***OFFICIAL BIG 12 EXPANSION THREAD 2.0***

[DistrictCyclone]

good trolling....well done DC. You are on a roll.

Gotta keep the knife sharp!

[HFCS]

No, I don't think you understand the political dynamics in North Carolina, or the pull our alumni (yes "our" since I too am an NCSU alumnus) have. Under no circumstance would UNC leave with out a big 4 conference landing spot for NC State... if the ACC goes under. If there is no spot for "State", then UNC will be forced to stay put.



I think if UNC and NC State were split between two conferences, it would be UNC to the Big 10, and NC State to the SEC... but that would only happen if invites were extended to both at the same time. I could see State to the Big 12 too since it would be a good fit, academic-wise.

NC State is a good get. It's not a "traditional power", but they've been to 25 bowl games, have an awesome stadium that holds 57,600 people that is almost always filled, and have a pretty rabid fan base, along with 35K students. They also have one of the top five most profitably basketball programs in the country. Most importantly, North Carolina has 9 million people in it with some major metro areas. On top of that, they're a land grant school that's a member of the AAU. They'll get picked up by someone... if the ACC explodes.

One last point, the ACC headquarters is in Greensboro, NC. The ACC tournament (BBall) is held there, along with the baseball tournaments, and just about any other sport's championship. The breakup of the ACC would hurt the Greensboro economy. That would have to be a consideration of the Board of Governors when they make a decision on whether or not UNC/State leave the conference - especially if they were the first dominoes.

Then there's still a chance NC State is in a weaker ACC.

I do not buy that if the Big Ten and SEC expand to 16 and the Big 12 stays at 10, that it's AUTOMATIC that NC State is one of the four taken. They have a good shot, but by no means are they a slam dunk for either conference if the two biggies moving up to 16 is all that happens.

I'm not arguing it's "likely" they'd be left out but it's ridiculous for people to act like NC State is a Big Ten, SEC or 14 current teams ACC lock. There's nothing to guarantee that in the slightest.

[TXCyclones]

I didn't realize until just this morning that Iowa State, Kansas, and University of Texas are the ONLY AAU schools in the Big XII(10). For some reason I had thought that KSU, and both OU and OSU were in the AAU group as well.

I was looking to see who the B1G's next choices would likely be since I've continued to read that Boston College would go with Georgia Tech. I was surprised to see that Boston College is not in that group, while Boston University is. Yet Florida State supposedly has some 10 year plan to gain AAU membership because it's so important to the B1G. WVU apparently is working toward AAU over a ten year plan as well, so that they'll be attractive to the B1G in 12 years when the Big12 GoR expires. Maybe the B1G ought to just take all the AAU Football Schools and have an AAU conference. The remaining available nine after Maryland and Rutgers are:

Duke (football?)
Georgia Tech
Iowa State
Kansas
Rice
Tulane
North Carolina
Texas
Pitt
Virginia

[Wesley]

Did you say Rice? Rice is Nice and we should check them out.

[boone7247]

Post #889 is pretty interesting take. Take it with salt but it is pretty interesting read.

***Conference Apocalypse Part IV: The NeverEnding Story - Page 18

[klamath632]

Post #889 is pretty interesting take. Take it with salt but it is pretty interesting read.

***Conference Apocalypse Part IV: The NeverEnding Story - Page 18

That post is hysterical. "ESPN will work harder for LHN if Texas acts to block expansion." Really? ESPN could never even hint or imply that they aren't working as hard as they possibly can on LHN. What a ******* joke of a sentence.

[scyclonekid]

Did you say Rice? Rice is Nice and we should check them out.

White, brown, or wild?

[colbycheese]

Duke (football?)
Georgia Tech
Iowa State
Kansas
Rice
Tulane
North Carolina
Texas
Pitt
Virginia

Forgot NC State

[TXCyclones]

Forgot NC State

No, I didn't. They're not AAU.

Association of American Universities

[cykadelic2]

Post #889 is pretty interesting take. Take it with salt but it is pretty interesting read.

***Conference Apocalypse Part IV: The NeverEnding Story - Page 18

The info in that post aligns with what the WVU guys have recently been tweeting.

It's pretty obvious ESPN has made an orchestrated attempt to blow up the Big East as a football conference. The prime BE football schools have all migrated to the ACC, B12 and B10 with the exception of UConn and they will land somewhere, likely in the ACC. ESPN doesn't care about Cincy, USF and the rest of the new BE FB schools. They will let them go to another network.

ESPN is also behind the BE BB-only schools trying to dissolve the Big East. Once that is done, those BB-only schools (Nova, SHU, SJU, Providence, Marquette, Depaul, GT) will recreate the BE as a hoops-only conference and get a new contract from ESPN and likely poach top A10 programs/markets like Xavier, Dayton and SLU. They will not take on A-10 schools like GW, St Bona, etc.

Fox is migrating the Speed Channel to an all-sports network and will pay a premium to acquire content and crack the rabid Southeast CFB market. As suggested in that post, Fox wants FSU and, for some reason, Miami (and their sea of empty seats instead of Clemson).

The LHN/ESPN comments may be BS, but I find the rest of the post plausible.

[Wesley]

Fox and ESPN have been clawing at each other for awhile.

[TXCyclones]

This whole thing just got really interesting. The break up of the Big East is starting to really show where some of the back-alley handshakes and corruption lies (ESPN). Nobody could figure out why Cincy contined to drop millions into facilities and even coaches knowing that this impending doom was coming. It turns out all along that ESPN was given millions in incentives to set up their new offices (to carry their Catholic-centered bball) in Connecticut and in return offered UCONN a landing spot which really only left USF & Cincy in trouble, so all along had guaranteed Cincy a landing spot. And they've promised USF a landing spot too if they play nice and don't file a law suit over the breakup.

I'm betting this is the tipping point where congress gets involved.

[jbhtexas]

I'm betting this is the tipping point where congress gets involved.

If Congress does get involved and blows the whole thing up, I'm glad the Big 12 is sitting at 10 instead of 14.

[HFCS]

This whole thing just got really interesting. The break up of the Big East is starting to really show where some of the back-alley handshakes and corruption lies (ESPN). Nobody could figure out why Cincy contined to drop millions into facilities and even coaches knowing that this impending doom was coming. It turns out all along that ESPN was given millions in incentives to set up their new offices (to carry their Catholic-centered bball) in Connecticut and in return offered UCONN a landing spot which really only left USF & Cincy in trouble, so all along had guaranteed Cincy a landing spot. And they've promised USF a landing spot too if they play nice and don't file a law suit over the breakup.

I'm betting this is the tipping point where congress gets involved.

Of the teams that started out "BCS" football programs in all of this a couple years ago, the groups in danger were always Cincy/UConn/USF/Louisville (happening now) or ISU/KU/KSU/Baylor/TTech (avoided for now and KU/TTech were less at risk but still had no guaranteed home). It's not surprising Missouri had places to go even though they were in a bad position at one time. Only show in a populated state, they were set.

You could argue that Duke, WF, Louisville and Syracuse are in possible danger now too if the ACC gets raided and those are the four least desirable football/market combo adds in the ACC now that B1G already has Rutgers and PSU in Syracuse's region.

[swarthmoreCY]

A FSU fan on the WVU Big 12 board (who has decent cred) posted that FSU sent feelers out to the SEC. My thought is that FSU only gets an SEC offer if the BIG first offers.
Also, I realize the SEC is ahead of the Big 12 in TV money, but with the redundancy of FSU to the SEC, would they make the same by joining the Big 12? Imo the SEC prefers the status quo of a weak ACC, and after that rather have FSU in the Big 12 over the BIG