Forgive me for starting yet another realignment thread but it’s a little more specific concern.
I heard Rick Neuheisel this morning say he wouldn’t be surprised if B1G picks up Iowa State (they’re looking really good in football right and they are AAU which I didn’t know) and Kansas (true and historic blue blood in basketball) to get to 16.
That got me thinking.
Then there goes the Big XII. Good right? Well, not so fast, my friend. What happens next?
PAC gets Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas State and BYU to get to 16. No G5 need to apply.
ACC gets Cincinnati and West Virginia to get to 16.
There’s your 4 conferences of 16 each that everyone has been talking about. Notre Dame stays independent because they can.
Notice in that scenario, Cincinnati is the only G5 moving up (I consider BYU a hybrid) and it’s because they’re really heating it up at the right time (football & basketball) and have done a nice job with facilities, and no attendance problems, thus no problem or shame for the ACC to get them.
Now where will that leave the AAC? Picking up Baylor, TCU and 3 other schools to get to 16. Then you can just shoot me.
This is not all that far fetched but someone please pull me back from the ledge.
On a related note:
I’m beginning to hate the number 16 as much as I hate the off-season.
There are too many possibilities right now to do more than just overall worry. It’s just not worth worrying about particulars. Poop does run downhill so even though we are better than most of the remnants, it may not matter. This is why we should join any p5 whenever possible, no matter how bad the current situation. Get under the tent ASAP
Also, any dream of the AAC exerting some sort of dominance are straight pipe dreams
I’ve said this on other threads. I would be shocked if other conferences expand (PAC, ACC, BIG) at this time. This is all lining up for ESPN financially with the big 12 collapsing and teams moving to an underpaid conference (AAC). ESPN will likely discourage anything that gets in the way of the plan.
In 4-5 years, I can see the PAC expanding, just not now.
The tx/ou move was a shock. Now it’s hard to be shocked
ESPN won’t get them to dissolve for less money. If they get the big12 to merge into to the aac, it will be after all the remants with any real value already tucked into a p4 conference
Why not now? Their TV deal is up for renewal, and the Big XII leftovers are just sitting there ready to be poached. Wouldn’t now be exactly the time to make a move, if they were going to?
Rick Neuheisel is spitballing. Everybody has to say something, and if that something prompts people to tweet, email, call, subscribe or just howl at the moon, it accomplishes its task.
The SEC going to 16 means zip to the other conferences other than the two most coveted, available properties have been bought. A few curses at the PAC offices, but they couldn’t afford them anyways.
Banging the drum about realignment fills the next few weeks until the games start, and then you’ll hear a lot of stupid comments during the game broadcasts that you wouldn’t make if drunk. Nobody is paying for a market they already have, or doesn’t bring their own value. We just saw how much the Orphaned 8 bring on the open market.
If, for example, the B1G masterminded USC and Oregon to their conference. Why would we then join the PAC? The airline miles?
Yes, Neuheisel is spitballing but he’s not as full of it as some of the other radio heads. He’s also about the only one who ever mentions us in any realignment conversation. He’s on record as saying Big XII screwed up royally by not getting us and Cincinnati in 2016.
I’m not going to pretend to know all the in’s and outs of conference payout structures. It is becoming clear that ESPN financially benefits from relegating big 12 teams to the aac more than a PAC expansion at this time.
This also does not appear to be some well orchestrated multi-conference reset for the ages. UT and OK wanted to bolt to the SEC, called ESPN they think it’s a great idea. In order for it to make $ense the big 12 needs to fold into the lower paying aac. That appears to be all that is happening at this time.
One result will be conferences deciding more for themselves. Governance is key. The NCAA is basically toothless, so they are throwing in the towel. Which they will have to pick up themselves.
NCAA will be lucky if they get to be puppet governors after this. I’d be less surprised if Warren and Sankey just showed up, knifed all of them and installed themselves as kings of college
