Realignment Megathread (All The Moves)

[HFCS]

Great point. What gets overlooked in a lot of this is that the networks have a finite number of windows for their games. Adding members to conferences they have deals with means more competition for those windows. Would ESPN prefer NC State-Stanford for a late window on ESPN2, relegating Iowa State-Arizona or Baylor-Colorado to ESPN+?

There‘s only so much airtime to go around, and with ESPN/Fox adding more ACC/B1G ”after dark” content to their plates, that’s not necessarily good for the B12.

I guess the choice is if ESPN wants to highlight road games of the 5-6 ACC programs with real fans on the west coast. They ESPECIALLY know this now that they are trying to get ESPN+ subscriptions.

There's no built in base fandom viewership for Wake @Cal. It would be a gamblers only viewership the way a late night San Jose St vs SDSU is.

Big 12's advantage is that there's built in fandom base viewership with everybody except maybe ASU it seems.

 

[Iowast8isgr8]

And the end result of all of it is games are now almost unwatchable with all the commercials, in person or on TV. I realize somebody gotta pay for the money being thrown around, but it is freaking ridiculous how many commercials there were on the Utah/Florida and Nebraska/Minnesota games last night!

 

[KidSilverhair]

This is all 100% right I think.

Despite where he's from, CascadeClone is a good poster here. Rational and coherent, especially when it comes to this realignment circus.

I give him big props for sneaking in the Back To The Future reference

 

[MugNight]

Great point. What gets overlooked in a lot of this is that the networks have a finite number of windows for their games. Adding members to conferences they have deals with means more competition for those windows. Would ESPN prefer NC State-Stanford for a late window on ESPN2, relegating Iowa State-Arizona or Baylor-Colorado to ESPN+?

There‘s only so much airtime to go around, and with ESPN/Fox adding more ACC/B1G ”after dark” content to their plates, that’s not necessarily good for the B12.

It’s starting to feel like Coke vs Pepsi. Gatorade vs Powerade. Both brands have comparable flavors and colors. Why add another red flavor when both already have one? It’s a silly comparison, but consumers will get fewer options in an illusion of choices.

 

[Die4Cy]

Great point. What gets overlooked in a lot of this is that the networks have a finite number of windows for their games. Adding members to conferences they have deals with means more competition for those windows. Would ESPN prefer NC State-Stanford for a late window on ESPN2, relegating Iowa State-Arizona or Baylor-Colorado to ESPN+?

There‘s only so much airtime to go around, and with ESPN/Fox adding more ACC/B1G ”after dark” content to their plates, that’s not necessarily good for the B12.

That may be a concern on the margins, but networks will want to be careful with that because there's always another negotiating window around the corner and the Big 12 would be looking at things like that in evaluating the relationship.

 

[Big_Sill]

Stanford and Cal are in the Atlantic Coast conference. Makes perfect sense.

Some 4th grader in California is going to get a a test question about the worlds Ocean's wrong because of this.

 

[Die4Cy]

I'm happy with the new Big 12 from a competitive and cultural standpoint, but I am sort of hoping for an intervention from Congress that would permit something more sensible to take hold for college football. I just don't think anyone has been harmed enough yet, at least not in a widespread way outside of Oregon State and Washington State, for Congress to want to get into it. But relegate some east coast teams over here, and allow NIL to get out of hand down south, and put some other state education budgets on the hook for funding athletics out west, and block CFP by giving too many slots to super conferences over there...and you can see how it could get there quickly.

 

[SolterraCyclone]

I just don't know that a 3rd conference will be weak enough to be swept under the rug...or if those 40 teams cover enough of the country like the old 65-75ish did.

If it was 40 teams starting from scratch, possibly, but you have to remember that Rutgers, Vandy, NW, etc are essentially dead weight taking up spots that don't actually have significant fanbases. 40 teams from the original base of Big Ten/SEC is really just going to be about 30-35 passionate fanbases and you're leaving out some that are bigger and more successful programs.

Look at Utah last night, they manhandled Florida in a packed stadium on meager Pac media money. The media payout didn't matter.

Indiana football has already had some time making the most media money and they still suck. Same for several other Big Ten programs. I have a feeling some on the outside will be just as good as most on the inside no matter the media $ discrepancy.

Again unless they truly start over from scratch as just a football league and strategically try to get the biggest fan bases that truly cover the whole country the way college football always had for 100+ years.

Forde had a different take than the 2 super conferences on the most recent College Football Enquirer pod. Him, Wetzel, and Dellenger thinks there are simply too many good players nationally for there to be only two conferences.

I personally think a Super League is more likely than just 2 P2 conferences long term (and I think this will happen unfortunately). But the ACC surviving I believe helps prevent the P2 or Super League. As long as the ACC and Big 12 can remain competitive, there’s too much value in the leagues for the SEC/B10 to cut them out altogether. If they’re competitive, people would rather watch a B12/ACC champion or runner-up rather than a 4th or 5th place B10/SEC team.

I don’t think us Big 12ers should lament the ACC getting stronger with these moves looking to the goal of a P3. We should want the ACC to be strong enough to keep auto qualifiers financially viable for the CFP, but also not get too strong that they could kill the Big 12

 

[KidSilverhair]

That may be a concern on the margins, but networks will want to be careful with that because there's always another negotiating window around the corner and the Big 12 would be looking at things like that in evaluating the relationship.

I can envision a future where, if all these media deals come up for renewal at about the same time, neither the B12 in general nor Iowa State in particular would have much leverage.

It doesn’t take a Pat Forde to see some combination of ESPN/Fox/CBS coming to the top 40 college football brands and making the offer of a “Fox Conference” and an “ESPN Conference,” throwing literal billions of dollars at these schools if they’d forego games with Vanderbilt and Rutgers and Iowa State. Sure, people like Friendly Spartan will say the B1G or SEC would never turn their backs on current members … but if dollar signs get you to poach USC or Texas or OU from long-standing conferences, as Churchill once put it we’ve already established what you are; now we’re just haggling over price.

While two NFL minor leagues fully owned by networks wouldn’t completely destroy the TV market, it might very well be Iowa State and Kansas State and Arizona and Houston hoping to have their games on the CW.

 

[ISU_Guy]

Stanford and Cal are in the Atlantic Coast conference. Makes perfect sense.

Some 4th grader in California is going to get a a test question about the worlds Ocean's wrong because of this.

I am guessing these leagues will have to disband to lose their baggage (vandy, mizzou, rutgers, indiana, nw etc) and then they will spin up new leagues based of a non geographical name and without numbers of members listed.

seeing how stupid this is going I wouldn't be surprised if there are two leagues sponsored by huge type of companies to give members even more money.

Maybe like the Enron and Worldcom leagues? in the spirit of greed and corruption...

 

[trevn]

Losing regional interest in college athletics because conferences now span the entire nation is ridiculously short-sighted. But here we are.

 

[CascadeClone]

This is all 100% right I think.

Despite where he's from, CascadeClone is a good poster here. Rational and coherent, especially when it comes to this realignment circus.

I appreciate the compliment almost as much as the drive-by shot at my hometown.

What are you a Beckman Blazer? Or worse.... from Monticello...

 

[Die4Cy]

I appreciate the compliment almost as much as the drive-by shot at my hometown.

What are you a Beckman Blazer? Or worse.... from Monticello...

I'm from there too.

 

[theshadow]

I recently watched the first season of "Fever Pitch" -- limited series on the Smithsonian Channel about the creation/rise of the Premier League -- and it's easy to imagine how something like that could happen in CFB.

*Bigger clubs didn't think they were getting enough money.
*Reps from 5 of those clubs got together to hatch the idea of the EPL, splitting 22 teams (originally) off from the rest of the Football Association/Football League, becoming an independent group and free to negotiate its own media/sponsorship deals.
*FA pushback: You can't do that, we've been doing it this way for 100 years!
*Clubs do it anyway.
*Rupert Murdoch/Sky TV buy up all of the EPL broadcast rights, forcing fans to purchase satellite dishes and subscriptions to watch (instead of watching OTA).
*Hundreds of millions of pounds flow into the league right away.
*Transfer players suddenly start commanding huge sums.
*Relegation means a financial death sentence.

Depending on your viewpoint, that's either a playbook or a cautionary tale for the future of CFB.

 

[MugNight]

I recently watched the first season of "Fever Pitch" -- limited series on the Smithsonian Channel about the creation/rise of the Premier League -- and it's easy to imagine how something like that could happen in CFB.

*Bigger clubs didn't think they were getting enough money.
*Reps from 5 of those clubs got together to hatch the idea of the EPL, splitting 22 teams (originally) off from the rest of the Football Association/Football League, becoming an independent group and free to negotiate its own media/sponsorship deals.
*FA pushback: You can't do that, we've been doing it this way for 100 years!
*Clubs do it anyway.
*Rupert Murdoch/Sky TV buy up all of the EPL broadcast rights, forcing fans to purchase satellite dishes and subscriptions to watch (instead of watching OTA).
*Hundreds of millions of pounds flow into the league right away.
*Transfer players suddenly start commanding huge sums.
*Relegation means a financial death sentence.

Depending on your viewpoint, that's either a playbook or a cautionary tale for the future of CFB.

Don’t forget the “Golden Parachute” of funds that teams from the PL get when they’re relegated. Those squads typically get gutted of their best players, but many of them end up well positioned to buy up talent and fight for promotion again. Fulham, Newcastle, and Aston Villa come to mind recently. Even when they’re “kicked out of the club”, they get a leg up in getting back there.

 

[Cloneon]

Guess that would make sense that they wouldn't get a vote. Will be interesting to see what FSU, Clemson and UNC's next move will be. It seems all of FSU's grandstanding caused this move so they have themselves to blame.

As suggested by someone earlier, it seems a logical legal approach would be for the 'out' three to suggest the contract is null and void because the total contract was altered by adding the 'in' three. If the SEC and B1G want to act now, I'm guessing we'll see some more regarding eventual destinations starting very soon.

 

[LLCoolCY]

I’m sure ESPN wouldn’t facilitate a few more ACC leaving to other conferences drop the number below 15 when FSU/Clemson leave. Why would ESPN do that?

 

[HouClone]

"You mean, we can buy our way in?"

Sincerely,
Tulane (2 billion endowment)

 

[KnappShack]

Whoever the arsehole was who said the PAC was a $50 million a team league and talked the other presidents into holding firm needs a kick in the nuts.

SMU nothing up to 9 years?? CalStan to the A ******* CC for a song and possibly neutral site games in Dallas?

Killed the PAC for no goddam good reason

 

[cytor]

This is getting so stupid now. I'm sure that Cal and Stanford can't wait for those conference road games.