in the Big Ten, college football's most lucrative conference, has been a competitive and financial nightmare.

theathletic.com

Rutgers’ time in the Big Ten has been a competitive and financial nightmare, compounded by a few salacious scandals. Entering its 10th season in the conference, the football team has gone 13-66 in league play. Meanwhile, despite astronomical increases in shared Big Ten revenue, the athletic department has racked up more than $250 million in debt, according to financial documents obtained by The Athletic and first reported by NorthJersey.com.​

 

[GTCrew4b]

Big Ten should invite us, Cal, Stanford, ND, UVA and UNC.

We go Big Ten East: GT, MD, UVA, UNC, PSU, Rutgers

Big Ten Plains: Minn, Iowa, Neb, Wisconsin, Ill, NW

Big Ten Lakes: OSU, ND, Mich, MSU, Ind, Purdue

Big Ten W: Cal, Stanford, USC, Oregon, UW, UCLA

5 division games to determine division champions. Championship Game between top 2 ranked teams (regardless of division standing)
2 permanent rivals
2 rotating games.
3 open dates for non FCS.
Done. Easy peezy.

Swap another ACC team (VPI/Clemson) and boot Rutgers if you want to.

 

[verdi]

Cal and Stanford are desperate. Please don’t offer them full membership.

Offer them some scammy affiliate memberships for a few years and profit from it. Humiliate them in some way. For instance, force them to get rid of the stupid tree mascot to assert dominance.

Use the profits to alleviate the revenue gap.

This isn’t the time for niceties. This is war.