September 1st, 2022 at 7:55 AM ^
Make it a 6-team division but make it 5 West Coast teams and ND. This is their penance for decades of hubris.
August 31st, 2022 at 9:31 PM ^
Inevitable except for maybe ND.
August 31st, 2022 at 9:32 PM ^
UW would be an immediate candidate for most appealing Big Ten campus.
August 31st, 2022 at 9:34 PM ^
Except when it rains. But it never rains there.
August 31st, 2022 at 10:00 PM ^
Never.
Wait, I do know of one exception. When I was fighting forest fires, my crew had one fire in the Olympia Rain Forest AND it was raining on us.
Weirdest fire I've ever been on.
August 31st, 2022 at 11:18 PM ^
I live in Washington. Rains all the time. Nobody else should move here. Ever.
This is fake. It never happened tonight....
August 31st, 2022 at 9:34 PM ^
My nephew is on the team and they feel they are a package deal with Oregon. 🤷🏻♂️
August 31st, 2022 at 10:01 PM ^
It makes sense, especially for all the other sports but football, to have a pair of relatively close schools for away games.
August 31st, 2022 at 10:38 PM ^
Oregon and Washington are huge rivals. It makes sense for them to be a package deal. It would be like a conference courting us but not OSU.
September 1st, 2022 at 12:09 AM ^
What about their 2 little brothers - Oregon State and Washington State? Would their state legislators have an issue?
September 1st, 2022 at 6:06 AM ^
State legislators are one thing - it’s different … but, may apply.
UCLA / Cal are part of the “University of California” system. Cal State has its own governing body - I assume. Just as Michigan and MSU do. So, the same would apply to Oregon. / Oregon State, or Washington / WSU.
So, the UC “system” is the driving force - and, IMO - wants to position it as a “both” package deal.
August 31st, 2022 at 10:28 PM ^
It's more likely that either both or neither of them receive invites, but I'm quite certain Oregon and UW would both join by themselves if that was the deal that the Big Ten offered
August 31st, 2022 at 9:58 PM ^
Why would anyone add Cal? They add nothing if you have Stanford. The Bay Area market is wrapped up with Stanford and Cal is just drain on the rest.
August 31st, 2022 at 10:27 PM ^
You'd also have the Bay Area market with Cal alone (for recruiting and TV audience), and eliminate any potential problems with the UC regents regarding UCLA. Cal makes sense being a public Ivy and high academic rankings. USC and Stanford would probably want Cal as well as UCLA. There are plenty of B1G alumni in the Bay Area to boost attendance and TV ratings. Don't need to add another traditional football powerhouse just to get those other advantages (which is why I thought adding Nebraska was a mistake).
August 31st, 2022 at 10:28 PM ^
UofM’s athletics annual revenues are about $200M. The research volume is $1.6B. The Big 10 Presidents would welcome one of the top 3 public universities with open arms. Pitching a research consortium that includes UCLA and Cal is tough to beat.
August 31st, 2022 at 10:29 PM ^
Precisely. Stanford every day and twice on Sunday over Cal. I don't see where they do anything but cut into revenue. I'd rather draw the line there with the pac12 and add an acc school like Georgia Tech to increase regional appeal.
September 1st, 2022 at 12:06 AM ^
Why ‘drain’? I don’t get the antipathy. Politics? Great school, been decent in the not so distant past in football and bball, has a storied football rivalry with Stanford, competitive in the Olympic sports—oh and great fucking school. You don’t want to consider these places based on vague resentment and poorly remembered history, either, I assume, but on their potential for growth as they obtain new revenue and embrace the challenge of the new conference.
September 1st, 2022 at 12:43 AM ^
I'm saying their football and basketball programs suck and nobody wants to watch them play.
September 1st, 2022 at 7:36 AM ^
I'm saying this view is myopic, and that especially the potential for growth of these schools' revenue and non-revenue sports, their audiences, and popularity needs to be taken further into account. There will be new coast-to-coast interest in them and their games will impact standings, etc. in the B1G. Cal's other sports, as important to some of us (and people there), will get a huge shot in the arm, as will other sports at other schools.
And honestly, anyone who doesn't want the most highly regarded public academic institutions in the country in, who's just thinking football and basketball. . . is (fortunately) not sitting in the seat where those school presidents are. I want us to crush the SEC in terms of the stature of our programs.
Some nuances aren't being discussed: If midwestern eyeballs are now watching with new/renewed interest a late-night game on the West Coast late Saturday night, you can sell more ads. And ads for products with national reach. When Cal plays UCLA, you're going to be watching, Hillbilly. That boosts Cal and its programs in the public eye. Ten years from now, no one will remember that Hillbilly scorned them; they'll just be another program in the most dominant football conference.
EDIT: If we get Stanford here, I think the likelihood ND joins, too. I give Our Lady one more year max as annoying Prima Donna. After that ND's just another school, getting pummeled in lots of sports, not terribly special. The aura will be considerably reduced.
September 1st, 2022 at 8:06 AM ^
I can assure you I wouldn't watch Cal unless they played Michigan. That's like suggesting someone would want to watch Rutgers. Would I tune into a random Usc game? Definitely. Stanford, Washington, ucla? Sometimes. They're clearly on your radar (I assume you went there), but they just don't move the needle for me at all. Revenue sports matter and they don't contribute where it matters most.
September 1st, 2022 at 8:33 AM ^
You are not the viewership; you're a guy. When a title is on the line for USC and Cal is playing USC in the next-to-last game of the season, people will watch. Probably even you. And you're just revealing your prejudices, really from the outset here, rather than even attempting to imagine the wider consequences. I'm an M grad with friends who teach at Cal (and Stanford), and I want the conference to be enhanced by fine institutions--and their research collaborations to grow as a consequence, as well--so I am also revealing mine. (I have followed Cal's tribulations with sports and funding, so would love to see them solvent.)
My hunch is that the B1G wants six West Coast schools, and that Cal will be one of them.
Just want to add that it's hilarious how people here complain about the lack of parity in football, then sit around and idly play snob when it comes to who might be in or out. It's mostly an exercise in pud-pulling, of course. But we tend to forget that some people care deeply; they might be people with some vain hope they can make the Olympics in rowing, track and field (at which Cal has long excelled, too), etc. And of course, this is a football site. Some of us, however, are old enough to remember games like this:
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/cal-beats-stanford-as-band-blocks-field
September 1st, 2022 at 8:47 AM ^
I'm a guy that wants to watch good football and basketball. If that's not on TV, I'll be spending time with my family or working around the house/yard. I won't be up at midnight watching Rutgers.
August 31st, 2022 at 10:11 PM ^
I was talking with a customer/Washington fan this week. He thought UW and other PAC schools would head to the Big 12.
September 1st, 2022 at 9:17 AM ^
Frankly, that would be a dumb move. That conference has been dying a slow death ever since they allowed themselves to be talked into not expanding. The member schools all received a minimal raise in order to keep at 10 teams. It was short-sighted, and the beginning of the end of the league's relevance.
August 31st, 2022 at 10:28 PM ^
If UW and Oregon jump ship, explain to me how anyone can call the Pac-12 and Big 12 "Power" conferences. I don't think the remaining schools in either conference can claim a national title in the past 50 years outside of Colorado, and that was in the Big 8. In fact, I think they're the only program to play for a national title in that period.
August 31st, 2022 at 10:31 PM ^
Couple things: Nebraska will not be switching leagues. Perhaps the B1G adds just Oregon and Washington then waits for the SEC to break-thru the ACC’s Grant of Rights and adds (Clemson and Florida St.) then the B1G adds North Carolina and Virginia/or Duke expanding the B1G’s recruiting area not only into the West Coast, but to North Carolina and Virginia along the East Coast as well. Just a thought.
August 31st, 2022 at 11:56 PM ^
I see UVA get mentioned occasionally but I’ve yet to meet any alumni (that I know of), having lived for years in the DC metro area. The place is, however, rotten with Virginia Tech alumni and those I know follow VT athletics closely.
Academics at VT are sound, especially wrt engineering.
September 1st, 2022 at 4:57 AM ^
I disagree. I think there's plenty of UVA alumni in the area. They just don't care about football as much as VT people do. I don't even think it's close. But when UVA won the basketball natty a couple years ago, they came out in pretty significant force.
September 1st, 2022 at 7:40 AM ^
No UVA alumni in D.C.?
September 1st, 2022 at 5:34 AM ^
As you point out - the ACC GOR - is an issue. Do you expect it to be challenged prior to it’s “defined” end date of 2034/2035? Any teams you can think of to “take the lead” challenging the GOR?
I can’t imagine the ACC on the sideline for a decade, or more.
September 1st, 2022 at 8:35 AM ^
Dunno if you examined Nate Silver's provocative analysis last week. . .
August 31st, 2022 at 10:44 PM ^
Yes, please. Been hoping for Washington since the USC/UCLA news broke.
September 1st, 2022 at 12:08 AM ^
I might be in the minority but I would rather have Colorado than Cal. Denver is a rather large metropolitan area, they have a similar academic profile as some of these other additions and they would help connect the conference from coast to coast.
Plus, a late summer trip to the mountains for a game would be a huge plus.
September 1st, 2022 at 5:38 AM ^
North, we may a difference of opinion.
Denver is a fine city - significant market. It’s great year round.
Respectfully - from an Academic perspective - it’s nowhere near the caliber of Cal. (But, as I re-read your comment - Colorado is on an “academic par” with Oregon. So, I stand corrected.)
September 1st, 2022 at 1:29 AM ^
Also it effs up all the other sports.
If you are a kid in Seattle or LA, on the track or softball team, you’re booking your ass across the country for away games… as a college student.
This shit sucks balls
September 1st, 2022 at 8:36 AM ^
Actually, I think it lifts both the profile and the quality of those sports, including through the enhanced revenue applied to them. Logistical challenges, though. Yup.
September 2nd, 2022 at 10:00 AM ^
They are students. I have two athletes in non revenue sports that will be affected by this.
It doesn’t help— just helps the rich get richer. On the backs of the kids
it’s one thing to ruin college football, but now they’re bringing in all the others who are there because they love their sport and will never be professional athletes
September 1st, 2022 at 6:55 AM ^
Looks like they'll need a new conference logo.
B100G
September 1st, 2022 at 8:20 AM ^
Get to 20 teams and then do promotion/relegation. I know it won't happen, but it would be great. Would bring more drama to games at the end of the year that normally wouldn't have very many eyeballs.
September 1st, 2022 at 8:20 AM ^
I predict next week Brett boosts his clicks by 'breaking' Cal meeting with Big 10 representatives.
As someone above says, none of the rest of the PAC schools carry their weight in media circles, why would the Big 10 dilute schools payout?
Unless it's something along the lines of ND, Stanford, Oregon, UDub as a package I don't see it. And even then I wouldn't take Oregon or Washington unless I had to.
September 1st, 2022 at 8:59 AM ^
It is a land grab for quality programs and TV markets. Even if the overall payment goes down it gives leverage over the SEC streaming service or cable package.
like the first commenter said it is sort of gross and antithetical to college football.
September 1st, 2022 at 10:05 AM ^
Given that the Big Ten will soon be coast to coast and quite possible also north to south on the west coast, have to think SEC makes a move soon. Arizona and Arizona State maybe? Very southeastern for sure haha.
September 1st, 2022 at 5:27 PM ^
They definitely won't stray too far north. That'll be their downfall in the end.