OT: Big12Gate Saga -- Texas + OU opt out of media rights after 2025
One notable quote --
"However, both universities will continue to monitor the rapidly evolving collegiate athletics landscape as they consider how best to position their athletics programs for the future."
I feel like that (points up) is going to be a leverage point for a lot of schools in the upcoming months and years. Grab your popcorn, buckle up, hold on to your butts, etc.
What you're saying is Texas and Oklahoma are in the transfer portal.
EDIT: The B1G would be foolish not to kick the tires here.
This many years in, it’s time for the conference to develop its own teams instead of hitting the transfer portal to add teams.
- some people on this blog probably
Big10 and Pac12 merge. Championship game alternates between Lambeau and Rose Bowl.
Fuck the rest and the SEC.
Why Lambeau instead of continuing in Indy? Lambeau has history but I don’t see why the B1G would all of a sudden drop Indy.
I also figure there would be some push back from those west coast teams to playing in Wisconsin in December. Indy has a dome and seems more likely to be included in a two facility rotation.
We don't need no stinkin' ESS--EEE--C!
Like I’ve been saying:
“Heard today from several people that B1G only would be interested in adding schools from the AAU (Nebraska no longer, but was when it joined league). Texas is AAU member, along with Pac-12 schools like Cal, Washington, Colorado, USC, UCLA, Oregon, Stanford. Oklahoma is not AAU.”
https://twitter.com/espnrittenberg/status/1419669676485918725?s=21
Translation: Yes, we are moving to the SEC. We will begin negotiations with you (BIG XII) regarding the remainder of our currently standing agreement.
So you're saying it's more unofficially-officially-unofficially-official than it was yesterday?
It's the beginning of the endgame of college football, unfortunately. I'm not sure how 3-4 superconferences form with this many blue bloods in the SEC. The far more likely scenario is that the cream of the rest also join and the SEC becomes the national conference.
It may continue as a zombie for a decade or two, but less and less people will care about a true professional minor league without the ties that made college sports special.
Conference realignments and the dissolutions/creation of conferences has happed quite a few times in the past so I'm not sure that's as big a problem as you think it is.
That's why I used the term endgame. The path has been clear for a while. Maybe it wasn't a foregone conclusion when the SWC disbanded and the Independents joined conferences, but then the Big East was cannibalized, among other moves, and now the Big 12 is a dead man walking. The path only moves in one direction, cut schools out and keep more money with the big boys.
People are floating all sorts of crazy ideas, but it's hard to see any plan making sense for either the Big 10 or the ACC that doesn't involve the destruction of another conference. And the Pac 12 has basically no move to make. Any coalition between the Pac 12 and Big Ten would be a temporary fix.
The SEC is going to become the true power in college sports. Other Blue Bloods will have to decide if they want to join them or not play at all, even if it means leaving their longtime partners behind. I think we all know how that's going to go.
I hope I'm wrong, but I just don't see it happening any other way. It's just a matter of time.
Sadly, I share your pessimism - but disagree with one of your points.
If the B1G and Pac were smart, they would join forces immediately, before the big boys get tempted to jump ship. I think to work they'd have to limit the conference to 20, which means some difficult negotiations with also rans (looking at you, Rutgers, Oregon St, Washington St, Arizonas, Utah, maybe Maryland or even NW).
A conference with Michigan, OSU, Wisconsin, PSU, USC, UCLA, Oregon, Washington at the top is VERY competitive with any version of the SEC. In terms of tradition, markets, alumni, academic prestige it blows it away. Might even be able to lure ND.
If, OTOH, the B1G just adds KS and ISU, they've added two more football bottom-dwellers - basically conceding football. Doesn't make sense to me.
My feeling is that if you're going to cut your existing brethren loose, why even do this half measure? Either try and put a 16-team national conference from everyone else with enough heft to match or exceed the SEC (obvious choices: Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, USC, Oregon, Washington, Clemson, FSU, Miami, ND and find six other maybe based on geographic balance), or simply have most of those same teams join the SEC. The latter seems to be the easier path.
I don't see a Big Ten/Pac 12 coalition happening if it means members are kicked out, and if you're not going to kick anyone out, it's probably not a path worth pursuing.
Two things - First, I don't think a conference has to be comprised of only powerhouses. Even the vaunted ess eee cee has the Mississippis, Vandy, SC and Missouri to push around. Randomly joining forces with schools around the country with no history or ties of any kind is, to me, worthless - exactly how I feel about giving in and joining the SEC.
Second, I disagree that simply joining forces with the Pac is not worth pursuing. I would much rather be partnered with them than joining a super SEC.
Would a 26 member conference be clunky? You bet. But at least it would be a coalition of like-minded institutions, and probably set up a long term model for others to join (select ACC schools and ND come to mind). Basically, it would be a step toward a 2nd super conference - and IMO a huge conference featuring Michigan, OSU, Wisconsin, PSU, USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington would be a fine counterbalance to a super SEC.
Here's the main thing - joining a super SEC does NOTHING for Michigan, unless you're driven solely by FOMO and SEC envy.
Northwestern will never be booted by the B1G. They're a charter member and we need them to maximize our academic credibility.
With the advent of NIL (money pouring in) and some sort of playoff system (more money pouring in) and the NCAA losing power, not sure how this plays out for the whole of FBS college football. How will the wealth be spread?
“College Football” has been over for awhile now and this only accelerates things. The question is does it make it better or worse, or like everything else does it only make it different than it was before?
I do not think this is going to end out being as seismic as people are imagining. Dropping Texas and Oklahoma into the SEC will mean that the SEC is finally going to have to upgrade from the current 8 conference game schedule. Heck, this could even force the SEC into a 10 game conference schedule. Conference games are harder to win than non-conference games.
Oklahoma is used to going 11-1 heading into a championship game. Does anyone believe that is still going to happen, especially with SEC cross-over games? Even mighty Alabama may begin to show some cracks. People will still point to strength of schedule but how has that worked out for Ohio State? Ohio State has been passed over for a bad loss even with a much stronger strength of schedule. Alabama can get the benefit of the doubt with the eye test but that's not going to happen for the rest of the SEC.
An playoff increase to 12 teams will help the SEC but in the current 4 team playoff format, this could hurt the SEC more than help.
Well, the (CFB) world collapsing on itself into a black hole would definitely put me out of my current Saturday misery every fall. I may actually get some more things done around the house.
It’s going to be fine. It’s not like there won’t be a shift of talent to another school. Saban isn’t immortal. The pacific north east may be the next hot spot of college football. I think we are freezing one variable and projecting the evolution of other variables and convince ourselves that the imagined conclusions are logical. If the answer is terrible, check the premise.
So many schools are going to get gutted from this. Sucks really bad for my alma mater KSU. So many sports will probably get cut due to the loss in revenue. Really sad.
It makes one wonder what will happen to conferences like the MAC, etc. They have been cutting sports over there for a while. Before Maryland joined the B1G, they had cut several sports but brought them back when the $$ came through after joining our league.
Realign it all. If we're going to have college football be a de facto minor league, then let's make it interesting.
Make 4 super G5 conferences and each is aligned with one of the four super P5 conferences.
Then have relegation like they do for soccer. Top two MAC teams in any given year get to play in the B1G the following year, and get cuts of the B1G TV money. The bottom two B1G schools play in the MAC.
I think this would help save some smaller schools athletic programs.
I'm 100% on board with the relegation model. I know it will be super difficult to implement since it requires an entirely new infrastructure and way of thinking, but now is the time to do it as the super conferences are crystallizing. The relegation model makes the regular season very interesting. The SEC is now the de facto English Premier League. So let's cut the fat, make a few super/premier conferences with satellite second tier (Championship and League One in English football lexicon) conferences that can enable a few teams to be promoted into the super conferences each year.
I know this won't happen, but one can dream.
Hear me out, but maybe if the football team is bringing in less money they should...spend less on football?
Exactly. Frank Solich at Ohio was apparently making nearly $600K annually and he's at the low end of the scale (I'm looking at this). It's not the end of the world if college football contracts a bit at some programs, or if some programs go down a rung to whatever they call Division I-AA now.
And I say this as an alumnus of a MAC school (Miami NTM).
Right, so football can bring even less money in? Football is the breadwinner, you don't spend less on football you spend more.
I feel ya. It would really suck to be left out in the cold if KU gets to move up to the B1G. We just don't have the same brand recognition they do.
Texas and Oklahoma (and others down the road) are going to get what they want. Time will tell if they're going to want what they get
This is the beginning of the end of the NFL as we know it too.
this seems like a pretty original take. care to explain how?
People have been saying this for about a decade and its as nonsensical now as it was back then. The NFL's popularity by any metric is so far beyond every other American sport that its not even fair to compare. The NBA is the second highest rated programing and regular season NFL games basically double that of NBA Finals games. The NFL isn't going anywhere.
When the best college football players can make millions without playing a down in the nfl, what do you think will happen?
The NFL will survive but it won’t be the version we see today. The best college players basically need to be drafted. Play their first contract and retire since they’ll have such a ridiculous financial head start.
Scenarios the NFL has never had to worry about.
I think that they will go play in the NFL because they can make millions more and they like to play. By your logic, why would any successful player in any sport continue to play after they're already rich?
You're trying to compare all other sports to Football? You serious with that one?
The toll football takes on your body and brain far outweighs whatever risk any other major professional athlete takes. We've already seen some of the best NFL football players in our home town hang them up IN THEIR PRIME, to save their body.
You better believe that's going to be much more common going forward when these players are already sitting on financial security.
I think you are ignoring the fact that a vast majority of football players LIKE playing football. Most of them will play until they are unable to play for whatever reason.
I work with a 7 year NFL vet and a one time pro-bowler. What you said isn't remotely true though I understand why you think that. The NFL isn't going to promote the other side of that coin.
The majority of NFL players hang on to their careers as long as they can for the pension and the financial security it brings their families.
Yea they deserve each other.
It's interesting to see all of the SEC slappies in the media and fanbases completely change their attitudes about UT and Oklahoma. When they were in the Big 12, they were second-rate teams without defenses that couldn't compete against the teams in the SEC. Now that they're joining the SEC, they've miraculously become premier teams in the country.
How do I grab my butt and hold my popcorn?
Use both hands.
Dodd is not my favorite but I enjoyed his war games on the topic (a bit long but if you have time):
Given the surefire seismic ripple effect this will have for CFB, the Big (four)Te(e)n, and eventually us, I don't even think these threads need the OT disclaimer anymore.
The Big Ten should make an offer to UT and OU to join our conference.
Should but won't.
The Big Ten needs to raid the ACC and the Pac 12 to survive.
The Big Ten has no play here without a fundamental restructuring of the whole way Big Ten Football is set up. And that will happen or the Big Ten will cease to exist. We're on the first mile of the marathon that is the professionalization of this sport. Based on experience, it seems likely the Big Ten will give everyone else a 1/2 mile head start.
For what?
The Big Ten is the most lucrative P5 conference.
Even if a Texas-OU deal pushes the SEC to parity with the Big Ten, or even slightly ahead in terms of revenue, so what?
Unless you are adding a premier program (ND, Clemson, USC, maaybe Oregon), anything else just dilutes the revenue pool for the remaining Big Ten teams.