Dodd: B1G And SEC Expected To Flex For More Power In CFP Meeting Tomorrow

Hmm, BJs from Warde. Warde is a big fella.

Remember that 70's tv show, BJ and the Bear? That was good.

I'm going to have to call a 15 yard penalty for excessive hyperbole on this one. Good lord!

Oddly, I like this analogy. But I love me a good WWII flick.

Assuming the US and UK never existed, the pact between Germany and the Soviets would have gone swimmingly, had they agreed to simply get along. So which country is the B1G in this scenario?

Geographically, the B1G essentially has a "pincer" type movement around the SEC - with pressure from the west and the north.   The SEC is just that - South Eastern - a quadrant of the US geography.   Now, what kind of force / pressure can be applied to that quadrant?

My guess - Petitti will do nothing.   He'll succumb to the direction that Sankey (SEC) and Hancock (Oklahoma grad - with Big 8 history) insist on.

Unequal revenue sharing - which, in a way, is already part of the model will be interesting.   The "unequal" reflects the payouts conferences are scheduled to receive based on which teams play in each round of the 12 (and eventually - 16) team playoff.   Specifically, teams in the first and second round - earn $4M for their conferences for each game they play in - while teams in the semifinals and final earn $6M for their conferences for each game they play in.

So - a G5 that loses in the 5 through 12 round brings in $4M for their conference.   A 5 though 12 seed that reaches the final will bring in $20M for their conference.

It's about nothing but Benjamins.

True,  but the question is,  when will the SEC invade Russia?

The analogy is fine.

But fortunately it's just college football, not WWII.

Stop pretending some historical era of college football can be preserved. What are you trying to protect at this point? The old conferences? You're too late.

Not so sure about that. The SEC is pretty much locked into the southeast portion of the country. The B1G footprint is coast to coast. Additionally, the B1G worked their broadcast rights through Fox, CBS and NBC while the SEC is locked into ABC and ESPN. The B1G can provide compelling games at 12 - 3:30 and 8 which have regional interest across the country. If anything, the B1G is playing chess, and the SEC is playing checkers. 

Sidenote - The SEC has been able to convince most everyone that it simply 'means more' because Nick Saban and Alabama won a lot. Now that Saban has retired, is Alabama going to have that same shine? Oh, Bama will still be a blue blood program but with the portal and NIL Bama may experience some 3 and 4 loss seasons. If and when the ACC begins to crack, who will that benefit more, the SEC or B1G? Sure, the SEC could expand into the North Carolina but the B1G could increase their footprint into Florida, South Carolina, Georgia, North Carolina and so on, right into the heart of the south. 

You gotta stop thinking about regions as fandoms, and start thinking of them as TV markets.

Adding UCLA and USC is absolutely huge, regardless of how the teams perform. If you read the Athletic article on the creation of the BigTen network, you'd have seen that as much as the Rutgers addition watered down the on-field product, it absolutely increased the BigTen's revenue by multiples by adding the NYC TV market. Even if no one actually cared about Rutgers in NYC, it increased the carrier fees by ~7x. By contrast, adding a storied program like Nebraska did jack shit for money, because it added one of the smallest markets in the midwest.

So the SEC adding Texas. Huge. Adding Oklahoma city, huge from a historical standpoint, not so much from a TV and revenue standpoint.

So this whole, SEC is playing 3D chess argument doesn't hold water. The SEC may be dominant on the field, but the BigTen holds all the biggest TV markets outside of Atlanta.