http://www.star-telegram.com/sports/spt-...23582.html

What is in the water down there? I mentioned the OU ''insider'' a few weeks ago, and now this. Another poster on the Realignment board who is a Texas fan thinks one elite pool(15-20 schools) will run college football, take all the revenue, and be the only schools ever in the playoff/championship format. I just don't understand how any of that can feasibly be possible. You would have to destroy long range, huge dollar contracts of all the conferences. You would have to relegate schools who have been in power leagues for decades to 2nd class status.

No one wants to watch a product that features 15-25 ''elite'' football brands only playing each other and taking all of the revenue for themselves. If long time FBS Power league members were ''demoted'' college football viewership would plummet. If Louisville got left out of the club, no chance in hell I am supporting this new class of elite teams.

They are a bizarre bunch.

Not going to happen, at least not the way this author is claiming. He is pulling it out of his ass

(08-19-2016 11:30 AM)uofl05 Wrote:  http://www.star-telegram.com/sports/spt-...23582.html

What is in the water down there? I mentioned the OU ''insider'' a few weeks ago, and now this. Another poster on the Realignment board who is a Texas fan thinks one elite pool(15-20 schools) will run college football, take all the revenue, and be the only schools ever in the playoff/championship format. I just don't understand how any of that can feasibly be possible. You would have to destroy long range, huge dollar contracts of all the conferences. You would have to relegate schools who have been in power leagues for decades to 2nd class status.

No one wants to watch a product that features 15-25 ''elite'' football brands only playing each other and taking all of the revenue for themselves. If long time FBS Power league members were ''demoted'' college football viewership would plummet. If Louisville got left out of the club, no chance in hell I am supporting this new class of elite teams.

They are a bizarre bunch.

My sentiments, exactly. Perspectives vary, and they depend upon whether your nose is currently above water or below, how long you can hold your breath, and what kind of leverage you think you have with the entities that control water level.

Change is coming. Just ask Louis XV.

That article was horse**** the moment it suggested Duke wouldn't make the cut. Duke has the loot to BUY its way into the "cut" if need be.

Besides, what TV network would want to find themselves w/o access to Duke's basketball inventory...?

(08-19-2016 01:33 PM)ecuacc4ever Wrote:  That article was horse**** the moment it suggested Duke wouldn't make the cut. Duke has the loot to BUY its way into the "cut" if need be.

Besides, what TV network would want to find themselves w/o access to Duke's basketball inventory...?

I know that football brings in a lot more bucks than hoops overall but the income from hoops is far from negligible and Duke brings in far more basketball TV revenues than anyone else. If you look at the five basketball games with the highest TV ratings in any season, Duke is always in three or four of them. There's no school with that kind of ratings dominance in football. I think that Duke's basketball revenues are so off the charts that they compare to the TV revenues for football for a lot of P5 schools. Duke's football ratings aren't bad either. Seriously, take a look at them sometime. Duke does fairly well compared to others on the same network and time slot. Some people want an elite private school to win. Some want it to lose. Either way, they tune in and that's what matters.

If anybody in the ACC has reason to fear being voted off the island it's WFU and BC, not Duke but I don't think that's happening to anyone.

SOUR GRAPES.

Big XII folks (including media) don't like how conference realignment is going, so they make statements like "where we are screwing up is we shouldn’t have SEC, Big Ten or whatever".

YEAH, like that's going to happen.

And if you have to drag along Arkansas, Vanderbilt, South Carolina, Kentucky, Indiana, Purdue, Maryland and Rutgers (for crying out loud!), what makes you think they could justify leaving out virtually everybody in the ACC besides maybe Clemson and Florida State - if, indeed, this guy was even including those two?

Everyone not named OU, Texas and Kansas is freaking out. In a way I kinda of love it. It wasn't that long ago that WVU fans, KState fans, etc were making bold predictions with regard to the ACC being dismantled. Let them sweat.

"OU Insider: all conferences could be gone within decade"

Read: "Our conference sucks so we want to get rid of yours"

Amended:

"Big 12 Media: all conferences could be gone within decade"

Read: "The Big 12 conference sucks so we want to get rid of yours"

A few things to remember:

All sports have an equal amount of losers and winners within the pool. Sorry folks, if you take 20 elite teams and remove them to their own "League" there will be winners and losers. You have to have losers to have the winners. If you allow teh "League" to play 1-3 games beneath their level, you only inflate numbers, the games between the "League" members must always balance out. This is what the P5 does by allowing 1 FCS and currently 1-3 games v. G5; which is a part of why ESPN wants to have P5 pay P5 - more compelling games (each game has more effect on the division, conference and other P5 conferences) plus the games versus the FCS and G5 tend to be far less interesting. (Yes, we all know about the exceptions, but that is what makes the exceptions exceptional!).

Also, TV is still underpaying College Sports across the board. The misnomer that Football drives the bus is a statement of the situation, not of fact. The B1G just got a huge increase and no one will claim their numbers are double that of the SEC for TV. This clearly indicates that the sports networks are still underpaying the conferences. Also, the Hoops portions of deals were semi set in stone and they are affected/influenced by the fact that the former BE and the A-10 were powerful hoops conferences in spite of not having football (pre-BE expansion) and the fact there are 340 Div. 1 hoops schools as opposed to about 125 in football.

The ACC deal guarantees that they will be kept on par with the B1G and SEC. This indicates that hoops is far more valuable than ESPN is letting on (add Fox, CBS, etc.). Regardless, if ESPN can generate the profits it has for decades, there is still money for the conferences. The window is opening wide for upstarts who will work on smaller margins (especially now that Disney is tweaking ESPN for maximized profits).

Recall, it has been roughly 30 years or so that college sports gained a free hand in TV rights. That is not a long time in the entertainment industry which is very good at maximizing profits and keeping people in the dark about profits (see Hollywood for the elite in this arena, or a politician's accountant, either is likely to be as effective as the other). Anyway, conferences are just coming into their own in regards to being able to truly valuate their worth in a negotiation.

(I honestly thought that the B1G overshot in their demands - see old posts on this site - but since then the B1G secured a somewhat close bargain to what they wanted and the SEC and ACC have been assured they will remain on par with the B1G.)

(08-19-2016 11:30 AM)uofl05 Wrote:  http://www.star-telegram.com/sports/spt-...23582.html

What is in the water down there? I mentioned the OU ''insider'' a few weeks ago, and now this. Another poster on the Realignment board who is a Texas fan thinks one elite pool(15-20 schools) will run college football, take all the revenue, and be the only schools ever in the playoff/championship format. I just don't understand how any of that can feasibly be possible. You would have to destroy long range, huge dollar contracts of all the conferences. You would have to relegate schools who have been in power leagues for decades to 2nd class status.

No one wants to watch a product that features 15-25 ''elite'' football brands only playing each other and taking all of the revenue for themselves. If long time FBS Power league members were ''demoted'' college football viewership would plummet. If Louisville got left out of the club, no chance in hell I am supporting this new class of elite teams.

They are a bizarre bunch.

They've painted themselves into a corner and are becoming delusional.

That said I can see it becoming more structured under a P4 alignment with the SEC and ACC networks coordinating and giving birth to the new model.

(08-19-2016 11:30 AM)uofl05 Wrote:  http://www.star-telegram.com/sports/spt-...23582.html

[...] Another poster on the Realignment board who is a Texas fan thinks one elite pool(15-20 schools) will run college football, take all the revenue, and be the only schools ever in the playoff/championship format. I just don't understand how any of that can feasibly be possible. You would have to destroy long range, huge dollar contracts of all the conferences. You would have to relegate schools who have been in power leagues for decades to 2nd class status. [...]

Some things you read on realignment boards, especially from 'insider' kooks... I'm very glad I don't do business with these people. To them every deal is a power play, every public statement a lie, every partner a sucker to be exploited and kicked to the curb. They talk like gangsters: 'Come now, a few more tens of millions of dollars will make all of this go away...'

So much of the talk emanates from fans of Texas and its satellites that you wonder if the SWC-Big 8 breakup didn't set the tone.

The talking heads talk this $hit every year in the off season. It gets ink and net hits. Poor stupid idiots have to justify thier salaries and thier place in the "yellow journalism hall of fame, or should it be hall of shame?

This will never happen. I could, maybe, see a split happening the future where the P5 (ND, BYU, and military academies) leaves the NCAA. But they'd have to take at least a couple 'lesser' conferences with them and would also need a few basketball conferences for a 64 team tournament.

(08-19-2016 11:52 AM)Ole Blue Wrote:  Not going to happen, at least not the way this author is claiming. He is pulling it out of his ass

The only possible reason to do this is if the schools flat out go professional. That's simply not going to happen.

Similar to how many drool over the prospect of 4x16 (which I have never thought would ever happen), you have others who want an "NFL Lite" of elite programs like Michigan, Southern Cal, Alabama, etc... breaking off and negotiating a monster TV contract.

That is not going to happen either. There are too many competing interests and regional/parochial viewpoints ("SEC!, SEC!") for that to happen in college football.