Calm down…. I was messing with Funk about his Sofia Vergara comparison.
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I didn’t know about this history, but I love it. Perfect chirping opportunity.
If I had any deciding vote to go from XII to XX:
- Syracuse (over BC) or Oregon State
- Virginia/NC State/Wake Forest because the conference wouldn’t get either Duke/UNC combo
- Pitt
- Miami
- ASU
- Arizona
- Colorado
- Washington State (they have great fans)
I would add these to get to XXIV:
- Oregon State or Syracuse (opposite pick)
- One more from the Virginia/NC State/Wake Forest
- Utah or Lousiville
- Wildcard: UAB, Memphis, or Georgia Tech
I would take Washington State along with Arizona, ASU, and Col.
We would have 3 Cougars in the same conference!!!
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I’m sure it’s beautiful in Pullman but just no….
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Plus, we were named after the WSU mascot.
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One thought that occurred to me is that I could very easily imagine Utah coming to the Big 12 kicking and screaming but once here for a bit become avid defenders of the conference.
When the Big East fell apart, Cincinnati and UConn had similarly negative attitudes towards the AAC. Cincinnati got over it and got to work and a lot of their fans became advocates for the conference (even while, like us, trying to move up). UConn never did any of that and went on to leave.
When I lived out there I don’t remember them being anywhere near as critical of the MWC as they are of the Big 12 right now.
If I had to guess, I would guess Utah is more like Cincinnati than UConn.
In 2021 Arizona hosted Utah and San Diego St., and played BYU in Las Vegas.
The Utah game drew 32,000.
The San Diego St. game drew 39,000.
The BYU game drew 54,000. And,yes, lots of that crowd were Cougar fans.
Note that our Big 12 already has BYU and that their fans travel. Utah, perhaps not as much.
Ask our coaching staff if they would like to play in, and recruit in, S. Cal.
Vs playing 2 schools from Utah every year.
This seems amazingly simple and I predict that Yormark will see it exactly that way.
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TBH I’m not sure it’s either-or. If SDSU adds to the conference we should add them. If Utah adds to the conference we should add them. If both add to the conference then we go to 17. Their pros and cons are different enough I’m not at all sure adding one would de-value adding the other also, if each improves the conference.
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Fox will need to fill that 3:30 pm window and at least five 7 pm games during the season. I don’t think fox will that slot with other BIG matchups, those will go to BIG network.
Not sure whether the pac12 is negotiating with Fox at this point.
Reportedly, I believe from Dodd, Fox isn’t interested in the Pac-12. That didn’t make much sense to me for the reasons you mention bit that’s why all the reports are about ESPN negotiations.
Fox shares the ESPN window, and let the first window go without any offer or negotiation, as I understand it.
Fox may have an option to reclaim their existing games by matching ESPN’s offer, though I haven’t heard anything specific to the that effect.
With the season about to open up it has been very quiet on all fronts.
All we’ve gotten the last few weeks is that Oregon had a preliminary meting with the B1G to determine the feasibility of adding Oregon.
Apparently it was so “preliminary” it didn’t force any of the corner schools to run to the Big 12.
We hear things are happening but very slowly and these things take months of notice to actually begin playing in the new conference.
You’ll know something happening with the BOR meetings start happening in a in regular manner. Won’t be a secret move like USC/UCLA. Everybody is watching.
Even if the corners come, I don’t think they will do so pre-emptively. They’ll give us a call right after news of Oregon’s departure breaks. (Unless they jump for something to do with TV negotiations or something rather than losing more members. I do not expect that to happen.)
Fox may have decided there is no significant value in the pac12, after adding usc and ucla. Espn could still be interested in the pac12 for its espn+ content and those late night games
For that 3:30 pm, I could see West Virginia vs Oklahoma state or Baylor as more appealing than Stanford vs Oregon .
Coming around to the fact that the big12 will have more players in its negotiations than the pac12.
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Yeah, it’ has the feel of Hunter Yuricheck’s consultation with the pac12 a couple of years back.
The only simple thing is a program that plays in NY6 bowls, win conference championships, and will compete for the national championship is a bona fide winner for the B12.
The MWC championship game drew 1.7 million viewers. No one knows who those teams are. SDST isn’t going to draw flies across the southwest or in Texas in terms of viewers. Even less in the east.
And, even if SDST were in the conference we’d probably only play them once every two years. Hell, you can recruit SoCal without that game. Everyone else does.
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Yeah, yall keep telling yourselves the BIG is going to just sit and do nothing…
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In analyzing The MWC Title Game people cleverly omit comment about The PAC 12 Title game, which featured Utah.
Poor viewership. Look it up.
Utah does not sell tickets outside Utah. Tucson is a one day drive from that State and their fans did not show up for their road game against The Wildcats.
At least there is a chance of new fans and TV viewers in San Diego.
Our targets should be Denver, Phoenix, and San Diego. If other large Metro areas become available, great. Go after them. Salt Lake City already is covered.
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