Consider this. Network(s) could find a way to boost OU and UT to $55 million
each after exiting the Big 12. Then, $320 million would not be paid to Baylor, KU, ISU, OSU, TT, and WV. Those 10 schools do not draw sufficient viewers to justify $320 million.
It is an often asked question. But lets say it happens that Texas and OU leave and the remaining 8 are looking to do something and none of them are picked up by any other conference. I suspect that they back fill with 6 teams and go to 14 (Cincinnati, BYU, Houston, Memphis, UCF and USF). I don’t think they go Boise.
Personally I don’t think anything is going to happen. I think the only movement might be Houston to the Pac 12 if there is a suitable school to go along with us. I think the Pac 12 is impressed with what we are doing both academically and athletically. They know growth stocks.
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NO - the “Little-12” will not survive as a “Power Conference.” And the networks will not continue to pay the same for those remaining teams, even including the others - K-State and TCU; ALL of them will be scrambling to get into other conferences - ANY other conference!
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Fully agree. P5 becomes P4.
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The Big 12 will not survive as a Power Conference without a blueblood no matter how many teams they add. The PAC12 will probably pick up the most desirable ones plus UH of course assuming UT didn’t join them.
UT will probably end up going Independent because of the LHN and their insufferable belief in their own superiority! No one else seems willing to tolerate either, and the LHN is too big a cash cow for the whorns to give it up!
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I’m not so sure UT wants to be independent. Will the networks give UT more than $40M a year especially in down years? ESPN is already losing money on the the LHN.
Can’t see either leaving. They call ALL the shots in the big 12 and have the easiest path to the ESPN invitational. Playoff expansion happens and they really won’t have a reason to leave. Good and bad for us. Good because with an expanded playoff we have greater odds of making it, bad because other P5s may not expand either and we won’t have access to that P5 money.
But no, ut and OU leave no P5 status for big 12. It’s just Big East part 2.
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You mean the “Alabama Invitational”…on ESPN!
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UT, more so, and OU to a lesser extent probably read Milton, “better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.”
UT wants to rule the roost. Up to now, they have been able to do so. They are in a conference where they can call the shots. A$M, Colorado, MIzzou and Nebraska have all left because of them, but they still persevere.
If they and OU leave, the conference is dog meat. No network will pay those dollars for those remaining schools. The networks dictate who is P5 by the money they pay and the bowl tie-ins, they leave, those days are gone.
Are the remaining schools better than the AAC schools?
From a viewing, athletic or academic, perspective?
Flagship schools have the largest viewing audience. With the exception of Kansas and West Virginia, none of the remaining schools are. Adding to that, the combined populations of WV and KS are less than the population of the greater Houston area. Viewers are driving this moving forward, hence the Maryland and Rutgers invites.
I feel that the Big 12-2 schools sans UT and OU benefit from being in a P5 conference. I believe that if they fell into a G6 conference and all of the “benefits” that go along with that, i.e., lesser revenue, little to no TV exposure on major networks in prime time, and bowls with smaller payouts and playing closer to Thanksgiving than New Years, they will take a major hit in their athletic competitiveness against the P4 schools.
Academically speaking? UT, ISU, and, Kansas are the only AAU schools currently in the Big 12-2. It would leave KU and ISU. The IVY League it ain’t.
Put the 8 dwarfs in a G6 conference and in 5 years, they would morph into a G6 school and all it entails
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Can’t wait for the lawsuits to fly and laugh at the hypocrisy.
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Milton definitely had it twisted. I’d take the Serving in Heaven route!
To answer the OP’s question. No way does the Big 12 retain it’s status without UT and OU. Without those two schools giving them a national following, and losing huge market footholds that those two schools have. The networks will be paying them AAC money if not worse.
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This will definitely be what happens and it’ll be interesting to see the outcome. While the Big12 may not be the “Power” conference it is without Texas, OU, and KU, they are still in the contract as an autonomous conference and I’m not sure they could be bounced out very easily until the courts decide.
It’s likely that they hang on as a sort of Big East prior to the mass exodus…picking up the best of the G5 and continuing forward until the contracts that include them all run out.
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I personally can’t wait for this S***Storm to happen. I can still see the Two US Senators from Kansas live on ESPN pleading with and groveling to Texas Sucks to stay during the last Purge…
We have come such a long way academically and Athletic’s wise, and to see these lesser gravy trainers at the trough makes me want to pop out my eyeballs with a spoon…
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Once the GoR expires, there is no legal chain tying any program to the Big 12. Nuisance lawsuits may delay UT/OU departure by a few months, but will not be able to prevent it.
I believe that this 10 team league will go away.
And I also believe that The PAC 12 will transform itself.
The SEC, Big 10, and ACC seem to be dominating the airwaves and National Playoffs.
The PAC-12 is creeping along while other conferences are moving forward. In the last 40 years they have expanded into Arizona, Colorado and Utah. Expand or become even more marginalized. While winning NCAA championships in the Olympic sports is good, the money comes from Football, Basketball and TV viewers. They are sadly trailing in all three areas.
The PAC needs to be aggressive moving into new markets, including Texas, if their PAC12 network is ever going to become profitable. I still believe that moving into the Central Time zone is in their best interests with the ability to provide games at four times on Saturdays.
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