(10-22-2017 05:53 AM)XLance Wrote:  

(10-21-2017 08:22 PM)JRsec Wrote:  

(10-21-2017 06:35 PM)Transic_nyc Wrote:  

(10-21-2017 01:29 PM)JRsec Wrote:  

(10-21-2017 01:17 PM)AllTideUp Wrote:  I'm not sure it's viable anymore. With ESPN investing in an ACC Network, I think their plan is to use the SEC and ACC to complement one another.

1. Use the 2 networks to leverage each other into markets they might not be able to get into by themselves.

2. Make sure their inventory is stocked by scheduling plenty of cross-conference content. For example, the number of SEC/ACC games being scheduled has taken a precipitous jump in recent years.

I think this is part of the reason ESPN will "steer" UT and OU to the SEC so that we are fat and happy and far less likely to to want to raid the ACC in the future.

Two points:

1. They haven't really invested anything in the ACCN yet. And it won't launch until 2019 so there's still plenty of time to work out other options. So would they rather pit the ACC against the SEC and further alienate the #2 product in the country for the sake of placating #5? Or is #5 the fallback option if they can't get more of #2.

2. If Texas decides to head to the PAC and takes OU with them along with 4 other Big 12 products then how is ESPN going to placate the SEC? Our T1 is up in 2024-5. It would be poor timing on their part indeed to tick us off right before that part of the contract is signed. How do you think ESPN stock would fare if the SEC cooled to the Mouse? Sure were signed until the mid 2030's but 10 years of knowing the SEC would head elsewhere would devastate their stock expectations.

So I just don't see any angle where they permit Bevo to head West and placate the SEC without reexamining their commitment to the ACC. And I wouldn't be surprised at all with the issues they have faced this past year if Skipper isn't replaced.

The smartest move ESPN could make while staring down the streaming companies that will want to bid on product the next time around would be to double their efforts to land more of the Big 10 (who knows that FOX's coverage hasn't been great for their product) and to play off of Big 10 / SEC rivalry which is deeper and stronger in every way than the SEC / ACC thing.

I'm betting they placate Texas and the SEC and if they do that somebody is going to be on the auction block.

The only way they can avoid that is to land Texas and OU into the SEC. But Texas will have a say in that.

For Texas and for the Three Musketeers of the ACC any material gain would be balanced out by the possibility of losing their fiefdoms for good, which would be stinging for their egos. So there would have to be some messaging involved.

I agree. It's what kept Texas out in 2010-1 when Dodds was talking about looking East. UNC simply didn't want it

Without some big clout in football the ACCN will be totally reliant upon subscription fees. That model will likely be dead in 5 year. Something is going to have to give.

Football as a "big time' collegiate sport is in big, big trouble. Yesterday during one of the many games I watched a commercial came on several times. It was a MOM, saying that she loved the game and wanted her sons to play the game. She downplayed the chance of injury and was encouraging other moms to let their sons play too.
The ad was sponsored by the NCAA.
As boomers die out, people that have grown up with college football being a part of their life, and are replaced by their children that either don't have the passion for the game, the money, or the tradition to follow their teams like their parents do/did football is losing their core audience. Overprotective parents who aren't letting their kids play outside without being in an organized group aren't letting them participate in violent contact sports in the same numbers they have in the past. The pool of available players is starting to shrink, and as it does, the future of football as a we now know it does too.

Basketball's popularity with those who can donate is flagging faster than football. It seems to me that baseball will have the brighter future and that's not saying a whole lot. With the people who support collegiate sports basketball doesn't provide what their looking for with regard to their kids either.

I fear we are losing our moxy at time in history when we are going to need it the most. As a nation we have now educated an entire generation to be fearful and that generation seems to me to be on a collision course with China and will have to confront more Middle Eastern terrorists. They aren't mentally, emotionally, or physically prepared for a future of conflict.