(04-05-2014 11:47 AM)USAFMEDIC Wrote: (04-05-2014 11:25 AM)JRsec Wrote: (04-05-2014 10:43 AM)XLance Wrote: (04-04-2014 11:05 PM)JRsec Wrote: (04-04-2014 09:49 PM)XLance Wrote: JR, JR.....
In Conference ESPN everybody gets an equal share of TV/network money. That's already how the SEC and the ACC function, but it's a lesson that the Big 12 schools will have to learn.
Of course but that was not the tenor of the conversation. You were speaking in terms of keeping the two separate. It will work best for all of us united. ESPN will need to raise the SEC's contract to make it worth our while, the ACC will have to be paid the same in the merger and Texas and Oklahoma are the justification for such, perhaps Kansas too. Then we make regional divisions and play mostly who we've always played only with access to play each other from time to time in cross divisional games. If N.D. wants to join that's great. If not, fine. What was the old ACC of 7 schools could be essentially recreated (minus Maryland) in a 6 team division. Carolina preserves Wake if they want to stay, keeps N.C. State, Duke, Virginia, and Virginia Tech. You keep the schools you want to play, have access to some real top brands, and make more money. We also eliminate a triplicated expense in conference offices. That is like dividing essentially two teams full shares. It's the way to go at this point as it puts everyone in the South on the same footing, and since that footing would be better than what any of us have now that's okay.
If this happens and there is conference ESPN, then the ACC and the SEC will exist only as divisions in a bigger conference just as SEC east and SEC west are now.
The SEC won't "take" any schools from the ACC or the Big 12. There might be some of those schools assigned to the SEC division but there won't be a SEC anymore. There won't be an ACC anymore. The headquarters won't be in Birmingham, Greensboro or Dallas.
We are really saying the same thing but our visions are different.
I believe that schools located in the same state will be in the same division. Louisville and Kentucky, South Carolina and Clemson, Florida and Florida State, Alabama and Auburn will all be paired for travel ease and rivalry value.
I'm still thinking 33 (34 with ND) with 11 team divisions. Ten games within the division and one game with a team from each of the other two divisions.
And I'm thinking 32 with 4 eight team divisions, or 36 with 6 six team divisions. We won't move to 11 team divisions because the networks will want much more flexibility to schedule the matches they want. And I don't think we'll have the Irish to worry with.
Wow... 32 or 36 teams with four to six divisions. Player pay and unionization. Starting to sound like the NFL. I still think flipping the start up switch will be a monumental task. Deciding on locations of HQ, new commissioners, new support staffs for all the conferences, voting by each school involved regarding admission as well as new rules and conference bylaws. In addition, we will have state politicians getting involved and a few schools who are unable to step up but will file damage lawsuits. We might have take a year off to get this set up logistically. Maybe I am a pessimist when it comes to this much change...
Necessity and Fear are what always drive change. Right now the fear is over the revenue streams for the schools and the necessity is fast becoming the legal matters the P5 are having to deal with. Remember the NCAA withholds a large chunk of basketball revenue from the P5 and they redistribute a good bit of it to smaller schools and pocket the rest. That lost income is becoming ever more important to the P5 schools. And the foot dragging by the small schools in dealing with stipends and full cost scholarships is creating a great deal of stress for the larger schools.
As far as conference offices go I could see one in Dallas, one in Birmingham and one in Charlotte. The Big 10 is going to have three. I think the SEC might go that route with 3 regional offices and would hold various annual meetings in each location. Slive will retire after realignment and Swofford won't be far behind him. It would be easy enough to keep a good deal of the core staff of the Big 12, ACC, and SEC at regional offices and then either hire a new commissioner or move Bowlsby into the position when the time comes.
Also most of the Southeastern States are Right to Work states so other than in a few of the private schools I doubt we see the Union activity like they will up North where some of those states are closed shop. All of the additions would be made by merger at the time of separation and there would be no need to vote other than 1 vote to accept the merger. And since ESPN would be the major player in the situation and most being merged are already under contract to them that won't be much of an issue either.
So ultimately Medic I don't see any issues that you've raised causing any problems at all.
What I see as the main issue is whether ESPN would agree to negotiate a new inclusive for all contract. But my thinking on that is that if this came to pass then they essentially would be purchasing long term rights to the 32 or 36 schools that were merged 2/3 rds of which have the most market penetration of any of the P5 (SEC and Big 12) and the most attract footprint for the other 1/3rd (ACC). Now the SEC is the most watched nation wide of all conferences and it does have the highest percentage of viewers within its footprint that watch the games, but the Big 12, even with a much smaller footprint, still finishes second of the P5 in number of viewers within their area that watch each week.
You also tend to make it sound much bigger than it really would be. Stop thinking 36 teams and think of 3 regions with two six team divisions each operating under 1 umbrella to same on overhead. Right now the Big 12, ACC, and SEC account for 39 schools. In this new system they would account for 36. They wouldn't be getting bigger, but rather smaller. But they would be sharing their markets, content, and revenue from 1 giant network even though most of their games would remain the same as the conference games they currently play. It would just make games like Missouri vs North Carolina or Duke more likely in basketball and games like Florida vs Texas and Alabama vs Florida State and Virginia Tech vs A&M more likely to happen than they do today and that is where ESPN gains major content value and can therefore with those 36 teams reduce their total commitment to pay even more teams (which they do now) and make it more affordable for them to buy the nations' best product to be displayed in a gigantic market, and to offer games that regularly draw the eyeballs of the entire nation.
Extra money also will come from the internal playoff structure for the conference championship. With 6 division champs and the two best remaining schools you can seed your 8 schools and play it off. The National Championship game would have our conference champ against the one put up by a merged Big 10 and PAC. Bowls would still be there for all schools with winning records who are not in the playoffs.
So now you have more money, more playoff money, more bowl revenue, and a structure that doesn't rely on polls and computers, and committees to determine conference champions and national champions.
There is nothing hard about progress especially when the upside could be so grand.
