Realignment Megathread (All The Moves)

[HFCS]

Anybody have name ideas for new Big 12 if they change brand name?

Horns Down Conference?

Great Western Conference?

Maybe ditch "conference" and call it a League or Association since it's about professional sports now.

 

[DSM4Cy]

How a Pac-12/Big 12 conference merger would play football

Here's how to organize and schedule a Big 12/Pac-12 merged conference. Looks pretty good!

theathletic.com

Stew is terrible and still thinks the Pac has the upper leg, but decided to write about a full merger possibility.

He proposes adding San Diego State and SMU and then forming four 6-team divisions.

I am just glad the most prominent Big 12 despisers like Mandel are now confronting the reality that the league is likely to survive and thrive.

Direct quote from Stew that says all you need to know about him: “I read Wilner’s story this week while sitting poolside with my family while on vacation in France.” Not a lot of your readers can afford to vacation in France. Nor do you need to mention your jet-setting in an article about conference realignment. You’re just bragging, stupidly. Between his interactions with CW/BB and comments like this, it’s easy to see how little character the guy has - and how useless his takes are.

 

[RustShack]

I consider it fortunate that we are not taking on a full PAC 12 merger. Yormack is right.

I agree, I was saying it as the writer of the article is (more than likely)wrong.

But yeah I see how it doesn’t read that way lol.

 

[drmwevr08]

I live near ucla, I’d give it 9-10ish hours to Tucson with typical traffic. You could do 7.5 hours if you left after 9pm and drive fast with zero traffic through the night.

The LA metro stretch of that drive varies between an hour and four hours. It’s why the rich people fly to Palm Springs.

These schools have never had a fun easy road trip partner besides each other.

But they still won't. Why is this a talking point?
Fun road trips are a thing of the past unfortunately for the B12 either way. ISU has a few left. Just another loss of the money race we are now in.

 

[LLCoolCY]

Unfortunately our commissioner said we aren’t adding teams to water down the payouts. So a full merger is off the table.

Agree taking all the PAC12 + a SMU SDSU or similar to get to 24 isn't happening. The idea was built of Wilner's earlier article dream casting the scenario to help save the PAC10. Unfortunately for OSU WSU etc they just doesn't bring enough media value to take especially if the ACC schools come available in a few years that would add (and give more East partners) to lock the BI2 now.

Only thing that did intrigue me about the article was having a Semi-final then B12 championship. That's an interesting idea to add value to the contract and could be adapted to 16 or 18 team conference.

 

[RustShack]

Agree taking all the PAC12 + a SMU SDSU or similar to get to 24 isn't happening. The idea was built of Wilner's earlier article dream casting the scenario to help save the PAC10. Unfortunately for OSU WSU etc they just doesn't bring enough media value to take especially if the ACC schools come available in a few years that would add (and give more East partners) to lock the BI2 now.

Only thing that did intrigue me about the article was having a Semi-final then B12 championship. That's an interesting idea to add value to the contract and could be adapted to 16 or 18 team conference.

Could definitely be added to a 16+ school conference.

 

[Stormin]

I agree, I was saying it as the writer of the article is (more than likely)wrong.

But yeah I see how it doesn’t read that way lol.

The writer of the article is desperately clinging to a belief that the PAC 12 will survive intact. Reality is that unless they want to stick together for a pittance and are willing to settle for less money and less prestige that the PAC 12 will not survive. None of those higher profile schools that are left are willing to do that. PAC 12 will not survive.

 

[qwerty]

Anybody have name ideas for new Big 12 if they change brand name?

Horns Down Conference?

Great Western Conference?

Maybe ditch "conference" and call it a League or Association since it's about professional sports now.

I proposed TECMO a few days ago

The
Eastern
Central
Mountain
Outstanding (could be Ocean) if add coastal schools

Conference

 

[HFCS]

But they still won't. Why is this a talking point?
Fun road trips are a thing of the past unfortunately for the B12 either way. ISU has a few left. Just another loss of the money race we are now in.

That is my point.

The AZ schools never had easy road trips in the Pac other than the one local rival. The Big 12 isn't much better or worse for them in that respect. Every Pac school was already isolated or had just one "local" rival.

The only schools that will really be on more of a geographical island than they already were are Ore St and WSU if they get left out entirely and don't even have their in state rival.

It's a pure $$$ and football quality thing. With UCLA/USC you could see the insane travel didn't matter compared to the cash. The mountain schools don't even need to consider that if they join Big 12 because travel is a push or slightly better.

 

[HFCS]

I proposed TECMO a few days ago

The
Eastern
Central
Mountain
Outstanding (could be Ocean) if add coastal schools

Conference

If only the championship game had a cool name.

 

[AuH2O]

I don’t think BYU minds but Utah sees itself as having surpassed BYU since they joined the Pac-12 and they don’t want to give that up.

USC made that decision for Utah when they left for the Big 10. And if there was any doubt, that will be removed when Oregon leaves for the Big 10. Utah could come into the Big 12 and surpass BYU potentially.

PAC is probably dead. The sooner Utah realizes that and joins the Big 12, the more leverage they will have.

People view these all as binary decisions by the schools and the conferences. They are not. There are still negotiations to be had for timelines and shares. If Utah was proactive they could get a good deal. If Oregon leaves for the Big 10, and they Arizona schools leave for the Big 12, Utah has lost its leverage.

While the wait and see approach sounds reasonable, but it could backfire and erode leverage these schools have.

 

[cyclones500]

Only thing that did intrigue me about the article was having a Semi-final then B12 championship. That's an interesting idea to add value to the contract and could be adapted to 16 or 18 team conference.

The 24-team setup as he presented does work well for travel (mostly), although it's essentially four 6-team leagues (a 24 would necessitate separate divisions in some capacity).

 

[cyIclSoneU]

The 24-team setup as he presented does work well for travel (mostly), although it's essentially four 6-team leagues (a 24 would necessitate separate divisions in some capacity).

We might need to reconsider the concept of conferences entirely if they end up like this - “Here’s 5 teams you play every year and 18 that you play once every six years.”

 

[cyclones500]

We might need to reconsider the concept of conferences entirely if they end up like this - “Here’s 5 teams you play every year and 18 that you play once every six years.”

Yep, pretty much reality if it's beyond 16 (even beyond 14, for that matter).

At least it'd be structured that way up-front. SEC went to 14, but continued to pretend it was a 12-team, so that's how we get "one trip to School X in 9 seasons" and such. (Big Ten is a little like that, too, but not quite as bad).

 

[isucy86]

Unfortunately our commissioner said we aren’t adding teams to water down the payouts. So a full merger is off the table.

Yea as long as TCU is in the Big12, I don't see the value of adding a 2nd Dallas school SMU.

I like the idea of SDSU if the Big12 would include Utah & Arizona schools. But I am skeptical of SDSU's media rights value being accretive to a Big12/Pac12 Conference. But TV Executive might see value in a Big12/Pac12 conference having a presence in SoCal.

 

[Land Shark]

No matter what our league's ultimate size is- keep the name "Big 12" as a reminder of how wrong those jagoffs have been about our survival on a daily basis. Make them say it out loud when talking about us just to hear the disdain.

 

[ZRF]

Yea as long as TCU is in the Big12, I don't see the value of adding a 2nd Dallas school SMU.

I like the idea of SDSU if the Big12 would include Utah & Arizona schools. But I am skeptical of SDSU's media rights value being accretive to a Big12/Pac12 Conference. But TV Executive might see value in a Big12/Pac12 conference having a presence in SoCal.

There is no benefit of a "presence" in SoCal when nobody cares about the school. That's always been the puzzling thing about markets. You can play in China where there are a billion people but the market is ZERO when nobody watches or cares.

 

[HFCS]

USC made that decision for Utah when they left for the Big 10. And if there was any doubt, that will be removed when Oregon leaves for the Big 10. Utah could come into the Big 12 and surpass BYU potentially.

PAC is probably dead. The sooner Utah realizes that and joins the Big 12, the more leverage they will have.

People view these all as binary decisions by the schools and the conferences. They are not. There are still negotiations to be had for timelines and shares. If Utah was proactive they could get a good deal. If Oregon leaves for the Big 10, and they Arizona schools leave for the Big 12, Utah has lost its leverage.

While the wait and see approach sounds reasonable, but it could backfire and erode leverage these schools have.

Exactly this.

Utah, CU and both AZ schools aren't automatically guaranteed Big 12 membership. In fact, Yormark's statement reads like if AZ, ASU and CU joined together or as some group of 2, the Big 12 wouldn't automatically take Utah on its own. Personally I like the idea of Utah/BYU with no NFL team in a growing market, but the number crunchers might not like it yet while cable tv still matters and Big 12 already has 100% of Utah cable tv interest.

If one or a handful are proactive they can guarantee they are part of Big 12 expansion. Pretty much every Pac team other than OreSt/WSU could probably do this, especially if they get proactive together.

Cal is the one that is a constant head scratcher for me. They have everything but a passionate fan base/real eyeballs.

 

[HFCS]

Yea as long as TCU is in the Big12, I don't see the value of adding a 2nd Dallas school SMU.

It's a reach for Pac 12, it's a no for Big 12 or a merger.

I'm kind of thinking we may see the end of promotions for a while.

 

[aeroclone]

Yea as long as TCU is in the Big12, I don't see the value of adding a 2nd Dallas school SMU.

I like the idea of SDSU if the Big12 would include Utah & Arizona schools. But I am skeptical of SDSU's media rights value being accretive to a Big12/Pac12 Conference. But TV Executive might see value in a Big12/Pac12 conference having a presence in SoCal.

You don't promote a mid major, period. You take any P5 school that can maintain or improve your per school payout and then you hold there. If the Pac crumbles, then the ACC is likely to do the same. You hold spots for potential ACC defections.