Don’t really think a per-state limit is a good way to approach things. If Houston is the best TV money and competitive option then let’s do it. Bonus points for being a great recruiting metro.
Expansion candidates that made the cut in 2016
- Thread starter AppleCornCy
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Don’t really think a per-state limit is a good way to approach things. If Houston is the best TV money and competitive option then let’s do it. Bonus points for being a great recruiting metro.
We don't need Houston to recruit Texas. We already have 3 Texas schools to give ISU recruiting visibility.
Look at Campbell's ability to recruit Ohio. Don't need another Texas to recruit Texas better. Relationships with HS coaches matter more.
Right now Cincy, UCF, Boise, Memphis and BYU have all been more competitive on the field than Houston over the last 5 years.
It would be interesting to see TV rights value of each school being considered. If each AAC school was getting $9M in media rights, would be curious if any school would bring over $20M annually.
Now THERE'S a good question.
If OuT were worth 50% of the Big12 contract, is Cincy and UCF worth 40% of the AAC contract? If so then that's appx $20M each... The doomsday scenario is bad, but it's not $9M per year bad. Unless 5-6 teams get poached and ISU isn't one of them, which would be hard to fathom.
One expansion option I like is to go to 11 teams, no divisions, play all 10 teams (5 home and 5 away) with top 2 teams to CCG. I'd go with BYU, Cincinnati and any other team (UCF, Houston, Memphis, Tulane, U.A.B., etc.)
This option is underrated if we end up in a place where we can’t get consistent non-con games from the other power leagues (like the Alliance thing ends up on the serious side). Also has the minor added bonus of making for an easy 20-game basketball schedule. Add BYU Cincy and UCF here and we can do one buy game and one home-and-home, maybe occasionally SEC and occasionally MAC opponent.
I added UAB to my mix. They have a new stadium, and the Birmingham Market is very strong for CFB watching not to mention a decent place to recruit. Plus (gulp) they have good basketball (men's and women's) programs. I think BYU, Cincinnati and UAB would be outstanding. *Edit* Plus, with these 3 choices, the Big XI could point the tip of the spear in Pac (Utah), B1G (Ohio) and SEC (Alabama) Territory!
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Blue just leaves me feeling blue. Besides it is a cold wind that blows there in December.
Louisville wanted in last time and we should have taken them then. Think about close location to WVa, great basketball in a basketball crazy state, football history, regularly plays SEC teams in non-con, national polls.
Go Clones, Go Chiefs!!!!!!✌
Louisville wanted in last time and we should have taken them then. Think about close location to WVa, great basketball in a basketball crazy state, football history, regularly plays SEC teams in non-con, national polls.
Go Clones, Go Chiefs!!!!!!✌
what happened to boise? The last troll was they were a nationally relevant program that brought all kinds of value, with all that mtn west money.
now we’re on to Houston and all that conference USA swagger.
but now maybe that 7 million per team getting generated by the aac, is really being all generated by Cincinnati and a directional commuter school from Florida.
By friday they will be extolling the values of coastal Carolina and North Dakota state.
the season really needs to get here
If we’re in a basically a G5 conference like that, stop chasing money with a sneaky difficult schedule, and chase wins.
Well they certainly have some positive attributes but if they didn’t make the cut last time it’s hard to believe they would this time. I trust the Big 12 school presidents and administrators to know who would be the best additions. They have access to better information than we do. Doesn’t mean we can’t still speculate as fans.
Seriously, who gives a **** what fans think. You want the stability and you CAN compete there and everybody knows it.
In all seriousness, why does everyone outside the conference keep talking about building a Frankenstein league just to chase TV viewers? Maybe it’s a naive thought, but shouldnt we be adding likeminded fanbases that we can develop fun rivalries with, whose destinations we can or want to travel to? ISU will never consider BYU a rival. But Memphis? Cincinnati? Colorado State? I can see those blossoming into something we would want to be a part of. Theyll never be Iowa, or KU, or Kansas State to us, but they could become what Missouri used to be to us; a tier lower of a rivalry but a rivalry we cared about and looked forward to. That’s just my two cents. But if we’re going to be playing these schools for a long time, Id rather it be with fanbases I think ours would enjoy.
In time, I believe some of these conferences will regret adding some of the schools they did because there’s just no chemistry between them and the OG schools, and people will lose further interest because so many rivalries that did matter were torn apart by greed (KU/Missouri, West Virginia/Pitt, ISU/Missouri, Oklahoma/Nebraska, to name a few). Continuing to add based on viewership seems shortsighted to me but Im not in charge. I get making $$$ is important, but if youre adding schools nobody will enjoy playing the product wont be watchable anyway.
In time, I believe some of these conferences will regret adding some of the schools they did because there’s just no chemistry between them and the OG schools, and people will lose further interest because so many rivalries that did matter were torn apart by greed (KU/Missouri, West Virginia/Pitt, ISU/Missouri, Oklahoma/Nebraska, to name a few). Continuing to add based on viewership seems shortsighted to me but Im not in charge. I get making $$$ is important, but if youre adding schools nobody will enjoy playing the product wont be watchable anyway.
The answer is that the 8 schools are staring down a huge revenue cut and potential loss of relevance and their goal for now is to keep both as high as possible. If UCF is worth more money in the TV contract and is more likely to be a quality opponent than Colorado State, then we will add UCF. I have no doubt there will be K-State fans lamenting that we didn't add a land grant and we just devalued ourselves with a directional commuter school while the Knights smash the Wildcats 49-7 in Manhattan. That piece is what matters here.
Why? Because keeping revenue up is the only chance the Big 12 can hang around with the Pac-12 and ACC in facilities, coaching contracts, and all the things that mean power conference. And adding teams with good football programs strengthens everyone's SOS and makes it more likely that the league will be perceived as a power league and make the playoff.
I am also skeptical that whatever league we build in the next few years will be here to stay for the long haul. The Pac-12's grant of rights expires in a few years, and even if they extend it and freeze realignment, the ACC's expires in the mid-2030s and they will likely have some SEC targets. If the SEC poaches the ACC in 2030, and some of the ACC's other power brokers like UVA and UNC then turn to the Big Ten, then there's a good chance the ACC leftovers and the then-Big 12 could either merge or spin off their most valuable schools at that point into a league that's trying to be #3. The point is, it's really unlikely that the only move from the top for the foreseeable future is OU and UT to the SEC - there will be more, and those moves will have effects that flow through the Big 12/ACC/Pac-12 leagues.
I created this thread because it introduced new information that I hadn’t seen in any of the other threads unless it was buried somewhere on page 65.
If we’re going to talk about possible Big 12 expansion teams, the list of finalists from 2016 (and the list of teams that didn’t make the cut) is relevant information and a lens we should probably view things through.
For example, Boise State and Memphis are two of the more popular candidates in expansion threads, but if they didn’t make the final 12 last time it’s hard to believe they would be one of the 2-4 teams potentially added this time.
Any school in a heavily populated, fertile recruiting ground has the potential to be very good if they can convince local talent to stay local.
To me, our order of targets should be
BYU
Boise St
Cinci
UCF
Houston
Memphis
San Diego St
BYU
Boise St
Cinci
UCF
Houston
Memphis
San Diego St
Yes I think the best options are probably:
1a. Join the B1G or do some kind of Pac 12 + Big 8 merger (I don't like B1G football as it's boring but probably best for university) -- all after extracting money out of SEC/ESPN/Texas/OU
1b. See if remaining at 8 is a possibility and remarket as the Big 8 (if we could get anywhere near similar tv/streaming money and stability which is probably unlikely)
2. Add BYU and SMU (not that great of options but maybe the only tolerable teams that have a football history, might have some interesting rivalry dynamics, and aren't an academic joke)
Adding some of these other teams basically makes the Big 12 the MAC imo. (And maybe we deserve that lol)
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