USC & UCLA TO JOIN BIG TEN (beginning 2024)!

[throwback]

Not that it's a surprise, but Katz said yesterday there is no plan to change the 20-game B1G regular season with the new additions. 

 

It would be a lot more balanced in the schedule if they went to 18 games - play everyone once and a protected rival twice - but I'm sure TV doesn't want to replace two conference games with two cupcakes and they're calling the shots.

[atskooc]

4 hours ago, cornfed24-7 said:

If it can't be monetized it has no value. Damn everything else. 

The answer to all of your questions is money. 

[Swan88]

Is this the Big East’s position on conference realignment?
 

 

[jayschool]

2 hours ago, Swan88 said:

Is this the Big East’s position on conference realignment?
 

 

It's my position, though agreeing with Rick Pitino gives me the heebie-jeebies.

[hhcmatt]

5 hours ago, Swan88 said:

Is this the Big East’s position on conference realignment?
 

 

 

If football does indeed dictate things then the Big East's opinion on anything isn't real relevant

[cipsucks]

1 hour ago, hhcmatt said:

 

If football does indeed dictate things then the Big East's opinion on anything isn't real relevant

 

Schools who aren't Power 65, are nervous. Can't blame them.  

[jimmykc]

On 8/4/2023 at 5:49 PM, cipsucks said:

 

I've been wrong every step of the way when it comes to conference realignment. But here's my 2 cents worth.  I don't see 24 team conferences. There are 65 Power 5 members. Three 24 mega conferences adds up to 72.  They are not adding members to this elite group. However, three 18 member conferences is 56, leaving room for the ACC and remaining pac12 schools and independents to still be in the party. 

Jim Rose threw out this theory this morning.  I'm not necessarily sure I agree, but...  18 team leagues allow for 3, 6 pod divisions.  For football, you have the winners of the pods plus one wild card.  Semi finals and finals to determine the conference champion. 

Here's my addition to his thought:

For basketball, play each other head to head. That's 17 games.  Do you need more?  If so, designate a rival, or two, for each team they play home and homes. 

All the other sports take care of themselves and greatly improve the B1G with this new lineup.

 

Not that it matters, but the number 18 is considered a very blessed number in Jewish culture.  Just one of those random cip thoughts.  

Trivia for the day:

You were right, Cip. I checked with a friend who is an Orthodox Jew and he said that each Hebrew letter has a numerical equivalent and the word for "Life" contains two letters, one for 10 and the other for 8. Therefore, 18 is considered lucky and monetary gifts for a bar mitsvah or wedding are given in multiples of 18. Therefore, you should award your salsa in multiples of 18, and my upcoming birthday has now taken on a new meaning.

 

 

[HuskerFever]

 

[HuskerFever]

 

[AuroranHusker]

Pac-4 might as well be aggressive and go after San Diego St. to bring them on-board immediately, then try to cherry-pick the AAC, and come back around to the MWC to see if any like-minded institutions want to take the APPLE streaming $$.

 

It has been a wild week for the Pac-12, now Pac-4, but it isn't over 'til the fat lady sings & the money completely dries up. And that 2nd part hasn't totally happened, yet. Both the MWC & AAC have less than $10M per school in media rights, while the Pac-4 can likely surpass that if they play their cards now even whilst in upheaval. I guess we'll see how it plays out... it ain't over, though.

[HuskerFever]

1 hour ago, AuroranHusker said:

to see if any like-minded institutions want to take the APPLE streaming $$.

 

I think it all depends what contractual language was in the media rights agreement in the event that teams get added or removed. Because that could lead to renegotiations and a much lower value that's just not attractive enough for teams to take a risk in joining a league that could collapse.

 

All speculation as I haven't seen the language, but something that ADs will certainly consider.

[49r]

Probably the best hope for the remaining PAC teams is to get the MWC to add them to their conference, maybe they can sweeten the deal by letting the MWC re-brand itself as the PAC.

 

It's not likely that it can happen the other way around, the MWC has a fresh grant of rights and a $34 million exit fee for each of its teams.  I suppose if like 8 of them agree to leave at once for the PAC they can dissolve the MWC and forego the exit fee but that would end up in many many expensive lawsuits, etc.

[cornfed24-7]

2 hours ago, 49r said:

Probably the best hope for the remaining PAC teams is to get the MWC to add them to their conference, maybe they can sweeten the deal by letting the MWC re-brand itself as the PAC.

 

It's not likely that it can happen the other way around, the MWC has a fresh grant of rights and a $34 million exit fee for each of its teams.  I suppose if like 8 of them agree to leave at once for the PAC they can dissolve the MWC and forego the exit fee but that would end up in many many expensive lawsuits, etc.

I saw a couple of articles that layed out  the scenarios between those two conferences. PAC taking the MWC, the MWC taking the PAC, the MWC disbanding so certain teams, not all, can join the PAC, and teams leaving the MWC to join the PAC. 

 

Apparently It's a tricky situation with exit fees, TV contracts, automatic bids, and potential lawsuits no matter witch path those teams choose. 

 

But each article thought keeping the PAC name was the best alternative however the teams got there. 

 

 

[HuskerFever]

1 hour ago, cornfed24-7 said:

I saw a couple of articles that layed out  the scenarios between those two conferences. PAC taking the MWC, the MWC taking the PAC, the MWC disbanding so certain teams, not all, can join the PAC, and teams leaving the MWC to join the PAC. 

 

Apparently It's a tricky situation with exit fees, TV contracts, automatic bids, and potential lawsuits no matter witch path those teams choose. 

 

But each article thought keeping the PAC name was the best alternative however the teams got there. 

 

Does "Kevin Warren becoming the commissioner of the Pac-12/MWC" fall into any of those scenarios? 

[jayschool]

The Pac-4 should invite the top six MWC brands, along with basketball-only schools Gonzaga and St. Mary's.

 

Decent 10-team football league, better 12-team basketball league:

1. Stanford
2. California
3. Washington State
4. Oregon State
5. Gonzaga
6. St. Mary's
7. San Diego State
8. Boise State
9. Fresno State
10. Colorado State
11. UNLV
12. Utah St./Nevada

[hhcmatt]

14 minutes ago, jayschool said:

The Pac-4 should invite the top six MWC brands, along with basketball-only schools Gonzaga and St. Mary's.

 

Decent 10-team football league, better 12-team basketball league:

1. Stanford
2. California
3. Washington State
4. Oregon State
5. Gonzaga
6. St. Mary's
7. San Diego State
8. Boise State
9. Fresno State
10. Colorado State
11. UNLV
12. Utah St./Nevada

 

Here is how big the divide is between the Power conferences.  Big 10 schools make something like $58M per school.  The Pac-12 imploded in part because all they could put together was about $23M from Apple.  The MWC pays out about $4M per school.

[cornfed24-7]

2 hours ago, jayschool said:

The Pac-4 should invite the top six MWC brands, along with basketball-only schools Gonzaga and St. Mary's.

 

Decent 10-team football league, better 12-team basketball league:

1. Stanford
2. California
3. Washington State
4. Oregon State
5. Gonzaga
6. St. Mary's
7. San Diego State
8. Boise State
9. Fresno State
10. Colorado State
11. UNLV
12. Utah St./Nevada

This is a good conference. It fits regionally. California - Southern, Central, and Northern(Each one is like it's own unique state), Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Utah, Nevada,and  Colorado. This could easily work. I like it. I think this conference, give it a decade, could give the Big 12 a run for its money. In terms of competitivness. I like it. 

[Cazzie22]

The surviving members of the PAC 10 cannot bring in area schools and get a media contract equal to the $20 million/School offered by Apple Streaming.  Boise, San Diego St, Utah St, Colorado St just don’t move the needle.  

[AuroranHusker]

Pac-4 should target a few AAC teams such as Tulane, SMU, and Memphis in addition to taking San Diego St. (since they had basically left the MWC already). That's a decent start at 8 teams. Then circle back to the MWC later. I think that's a better idea than Cal & Stanford going to the Atlantic Coast Conference....

 

 

[throwback]

There's just no decent TV money for the leftovers anywhere. I can't imagine the ACC will take them either, unless ESPN forces them to. When the big boys in the ACC are already unhappy with the revenue, splitting the pie more ways seems like a bad idea.

 

My guess is Stanford and Cal are floating the ACC idea in hopes that the Big 12 or Big 10 will try to grab them first. They may be overplaying their hand here.

 

However, I could see the Big 10 considering it, if they'd come in at an even more reduced share than Wash & Ore did. Maybe the Big 10 would hope that adding USC & Stanford would entice Notre Dame to jump to keep those rivalries going. 

 

Getting to 6 west coast schools would make it far easier to do the non-revenue sports in pods. Football and men's hoops won't do pods, but everyone else could - 6 in the west pod, 6-8 in the central pod, 6-8 in the east pod.

 

Absent a Big 10 offer, at this point Cal and Stanford might as well go independent for football and see if they can join the WCC for everything else. 

 

WSU & OSU are better fits for the MWC, but there's no TV money there, either. All 4 of their athletic dept budgets are in huge trouble. This is exactly why NU had to jump at the Big 10 when they did. Even though the Big 12 survived, it could've just as easily gone the other way.

 

[atskooc]

This was sent to me today from a work colleague. 
 

Pretty funny. 

[Dead Dog Alley]

1 hour ago, atskooc said:

This was sent to me today from a work colleague. 
 

Pretty funny. 

So Nebraska is the artery that keeps the conference upright?

Edited August 9, 2023 by Dead Dog Alley

[atskooc]

49 minutes ago, Dead Dog Alley said:

So Nebraska is the artery that keeps the conference upright?

I’ll allow it. 

[AuroranHusker]

3 hours ago, atskooc said:

This was sent to me today from a work colleague. 
 

Pretty funny. 

 

 

So, I take it that Cal & Stanford could be the scrotum. Big 20 here we come.

 

 

[HuskerFever]

I wonder what this would mean for some hoops tournaments as well: