TKthunder2

I’ll repeat myself from a few weeks back. The current Big 12 is at virtually zero risk of getting poached now. They should work with ESPN/FOX and change their GOR/bylaws to allow members to leave for the SEC/B1G for a reasonable exit fee. This would allow Oregon/Washington to join and take the money now without worrying about missing out on a Big Ten invite. Those teams join and the Big 12 is clearly number 3 (even over the ACC) and you now have obvious candidates that you can backfill them with (Utah, Stanford, Cal, Arizona St). Hell, If even write in a special provision to let Cincy/West Virginia/UCF join the ACC to if they want. Can they word it to make the ACC take all three? They should.

Agree, unless you work out a deal to dump Cincy, WVU, and UCF to the ACC yeah you stop. If you can dump those schools then it make sense to grab 3 of ASU, Utah, Cal, or Stanford.

Except SDSU has to payout out like $30 million to leave the MWC. They obviously did that intentionally. It makes it unwise for 4 or more MWC to join the PAC as they be wheeling out $120+ million to the remaining 8 in the MWC and opens the door to a merger of equals where Wyoming v Stanford is now a must see conference matchup.

Unless the SEC and Big Ten hold their own playoff. Regular season determines seeding. Top 4 play. Winner plays SEC. Not sharing the playoff payout with B12/ACC/P12 and other G5 conference and allowing the SEC/B1G to negotiate their own value and only share/split to title game would be pretty valuable even if it’s slightly less overall than their current structure since the SEC/B1G’s pie would be bigger. Not saying it’s happening…but it could.

Glad it’s finally moving. Colorado, Arizona, Oregon, Washington would be an absolute realignment coup for the Big 12. At that point fuck Arizona State and Utah lulz.

FOX is a $25b company with 10k employees with the main TV network and local stations as its main bread and butter. FOX Sports and to a lesser extent FOX News are (like their lesser known branch FOX Entertainment) all about driving viewership to FOX and the local affiliates. FOX News, love them or hate them is a major player in cable news, FS1 is nowhere near that same status in sports. They are closer to CBS Sports Network or NBC Sports than it is to ESPN. They mainly compete with ESPN2. As far as Disney is concerned they are a $200b company with over 200k employees. Igor split the business in 3 parts. Disney Entertainment, Disney Parks/Experiences/Cruises/Products, and ESPN. The fact that they carved out ESPN and have talked it up as a primary revenue generating business means either they are about to leverage that business like crazy (streaming, betting, events, radio, news, etc) or that they are positioning it for a huge payday which still would be a positive for all involved. If this is purely FOX vs Disney this is not even a competition. Disney eats FOX’s lunch. But add in CBS/NBC to go along with FOX and guarantee 3 OTA TV windows and that deal is impressive (which is what the B1G had to do, only getting 2 of the 3 wouldn’t have been nearly as impactful). Still if your a fan of a conference in the next decade in a streamlined streaming world (minus some collaborative technology that allows you to easily flip between games) having all your conference content on a single streaming service is far superior. Imagine Big Ten fans having to subscribe to whatever app FOX does, Peacock, and Paramount+ to see all their team’s home games while the SEC(and ACC) can just stay on a single app with great PIP/multi view options. The Big Ten may have a slightly better money position and exposure currently, but long term I think the SEC hitched its wagon to the right horse.

I think you guys are off on this. ESPN is best setup for future streaming and has more potential as a partner. NBC/CBS are very limited and FOX just sold off most of its assets to Disney. Which streaming service will have the easiest time with sports streaming? Disney+HuluESPN or Peacock or Paramount or FOXNow? There is a budget crunch right now FOX had to partner with CBS/NBC to get the numbers to work. That gives them great slotting in the current market, but doesn’t set them up for long term success. This is one of the main reasons analysts think eventually you’ll see CBS/NBC/FOX partner/merge with Apple/Amazon/Netflix is because they are NOT setup well for future growth like ESPN is.

With the Big 12 keeping a strong presence in Texas they’ll continue to have interest from FOX and if they can lock up the 4C schools and have a weekly late kick plus play games on Thursday/Friday games they’ll get interest from ESPN. Those are the major selling points. Yes, Oklahoma State and TCU help but add the 4 Texas schools, Oklahoma State, and BYU or Kansas to the PAC12 and you’d have similar interests from the networks.

and ring that notification bell too while you’re at it

Home to the $30,000 millionaires

Only 60k seats? That’s cute.

No one gives a shit about TCU nationally. If they are in the playoff picture they they watch, otherwise they can get some juice just because people in Texas/DFW will watch. Take out UT/OU games and TCU had 2 regular season games pull 4 million viewers (ISU and Baylor, both late season after they beat UT and people nationally recognized them as a real playoff contender) and 2 pull 2 million (when they played Tech right before UT, and OSU in week 7). Hitting 4 million viewers is a milestone, and it does not happen regularly. Extrapolating TCU’s playoff run as something the Big 12 can replicate year in year out with the same level of novelty is a flawed argument. 2 million sure, getting quality ranked vs ranked matchups on FOX/ABC may even pull 3, but for 4 it typically has to have national interest which is where the new Big 12 will likely struggle. Prior to TCU this last year do you know the last 4 million viewer conference game the Big 12 has had without UT/OU? You have to go back to 2015 for Baylor/OSU and Baylor/TCU. Games where people thought Baylor had a chance to speak into the CFP late in the season. Sound familiar? But as I said before, without UT/OU, the remaining Big 12 schools will have more opportunities to get a heavily watch game and they’ll likely do better than a pair once every 7 years, but even the RRSO didn’t pull 4 million every year, so it’s not an automatic by any means.

No one outside of the State of Texas gave a shit about TCU until they beat UT. Once they did, people began to believe they’d make the 4 team playoff and their rating doubled from 2 million to 4 million. The WEAK Iron Bowl this year with a horrible Auburn and basically out of the running for a playoff spot Alabama still beat them. aggy/LSU was a joke this year too and it was opposite USC/ND which had playoff implications. TCU’s final 2 games and the CCG is what the Big 12 can do at its peak not what it will do routinely. Will the 12 team playoff drive more interest or less? Would anyone give a shit about TCU/Iowa State if TCU was a virtual lock? UGA/GT only pulled 2 million viewers this year so that works both ways. I’m curious to see how it shakes out. I think the Big 12 is in as good a spot it can be right now, with only shutting out the PAC from ESPN/FOX and adding a weekly Late kick could elevate their position even more.

I can’t recall the context, but in one of my Russian history courses there was a quote about always keeping 2 bullets in reserve. One for your officer and one for yourself. Might have been bullshit, but it was memorable.

India is very contrarian and hyper self interested and nationalistic. They do not have a strong centralized government don’t trust the West past any direct exchange. They don’t trust Russia or China either but when they can get huge discount on resources due to Western sanctions they are going to take advantage.

Dumbass doesn’t even know the TV deals. Big Ten- FOX, CBS, NBC, FS1, BTN SEC- ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, SECN

If they continue to play 9 conference games and everyone schedules at least one P5 game then yes, I can agree. If they go back to 8 and still only occasionally schedule P5 OOC opponents then no. Also keep in mind, the 6 automatic bids for conference champions is going to be renegotiated in 2026. If a weak schedule Big12/P12/ACC team steals a shit bid from the Big Ten/SEC in the next 2 seasons then that won’t be forgotten. You could easily see a scenario where that pool shrinks to 4 autobids.

Yes he’s not rocking the boat until the move is complete, but here is what he said just after it broke per an OSU site. https://pistolsfiringblog.com/ou-president-ad-say-sooners-want-to-continue-bedlam-after-sec-move/

OU’s first public comment on the move to the SEC states that they wished to continue playing Okie State/Bedlam in all sports. All see if I can find the quote in the wayback machine.

BYU/Utah have continued to play most years.

Like UVA/VT, I could see them adding NCSU if UNC goes North (UNC fans want SEC, their admin wants Big Ten) I don’t see the SEC going West. They made a big deal about keeping the geography tight and publicly criticized the Big Ten expansion to LA. I don’t see them expanding past 20, because the next set of candidates will water down the brand. FSU, Clemson, UNC, UVA, VT, Duke, Kansas, WVU (though I admit having UK, KU, UNC, Duke is the same conference would be appealing) When thinking about SEC expansion now, you have to think about the future schedule. The current SEC division model were shit so blowing them up didn’t upset anyone all too much. This new model of playing more teams regularly will be far superior, so any additions will upset the new balance and have a real negative impact. 3-6-6-6 gets you to 22 and playing everyone on a 3 year rotation with 9 conference games 4-5-5-5 gets you to 20 and playing everyone on a 3 year rotation with 9 conference games 1-9-9 gets you to 20 playing everyone on a 2 year rotation with 10 conference games 3-7-7 gets you to 18 playing everyone on a 2 year rotation with 10 conference games 1-8-8 gets you to 18 playing everyone on a 2 year rotation with 9 conference games

OU in the next 12 years has an open spot for Okie State and has offered to schedule them. They only have series with Michigan, Nebraska, and Clemson over that same time period. Joe C has been told by Okie State that they don’t want to play it and he doesn’t want to rock the boat. Oklahoma State has only a single power 5 opponent booked 11 of the next 13 years (ArkansasX4, and home and homes with Bama, Oregon, Nebraska, and Colorado). To their credit they aren’t your regular bullshit opponents, but Gundy doesn’t want to play OU. The series is so lopsided and it has ruined their chances at major bowls multiple times. I understand their position and why they are adamant on blaming OU, but anyone with half a brain can see they are using this to their advantage. Neither has a power 5 opponent scheduled in 2031. The fact that they didn’t immediately put something on the books tells you everything you need to know.

Yep. They add after the ACC GOR expires, before the next TV contract and the money will be there. Sure, hypothetically everyone might be out $5mil/yr or so in the short term, but the long term results will be worth it.

I don’t think they’ll expand until the ACC GOR expires (nor do I really want them to for my own reasons) but I think you’re looking too short term. FSU and Clemson consolidate and protect the brand. They are both top 20 home stadiums by capacity and would enhance the SEC product in all sports. They would be a threat to SEC hegemony in the South if they joined the Big Ten. No other school has the same impact. UNC and UVA are about expanding the brand. They won’t be worth their payout but both have extremely high sports, including basketball (which is something the SEC is weak in), academics (ditto), and markets that the SEC has long desired. The SEC Network is headquartered in North Carolina. The Big Ten can grab Miami or Georgia Tech but 2 Southern away games out of 20-24 won’t change their demographics. The rust belt is dying and the South is booming. Taking the two biggest targets of Big Ten expansion at forcing them to look West absolutely should be a high priority for the SEC. If they can get the Big Ten to take Washington, Oregon, Stanford, Cal, Utah, Arizona State, Colorado and Notre Dame; that would be huge win for the SEC. If the Big Ten takes UVA, UNC, Duke, Clemson, FSU, Miami, Notre Dame, and Stanford that can only be interpreted as a loss.

In an eight conference game schedule we would only play OU every year. These would be the only annual matchups: UT/OU, aggy/LSU, pig/Mizzou, OleMiss/MSU, Bama/Barn, UF/UGA, TN/Vandy, SC/UK