Realignment Megathread (All The Moves)

[1SEIACLONE]

Increase the visibility of the program? It’s 2024 not 1995. Every program is on national tv almost every week.

We have people on here complaining and worried about playing at Bowling Green and Arkansas St and now we want Iowa and ND in the non con. I’d be on board for one or the other but not both.

It makes no sense for either ISU or EIU to stop playing the game, its a guaranteed sellout no matter which team is hosting and cheap to travel to for the teams and the fans.
Playing more high profile games helps a team like ISU and does not hurt them, hell, half the country does not know the difference between EIU and ISU.

2nd, no ISU is not on national tv every week, we streamed how many games last season on ESPN+, while anyone that streams games can see them, that is still less than half the country, that is not what I would call national tv. The only fans watching them are the fans of the two teams and maybe a few fans of the conference. Just look at the ratings of those games, it says it all.

 

[isucy86]

It makes no sense for either ISU or EIU to stop playing the game, its a guaranteed sellout no matter which team is hosting and cheap to travel to for the teams and the fans.
Playing more high profile games helps a team like ISU and does not hurt them, hell, half the country does not know the difference between EIU and ISU.

2nd, no ISU is not on national tv every week, we streamed how many games last season on ESPN+, while anyone that streams games can see them, that is still less than half the country, that is not what I would call national tv. The only fans watching them are the fans of the two teams and maybe a few fans of the conference. Just look at the ratings of those games, it says it all.

Last year I believe ISU has 2 games on ESPN+. UNI & Baylor

I feel that is pretty typical historically, but with with 16 teams/8 games a week that might increase. But as long as the Clones are top half of Big12 standings, most games will be on linear FOX or ESPN.

The other wildcard is new VENU Sport streaming platform that is JV of ESPN, FOX and WB. I would expect ESPN+ to be part of platform, so fans of Big10, SEC and ACC will have their conference networks on the platform. So possible audience for ESPN+ games will be national audience for subscribers of that platform.

Will be curious if ESPN continues an unbundled ESPN+ at $10.

 

[snowcraig2.0]

It makes no sense for either ISU or EIU to stop playing the game, its a guaranteed sellout no matter which team is hosting and cheap to travel to for the teams and the fans.
Playing more high profile games helps a team like ISU and does not hurt them, hell, half the country does not know the difference between EIU and ISU.

2nd, no ISU is not on national tv every week, we streamed how many games last season on ESPN+, while anyone that streams games can see them, that is still less than half the country, that is not what I would call national tv. The only fans watching them are the fans of the two teams and maybe a few fans of the conference. Just look at the ratings of those games, it says it all.

We played 2 games on ESPN plus last year.

 

[ClubCy]

It makes no sense for either ISU or EIU to stop playing the game, its a guaranteed sellout no matter which team is hosting and cheap to travel to for the teams and the fans.
Playing more high profile games helps a team like ISU and does not hurt them, hell, half the country does not know the difference between EIU and ISU.

2nd, no ISU is not on national tv every week, we streamed how many games last season on ESPN+, while anyone that streams games can see them, that is still less than half the country, that is not what I would call national tv. The only fans watching them are the fans of the two teams and maybe a few fans of the conference. Just look at the ratings of those games, it says it all.

We played more games on national Fox alone than ESPN+ last year.

 

[ISU_Guy]

It makes no sense for either ISU or EIU to stop playing the game, its a guaranteed sellout no matter which team is hosting and cheap to travel to for the teams and the fans.
Playing more high profile games helps a team like ISU and does not hurt them, hell, half the country does not know the difference between EIU and ISU.

2nd, no ISU is not on national tv every week, we streamed how many games last season on ESPN+, while anyone that streams games can see them, that is still less than half the country, that is not what I would call national tv. The only fans watching them are the fans of the two teams and maybe a few fans of the conference. Just look at the ratings of those games, it says it all.

It think once conferences go to 10 or more games in league play, you can say goodbye to the Iowa game.
Iowa won't need the game at all. Iowa state probably needs it more for SoS and visibility.
with a 10 game or more schedule you will see one non conf against a cupcake and one against a mac/mwc.
then right into league play.

I am in the minority here probably, but I actually wouldn't mind the iowa game going away. its bad for my health...lol
also, the more we inch closer to Power 2, the more our game is in jeopardy of having that Colorado versus Colorado State vibe. Won't be quite as bad but close.

as far as ESPN+. I know it gets a bad wrap, but I would take having ESPN+ for 10/mo versus 10-20-30 years ago when ISU was only on the radio, or had games on cyclones TV/MC22

 

[BCClone]

I

It’s more like 50%-60% and if Fox tells BY to not schedule ND, he can tell Fox to eff themselves unlike Pettiti, the Fox puppet.

61%.

 

[1SEIACLONE]

It think once conferences go to 10 or more games in league play, you can say goodbye to the Iowa game.
Iowa won't need the game at all. Iowa state probably needs it more for SoS and visibility.
with a 10 game or more schedule you will see one non conf against a cupcake and one against a mac/mwc.
then right into league play.

I am in the minority here probably, but I actually wouldn't mind the iowa game going away. its bad for my health...lol
also, the more we inch closer to Power 2, the more our game is in jeopardy of having that Colorado versus Colorado State vibe. Won't be quite as bad but close.

as far as ESPN+. I know it gets a bad wrap, but I would take having ESPN+ for 10/mo versus 10-20-30 years ago when ISU was only on the radio, or had games on cyclones TV/MC22

I agree but right now no league has gone to a 10 game conference schedule, I think TV values the big out of conference games early in the season right now more than having leagues play 10 games. Now that can change in the future or if we get the SEC or B10 to expand again, but as of today we still have 3 non conference games in the ACC, B10 and B12 while the SEC has 4.

Sure being about to watch the game on ESPN+ is better than listening to it on the the radio, my point was that not every game we played the past couple of years was on national tv. A non conference game with a team like ND gains ISU more than it costs us, and would be worth playing 11 P4 games for a season or two every ten years.

 

[isucy86]

I agree but right now no league has gone to a 10 game conference schedule, I think TV values the big out of conference games early in the season right now more than having leagues play 10 games. Now that can change in the future or if we get the SEC or B10 to expand again, but as of today we still have 3 non conference games in the ACC, B10 and B12 while the SEC has 4.

Sure being about to watch the game on ESPN+ is better than listening to it on the the radio, my point was that not every game we played the past couple of years was on national tv. A non conference game with a team like ND gains ISU more than it costs us, and would be worth playing 11 P4 games for a season or two every ten years.

Fans won't have a problem with 11 P4 games. But I doubt any Head Coach is going to agree to that schedule if it's not commonplace. Especially when the Hawks are consistently Top 20/30 team.

Feel like the only way that happens is if schools like ISU struggle to make 12 team playoff based on merit alone.

 

[1SEIACLONE]

Fans won't have a problem with 11 P4 games. But I doubt any Head Coach is going to agree to that schedule if it's not commonplace. Especially when the Hawks are consistently Top 20/30 team.

Feel like the only way that happens is if schools like ISU struggle to make 12 team playoff based on merit alone.

I didn't see much about Brown at WV complaining about the schedule last year or this, maybe he did and I missed it, but with the new 12 game playoff I think playing 2/4 cupcakes will hurt a team as more than playing less even if you lose one of them.

 

[ClubCy]

I didn't see much about Brown at WV complaining about the schedule last year or this, maybe he did and I missed it, but with the new 12 game playoff I think playing 2/4 cupcakes will hurt a team as more than playing less even if you lose one of them.

If Iowa state goes 1-2 in the non con then we would need to run the table plus with the conference championship. Not many coaches will sign up for that.

 

[Cloned4Life]

If Iowa state goes 1-2 in the non con then we would need to run the table plus with the conference championship. Not many coaches will sign up for that.

Don't go 1-2 in the non con...

 

[Jeffrey Scott]

It think once conferences go to 10 or more games in league play, you can say goodbye to the Iowa game.
Iowa won't need the game at all. Iowa state probably needs it more for SoS and visibility.
with a 10 game or more schedule you will see one non conf against a cupcake and one against a mac/mwc.
then right into league play.

I am in the minority here probably, but I actually wouldn't mind the iowa game going away. its bad for my health...lol
also, the more we inch closer to Power 2, the more our game is in jeopardy of having that Colorado versus Colorado State vibe. Won't be quite as bad but close.

as far as ESPN+. I know it gets a bad wrap, but I would take having ESPN+ for 10/mo versus 10-20-30 years ago when ISU was only on the radio, or had games on cyclones TV/MC22

This game creates a health problem for me too. Especially when we lose.

 

[1SEIACLONE]

If Iowa state goes 1-2 in the non con then we would need to run the table plus with the conference championship. Not many coaches will sign up for that.

If in this case ISU went 1-2 with loses to EIU and ND, I think we would be fine. Losing to ND would not be like a loss to Louisiana St.

A b12 team that wins the conference to get into the playoff even with 12 teams, so what they did in the non conference is really not going to matter.

 

[isucy86]

I didn't see much about Brown at WV complaining about the schedule last year or this, maybe he did and I missed it, but with the new 12 game playoff I think playing 2/4 cupcakes will hurt a team as more than playing less even if you lose one of them.

It would be interesting to get Brown's take in scheduling PSU & Pitt in same year. Was it a scheduling quirk or did they do it to stay relevant with their east coast recruiting since their conference schedule traditionally included only midwest/texas schools.

I was curious if they will continue to play Pitt & Penn State and it doesn't look like it after 2024. They will play one P4 (Pitt/Bama/Tenn) and 2 G5/FCS games.

 

[CascadeClone]

It think once conferences go to 10 or more games in league play, you can say goodbye to the Iowa game.
Iowa won't need the game at all. Iowa state probably needs it more for SoS and visibility.
with a 10 game or more schedule you will see one non conf against a cupcake and one against a mac/mwc.
then right into league play.

I am in the minority here probably, but I actually wouldn't mind the iowa game going away. its bad for my health...lol
also, the more we inch closer to Power 2, the more our game is in jeopardy of having that Colorado versus Colorado State vibe. Won't be quite as bad but close.

While I agree with what you're saying... if it doesn't make sense for Iowa & ISU to play, to actually have that rivalry game... then what are we doing here anyway? What's the whole point and purpose?

 

[ISU_Guy]

While I agree with what you're saying... if it doesn't make sense for Iowa & ISU to play, to actually have that rivalry game... then what are we doing here anyway? What's the whole point and purpose?

100% agree with you, but after what has happened the past 10 years, what are we doing?
I think we need the game more than Iowa does and if the Big12 and BIG decide to go to ten games since the leagues are getting so big, the game will probably be over.

Iowa has a great situation. landed in the right conference 100+ years ago and have natural rivals of Minny, Wisky, Nebby, Illinois. Not too mention they have 7 Big Time programs in their league to sell out stadiums and get TV exposure from. If I were them I wouldn't have an issue ending the series if the BigTen went to 10 games.
I don't think ISU would make that decision unless we went to zero non conference games for some unreal reason.

Rivals and traditions have been thrown into the trash in literally a decades time and expediting to a finish line that could mean who knows what.

 

[AttackOfTheClones]

It think once conferences go to 10 or more games in league play, you can say goodbye to the Iowa game.
Iowa won't need the game at all. Iowa state probably needs it more for SoS and visibility.
with a 10 game or more schedule you will see one non conf against a cupcake and one against a mac/mwc.
then right into league play.

I am in the minority here probably, but I actually wouldn't mind the iowa game going away. its bad for my health...lol
also, the more we inch closer to Power 2, the more our game is in jeopardy of having that Colorado versus Colorado State vibe. Won't be quite as bad but close.

as far as ESPN+. I know it gets a bad wrap, but I would take having ESPN+ for 10/mo versus 10-20-30 years ago when ISU was only on the radio, or had games on cyclones TV/MC22

Actually most years Iowa desperately needs the ISU game. You can call it their 'Superbowl' lately.
2023, ISU finished #32 SAGARIN; ---by every other metric, the highest rated team Iowa beat'
Iowa came in @ #45 in Sagarin.
They were the worst 10-win Power5 team in recent history--barely cracking the top-25 (because many voters only looked at their record)

Iowa played three ranked teams, and were destroyed by a combined score 92-0
They beat other mediocre teams be miniscule margins

Iowa definitely needs this game

 

[HouClone]

I didn't see much about Brown at WV complaining about the schedule last year or this, maybe he did and I missed it, but with the new 12 game playoff I think playing 2/4 cupcakes will hurt a team as more than playing less even if you lose one of them.

Props to West Virginia on their scheduling.

 

[Nolaeer]

It would be interesting to get Brown's take in scheduling PSU & Pitt in same year. Was it a scheduling quirk or did they do it to stay relevant with their east coast recruiting since their conference schedule traditionally included only midwest/texas schools.

I was curious if they will continue to play Pitt & Penn State and it doesn't look like it after 2024. They will play one P4 (Pitt/Bama/Tenn) and 2 G5/FCS games.

WVU has always played two p5 teams ooc, even going back to the Big East days. The AD understands the fans want to see the rivalry games like Pitt, VT, maryland, and PSU more often than not. The beauty of the cfp is scheduling psu and pitt, or bama and tenn in the same year will just help your sos. win and it's great, lose and it isnt the end of the world if you win the big 12.

 

[Nolaeer]

BY may force the big 12 teams to schedule 2 P2 games a year. he hinted at that already, saying teams scheduling cupcakes hurt the bottom line.