Big 12 Expansion (new thread)

[Nolaeer]

WVU fan here.
I really like 3 of the 4 adds.

UCF is a sleeping giant. They will pass Miami, they may rival Gators and FSU with Big 12 status.

While I like to project WVU as the eastern power(or Iowa State), i think 5 years from now UCF will be the team to beat in the Big 12 east.

BYU is a national brand--glad to have them.

Cinn.. travel partner for WVU. State of Ohio recruiting.

Houston--i dont get Houston over Memphis. Big 12 already has 3 Texas teams, and Houston has no fans.

The tv ratings for week 1 had WVU v Maryland sitting good, despite WVU being down the past 3 years. I do expect WVU to be in the top 25 in 2022. Kstate v Stanford was horrible. like 300000 fans watching:


All four of ESPN’s Saturday games declined from 2019. Western Michigan-Michigan had a 0.9 (-8%) and 1.62 million (-9%), West Virginia-Maryland a 0.7 (-31%) and 1.35 million (-24%), Texas Tech-Houston a 0.43 (-57%) and 831,000 (-54%) and BYU-Arizona a 0.51 (-49%) and 933,000 (-43%). Texas Tech-Houston even declined from the comparable game on last year’s barren opening weekend, Arkansas State-Memphis (0.6, 1.03M).

FS1 topped out at a mere 0.22 (-35%) and 439,000 (-38%) for Oregon State-Purdue Saturday night, followed by a 0.19 (-39%) and 312,000 (-37%0 for Stanford-Kansas State.


cant seem to post a link to sports media watch tv ratings, so i did a cut and paste.

 

[Itjustdoesn'tmatter]

I think if you do go to divisions, it's pretty simple. You have to keep ISU/KU/Kstate together (Call it the north) and Okie St is going to want to stay with the Tx schools so Okie St/Tech/Baylor/TCU (Call it the south) together. Then, if true, It makes no sense to send Cincinnati and WV to Tx. So you add them to the north which makes 5. Then why wouldn't you have Houston play the other Texas schools to make 5? Ok well then we have UCF and BYU. Are you gonna have a school in Orlando, Florida play in the north? Uhm, no. So there is is your 6th southern team. And then finally you have BYU who by process of elimination goes to the north.

TL;DR Prepare to go to Provo more regularly than Stillwater.

I'm not sure if I understand the complexity.
I'm not saying I want this, I don't know what's best, but...
North is north: BYU ISU KU KSU UC WVU
South is south OSU TCU TT BU UH UCF

I would prefer an east/west that I posted before, but whatever. I don't get to decide.

 

[cyIclSoneU]

I think if you do go to divisions, it's pretty simple. You have to keep ISU/KU/Kstate together (Call it the north) and Okie St is going to want to stay with the Tx schools so Okie St/Tech/Baylor/TCU (Call it the south) together. Then, if true, It makes no sense to send Cincinnati and WV to Tx. So you add them to the north which makes 5. Then why wouldn't you have Houston play the other Texas schools to make 5? Ok well then we have UCF and BYU. Are you gonna have a school in Orlando, Florida play in the north? Uhm, no. So there is is your 6th southern team. And then finally you have BYU who by process of elimination goes to the north.

TL;DR Prepare to go to Provo more regularly than Stillwater.

I don’t agree with the last piece here. If you have ISU/KU/KSU/Cincy/WVU and then OSU/all the Texas schools, you’re putting UCF with group 1 and BYU with group 2, not the other way around. Any division split that is facially geographic is not going to put Provo and Morgantown in the same division.

 

[JM4CY]

I don’t agree with the last piece here. If you have ISU/KU/KSU/Cincy/WVU and then OSU/all the Texas schools, you’re putting UCF with group 1 and BYU with group 2, not the other way around. Any division split that is facially geographic is not going to put Provo and Morgantown in the same division.

Why?

 

[nwcat]

Here is BYU's Men's BB coach talking today about coming into the B12. He could not have been more complimentary or excited. His best comment: "It is TERRIFYING" and he can't wait.

 

[Itjustdoesn'tmatter]

Welcome aboard!

One item. We have 1 too many "Cougars" in the conference now.

Have you considered a name change? Maybe something like the BYU Longhorns or BYU Sooners?

We need to eliminate confusion while growing the Big 12 brand

I don't think we have enough cougars in this conference now...wait, I think were talking about different things.

Never mind

 

[cyIclSoneU]

Why?

A few reasons:
WVU will wanna be with UCF - recruits Florida heavily.
UC and UCF may want to continue playing annually like the AAC East.
BYU to WVU makes no sense to do every year.
BYU would rather be with Texas than with the “northern” schools.
There are six schools in rich recruiting states and putting UCF with the Texas schools puts five of them in the same division.

 

[BCClone]

A few reasons:
WVU will wanna be with UCF - recruits Florida heavily.
UC and UCF may want to continue playing annually like the AAC East.
BYU to WVU makes no sense to do every year.
BYU would rather be with Texas than with the “northern” schools.
There are six schools in rich recruiting states and putting UCF with the Texas schools puts five of them in the same division.

I think the R8 will get the bigger say. It seems you are letting the new guys do the picking.

 

[JM4CY]

A few reasons:
WVU will wanna be with UCF - recruits Florida heavily.
UC and UCF may want to continue playing annually like the AAC East.
BYU to WVU makes no sense to do every year.
BYU would rather be with Texas than with the “northern” schools.

I see what your saying. I would offer this: None of those involve flagship Big 12 schools and only one has to do with a current member, even. Those school's you listed preferences don't exactly (or I would hope not) rise to the top of the list when deciding this stuff.

 

[JM4CY]

I think the R8 will get the bigger say. It seems you are letting the new guys do the picking.

Exactly, make the new babies suckle the hind teet. (The real test of big 12 membership is if you can even decipher what that means. I am guessing those UCF kids don't have the damnedest clue.)

 

[cyIclSoneU]

I think the R8 will get the bigger say. It seems you are letting the new guys do the picking.

ISU, KU, KSU, and WVU would all rather have UCF than BYU in their division though. The recruiting piece is pretty big especially if we go back to 8 conference games.

 

[BCClone]

ISU, KU, KSU, and WVU would all rather have UCF than BYU in their division though. The recruiting piece is pretty big especially if we go back to 8 conference games.

I would rather have UCF to just have a southern trip. Although I could see UCF fitting with the southern schools better than BYU.

 

[Itjustdoesn'tmatter]

Have they said when they plan to announce the divisions? (Assuming we don't play all 11!)

I like:
5 annual division games
2 semi-annual off division games
2 annual off division Challenge games
3 non-conference games

That way if they split up a "traditional" rival school you can still play them every year.

 

[cyIclSoneU]

If we get a season with OU and UT then I hope they get a division with all the new schools. Something like this (with protected crossover/opposite division in parenthesis)

OU (OSU)
UT (TCU)
UC (WVU)
UH (Baylor)
UCF (ISU)
BYU (Tech)
KU (KSU)

Make Texas play at Houston and UCF and OU plays at Cincinnati and BYU or something.

 

[cyIclSoneU]

I would rather have UCF to just have a southern trip. Although I could see UCF fitting with the southern schools better than BYU.

For a fan that makes sense; for a coaching staff UCF means you can promise recruits 2 games in Florida during their career and also send guys down early during game week to do some recruiting and then meet up with the team.

 

[Cyclonepride]

You know, a north-south split wouldn’t be terrible … except for that BYU-WVU trip. And the fact that all the Texas schools would be in the same division.

I dunno, I don’t have any better ideas, with UCF and BYU being such geographical outliers I don’t think there is a great way to split it.

No Texas schools was my initial reservation, and then I thought about the Texas schools, and I'm not sure there are any that I'd miss if we didn't play yearly. Main consideration then falls to how that affects recruiting in Texas, but we don't do that nearly as much under Campbell (I see Cincinnati in our division as critical for the same reason).

 

[Cyforce]

This would not make ISU happy, methinks. But it does split Texas schools evenly, keep WU happy, and give an east/west balance.

Flipping us with TCU wouldn't be too bad.

 

[tman24]

I bet ESPN suddenly finds a lot of money so OuT doesnt have to be around for the '23 season.

 

[knowlesjam]

Flipping us with TCU wouldn't be too bad.

Although a November road trip to UCF...I'm okay with that.

 

[cyIclSoneU]

This would not make ISU happy, methinks. But it does split Texas schools evenly, keep WU happy, and give an east/west balance.

I could definitely see this happening. KSU-ISU, TCU-BU, presumably Tech-UH would be protected crossovers. I’d guess BYU-Cincy next to minimize that already laughable travel for a protected game. Then KU, OSU, WVU can argue about who gets UCF and who WVU gets.