They are getting 1/2 of revenue from ACC. Both Stanford and Cal belong here. We can give them a little more money then what the ACC does and they are in heaven. Grouped with former members and more important access to California Athletes. If you are going to talk about attendance - ahem - you better look in the mirror first. They are AAU. Both at the top of the totem pole. We WANT these kind of academic institutions who can succeed and have the highest standards. Texas and A&M took our AAU institutions to the SEC. The California teams are not as good but they are darn well able to compete academically and as Standford has show can win the all around award for most wins in athletic competitions. Look, going to California for a football game is not torture. San Fransisco vs Lubbock? Are you kidding me. That’s what we sell about Houston.
Stanford just lost to lowly UNC today and now seems destined for its SEVENTH straight season of four wins or less.
Program is floundering.
ACC is in shambles
I enjoyed the baseball series at Cal earlier this year, wouldn’t mind that trip down the coast again.
True, we would love to take Clemson, Fl State, N Car etc. and maybe that will happen. In the meantime, We, the BIG12, have no direct access to the California market. To me it is about markets and definitely we can expand it into California. We are NOT going to get UCLA, USC, WAS or Oregon. We may not get Miami, NC, Louisville or otChers but the East Coast is a tight market. California is not and we have NO presence in those markets.Both Cal and Stanford like us have been bad before but also very good. With more markets they will get better and we as a conference will get better and more recruits. Why would we want to limit our recruiting areas when the SEC and BIG are trying to suck everything dry from those areas. Why do you think they took USC, UCLA, WAS and OR. They are capturning markets.?
They took them because they were the PAC’s four biggest brands.
so we took the next best 4 brands. The issues is, CAL and Standford are at the top of AAU standings, even above Texas and A&M. THey still play football and as seen tonight can make their mark. We are looked down on as Plains/collections of football stalwarts but no mention of academic excellent. Those two schools shut that trash talk out. I like that. Those 2 schools can help us attain AAU. I’m all for it.
Absolutely NOT
One reason Arizona, Arizona St., and Utah prayed the PAC-12 would stay together was AAU. I’m not sure Colorado cared as much since they were once Big XII members. Utah called us the Truck Stop Conference.
The ACC made a mistake to begin with. I remember there was talk about having neutral site games in Dallas and Omaha so non revenue sports could cut down on travel costs.
Maybe there would be less 11AM games since that would be 9AM Pacific Time.
If they went with divisions, two Central Time schools would be playing most games in Mountain/Pacific Time. Texas Tech being one since they are in Lubbock, the other being your guess is good as mine, but we tend to get the short end of the stick.
Admittadly, the issues is playing games in California time zones. However, we have seen our Big12 games televised in evening times. I liked it and followed it. It’s probably not for everyone but when your team is playing late evening, you are wanting to watch it or go to sleep. I expect my wife to go to sleep and interrupt me when I’m yelling. Then I can expect other stoppages because she doesn’t like me to admire anything but her. Back to the point, California along with Texas and Florida produce the most DIV 1A players than any other state. Why would we not want a connection there.
I can tell you this much.
Stanford has to face ND on Thanksgiving weekend, and it could get REAL ugly.
ND has to win out to get a bid, and to make the committee take notice, they’ll probably try and run it up on their hapless opponent.
I’m a little unclear about how AAU status and academics really improves the athletic conference.
It doesn’t.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again.
Academics DO NOT DRIVE realignment.
The PAC was a better academic conference than the Big 12 was.
Which one ultimately survived though?
I rest my case.
In the end, it’s all about sports brand size, and mostly about football brand size (just ask UConn).
Stanford and Cal are both small and relatively weak football brands these days.
Being AAU is a screening criteria for a B1G invite, but even if a school is AAU, the B1G isn’t going to invite them unless their football brand size is big enough to add value to the conference.
Being great in water polo, tennis, and synchronized swimming won’t get you in, nor will AAU or basketball alone.
In this case, it was the one that didn’t act like entitled, greedy morons that couldn’t take care of basic business. The PAC got chopped because they were too committed to a plan that was never going to work, and they weren’t willing to adjust in a timely manner.