Hence the drama today. ESPN is actively trying to scatter the remnants to the wind. To get out of the expensive contact and save it’s two big prizes hefty exit fees.
Aren’t the 8 on notice now and can see they are on a sinking ship? And won’t most want a landing spot when the music stops? I assume there is a provision to dissolve the conference if ”x" # of conference members vote to dissolve.
After today. #1 priority is to get on a life raft ASAP.
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If the 8 can stay unified it’s a 37 million per year per team sinking ship for 3-4 more seasons. But I see where you’re going with that Dave. They won’t stay unified. They never do. It’s why the swc died and why the b12 will die.
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Yeah, you have to be really worried if your school was not in the ESPN/AAC discussion.
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You can never say for certain UH won’t get screwed.
We don’t have the national media because the rest of the country’s media knows Houston sports media doesn’t support us.
But for once I’m thoroughly enjoying watching these posers thrash and carry on.
Of all the schools most directly responsible for our 30 years in the wilderness I mostly blame Baylor. As long as they are miserable you can bet our guardian angel is working overtime. Let chaos reign! Stare into the abyss, you arrogant, self-congratulating heathens!!!
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I’m closer than I’ve ever been to believing we have a chance… and I now think we do have a chance, but:
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I don’t see how we overcome the exit fees. They’d have to spend a lot of money to join us and I don’t think ESPN is actually putting that much money on the table.
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ESPN is in the business of making money and they’re not going to let this get in the way of that. They’ll re-up the Big 12 if it is profitable for them to do so.
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Bowlsby may have just been really stupid in resounding to something that wasn’t a huge threat.
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They agree to 2025 entrance after GOR expires. Then everyone looks at their lawyers and says “why do we have to wait so long in this lame duck conference? How do we get out now?” And then the lawyers figure it out
Yea. Never underestimate the FAIL potential of Bowlsby.
“We don’t consider realignment a serious issue at this juncture.”
May 2021
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I think with this news today the Pac and ACC aren’t going to make any moves anytime soon. They’re going to see how the aac/b12/mwc dominoes fall, have tryouts for a few years (we HAVE to win some dang football games) then add some teams.
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I was asking this earlier and I’m not sure anyone knew… what does the exit fee look like for anyone who waits into 2025?
Nobody can predict what the rodent will pay when the AAC media contract expires. The most likely outcome is the following.
rodent:
We are offering you $5M per school. That is all we are preparing to pay. In fact we are strongly looking at charging schools to be on our network. We are delighted with our four main conferences. You might consider dropping sports altogether.
AAC aresco:
but you promised me, promised me multiple times that we would get a nice bump from our current contract.
rodent:
Gotta go the utau pimp is on the other line.
aresco:
What can I do to be in one of the P’s? I do not like it anymore in the AAC. They are not happy with me.
rodent:
I tell you what I have a buddy working the truck master series in Tuscaloosa. They need a new Director of Marketing. It is a nice gig and you are on one of our streaming channel.
Side note:
The rodent is orchestrating for the small12 to lose their teams so the utau pimp and his okie fedora buddy do ot have to pay their remaining dues. It is a win/win proposition for the satan clan.
I am beginning to believe the others that this is the first step into the split into Major vs Minor league for college football and this AAC move is not to make it a Major.
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Negligible compared to what it is now. Historically teams have been able to settle on reasonable exit fees if there’s no GOR (grant of rights.) The GOR (which b12 expires in 2025) is supposedly iron clad in courts hence the higher exit fees. That could change with this cycle though.
Thanks to Bowlsby, the AAC dominated sports headlines across the country in prime time today. Perception out there now is the AAC is a top dog conference trying to raid the big 12.
More media coverage of the AAC in that time period than pac-12, ACC, Big-10 combined , thanks to bowlsby. Unbelievable.
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Maybe I’m not as crazy as I look. 
Remember when I noted who’s desperate and who’s not? 
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The exit fees for the Big 12 are equal to two years prior distributions and that does not change if the GOR ends that is in the separate 99 year contract for conference membership
The conference will have one year of distributions on hold no matter what and the member leaving is required to pay the amount equal to the year prior to that on the day they leave
Two years prior distributions for the Big 12 at the end of their contract will equal about $85 million with the Big 12 holding a bit more than half of that
https://twitter.com/RedDirtSport/status/1420528210731802625
https://twitter.com/the_joe_goodman/status/1420521181027966979
Agree with this 100%.
- Don King