Report: OU & Texas reach out to join SEC

Cloneon

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Totally has something to do with that. Here is the breakdown of audiences by time of day (eastern) that the game was shown.

View attachment 88082

To your point, USC is definitely a big brand, Oregon isn't a blue blood like USC until they win something. They're more akin to Wisconsin at the moment, which is also a big brand due to sustained success for a long time. Wisconsin, however, averages a million more per game than both USC or Oregon.

I think we're seeing a confluence of timing, a bad contract, and both teams being down. I'd expect them closer to 3m per game than 2 if they're getting 9-11 win seasons. If USC was in natty mode, they have a much higher top end than most any other school due to the LA bandwagon. Like any of the blue bloods they have a top and bottom range depending on performance, but are generally higher than the rank and file participants.
One thing we seem to be overlooking are 'replays'. As streaming content, I'd expect out of time zone viewers to be strategizing watching replays more frequently. I know I've gotten used to it because of convenience.
 

snowcraig2.0

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Lets say the B1G takes ISU and KU to get to 16. Good geography, AAU, solid universities. Makes scheduling much easier for the B1G with the pod system, potential for two more B1G branded semi final games, etc etc. And then WVU gets into the ACC.

In that scenario, you have five Big 12 leftovers. Then, assuming the PAC wants to match all the other conferences and get to 16, who do they take? To me, TTU and OSU seem like natural fits in the PAC. That leaves BU, TCU, and KSU. Which two of those three does the PAC take? Or are there G5's with better academics or larger enrollments?
 
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Cyclonepride

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The Oklahoman had a solid summary of the OU/UT leaving timeline an conundrum. Most of the details are known and discussed in this thread.
I factor that I hadn't considered is FOX owning of the PAC 12 and 1/2 of the Big 12's media rights influence on when UT/OU could leave. Fox would lose a lot of viewers when the SEC takes the Sooners and Longhorns from the Big 12 partnership and only have the 8 schools in their contract. Fox would want try to force TX/OU to stay in 2025 to fulfill the current Big 12 contract and may not want to incentivize the PAC12 or BiG to take schools.
That is unless Fox gains the irate 8 fanbases under with PAC12 or Big 10 membership to increase those viewer ships and it makes sense financially to do it earlier.
I could also see the case where FOX could force "their" conferences to move on expansion early if TX/OU get the buyout. Especially if the ACC or AAC ESPN properties get traction on adding a Big 12 teams and increasing their CFB foot print. I don't see that as an attractive option for ISU but if I were JP I would at least threaten that it is a possibility to get a seat at the desired FOX conference table.


Yeah, it seems to me that FOX would probably prefer to stabilize the PAC 12 and/or perhaps add some to the Big Ten rather than try to save a sinking ship in the Big 12.
 

Cyclonepride

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Lets say the B1G takes ISU and KU to get to 16. Good geography, AAU, solid universities. Makes scheduling much easier for the B1G with the pod system, potential for two more B1G branded semi final games, etc etc. And then WVU gets into the ACC.

In that scenario, you have five Big 12 leftovers. Then, assuming the PAC wants to match all the other conferences and get to 16, who do they take? To me, TTU and OSU seem like natural fits in the PAC. That leaves BU, TCU, and KSU. Which two of those three does the PAC take? Or are there G5's with better academics or larger enrollments?

I think Baylor has the worst chances in that scenario.

1. OSU
2. TT
3. TCU
4. KSU
5 Baylor
 

Number Monkey

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All the reports and data suggest that plan is now changing the league itself knows it that is why they have begun pushing BTN+, streaming being the future, they want to get people locked into it now, and keep the cash cow flowing as it moves from grandma that never watches to the hardcore sports fan.

This is already starting. When Fox was sold to Disney, the regional networks were part of the deal, but Disney couldn't keep them due to owning ESPN. They were sold to Sinclair Broadcasting, rebranded as Bally Sports Networks", who owns a ton of local stations across the US.

Sinclair recently has been losing negotiations with providers, most recently Dish, who refuses to pay for regional sports networks and is willing to lose their local channels in the process. On an earnings call with investors, Dish Chairman Charlie Ergan said the following:

"Asked if there is any link between a potential deal with Sinclair for the broadcast stations and one for the RSNs, Ergen did not sound any hopeful notes. “We don’t have any customers calling us on RSNs today,” he shrugged. “If the local channels were to go down, we would have more than one customer calling us the next day saying, ‘Where’s my local channel?’”

As far as potential scenarios for sports, “We’re happy to talk about anything that’s creative and doesn’t harm our customers,” Ergen said. “But we’re not interested in taxing our customers when they don’t watch the channels. That doesn’t make any sense.”
 

cayin

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Everyone seems to think that this whole deal has to be settled in the next month or two or the remaining Big 12 schools are screwed, that is not the case at all.

OUT will be here for at least this season and next, they have to give 18 months notice to leave, which they have done. No school is going to leave a conference in Jan/Feb, so we are good through the 22/23 season. Now the question becomes does OUT want pay the buyout of $75 million each for the next two seasons, I tend to think they will not. ESPN does not take control of the SEC broadcasts until the 2024 season, CBS holds the contract for the 2023 season, so ESPN will not want them to move before they take control of the broadcasts, why help CBS? I do think they will l buy themselves out of the last year of the contract, but by then it will not matter.

Both the Pac 12 and Big 10 contracts come up for renew in 2023 and 2024, neither network is going to do anything until those agreements are finalized. Then expansion or whatever will occur at that time.

ISU will get a full share for the next 4 years, ESPN knows that and so does the league, the one thing we have on our side is time. We just need to be patient and allow the problem to work itself out.
But we do not have time on our side. This will hurt recruiting. One big 12 coach said just this week that realignment is killing their recruiting. It has to be hurting ours too. Our coaches can't tell incoming players if we are even going to be P5/4 or not.
 
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Cloneon

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Yeah, it seems to me that FOX would probably prefer to stabilize the PAC 12 and/or perhaps add some to the Big Ten rather than try to save a sinking ship in the Big 12.
The difference between a sinking ship and stabilizing are two flagship Universities. Given that the Pac12 contract expires sooner and their finances are a lot worse, they'd have to do some serious shoring up to keep their flagships from bailing. At that point the newer faster sinking ship transfers their flag to the slower sinker.
 

SEIOWA CLONE

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Lets say the B1G takes ISU and KU to get to 16. Good geography, AAU, solid universities. Makes scheduling much easier for the B1G with the pod system, potential for two more B1G branded semi final games, etc etc. And then WVU gets into the ACC.

In that scenario, you have five Big 12 leftovers. Then, assuming the PAC wants to match all the other conferences and get to 16, who do they take? To me, TTU and OSU seem like natural fits in the PAC. That leaves BU, TCU, and KSU. Which two of those three does the PAC take? Or are there G5's with better academics or larger enrollments?
You take TCU and KSU. TCU is the less religious of the schools without a scandal hanging around their neck, plus it also gets you into the Metroplex of Dallas/Fort Worth, for recruiting.
Taking KSU gets you into another state for TV and streaming purposes.
 

SEIOWA CLONE

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But we do not have time on our side. This will hurt recruiting. One big 12 coach said just this week that realignment is killing their recruiting. It has to be hurting ours too. Our coaches can't tell incoming players if we are even going to be P5/4 or not.
We were going to be hurt recruiting wise no matter what, the moment the OUT made the announcement recruiting for the other 8 schools became harder. Its what it is, the staff has to be selling the idea that if you come to ISU, you do not have to worry because we are either going to end up in the Big 10 or the Pac 12.

We also have no say in the timeline, this is only going to move as fast as Fox, and the Big 10 and Pac 12 want it too.
 

Cyclonepride

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Is there any scenario where Baylor has a fighting chance to land aware decent?

Probably either if the PAC 12 just decides to take the Big 12 remnants as a package deal, or if the PAC 12 explodes completely and the remnants of both conferences join. Otherwise, I think they're especially screwed (he types while giggling)
 

AuH2O

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Totally has something to do with that. Here is the breakdown of audiences by time of day (eastern) that the game was shown.

View attachment 88082

To your point, USC is definitely a big brand, Oregon isn't a blue blood like USC until they win something. They're more akin to Wisconsin at the moment, which is also a big brand due to sustained success for a long time. Wisconsin, however, averages a million more per game than both USC or Oregon.

I think we're seeing a confluence of timing, a bad contract, and both teams being down. I'd expect them closer to 3m per game than 2 if they're getting 9-11 win seasons. If USC was in natty mode, they have a much higher top end than most any other school due to the LA bandwagon. Like any of the blue bloods they have a top and bottom range depending on performance, but are generally higher than the rank and file participants.
The problem is between Oregon and USC only one game was "after dark" on the east coast. Every other game was in one of the other three slots. And between the two teams they had one game on FS1, one game on ESPN2, and all the rest were ABC, Fox or ESPN.

It really was not a factor for Oregon and USC last year. That game (USC vs. Utah) drew 1.3 million. Games in good time slots vs. Arizona and ASU drew 2.3 and 2.2 million, so I think it's safe to say that the boost from a better time slot wasn't going to change the overall average viewership for USC all that much. Oregon had no after dark games.

Time zone keeps getting thrown out there as an excuse for USC and Oregon, but the reality is they don't get stuck with those games. They get prime time slots on prime networks.
 

Cyclonepride

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The problem is between Oregon and USC only one game was "after dark" on the east coast. Every other game was in one of the other three slots. And between the two teams they had one game on FS1, one game on ESPN2, and all the rest were ABC, Fox or ESPN.

It really was not a factor for Oregon and USC last year. That game (USC vs. Utah) drew 1.3 million. Games in good time slots vs. Arizona and ASU drew 2.3 and 2.2 million, so I think it's safe to say that the boost from a better time slot wasn't going to change the overall average viewership for USC all that much. Oregon had no after dark games.

Time zone keeps getting thrown out there as an excuse for USC and Oregon, but the reality is they don't get stuck with those games. They get prime time slots on prime networks.

To me, that strongly suggests more passion for watching football in Big 12 country, which could really assist the TV numbers for the existing PAC 12 teams as well as we start following the rest of them much more closely.
 

JD4560

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I'm not gonna go back through all of this thread and see if this has been shared but very interesting about the theory of somebody pressing the replay button. Another possibility where Texas gets what they want in the big 12. **** Texas and still **** Nebby https://omaha.com/sports/huskers/fo...cle_8d28564e-fb94-11eb-87a1-2754af2643e7.html


“I heard — whether it’s true or not, I don’t know — that it wasn’t the replay official who hit the (replay) button to review it,” Pelini said. “There was nothing to review. It was over.”

So who hit the replay button?
According to Pelini: “I heard a Big 12 official reached over and hit the button. That’s what I was told a couple months after. And I was like, ‘Well, what are you going to do?’”
 

AuH2O

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To me, that strongly suggests more passion for watching football in Big 12 country, which could really assist the TV numbers for the existing PAC 12 teams as well as we start following the rest of them much more closely.
Yes, there are just way too many people that don't what they are talking about saying a bunch of contradictory things, including blaming the timezone and lack of college football enthusiasm on the west coast for unimpressive ratings for blueblood USC and major national brand, yet saying that expanding into an area of high college football interest like Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Iowa don't bring any value.

Saying viewership matters while claiming ISU wouldn't bring any value to the PAC, when it would likely be the 3rd or 4th most watched team in the league out of the gate.

Saying footprint and the old model still matter, but saying expanding the PAC into Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas doesn't make any sense.

Arguing against the PAC adding anybody, when it is clear they are in dire need to do something, and probably something drastic just to survive.
 

SEIOWA CLONE

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Yes, there are just way too many people that don't what they are talking about saying a bunch of contradictory things, including blaming the timezone and lack of college football enthusiasm on the west coast for unimpressive ratings for blueblood USC and major national brand, yet saying that expanding into an area of high college football interest like Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Iowa don't bring any value.

Saying viewership matters while claiming ISU wouldn't bring any value to the PAC, when it would likely be the 3rd or 4th most watched team in the league out of the gate.

Saying footprint and the old model still matter, but saying expanding the PAC into Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas doesn't make any sense.


Arguing against the PAC adding anybody, when it is clear they are in dire need to do something, and probably something drastic just to survive.
A lot of the people saying those things have an agenda they are pushing and want nothing more to see than the Big 12 move down to G5 level or worse.

That is why you keep hearing them say "ISU brings nothing to any league looking to expand."
 
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