From a Cincinnati Enquirer reporter's blog:

"Maybe Tommy Tuberville didn’t mean to let it slip so casually in the conversation, or maybe he figured we heathen media knew it already. Regardless, I think I was the only one at the UC coach’s presser Tuesday who nearly fell from his chair when Tuberville said this:

“I’d imagine those decisions are already made.’’

The “decisions’’ are the Big 12’s, regarding expansion. The question I asked was how important, for the sake of perception, is it that the Bearcats make a good showing Thursday night v. #6 Houston, at Nippert.

Tubs said not very, because the league has already decided whether it wants to expand and if it does, who it wants to add."

I would guess that, if decision(s) have already been made, that the only people that would truly know about it are the Presidents. The threat/fear of something leaking prematurely, especially by a football coach, would be too high.

All speculation at this point.

All he was really saying was that 1 game is not going to make a difference. Same thing Houston was saying before the Oklahoma game.

Anything could be true.

But if that was true, then it could be that the reason they haven't announced the decision yet is because of on-going negotiations with those schools, for how little money they're willing to accept during phase-in, and with the networks, for how much they're going to pay, etc. Schools could also still be pushing behind the scenes for a GoR extension to coincide with a new TV contract. Maybe?


In that case, it would seem like the expansion is with two and being Houston + BYU ... hence the "dejected" tone from Tuberville.

(09-15-2016 09:40 AM)MplsBison Wrote:  Anything could be true.

But if that was true, then it could be that the reason they haven't announced the decision yet is because of on-going negotiations with those schools, for how little money they're willing to accept during phase-in, and with the networks, for how much they're going to pay, etc. Schools could also still be pushing behind the scenes for a GoR extension to coincide with a new TV contract. Maybe?


In that case, it would seem like the expansion is with two and being Houston + BYU ... hence the "dejected" tone from Tuberville.

I was watching the game tonight and heard that Tuberville's mother may be ill. That could be a factor.

Cincinnati had a great atmosphere, they look ready for the big-time and I think the Big 12 should jump on adding them. They'll be solid with Houston in the Big 12. I don't think BYU will get the invite, the Code of Honor and protest by the LGBT community is going to hurt their chances a lot.

(09-15-2016 11:10 PM)Realignment Wrote:  Cincinnati had a great atmosphere, they look ready for the big-time and I think the Big 12 should jump on adding them. They'll be solid with Houston in the Big 12. I don't think BYU will get the invite, the Code of Honor and protest by the LGBT community is going to hurt their chances a lot.

Of course they did. If they didn't there would've been a lot of dead people due to lack of oxygen.

(09-15-2016 09:40 AM)MplsBison Wrote:  Anything could be true.

But if that was true, then it could be that the reason they haven't announced the decision yet is because of on-going negotiations with those schools, for how little money they're willing to accept during phase-in, and with the networks, for how much they're going to pay, etc.

Lots of things could be true ... given that we do not have play-by-play reporting from every phone call between any two or more Big12 Presidents.

But from the discussion of the process from the President of ISU, one of the participants in the process, it's more likely that the reason they haven't announced the decision yet is because they are going to have to meet together to make the decision of how many they can expand by, based on the available candidates. The opportunity for that meeting will be in Saturday.

Quote: Schools could also still be pushing behind the scenes for a GoR extension to coincide with a new TV contract. Maybe?

It would typically be a network pushing for a GoR extension to coincide with a TV contract extension.

(09-16-2016 12:16 AM)BruceMcF Wrote:  

(09-15-2016 09:40 AM)MplsBison Wrote:  Anything could be true.

But if that was true, then it could be that the reason they haven't announced the decision yet is because of on-going negotiations with those schools, for how little money they're willing to accept during phase-in, and with the networks, for how much they're going to pay, etc.

Lots of things could be true ... given that we do not have play-by-play reporting from every phone call between any two or more Big12 Presidents.

But from the discussion of the process from the President of ISU, one of the participants in the process, it's more likely that the reason they haven't announced the decision yet is because they are going to have to meet together to make the decision of how many they can expand by, based on the available candidates. The opportunity for that meeting will be in Saturday.

Quote: Schools could also still be pushing behind the scenes for a GoR extension to coincide with a new TV contract. Maybe?

It would typically be a network pushing for a GoR extension to coincide with a TV contract extension.

It's possible there are lots of loose ends yet: 2 or 4 teams, which ones, division setups, possible GoR extension and, as Bowlsby mentioned a few days ago, future Tier 3 rights and CCG details.

At the rate they make decisions, this thing could go on for months.

But I do think they might announce teams by Oct. 17, or soon after. But I sure as hell wouldn't take bets on it.

Guessing they don't have 8 votes for any school right now. It is chicken chit stuff when Mike Gundy (and others) says we don't Houston
because they would be too good and they would make recruiting the Houston area more difficult. Although I want UC to win out and get a
rematch with Houston in the AAC championship game, kinda rooting for Houston to go undefeated.

If you watched the Houston/Cincy game, you would know why Cincy needs to be in the Big XII. B1G country location, awesome fan support, and help for WVU.

(09-16-2016 11:51 AM)USAFMEDIC Wrote:  If you watched the Houston/Cincy game, you would know why Cincy needs to be in the Big XII. B1G country location, awesome fan support, and help for WVU.

Cincinnati just refurbished the stadium to increase capacity to 40K - still would be the smallest football stadium in the Big 12. Behind Kansas, TCU, and Baylor.

The 40K sellout against #6 Houston last night would have beaten only Kansas' two home games so far this season in Big 12 attendance (26-28K). Attendance against TN-Martin was sub-30K.

Houston also has a new stadium - increased capacity to 40K.

Can these programs *really* grow to compete with even the average Big 12 fan bases? Texas Tech, Oklahoma St., Kansas St., WVU, and even Iowa St. get 55-60K at home games against G5 and FCS opponents.

Even more so than WVU, Cincy is right at the cross-roads of the B1G, SEC, and ACC. Is that good or bad? I've been told that WVU is lukewarm on Cincy, at best, and that President Gee is a "no" vote for Cincy.

(09-16-2016 01:47 PM)YNot Wrote:  

(09-16-2016 11:51 AM)USAFMEDIC Wrote:  If you watched the Houston/Cincy game, you would know why Cincy needs to be in the Big XII. B1G country location, awesome fan support, and help for WVU.

Cincinnati just refurbished the stadium to increase capacity to 40K - still would be the smallest football stadium in the Big 12. Behind Kansas, TCU, and Baylor.

The 40K sellout against #6 Houston last night would have beaten only Kansas' two home games so far this season in Big 12 attendance (26-28K). Attendance against TN-Martin was sub-30K.

Houston also has a new stadium - increased capacity to 40K.

Can these programs *really* grow to compete with even the average Big 12 fan bases? Texas Tech, Oklahoma St., Kansas St., WVU, and even Iowa St. get 55-60K at home games against G5 and FCS opponents.

Even more so than WVU, Cincy is right at the cross-roads of the B1G, SEC, and ACC. Is that good or bad? I've been told that WVU is lukewarm on Cincy, at best, and that President Gee is a "no" vote for Cincy.

Our stadium has been pre-designed for two 10k expansions to a final capacity of 60k.

We can debate all we want (I'm looking at the trolls not YNot) on if that is necessary but we can. Cincinnati would have to make some serious changes to its campus to allow for expansion on that magnitude.

40k (maybe 5k more) is the max Cincinnati can squeeze out of their current configuration if they could even do that.

Attendance vs TV ratings -- is analogous to concert attendance vs record sales.

The big money is in record sales/TV ratings. The concerts/attendance is just so the band/team can make some (extra) money.


If Cincy and Houston can get the same average TV ratings as Tech, Baylor, TCU, etc. then there's no reason they'd be a drain on the Big 12, even if their average attendance is ~5-10k lower than the low end schools, to start. In time I think a 5-10k growth in average attendance is reasonable, as well.

(09-16-2016 02:14 PM)MplsBison Wrote:  Attendance vs TV ratings -- is analogous to concert attendance vs record sales.

The big money is in record sales/TV ratings. The concerts/attendance is just so the band/team can make some (extra) money.


If Cincy and Houston can get the same average TV ratings as Tech, Baylor, TCU, etc. then there's no reason they'd be a drain on the Big 12, even if their average attendance is ~5-10k lower than the low end schools, to start. In time I think a 5-10k growth in average attendance is reasonable, as well.

TCU was never a juggernaut. Their success in the stands is a recent development. Here are their numbers the 10 years prior to joining the B12.

2001: 28971 avg.
2002: 27813 avg.
2003: 36155 avg.
2004: 29412 avg.
2005: 31253 avg.
2006: 31926 avg.
2007: 30018 avg.
2008: 30388 avg.
2009: 38186 avg.
2010: 42482 avg.

(09-16-2016 01:47 PM)YNot Wrote:  

(09-16-2016 11:51 AM)USAFMEDIC Wrote:  If you watched the Houston/Cincy game, you would know why Cincy needs to be in the Big XII. B1G country location, awesome fan support, and help for WVU.

Cincinnati just refurbished the stadium to increase capacity to 40K - still would be the smallest football stadium in the Big 12. Behind Kansas, TCU, and Baylor.

The 40K sellout against #6 Houston last night would have beaten only Kansas' two home games so far this season in Big 12 attendance (26-28K). Attendance against TN-Martin was sub-30K.

Houston also has a new stadium - increased capacity to 40K.

Can these programs *really* grow to compete with even the average Big 12 fan bases? Texas Tech, Oklahoma St., Kansas St., WVU, and even Iowa St. get 55-60K at home games against G5 and FCS opponents.

Even more so than WVU, Cincy is right at the cross-roads of the B1G, SEC, and ACC. Is that good or bad? I've been told that WVU is lukewarm on Cincy, at best, and that President Gee is a "no" vote for Cincy.

UC drew 58,000 for Oklahoma in 10. I imagine they could get very similar numbers playing at PBS or an even expanded Nippert. I have heard the opposite of Gee, in that he supports the inclusion of UC.