hook me

I don't think it's a given that Big 12 teams leave while they're making considerably more money than ACC teams & will renegotiate their TV deals before the ACC. I think the opposite is as likely/more likely & the Big 12 will be filling in its Midwest & Eastern portion with those quality sloppy seconds once the B1G & SEC are finished pillaging whatever schools they want.

OSU flaking on the UW game is such a bitch move. They don't want 2 WC games in the same season but USC & UCLA are about to have 4-5 trips to the Midwest/EC every year? Pussies. I have a hard time believing the big dogs in the ACC are going to stand pat for the next 10+ years while the B1G & SEC schools are making 3X what they're making from the TV deals. I know there are a lot of hurdles for those schools, but I give it 5 years max before announcements start to be made about FSU, Clemson, UNC, Virginia, ND, & Miami

That says more about the lack of brand power that a&m has than anything else. They were an addition based on location only &, if it wasn't obvious before, it's very obvious now.

The biggest problem with that is you're limiting how often every team plays each other. Sure you play the teams in your division every year, but you go 4 years between teams from other divisions. Pods or 3-6-6 cuts that down to every other year which helps maintain the allure of some of the secondary rivalries that are going to be forfeited & keeps the big brands playing each other more often. Also, I believe the SEC has come out and said they're not doing divisions so the discussion is a moo point.

Well considering I said "UF/Tenn is probably the biggest miss" in my post, I think it's safe to say I know they're rivals. I consider Tenn/Bama & UF/UGA to be bigger rivals so they got priority, after that I consider LSU/UF, UK/Tenn to be a better setup than UF/Tenn, UK/LSU but it's whatever at that point.

It's fun to see everyone's predictions/desires. Bama: Auburn, Tenn, LSU Arky: UT, a&m, Mizzou AU: Bama, UGA, MSU UF: UGA, LSU, KU UGA: UF, AU, SC KU: Tenn, UF, MSU LSU: Bama, a&m, UF MSU: OM, KU, AU OM: MSU, Vandy, OU Mizzou: OU, Arky, SC OU: UT, OM, Mizzou SC: UGA, Vandy, Mizzou Tenn: Bama, Vandy, KU UT: OU, Arky, a&m a&m: UT, LSU, Arky Vandy: Tenn, SC, Ole Miss Everyone gets their primary rival & has at least 1 big name. Some are tougher than others, but with the expanded playoffs I don't think anyone will mind too much & that's what helps drive TV $$$ anyways. UF/TENN is probably the biggest miss

I was thinking 2026 instead of 2036. Holy crap what a terrible deal for the ACC, there's no way those schools go 10+ years making that much less than the Big 12, much less the SEC/B1G. I bet we see some movement sooner than later with that conference. Find soft landings for enough schools (B1G, SEC, BIG 12) & they can vote to void the GOR & get out without penalty. Even if they can't get out, the $120mm exit fee would be made up in a few years in the B1G or SEC & then you're making up the difference plus some by the time 2036 rolls around.

Will ESPN pony up the money? Do they still want to broadcast college football games that people watch because, if so, the SEC has them by the balls now that the B1G has moved on to FOX/CBS/NBC. ESPN can get cheap inventory with the ACC/PAC12/Big 12 & when the ACC blows up in 2 years they'll be off the hook for that money & can consolidate their expenses even more. They're not going to fuck around & find out with the SEC though, especially after all the work they did to get UT & OU there in time for 2024.

This play is burned into my mind for all of eternity. I remember exactly where I was & what I was doing when I watched this play live. How in the hell can a guy hurdle one defender while simultaneously trucking another? So much talent but so damn soft. It's a perfect gif to use as an example of how the RRS went during the Stoops/Brown years with few exceptions.

I think you meant "Pop Rocks" solid

With regards to the contract, sure. With regards to the future, I'd say we have some leverage as the biggest brand in college sports. What happens when the SEC TV deal is up & you have 2 of the biggest brands with a big ax to grind against FOX because they were being bitches about a few games? We won't run the SEC like we do the BIG 12, but I guarantee our voices will be heard loud & clear. It behooves FOX to get as much as they can from us right up to the point that it pisses us off.

At this point I don't know that the Big 12 should push westward. I think I'd wait for the ACC TV negotiations in 2026 & see if the B1G & SEC blow up that conference (seems likely at this point but who knows with this stuff) & see if you can't get some of those schools that at least show a propensity for caring about sports. Helps the new Eastern schools with travel as well. If the B1G & SEC take some combination of FSU, Miami, Clemson, NC, Duke, & Virginia there are still plenty of good addition opportunities. Pitt, Va Tech, NCST, UL, Syracuse if you want a NY based team. I'd take most of those over the AZ schools on top of it being logistically friendly to the Eastern schools. If for some reason one of those primary choices don't get picked then even better.

Again, "drastic changes" that have been known since September of 2021. Let's not act like the +4 was found out yesterday, they've had 16 months to plan for this. Maybe Yormark cleaned house & threw away any work that was done on the schedule & has ONLY had 6 months to figure it out. You'd like to think the Big 12 would capitalize on any momentum they had going from the TV deal & TCU's season by releasing the schedule in the weeks leading up to the playoffs, or the championship, or after the championship. Before the NFL playoffs took over the news cycle & college football enthusiasm had died down for the year. Lots of airtime to fill during bowl games, ability to talk about the new schools new opponents & getting a head start on season ticket sells. Or, you could announce a plan to unveil it like the Pac 12 & ACC have done. But, nothing. Not a peep. No one knows anything about it, when it will drop, just silence. It was supposed to be announced at the beginning of December, then mid-December, now.... end of the month maybe? How does that not throw up red flags?

Sorry, that's what I meant by "both situations". Maybe I should have said "All 3 situations" to include the incredibly unlikely, though technically still possible, 2025 season, but I think it's been fairly obvious we were gone in 2024 with fans hoping beyond hope it would be 2023. Again, the lack of ANYTHING spilling from any of the 9.95ers would be pretty impressive if this is true. This feels like a much simpler reason, the incompetence of Big 12 leadership didn't die with the previous host.

They can't put out a schedule this year because they're worried about next year? That makes tons of sense. Maybe sometime in the last, I don't know, 12 months or so someone should have suggested "hey let's make a schedule for both situations" if it were going to cause this big of a hang up. Everyone has been pointing to 2024 since news broke in 2021, & the lack of 9.95ers spoiling any secrets seems to affirm that's still the case.

They've had 16+ months to figure out a football schedule, if they can't do it in that time then you should be very very worried about your new leadership. If they're trying to make a big deal out of it like the PAC12 or ACC you'd think they'd be organized enough to at least give a date. It smells of being unorganized or incompetent.

I don't think the moaning & groaning are from people who have already cut cable. For people like yourself (& myself for that matter) switching from YTTV to Amazon Prime is fairly simple, though it is slightly annoying waiting on everything to load if you're just trying to catch something different while the main game is on commercial break. The bigger issue will be for those who still have a classic cable setup. They'll either be pulling up a stream from a laptop or phone and casting it or have a laptop w/ an HDMI adapter plugged directly into the TV. Maybe I have shitty internet or never find good streams, but those situations rarely work out well for me with regards to picture quality & dependability & the idea of going through that for a crappy PAC12 game sounds unlikely.

Actually 2 of them if you count the hot minute Murray played there.

Outside of fans of the school no one remembers jack shit about other schools seasons (except maybe rivals). Does anyone outside of UT or Miami fans care that Miami beat our ass in the Cotton Bowl? Nope. 10 years from now no one is going to remember anything about this season unless it was a special season for them (UGA, TCU, Tulane, TENN maybe, USC because of the heisman) because no one else's season mattered this year. For most TCU fans, this season will go down as one of their favorites along with the time they got screwed by the playoff committee & the years Dalton took them to the Fiesta Bowl & Rose Bowl.

That's because it wasn't anywhere near a magical season for them in 2004. Maybe you could make that argument in 2000 had the 2000 OU team got manhandled like that against FSU but even that is a stretch. There is no parallel between that OU team & this TCU team other than they caught a beating in the NC game. OU is a blue-blood - TCU is very much not a blue-blood. They entered that season ranked #2 & stayed there all season - TCU entered unranked off of a 5-7 season and staff change after outing the best coach in their history. They dominated everyone that year outside of OSU - TCU sneaked through the season by the skin of their teeth with multiple "how did they win that game" games. They had already begun to establish themselves as a national powerhouse under Stoops having won the NC in 2000 & coulda/would/shoulda gone to back-to-back NC games in 2003 & 2004 had they not shit themselves in the Big 12 CCG against KSU - TCU was coming off of a 5-7 season & 2 .500 seasons (not counting 2020) before this season. Even after that beating OU knew they'd be back relatively soon - TCU may be better than people think because of the portal, but highly unlikely make the NC again anytime soon. I don't think anyone ever WANTS to get blown out, but you can ask most any fanbase in the world that hasn't been to a NC game in 50+ years if they'd take TCU's season this year including the beatdown in the NC game & I could almost guarantee you they'd all say yes. Hell it hasn't been 30 years & I'm already beginning to feel this with the Cowboys.