Report: OU & Texas reach out to join SEC
- Thread starter BigJCy
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Edited to remove the link.
There was an article by Ryan McGee on ESPN that surprisingly was pointing out the risks associated with having a power broker driving all of these changes:
"A Texas-OU move to SEC isn't about the greater good for college sports, but rather who gets to be the best"
Ryan used to cover NASCAR and many SEC coaches know this and asked him what caused the decline in NASCAR. I'll share some of his quotes.
"I tell them about a sport that was on such a steep growth curve for so long, its leadership went to sleep at the wheel and didn't realize it. There was so much money coming in via unwavering ticket sales and always-rising TV revenue, it masked years of bad decisions. At some point, the leadership bought into the assumption that their core fan base would always have their backs no matter what they did. So, they abandoned their roots, leaving traditional racetracks and ditching decades-long annual race dates for flashier new facilities in sexier new markets. Then, literally overnight, the economy tanked, and the cash flow stopped. When NASCAR looked up, the cool new fans and cool new markets it worked so hard to woo had moved on to the next cool thing. But the sport had also wandered so far from its base that the old-school fans were nowhere to be found, having departed the less-charming present in search of nostalgia. They were angry Darlington Raceway was empty on Labor Day weekend. Just as college sports fans in Oklahoma and Texas will be angry when they don't see "Cowboys" on the football schedule or "Jayhawks" on the basketball calendar."
"It's why I have always followed up my NASCAR explanation to the people who run college sports by suggesting they assign their best sports management students to perform a CSI on American auto racing. Or, for that matter, Major League Baseball. No one is immune to the trappings of "Don't worry, they'll always need us." Not even Dale Earnhardt Jr. or the New York Yankees.
Whether you are a fan, sportswriter, player, coach, or even a conference commissioner, we all watch, cover or work in collegiate athletics because, at some point in our lives, at some level, we fell in love with it. And, at some level, we will always love it. Because of that affection, we want it to grow, evolve and survive well into the future so the next generation will love it, too, alongside us as we wear our school colors and sing the alma mater as we beat our oldest, most hated rival.
After all that growing, evolving and surviving, let's just make sure we can still recognize whatever sport comes out on the other side of it all. And that we still have that old rival to hate."
His thoughts really hit home with me. I think the focus on $ will kill CFB. 15+ years ago I watched quite a bit of NASCAR. Hardly even check to see who won these days. I will stop watching CFB if we get kicked to the curb as a result of this. I'm already trying to break my habit of always checking the ESPN page for my sports update. They're the puppet master here and I can no longer give them the clicks, which is why I decided to edit my original post to delete the link. I'm torn on when to cut my ESPN+ because I will need it for some ISU Football and Basketball still and I want to show my support for ISU in case that matters for the future.
I still need some help deciding which source I'm going to use to get my sports updates.
There was an article by Ryan McGee on ESPN that surprisingly was pointing out the risks associated with having a power broker driving all of these changes:
"A Texas-OU move to SEC isn't about the greater good for college sports, but rather who gets to be the best"
Ryan used to cover NASCAR and many SEC coaches know this and asked him what caused the decline in NASCAR. I'll share some of his quotes.
"I tell them about a sport that was on such a steep growth curve for so long, its leadership went to sleep at the wheel and didn't realize it. There was so much money coming in via unwavering ticket sales and always-rising TV revenue, it masked years of bad decisions. At some point, the leadership bought into the assumption that their core fan base would always have their backs no matter what they did. So, they abandoned their roots, leaving traditional racetracks and ditching decades-long annual race dates for flashier new facilities in sexier new markets. Then, literally overnight, the economy tanked, and the cash flow stopped. When NASCAR looked up, the cool new fans and cool new markets it worked so hard to woo had moved on to the next cool thing. But the sport had also wandered so far from its base that the old-school fans were nowhere to be found, having departed the less-charming present in search of nostalgia. They were angry Darlington Raceway was empty on Labor Day weekend. Just as college sports fans in Oklahoma and Texas will be angry when they don't see "Cowboys" on the football schedule or "Jayhawks" on the basketball calendar."
"It's why I have always followed up my NASCAR explanation to the people who run college sports by suggesting they assign their best sports management students to perform a CSI on American auto racing. Or, for that matter, Major League Baseball. No one is immune to the trappings of "Don't worry, they'll always need us." Not even Dale Earnhardt Jr. or the New York Yankees.
Whether you are a fan, sportswriter, player, coach, or even a conference commissioner, we all watch, cover or work in collegiate athletics because, at some point in our lives, at some level, we fell in love with it. And, at some level, we will always love it. Because of that affection, we want it to grow, evolve and survive well into the future so the next generation will love it, too, alongside us as we wear our school colors and sing the alma mater as we beat our oldest, most hated rival.
After all that growing, evolving and surviving, let's just make sure we can still recognize whatever sport comes out on the other side of it all. And that we still have that old rival to hate."
His thoughts really hit home with me. I think the focus on $ will kill CFB. 15+ years ago I watched quite a bit of NASCAR. Hardly even check to see who won these days. I will stop watching CFB if we get kicked to the curb as a result of this. I'm already trying to break my habit of always checking the ESPN page for my sports update. They're the puppet master here and I can no longer give them the clicks, which is why I decided to edit my original post to delete the link. I'm torn on when to cut my ESPN+ because I will need it for some ISU Football and Basketball still and I want to show my support for ISU in case that matters for the future.
I still need some help deciding which source I'm going to use to get my sports updates.
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Psssst……linking an espn article will probably give them clicks.Sorry if already posted but found this article very appropriate and I think summarizes how I feel.
Let's be real about a likely Texas-OU move to SEC: It's all about being No. 1
Growing and changing any sport isn't new and, at most times, is necessary. But the rumblings of Texas and Oklahoma likely moving to the SEC remind us that the power brokers pulling the strings don't factor in the greater good.www.espn.com
I think the focus on $ will kill CFB. 15+ years ago I watched quite a bit of NASCAR. Hardly even check to see who won these days. I will stop watching CFB if we get kicked to the curb as a result of this. I'm already trying to break my habit of always checking the ESPN page for my sports update. They're the puppet master here and I can no longer give them the clicks.
Ha, I realized that after I posted it but decided to leave it anyway and go to bed. Funny thing is I won't click on links that other people post if they indicate it's from someone who doesn't deserve the clicks. I'll edit it later today to only add a few relevant quotes.
And I obviously need to find the sports news source to replace them quickly. Old habits die hard.
Sorry if already posted but found this article very appropriate and I think summarizes how I feel.
Let's be real about a likely Texas-OU move to SEC: It's all about being No. 1
Growing and changing any sport isn't new and, at most times, is necessary. But the rumblings of Texas and Oklahoma likely moving to the SEC remind us that the power brokers pulling the strings don't factor in the greater good.
I think the focus on $ will kill CFB. 15+ years ago I watched quite a bit of NASCAR. Hardly even check to see who won these days. I will stop watching CFB if we get kicked to the curb as a result of this. I'm already trying to break my habit of always checking the ESPN page for my sports update. They're the puppet master here and I can no longer give them the clicks.
This is what the "blue bloods" of CFB have to get through their heads. They risk alienating literally millions of fans across the nation by taking their schools out of the equation.....overall interest in CFB will lag which hurts them.
Someone still has to LOSE. That's the thing with these crazy rumors (tOSU, Michigan as well).
There will be some teams who will most likely Vandy, South Carolina, Miss St but there will be a lot more Big School egos to deal with that will drive people away.
The general audience is more enticed by early season or post season matchups between these types of programs than seeing it each week.
The debates about conference strength, etc. are part of the deal.
I still think the most logical course of action for Texas would have been to be an independent and get a standalone CBS deal like Notre Dame has on NBC.
Only reason I ever watched a Texas game is because of conference affiliation. I’ll probably watch them in the first season so I can see them get destroyed by Alabama and such, but other than that, I’ll never watch another game. Not out of protest, but because I just have no desire to.
Agreed. If ESPN's goal is to navigate all of the big football blueblood programs in to the SEC for a super football conference, I will loose interest in watching college football. I am sure others would feel the same. College football is driven by peoples connection to the university, driving viewers and fandom. If you start to alienate those fans and schools, the total viewership will shrink.
In the fall, I watch a decent amount of college football. But if ISU is delegated to a lower conference, I probably will loose interest and not watch any games outside of ISU; unlike now where I watch as many games as I can.
we have 250,000 alumni. If we can get 200,000 alumni to donate 100.00 per year for football, we would have 20 mil. That gets us over half way to where we were with our tv payout. If our next tv deal can pay out 15 mil that would keeps us in the game.
It is time for the NFL to start playing some games on Saturday. With CBS losing SEC, why wouldn’t they have Chiefs-Chargers on a Saturday afternoon? Why shouldn’t NBC have Football Night In America on Saturday night also?
Kind of senseless for NFL teams not to be drafting the top QBs right out of high school and putting them in their own development program.
We should just get rid of college athletics as whole then right?
Do they though? I'm sure ESPN will find a way for all of their hand picked teams to win all the time - even when they play each other.
I won't watch ANY SEC games again. I don't now so it should be no problem. I will check the Texas and OU scores religiously, however.
This begins to beg the question. Do you root for Texas or Texas A&M in that matchup? At this point, I would be willing to hold my nose for A&M.
Agree with this, we might see some action in 2023 as BIG positions itself for negotiations and actually asks FOX what might "move the needle"
Oh I’m voting for a meteor to crash in the middle of the field
