Report: OU & Texas reach out to join SEC

[surly]

The market will ultimately determine the B12's value and/or pieces of it like ISU, Ku, and WVU. Fox, CBS, NBC, streaming services, whatever the ESPN alternative, they are the ones who will determine what happens next, financially and otherwise. Open markets are most often the best allocator of scarce resources.

 

[Cloneon]

OR - it could be the Pac12 is in on the eff ESPN bus with everyone else, and is pushing the message that there are no communications or desire for teams. That would make the ESPN-SEC move much more of an independent interference move, as opposed to making it look like this stuff happens all the time.

No way we can really know any of what is actually going on. Unless you have Kliavkoff and Bowlsby's phones bugged lol.

While I like your perspective, let's not forget how highly leveraged ESPN already is. That Disney 'streaming' advertising campaign is at the core of whether ESPN succeeds or not. If they end up in court, their brand will take a hit.

 

[CyRann22]

The market will ultimately determine the B12's value and/or pieces of it like ISU, Ku, and WVU. Fox, CBS, NBC, streaming services, whatever the ESPN alternative, they are the ones who will determine what happens next, financially and otherwise. Open markets are the best allocator of scarce resources.

Seems like college football is a better product when resources are shared.

 

[Cloneon]

The market will ultimately determine the B12's value and/or pieces of it like ISU, Ku, and WVU. Fox, CBS, NBC, streaming services, whatever the ESPN alternative, they are the ones who will determine what happens next, financially and otherwise. Open markets are the best allocator of scarce resources.

What I find interesting is that no one has really compared the 'packaged' content. Is the aggregate of OK and TX greater than the aggregate of the other 8 B12 members? I don't think it's even close. They are not. With little to no 'production' costs, one would ask why not add the content of the other B12 members? Especially, if a conference views itself in competition with the SEC. It's a much better revenue stream.

 

[AuH2O]

You know what that screams of? The PAC 12 seeing what’s going on between the SEC, ESPN, Big 12, the cease and desist, and the potential impending lawsuits, and the Pac 12 saying “um, yeah - we’re going to wait until all of this dies down and the Big 12 truly is dead before we do our poaching”.

As someone said, if the PAC 12 doesn’t expand east, they’re dead in the future of college sports.

It's not only meaningless because of what you point out, it's meaningless because media day is talking to coaches. You think coaches in the PAC want to travel to Iowa or Kansas, or Oklahoma? Of course not. But it's not their job to understand or think about the big moves that keep their conference afloat long-term. What are the odds most of them are their in 5 years, anyway? They are worried about this season and not much more.

As for the media within a conference they are generally delusional about their own conference anyway. Hell, even the article that someone posted earlier from the Oregon guy seemed fairly reasonable, but then in the comments the author is responding to people suggesting that while unlikely there's an outside shot they could poach Nebraska and that even OKLAHOMA would still entertain the PAC to be the pre-eminent brand.

 

[surly]

What I find interesting is that no one has really compared the 'packaged' content. Is the aggregate of OK and TX greater than the aggregate of the other 8 B12 members? I don't think it's even close. They are not. With little to no 'production' costs, one would ask why not add the content of the other B12 members? Especially, if a conference views itself in competition with the SEC. It's a much better revenue stream.

The addition of any member or the whole has to be of greater value than the individual shares in the existing conference. If, for example, Ku potentially adds $20 million in revenue to a conference that currently receives $50 million each, then the addition of Ku would be a net negative to the existing members.

 

[Dandy]

This is Burke Magnus. I imagine he didn't get a lot of sleep last night.

Dude likely clears like $30M a year and would be an idiot to have done any of this backroom dealing himself, especially in writing. "Get yourself a fall guy" Cris Carter.

He'll be fine.

 

[CYEATHAWK]

Frank the Tank has always been an interesting blog to follow in terms of conference realignment. He is Big Ten centric, but has a pretty good feel over the years as to how it often plays out. His latest post:

The Art of Deception: Big 12 vs. ESPN

For most conference realignment moves, the timing may often be surprising, but the logic behind them makes sense. The SEC taking Texas and Oklahoma is a perfect example: the move came out of nowher…

frankthetank.org

Good read, and a bend I never considered before this ESPN debacle with all this money maybe keeping the Big 12 viable. Interesting he would say that after these discoveries the Big 12 is going to "find EVERY reason to strip mine anything of value in the AAC". Think maybe Memphis with their recent asking of $50mil. in stadium reno's knows this? Something might be afoot to where along with monster exit and punitive payments.......it is agree by all parties the Big 12 is going to be assured a butt load of media money for the next upteen years. If true..............WOW! That would be a win/win for ISU and the other 7.

 

[surly]

Dude likely clears like $30M a year and would be an idiot to have done any of this backroom dealing himself, especially in writing. "Get yourself a fall guy" Cris Carter.

He'll be fine.

He would be held responsible for the ramifications, like any operating officer.

 

[Dandy]

He would be held responsible for the ramifications, like any operating officer.

If he brings ESPN a SEC with OU/Tx and one BILLION dollars a year, he'll be fine.

 

[surly]

If he brings ESPN a SEC with OU/Tx and one BILLION dollars a year, he'll be fine.

Well, that's what this is all about, isn't it.

 

[CyLyte2]

Except the value of the remaining Big 12 is still better than the AAC. Big 12 regular season only, without UT and OU averaged nearly 40% more viewers than the average AAC game even when you include their CCG. That was with the Cincy undefeated season.

Unless ESPN was going to really sweeten the pot, a Big 12 with the likes of BYU, and the top of the AAC would be far more valuable than the AAC taking the Big 12 leftovers.

Sorry, teams that fill the stands and draw viewers like ISU and OSU, and a blue blood basketball program like KU have zero business, or need to be in a conference with ECU, Navy or Tulsa.

But ESPN doesn't have exclusive rights to the Big 12. That's the point here. ESPN was playing dirty pool to force the remaining 8 into a conference they had complete control of so that 1) The Big 12 dissolves allowing Texas and OU to escape quickly without paying for the GOR and the penalties(probably with a lot of money from ESPN) 2)ESPN would have control over all the inventory of the remaining 8. Throwing just big enough numbers to the remaining 8 to get them to join the AAC saves ESPN huge money not the least of which is the remaining $500,000,000 on the current TV deal. Which apparently as little as ONE remaining conference member can still claim and sue for. If the rest want to leave and we get $500,000,000 I'd go for that too. We'd have plenty of cash to be Independent for awhile and see how things shake out. The moral of this story is it's NOT time to panic. It's time to go to war.

 

[surly]

What may be key here is for Bowlsby to negotiate additional exit fees for the damage done to the B12. It may also result in some sort of ESPN or Fox contract extension. No one knows at this point in time as this is all in flux. But that result(s) would allow the existing members to reset, compete, and expand at some point in the future, and yes, that could be through some sort of P12 alliance which has always made sense to me.

 

[CyLyte2]

Good read, and a bend I never considered before this ESPN debacle with all this money maybe keeping the Big 12 viable. Interesting he would say that after these discoveries the Big 12 is going to "find EVERY reason to strip mine anything of value in the AAC". Think maybe Memphis with their recent asking of $50mil. in stadium reno's knows this? Something might be afoot to where along with monster exit and punitive payments.......it is agree by all parties the Big 12 is going to be assured a butt load of media money for the next upteen years. If true..............WOW! That would be a win/win for ISU and the other 7.

If the conference can extract enough money from ESPN, SEC, OU, UT and AAC(and that's a HUGE potential pile) the Big 12 can rebrand as the Big 8 for the foreseeable future and create our own brand.

 

[Cyclonepride]

He would be held responsible for the ramifications, like any operating officer.

Yep, in a very real way, he is the company. Whatever the company does, he is ultimately responsible, and one would presume that there's someone on the Disney team that would be all too happy to have the buck stop right there.

 

[CarrollCyclone]

Good read, and a bend I never considered before this ESPN debacle with all this money maybe keeping the Big 12 viable. Interesting he would say that after these discoveries the Big 12 is going to "find EVERY reason to strip mine anything of value in the AAC". Think maybe Memphis with their recent asking of $50mil. in stadium reno's knows this? Something might be afoot to where along with monster exit and punitive payments.......it is agree by all parties the Big 12 is going to be assured a butt load of media money for the next upteen years. If true..............WOW! That would be a win/win for ISU and the other 7.

I could be wrong, but doesn't the City of Memphis own the Liberty Bowl Stadium....not the university?

 

[Cyclonepride]

If the conference can extract enough money from ESPN, SEC, OU, UT and AAC(and that's a HUGE potential pile) the Big 12 can rebrand as the Big 8 for the foreseeable future and create our own brand.

Even with a huge settlement of the deal, I cannot imagine the Big 12 being viable on the level they were for the long term. Any settlement followed by restructuring, IMO, simply delays the inevitable dissolution (maybe just until the current media rights agreement is up).

 

[ForeverIowan]

As has been reported, there is zero chance a University President or Athletic Director is taking the stand in a legal proceeding with their right hand raised to cover for the missteps of ESPN. Money isn't going to be an issue for the remaining Big 12 schools for the foreseeable future. Sit back and wait to see how all of this shakes out. Hopefully Iowa State has a seat at the table when all the chips fall. In all likelihood, if Iowa State has a spot in the B1G or Pac 12 they assuredly will take it on the chin financially for years and years as a negotiation tactic.

 

[CycloneDaddy]

I could be wrong, but doesn't the City of Memphis own the Liberty Bowl Stadium....not the university?

u r correct

 

[cyIclSoneU]

*B1G raids the Pac before its TV deal gets re-done in a few years
*Big 12 and Pac-12 leftovers merge
*B1G and SEC raid the ACC when its GOR gets closer to ending (still 15 years left now)
*ACC leftovers elevate some AAC programs (and also pull WVU over at that time)
*B1G/SEC exist in their own tier; B12/Pac-12 and ACC are in the second tier; G5 is a third tier of FBS
*B1G and SEC exit the NCAA and maybe leave behind the Mississippi States and Purdues for something like a 36-school, 2-conference super league

The next 25 years or so of major college athletics.