USC Traveler

I had forgotten that. That's pretty funny actually.

The difference between aggy not wanting UT in the SEC and USC not wanting any other WAC10 schools in the BIG is that every school in the SEC without Jizz Jars wanted UT, whereas no school in the BIG is pushing for any remaining WAC10 schools. UT is a blueblood in the second biggest state in America, with two massive tv markets, a top 3 recruiting state, AAU, geographically contiguous, etc. There is no school in the WAC10 that is similar in profile in any way to UT. Eugene Community College is the exact opposite of UT in every way. Given the revenue dilution, travel issues, lack of recruiting grounds, etc, there are no schools in the BIG that want to expand with West Coast teams. Outside of bringing in Stanford as a partner with ND, they're going to take another run at the ACC schools- better brands (FSU, Miami, UNC), better tv markets, better recruiting, better travel for existing BIG schools, etc. With the added benefit of forcing ND to the BIG by collapsing the ACC.

USC and UCLA announced they were leaving at the end of June to avoid paying any exit penalty on the way out. No GOR issues since they will leave after the GOR expires, which would also be the case for any other schools leaving. My understanding is that USC/UCLA needed to give two years notice to avoid a penalty. I don't know what the penalty is, and we all know they get negotiated down, but I'd think any WAC10 school would probably be better off announcing a move before the end of June to at least give one year notice. OTOH, given the WAC10's history of inept leadership (Hansen, Scott, Knlownkoff and the idiotic Presidents who passed on UT, OU, and other B12 schools on multiple occasions over decades), it's possible there is no difference in the penalty once you get inside the two year mark, in which case anything could happen.

So true. With Jimbo in charge, they're going to start every season as the overwhelming national championship favorite in unintentional comedy both on and off the field.

That works!

I’m a fan this- love the Poors and Lame pods. My only suggestion would be switching Arky and aggy, since Arky has actually won a title since the start of WW2, whereas no one does consistent mediocrity like aggy.

Aggy found out the hard way that their place in the SEC pecking order is two tiers below Bama, UGA, Auburn, LSU, UF and the Vols, and a tier below UK, Ole Miss and MSU. They’re not even at the kids table. They’re in the playpen with Vandy, Cocky, Arky, and Mizzou, waiting for the adults to tell them what to do. The aggy public meltdown when their leadership realized they had no juice was one of the great side benefits of UT and OU making the move. Unintentional comedy at a very high level in a way that only aggy can deliver.

Figured it out, but not soon enough for another edit. Plaintext option pops up when you paste something in. Thanks Hag!

Thank you sir- for the welcome, the heads up and the repost.🤙 I've been trying to find the plaintext option, but have been failing. Looked on the post screen and under my settings, but striking out so far. Is there a separate button somewhere ? Apologies for being in the Guttenberg Bible era still. Any help you can provide is greatly appreciated. Thanks Hag.

Following up on the above, I don’t think there is any legit smoke around PNW schools going to the BIG. When the BIG added NE, RU, MD, USC and UCLA, there was no smoke whatsoever in mainstream media circles. The BIG moved in complete silence. But as soon as they added USC and UCLA, all of a sudden the BIG has leaks everywhere ? Why would that have happened in a matter of weeks and months? Logic would dictate that nothing has changed, and that the “smoke” is disinformation coming from other sources. Who would benefit from this besides the media members getting clicks ? The B12 is the biggest beneficiary of these leaks, because it helps keep the Four Corners schools nervous, and for good reason. Everyone in this thread knows that you can’t trust anyone in realignment, and that statements of conference unity are completely worthless. If a school can go BIG or SEC they will do so at the first opportunity. Keeping that in the forefront of the minds of leaders at the 4C schools is smart strategy by the B12. If the B12 can get two to leave, they will get the rest of the PAC to follow, with WSU and OSU left behind. There has also been some fake “smoke” coming from Eugene to help keep them afloat in recruiting, as their coaches have been telling recruits for the last nine months that they’re going to the BIG. They are another party that benefits from keeping this narrative going. I just don’t buy that the BIG went from completely leakproof to frequent and regular leaks overnight. // I keep going back to three things: 1. The BIG’s main target is ND, as it should be. No one else comes close to bringing the value ND would bring, and no one else makes sense to bring in before ND- unless that would directly lead to ND going BIG. The BIG has historically never been in a hurry on expansion. They will take their time, with their efforts focused on ND. ND doesn’t have any relationships with the PNW schools, so taking them doesn’t help get ND. BIG will want to keep all options open to take as many ACC teams as they can. How does the BIG win vs the SEC ? Being able to bring in all of UNC, UVA, Duke, GT, FSU and Miami, while still having room for ND and a partner of ND’s choice, may be enough to get the ACC schools to move as a block when the GOR is close to expiring. And that’s assuming that the SEC wants FSU and Miami, which is an open question. 2. The BIG could have added the PNW schools at any time in the last nine months. If they wanted those schools, they’d already be in. 3. Thamel has reported that the existing power programs in the BIG (OSU, UM, PSU) don't want revenue dilution that would come with adding PNW schools, while the lower and mid-tier BIG programs don't want to see their games shoved onto streaming if more teams are added, in addition to not wanting revenue reduced. So which schools in the BIG are voting to add the PNW schools ? And why are they doing so ? I literally can’t come up with a single school that would vote yes. If the BIG completely strikes out on ACC schools 10 years or so from now, then the equation could look a lot different, but I think the BIG will get their fair share of ACC schools- UNC, UVA, Duke and GT as a package deal seems like a slam dunk to the BIG. Those schools will want to stay together if possible. SEC won’t want GT or Duke, but the BTN would make enough off those markets to make it worth it, along with the recruiting access and alum engagement in those areas. Clemson will be all SEC, and the SEC will want them. FSU and Miami tbd- making them SEC members makes them much tougher to recruit against. Lots of SEC programs would probably prefer to be able to tell FL recruits "Why do you want to play for FSU in the snow at Minnesota when you can stay in the SEC ?"

The problem is that there are media types and twitter randos who keep talking about the PNW schools as travel partners for USC and UCLA. They're not- they're too far away. They're 30-60 minutes closer by charter than most of the BIG, but that's not actually close. Stanford would be a travel partner. So would Cal. Same with the AZ schools, but they're not getting in. Cal probably not either. All of those schools are about 1/3 the distance that Seattle is from LA. There's a reason USC and UCLA play the Bay Area schools every year in the PAC, but play the PNW schools in alternate years. // Also- Feldman and the LATimes both reported that USC and UCLA didn't want any other West Coast schools added as part of their negotiations with the BIG. So if the LA schools aren't pushing for West Coast schools who in the existing BIG would be pushing for it ?

I've been in Surly retirement for a few years (life happens fast), but there is just too much interesting stuff going on to not to carve out some time to post. Shout out to the OGs from the Shaggy Realignment thread that are still killing it in here- Bullet, Camel, TK Thunder, Gaffords, Hurtlocker, Hagbard, MDMost. Props to those of you (Camel, Gaffords, Most and TK off the top of my head) who were calling USC to the BIG about this time last year. I was saying the same thing on my USC board. The money difference was too great not to make the jump, and by bringing UCLA along, we kept the only PAC team that we truly care about playing. (I do think Stanford will join as a partner for ND in the next 2-12 years, which will be nice to have a guaranteed road game in CA every year). Kudos to Trojan Man for doing good work in here as well. // I would have loved the PAC16. Playing UT, OU and the rest of the gang on the regular would have been a blast, and I was bummed when it all fizzled. But having UT plus OU in the SEC, and USC in the BIG is a great outcome. Will be fun to see UT-Arky and UT-Aggy again, along with new matchups vs old line SEC teams. Growing up in the '70's, I saw some epic USC vs OSU/UM Rose Bowls, and have been to a couple of USC-OSU games over the decades that were top shelf events. Most of my friends and I feel like we're joining a conference where we'll finally be with our historic rivals and peers. // It's crazy to think how much things have changed since 2010. The PAC Presidents, Commisar Scott and Klownkoff couldn't have screwed their situation up any worse if they tried. Arrogance and incompetence. 1. Starting a conference network without ESPN or Fox as a partner, and expecting they'd get strong distribution. Laughable. 2. If they had allowed schools to keep T3 rights, the PAC 16 would have been a legit 3rd superconference. UT, OU, USC, etc would have made a little more money than other schools, but the vast majority of the money would have been equal, and would be exponentially larger than what the WAC10 is looking at now. 3. Adding OU and OSU would have also been a game-changer. Not at the PAC16 level, but it would be a huge difference vs where they are now. 4. Klownkoff was so busy puffing himself up on his media tour to celebrate his one year anniversary of doing nothing, he failed to realize that job 1 was keeping USC happy. Mike Bohn had publicly stated twice that "All options are on the table" regarding conference affiliation. One week before USC and UCLA announced for the BIG, Klownkoff was telling reporters "No school is leaving the PAC12." You literally can't make this stuff up. // I'm glad to see that it's going to be the PAC that dies, and not the B12. The schools in the B12 actually care about football, whereas the WAC10 Presidents have proved over and over that they don't. Looks like the B12 will be the top non-P2 conference when all the dust settles and the BIG/SEC have raided the ACC. B12 will offer a fun, coast to coast league with a lot of competitive teams, with the top tier being playoff worthy.

Agreed- this is program suicide. Besides the recruiting disaster, revenue is going to plunge. Season tickets will take another big drop (I gave mine up after last year) and so will donations. There are so many big donors who are furious. The post mortem makes it sound like this was a boosters vs admin fight. This is like a bad dream. The last decade has been a complete debacle- not giving Ed O the job after he did a fantastic job as the interim considering the circumstances (no depth due to scholarship restrictions), and then hiring fucking Sark and Clown Helton. I couldn't believe it when they hired him after an unimpressive run as the interim, and I can't believe he's getting another year. What a complete joke. Hopefully you guys land GH, as that will send the SC offense back into Helton's Gumbo Special. I'm hoping for 0-12 next year. Whatever it takes to get rid of this imbecile at this point.

Even by SEC standards, that schedule is an embarrassment. The ND games look like misprints compared to the rest.

Word from our guys who are connected is that it's a done deal, and that the Clown will be fired officially tomorrow or Tuesday, with Urban named HC by the end of the week. Apparently Urban has said he specifically wants there to be a minimal gap in time between when the Clown gets fired and his hiring is announced because he wants to avoid the massive amount of media speculation that would occur if the job was open for an extended period, given how much he's already been linked to the SC job. Hence, they're letting the Clown twist in the wind with no definitive statements about his future either way. Notice that the response to the Si report was all sourced anonymously through reporters- no official response of any kind. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, as I've seen the bad version of this movie too many times with Sark and the Clown being hired, after Coach O being passed over. I don't want to be Charlie Brown with USC Admin being Lucy. But the new leadership combined with the extreme level of anger among boosters, alums, etc gives me hope that this will get done the right way for once. I don't have any first-hand knowledge,, but figured you guys would be interested in what I'm hearing, and the Shag/Surly crew has treated me well over the years. Looking forward to both our programs getting their shit together and playing in another epic National Championship.

Word is that years of self-imposed idiocy are about to end. If the Clown gets his long-overdue walking papers Sunday or Monday, you might want to stay away from tv, internet, social the rest of next week SB.

Yeah- I liked Jon becoming the new Mance Rader. He was a great character and a huge influence on Jon. The last sequence of Sansa, Arya and Jon starting down their respective paths was the only part of the episode that worked for me. Not surprisingly, those were bullet points that came directly from GRRM. The rest of the episode was dog shit that made zero sense, just like most of this season. It’s amazing these clowns have had GRRM’s bullet points on the ending since 2013, but screwed up so much of seasons 5-8, even though they knew how they needed to end the story.

That would have been much better than what we actually got.

Yeah- they looked much, much closer than the distance from Euron's ship up into the sky to where Rhaegal was. And Drogon is just sitting there ? These guys can't even keep internal consistency in the story within one episode. They literally don't care.

Except in this case, HBO is on record as wanting to have this roll out for more years. The series is ending because D+D no longer wanted to do it. They decided to end it in 73 episodes. They've had GRRM's bullet points on how he wanted to end everything for years. It's not like they just found out last season and have been scrambling to make it all work, even though it looks that way because of how bad this season is. This season's shitshow is entirely on D+D.

Agreed. We've been following the Stark kids for the last 8 years, but they chose to cut away from the girls' reactions ? Beyond belief.

D+D's bad writing forces a lot of people to rationalize too many things that are nonsensical, until it gets to a point where the show's not enjoyable any more. You might be able to still enjoy the show, which is great for you, but no one needed to make any rationalizations during the first four seasons because the quality of the writing was light years better. I honestly wish I still liked the show as much as you do, as I did during the first four seasons, but it seems like a very different show these days. As far as the time that's remaining on the show- that's 100% due to D+D deciding that they were going to finish the show in 73 episodes, instead of 80, 90 or whatever. They boxed themselves into this corner.

That's definitely part of it. When you add their lack of talent to their lack of desire to do the show anymore, it's a deadly combination. These are some quotes from an interview they did after season 6. https://deadline.com/2016/08/game-of-thrones-david-benioff-d-b-weiss-emmys-interview-1201803698/