CSNbbs

USC, UCLA to leave Pac-12 for Big Ten in 2024:

Please, please stop using academics and student-athlete BS. This is what it’s all about at this level of college athletics: “This movement also comes at a key time for the Big Ten, which will be expanding its conference with a couple major brands while in the midst of its own negotiations for a new media rights deal. That deal could start as soon as next season and reportedly exceed $1 billion per year in value.”


https://www.cbssports.com/college-footba...c-shakeup/

Will NCAA Division I college football subdivide into three independent divisions consisting of something like (1) The Super Conferences, (2) The Mid-Level Conferences (present non-super FBS conferences, and (3) The Other Conferences (present FCS scholarship conferences)?


https://www.cbssports.com/college-footba...n-playoff/

https://nypost.com/2022/07/06/acc-pac-12...n-bonanza/

https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/the...he-pac-12/

(07-03-2022 04:07 PM)Buc66 Wrote: [ -> ]Will NCAA Division I college football subdivide into three independent divisions consisting of something like (1) The Super Conferences, (2) The Mid-Level Conferences (present non-super FBS conferences, and (3) The Other Conferences (present FCS scholarship conferences)?


https://www.cbssports.com/college-footba...n-playoff/

Kinda became a moot point when the SoCon doubled its exit fee... we're staying unless something really impressive comes along. We're not leaving for CUSA or we would have jumped in the fall, IMO.

I'm done pretending to know what the Power 5 are doing, though. Nothing means anything anymore at that level.

(07-07-2022 09:01 PM)Mister Consistency Wrote: [ -> ]

(07-03-2022 04:07 PM)Buc66 Wrote: [ -> ]Will NCAA Division I college football subdivide into three independent divisions consisting of something like (1) The Super Conferences, (2) The Mid-Level Conferences (present non-super FBS conferences, and (3) The Other Conferences (present FCS scholarship conferences)?


https://www.cbssports.com/college-footba...n-playoff/

Kinda became a moot point when the SoCon doubled its exit fee... we're staying unless something really impressive comes along. We're not leaving for CUSA or we would have jumped in the fall, IMO.

I'm done pretending to know what the Power 5 are doing, though. Nothing means anything anymore at that level.

For sure - the Power Five, or whatever that group becomes, is certainly focused on MONEY. Of course money is necessary, but how much is enough? However, as all this shakes out - the rich appear to be getting richer and the poor poorer unless the big boys start paying the other schools to become their minor leagues with relation to the Transfer Portal.

The unanimous vote (below) by the SoCon presidents represents old school thinking - of which I fully endorse. Who would think that stability, common sense, even academics still have a place in 2022 college athletics?



SPARTANBURG, S.C. – In an effort to emphasize its long-term commitment to membership in the Southern Conference, the 10-member Southern Conference Council of Presidents unanimously voted to increase the exit fee provision.

“In a rapidly changing college athletics landscape, this decision represents our member institutions’ collective interest in furthering the strong sports tradition of the Southern Conference and its steadfast commitment to the student-athlete academic experience,” said UNC Greensboro Chancellor Dr. Franklin D. Gilliam Jr., chair of the SoCon Council of Presidents.

The exit fee was doubled to $2 million with proper notice. The decision was made to underscore Southern Conference member school commitment in the midst of changes among other conferences.

“The statement made here is that the Southern Conference stands for stability and that there is a strong commitment to the conference by our member institutions,” Southern Conference Commissioner Jim Schaus said. “I am proud of the harmony and sense of partnership that exists within our membership.

“There has been extensive interest expressed in our conference and members recently and that is a compliment to the quality of athletics, academics and integrity among our 10 outstanding institutions. Our membership focus is quality over quantity. We confidently and collectively move ahead as a conference committed to excellence in all areas.”

(07-07-2022 09:01 PM)Mister Consistency Wrote: [ -> ]

(07-03-2022 04:07 PM)Buc66 Wrote: [ -> ]Will NCAA Division I college football subdivide into three independent divisions consisting of something like (1) The Super Conferences, (2) The Mid-Level Conferences (present non-super FBS conferences, and (3) The Other Conferences (present FCS scholarship conferences)?


https://www.cbssports.com/college-footba...n-playoff/

Kinda became a moot point when the SoCon doubled its exit fee... we're staying unless something really impressive comes along. We're not leaving for CUSA or we would have jumped in the fall, IMO.

I'm done pretending to know what the Power 5 are doing, though. Nothing means anything anymore at that level.

In the national fans minds there is no mid level conferences. They see P5 and everyone else.

Just kicking around - if ETSU and Chattanooga moved to the Sun Belt Conference down the road, ETSU in the East Football Division and Chattanooga in the West Football Division, could either school make enough money to cover the added expenses WITHOUT increasing student athletic fees? Would modern day ETSU fans turn out in larger numbers with ETSU playing Marshall instead of Furman, playing App State instead of Western Carolina, playing Georgia Southern instead of VMI, of playing James Madison instead of Wofford, etc.?

(07-09-2022 08:24 AM)Buc66 Wrote: [ -> ]Just kicking around - if ETSU and Chattanooga moved to the Sun Belt Conference down the road, ETSU in the East Football Division and Chattanooga in the West Football Division, could either school make enough money to cover the added expenses WITHOUT increasing student athletic fees? Would modern day ETSU fans turn out in larger numbers with ETSU playing Marshall instead of Furman, playing App State instead of Western Carolina, playing Georgia Southern instead of VMI, of playing James Madison instead of Wofford, etc.?

If teams win fans show up. If they don’t fans are absent.

Toss FREE AGENCY into the mix:

https://pistolsfiringblog.com/ncaa-divis...landscape/

https://www.cbssports.com/college-footba...ple-times/

https://www.newsobserver.com/sports/coll...98198.html

https://www.cbssports.com/college-footba...f-revenue/

If the BIG 10 expands to twenty, will the SEC be forced to follow?





https://www.cbssports.com/college-footba...onsidered/

(07-27-2022 06:51 PM)Buc66 Wrote: [ -> ]If the BIG 10 expands to twenty, will the SEC be forced to follow?

https://www.cbssports.com/college-footba...onsidered/

Possibly. It depends on who is available and whether they would be revenue additive. Clemson and FSU might not add many new TV markets, but they're in-demand brands that draw eyeballs. Is that enough to push the value of the TV deal upwards? As crazy as it sounds, schools like North Carolina and Virginia Tech might be net drags on revenue for the SEC at this point, just like Oregon and Washington would be for the Big Ten. These are astronomical figures we're talking about.

At this point, I'm sort of resigned to the way things are to the point I am actively rooting for more corporations to get involved and create more competition for Disney and Fox... having Paramount and/or Comcast wade into the space in earnest wouldn't hurt my feelings one bit. If we're going to have super-conferences, let's at least try to have more than two. Even Pepsi and Coke have Dr. Pepper for competition.

All the yapping about this now means little or nothing. But, the 12 team field is coming. Will this negatively impact the FCS playoffs? Will a new name have to be found - like Mid-Major CFP (MMCFP)? Will NCAA Division I football have to undergo an updated naming? It is so convoluted now as to be a joke.



https://www.cbssports.com/college-footba...the-sport/

I'm surprised I haven't seen you all discussing all the hub-bub concerning the potential break-up of the ACC. Not gonna put any links out, but there's plenty if one looks for them. Over the weekend, the "top 7" ACC ADs met in SC, on the beach, for 4 hours, and were all under a "gag order" when they dismissed. Very complicated scenarios could be popping up, but all the ACC schools are under a contract with each other until 2036 - so.........that's a problem. Strong speculation has been that this meeting was to figure out a way to de-fuse that financial hit. Those "top 7" are alleged to be UNC, Duke, Clemson, UVA, Notre Dame(?), FSU(?) Va. Tech(? - don't really think so), maybe NC St.(??). That info is out there, I just don't remember those details. And yes, these conversations are triggered by possible re-alignment(s) of the bigger boys.
Sorry I'm not providing links, but not hard to find.

(05-18-2023 04:19 AM)posterformerlyknownasthedoctor Wrote: [ -> ]I'm surprised I haven't seen you all discussing all the hub-bub concerning the potential break-up of the ACC. Not gonna put any links out, but there's plenty if one looks for them. Over the weekend, the "top 7" ACC ADs met in SC, on the beach, for 4 hours, and were all under a "gag order" when they dismissed. Very complicated scenarios could be popping up, but all the ACC schools are under a contract with each other until 2036 - so.........that's a problem. Strong speculation has been that this meeting was to figure out a way to de-fuse that financial hit. Those "top 7" are alleged to be UNC, Duke, Clemson, UVA, Notre Dame(?), FSU(?) Va. Tech(? - don't really think so), maybe NC St.(??). That info is out there, I just don't remember those details. And yes, these conversations are triggered by possible re-alignment(s) of the bigger boys.
Sorry I'm not providing links, but not hard to find.

“there is no such thing as enough money”. $$$$$$$$

https://www.si.com/college/2023/05/17/ac...ppens-next

ACC doing more scrambling. And, reading through rest of the report about the Big 12, etc. and considering the distance between these programs and the SoCon, for example, this makes our ETSU athletics look like a program in abject poverty. And, note that the gap is also growing between the Power Five and Group of Five programs.

https://www.cbssports.com/college-footba...ng-sports/

That was really the only option available, realistically. The "chosen 7" had nowhere really feasible to land. (Big 12 was their only conceivable destination, but that was problematic for other reasons.) Neither the SEC or Big 10/12/20 wanted them at the moment. It would only have diluted the pie too much. When the TV contracts for the SEC and/or Big 10 come 'round much sooner than '36, then that'll be a different story. BUT...........with all the cord-cutting and so forth going on.......tv contracts are going to look much different in 5 years time - if not well before then. You can trust that.

This **may** have been a sort of bluff/gamesmanship by said chosen 7, knowing they couldn't realistically leave right now. They were laying the foundation both for skewed monetary distribution (Mission achieved! ) as well as jostling for the next round of musical chairs to come. Getting a larger slice of the ACC pie will have to do for now. The ACC probably erred in adding BC, 'cuse, the 'ville, and Pitt. Fla. St. is debatable, but probably helped.

If that gap between the ACC and the bigger boys stabilizes, then the ACC can probably manage, even if they lose 2 or 3 schools. But losing 5-7 means we'll have a new conference alignment of some fashion. Do they do something like add Appy and/or UNC-W, poach more from the CAA or wherever (not pretty at the moment), or do they then combine with whatever Big 12 conglomeration is extant at the time? Far too many moving parts to know now.

But I do seriously wonder if 'they've' already started the process of killing the golden egg. The almost unfathomable greed involved here, both by the schools/ADs, *and* Disney/ESPN, is going to leave a lot of casualties along the way. A sad thing to watch unfold, imho.

Edit/p.s. -- As is no shock to many, there really does 'need' to be 2 tiers of I-A. The uber-rich Big Boys, namely the Big 10/12/whatever, plus the SEC, with ND and whatever hangers-on from the Big 12 can ante up. Then the ACC and "that-conference-formerly-known-as-the-Pac-10/12", with whatever other social-climbers/leftovers from the Big 12, AAC or wherever, can be I-A(2) (LOL), or whatever. (And I'm just roughly laying out a scenario - the particulars are unknowable for now.) When I say "need", I mean the monetary market forces that will continue to drive this upcoming seismic shift in alignments.

But imagine the howl from Iowa St., Oregon St., Wake Forest, Boston College, Pitt, Kansas, Washington St., etc. (again, just using proxies) if such are shut out from the possibility of big football bowl games and the playoff series. Ain't no good answers, but "it'll work itself out". With lots of hurt feelings along the way.

Man there's a lot of moving parts right now. Some items:

I think it's a done deal that USC and UCLA are joining the Big 10, right? So the push to also invite Washington and Oregon, thus making travel easier for all teams for conference games, has gained momentum, I'm told.

If that happens......the PAC 10/12, currently in deep (and according to some reports, involved and problematic) negotiations for their TV rights contact, could be in a pickle. ESPN knows that, and is playing coy. On top of that..........Neon Dieon and his turned-over Buffaloes want to return to the Big 12 - esp. if the PAC 10/12 is falling apart. And despite having been earlier abandoned by CU, apparently the Big 12 needs them enough to get over their jilted-ness.

So there could well be a land grab involving the Big 12 and the (remnants of) the PAC 10/12. It's even conceivable that the Big 10 goes all in and also invites Cal and Stanford, but that's a real long shot.

Complicating that........the exit fee for SDSU from the MWC triples to just over $50 million come June 30th, so whoever wants them the most needs to act quickly.

That's just some of the behind (somewhat)-the-scenes machinations going on now. So the ACC, tied in 'til 2036, has both the luxury and agony of having to watch things move around without having a lot of say-so - unless there's some sort of en masse conjoinment with the Big 12 or whatever, which is very unlikely for now - after their announcement this week.

And all this is with the backdrop of the biggest boys leaning towards leaving the NCAA for football purposes only. Will the NCAA allow that sort of situation to exist? Probably; not sure they'd have much choice.
And ESPN.............already belt-tightening because of the expectations/fears of cable packages facing turmoil...........holds some cards but maybe some of those cards will turn out to be jacks instead of kings. Who knows? But this musical chairs stuff is gonna happen. Does anything trickle down to I-AA? Probably - but completely impossible to guess how and how soon.

(05-26-2023 01:48 AM)posterformerlyknownasthedoctor Wrote: [ -> ]Man there's a lot of moving parts right now. Some items:

I think it's a done deal that USC and UCLA are joining the Big 10, right? So the push to also invite Washington and Oregon, thus making travel easier for all teams for conference games, has gained momentum, I'm told.

If that happens......the PAC 10/12, currently in deep (and according to some reports, involved and problematic) negotiations for their TV rights contact, could be in a pickle. ESPN knows that, and is playing coy. On top of that..........Neon Dieon and his turned-over Buffaloes want to return to the Big 12 - esp. if the PAC 10/12 is falling apart. And despite having been earlier abandoned by CU, apparently the Big 12 needs them enough to get over their jilted-ness.

So there could well be a land grab involving the Big 12 and the (remnants of) the PAC 10/12. It's even conceivable that the Big 10 goes all in and also invites Cal and Stanford, but that's a real long shot.

Complicating that........the exit fee for SDSU from the MWC triples to just over $50 million come June 30th, so whoever wants them the most needs to act quickly.

That's just some of the behind (somewhat)-the-scenes machinations going on now. So the ACC, tied in 'til 2036, has both the luxury and agony of having to watch things move around without having a lot of say-so - unless there's some sort of en masse conjoinment with the Big 12 or whatever, which is very unlikely for now - after their announcement this week.

And all this is with the backdrop of the biggest boys leaning towards leaving the NCAA for football purposes only. Will the NCAA allow that sort of situation to exist? Probably; not sure they'd have much choice.
And ESPN.............already belt-tightening because of the expectations/fears of cable packages facing turmoil...........holds some cards but maybe some of those cards will turn out to be jacks instead of kings. Who knows? But this musical chairs stuff is gonna happen. Does anything trickle down to I-AA? Probably - but completely impossible to guess how and how soon.

Headline in JC Press:

“UT sells out of football season tickets 100 days before kickoff of 127th season”

For the last 50 years, NOTHING has changed in the culture of college football and actually college basketball in the state of Tennessee. That’s the trickle down to I-AA - specifically ETSU ATHLETICS. As for the big boys — MONEY, more MONEY, and then more MONEY. Unless there’s a radical cultural shift, amateurism in college athletics - certainly football and basketball — is dead. ETSU and other mid-major schools (whatever that means now days) cannot grow their athletic programs in this environment. And, how does ETSU and other mid-major schools sell amateurism and the actual student -athlete model to enough money donors and ticket buyers in this environment in order to just survive?

It remains to be seen how/if there will be a trickle-down effect to our level (not anytime soon), but the dominoes starting falling big time this week. The PAC10/12 likely is no more. The ACC **may** try to grab the remnants of it, crazy and that sounds. But it's definitely a land grab. The music is playing, chairs are emptying and re-filling....

(08-05-2023 04:19 AM)posterformerlyknownasthedoctor Wrote: [ -> ]It remains to be seen how/if there will be a trickle-down effect to our level (not anytime soon), but the dominoes starting falling big time this week. The PAC10/12 likely is no more. The ACC **may** try to grab the remnants of it, crazy and that sounds. But it's definitely a land grab. The music is playing, chairs are emptying and re-filling....

The Atlantic-Pacific Coast Conference . The Big 12 significantly benefits while the Big Ten goes nuclear. Down to the Power Four, headed to the Power Two with an SEC-ACC merger for an East Division and a Big 10-Big 12 merger for a the West Division with playoffs and a College Super Bowl.

(08-05-2023 04:19 AM)posterformerlyknownasthedoctor Wrote: [ -> ]It remains to be seen how/if there will be a trickle-down effect to our level (not anytime soon), but the dominoes starting falling big time this week. The PAC10/12 likely is no more. The ACC **may** try to grab the remnants of it, crazy and that sounds. But it's definitely a land grab. The music is playing, chairs are emptying and re-filling....

I think the trickle down to FCS is likely felt most by schools farther west with FBS aspirations, like North Dakota State or Montana. If the conference ceases to exist, either by merger with the MWC or acquisition by the ACC, any chance they have of moving up is gone, possibly forever.

The only real way "up" now is Conference USA, and they have had plenty of time to settle on a shortlist for any desired expansion. THAT will have much bigger ramifications for us than anything happening west of the Rockies.