Washington and Oregon to Join the Big Ten
Looks like we finally have confirmation that they'll be joining in 2024. My understanding is that McMurphy has been a pretty solid source on realignment.
https://www.actionnetwork.com/ncaaf/oregon-washington-join-big-ten-leave-pac-12
Change the name to the Big 20. Be aspirational rather than living in the past.
They *were* keeping it at ten.
This really makes travel a lot more fair for all involved. 4 Pacific, 3 Central plains esque, rest are East and a couple far East. Travel disparity is essentially resolved.
Great for football maybe. What about the other sports?
Does this pave the way for college hockey on the west coast?
I, for one, would welcome that type of development!
Next up, the ACC implodes.
The B1G and SEC each scoop up some teams and go to 24.
The Big 12 takes whatever is left over, which may or may not include WSU and OSU - they may not be able to do better than the MWC.
Three mega conferences, then the G5.
Two mega conferences, and maybe one or two lesser high mid majors. I think the ACC survives losing members because there's so many schools in that region and I have a sinking suspicion that 10 more years of travel is going to make the eastern appendage of Big 12 teams weary and more interested in a reformulated ACC than sticking around the Big 12. I think it shapes up with Two Megas, and then the ACC and Big 12 more or less on the same level and then everyone else.
Pac 12 is dying because it's lost a ton of members and there's just nobody who really moves the needle in the region to take their place. By 2035 USF or FAU or Memphis or whatever might be primed to move into the ACC and keep the league high mid major level.
Then someone makes an offer for Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State, Michigan, Notre Dame, USC and the few schools of that level to just leave both the Big 10 and the SEC to start a Premier League, and then the real chaos starts when all the Illinoises and South Carolinas have to figure out what's next.
What if, perhaps just for football, you divide the country into say 8 geographic regions. You play 3-4 of your protected rivals in your geographic region (or traditional rivalries like USC-ND), then a different team every year from the remaining geographic areas. Think Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Southeast, South-Central, Midwest, Southwest, Northwest, Mountain West for your regions. Non-revenue sports keep their traditional conferences - this is only football.
Revenue is shared per game with a some revenue sharing in each region. More match-ups that rarely occur today will happen throughout the year. You lose, perhaps, conference titles but with an expanded playoff, maybe conference titles become less important anyway (what will it feel like when Oregon wins the Big 10 title for the first time in our current format?). As it is the tradition of conferences is all but gone. Maybe this will preserve it for all non-football sports.
Someone needs to do a wellness check on Bill Walton...nevermind, he is probably off self-medicating in a peyote tent somewhere in Joshua Tree
The B10 is such a watered down product...
Having UM/osu the last game of the season might be in jeopardy.
I actually think this strengthens UM/OSU last game of the season. Oregon, USC, maybe even Washington could contend for the B1G title game, so it wouldn't be UM and OSU every season. Also there could be 2 divisions again, so it wouldn't matter anyway.
Hmmm...I'm not thrilled about the destruction of the Pac-12, and for all the other reasons listed on this blog, I'm not a big fan of the obvious money grab. With that in mind - at least for me - it seems like we actually leveled up the conference. Coupled with the LA schools, we've created some really interesting and compelling match ups that are far more exciting than Purdue, Minnesota, Rutgers, Maryland, and a few others (again, just my opinion). For both football and basketball (and even some of the non-revenue sports), the addition of the schools may elevate our product more than its current state.
For football anyways just abolish conferences and make everyone a fucking independent like ND.
This is so pointless now, the B1G is now basically every significant football program not in the SEC besides ND.
I feel bad for the non-revenue sports who will now have to travel insane distances to play their respective games.
Those bastards have killed collegiate sports chasing a payday, hope it was worth it to them.
Meh, I agree it sucks to see long-term rivalries go by the wayside but college football has been shifting around conferences for decades. The SEC came out of the old Southern Conference, the Big 12 came from the Big 8, which came from the Big 7, that coming from the Big 6. The Big East got eaten up by the ACC, the Big 10, and various other smaller conferences. The Pac-12 was the Pac-10 and before that the Pac-8, and each time they brought on more schools mostly for money and exposure.
So yeah, I'm not happy about these changes but they also aren't historically uncommon nor are they likely to be the end of them. College sports will just keep evolving and hopefully we as fans at least get some interesting games out of them and (I hope) more of this money gets filtered down to the athletes who are far more directly affected.
A lot of people have romanticized notions of the history of the sport. Those views are being cycled widely on the Twitters and here.
As I said here yesterday college football was already a have and have nots. This is formalizing it. Instead of lying to ourselves about the capabilities of smaller, poorer program to really and truly compete with the Michigans and OSUs we should have a system that acknowledges reality,(Truthfully, much of G5 should be FCS)
Notre Dame will be in the Big 10 within 3 years.
Going to have to scrap the 2024 schedules that were released a couple months ago
Going to have to scrap the 2024 schedules that were released a couple months ago
Lets add Cal , Stanford and Utah as well . Not sure who else we would add to make it an even 22
Now if only we could get rid of the buckeyes ...
Found a leaked map of the Big Ten pic.twitter.com/7zQyksOkgY
— Walk-On Redshirts (@walkonredshirts) August 3, 2023
This may very well be just the start of the dominos falling.
They’ve been falling and they will continue to do so. The PAC-12 remnants need to find a home.
If it had been up to me, after Arizona left, I would have formed a NW conference consisting of:
Cal, Stanford, Oregon, OSU, Washington, WSU, Utah, BYU, Utah State (they’re scrappy as hell,) Boise State, Air Force and Wyoming. It’s not a good conference, but it makes sense.
I haven't had a chance to read through the whole thread yet, so my apologies if this sentiment has already been expressed, but-- at what point does the Big10 just added enough schools for it to divide itself into 8 or 10 team sub-conferences, and then just start to position itself as a competing league to the NCAA as a whole?
should force all B1G members to not play ND in regular season going forward.
Should of forced the tv networks to agree no ND TV package can be signed if you sign the B1G.
( Kevin Warren messed that up )
Would of forced ND to ABC/ESPN on a much cheaper deal
This why ND is independent.
Kick them out the B1G for hockey and figure out which other B1G school or bring in Arizona State.
ND doesn't get nearly as much money from TV as people think. Big Ten schools make more than they do. They stay independent strictly out of pride.
The whole point of getting NBC as a TV partner is to get ND to join the Big 10. They will too.
As someone who takes multiple road trips every fall for Michigan football I love this!
So I read a story from an AZ paper (...find your own damn link!...lazy good for nothing...) explaining how Larry Scott was a doofus and blew off Texas and Oklahoma and was basically a disaster.
I have seen some comments above saying the current Pac commisioner is also a doofus. I have also seen things like the inability for DirecTV and other distributors to carry the Pac network.
Has anyone written an essay on this disaster? I am especially interested in how they could not get the Pac network carried, and an explanation of different ownership setups like BTN for example.
Find my damn links, you lazy goodfornothings!
Also, I love the Cougs. I became a Wazzu fan as soon as I saw John Candy in Volunteers.
Joel Klatt did a 15 minute “emergency” podcast on this yesterday.. Thursday.
It covers the media agreements and why the PAC-12 doesn’t have a media partner. And, Klatt also references FSU - and, why the SEC may not pursue them.. or Clemson.
I loved and grew up on the old regional setup for CFB so this is still kind of weird and off-putting to me but at the same time the toothpaste is never going back in the tube so it is what it is
When the dust settles I see a 24 team super conference with Cal and Stanford on the West Coast, FSU, Virginia, North Carolina and Notre Dame rounding it out.
Does UNC go anywhere without Duke?
I know teams can play each other in basketball whether they’re in the same conference or not, but they would seem like a package deal.
man....there hasn't been this much "will it happen or won't it happen" since Jim decided to talk to Denver!
There goes the neighborhood
It's all over but the crying.
I'm crying internally
east/west divisions 9 teams per. split in half by geographic location. 9 game conference schedule and you play the other 8 teams in your division + one cross over game. championship game in the rose bowl. done.
Can we kick Maryland and Rutgers out now?
I thought we were years away from this? At this rate the ACC has to be on borrowed time, 2036 my ass, money talks. Thats gonna get real weird, what is the Big Ten or SEC going to do with NC State or Louisville or Wake Forest? Not trying to run them down, I’m sure they are fine schools, but are you giving them a seat/full share at a $60 million/year table? Maybe I’m all wet, but someone is getting left out in the cold
Klatt shared an interesting view on the ACC. Essentially, ESPN has the media agreements for the ACC and SEC. So, where will additional monies come from?
My view has been a mutiny on the coast.. the ACC. But, who will support it? FSU, Clemson, Miami, and.. ???
I can’t help but think that Florida State would love to go to the Big Ten just to get away from Florida. **This is purely anecdotal and the foundation is based on my one friend that is a Florida State fan and hates the SEC** I have the same hunch about Texas and Texas A&M, I think one of them will jump ship to get away from the other and in the hopes of making a little bit more cash.
Might be the weed talking…
Would have preferred patsies like Arizona and Oregon State, or academics like Cal and Stanford. Not a fan of Nike money Oregon. Washington is fine I guess. League keeps getting tougher.