(08-29-2021 12:44 AM)Stugray2 Wrote:  

(08-28-2021 09:25 PM)BigEastMike Wrote:  

(08-28-2021 08:30 PM)Stugray2 Wrote:  

Quote: The Athletic anonymously quoted a Big 12 athletic director saying that none of those teams are desirable because they don’t bring enough “eyeballs” with them.

Hard to imagine going to 16 when that is the opinion about their options. Even harder to imagine a network paying any additional money for more schools beyond what they need to hit the required inventory threshold. Think about it a second, with only one to two cable or linear slots a week allotted for the Big 12 (preferably against an OOC opponent of decent prestige) with the rest going digital, why would a network pay even $1 more for additional digital games?

The financial math just doesn't work above 10 schools, and I'm not fully convinced it works above 9 schools.

16 conference games for bball isnt optimal for a power conference. You need at least 18.

Depends, if it's a school like UCF who would likely be like Nebraska basketball in the Big Ten, then it's no value. But if it's somebody like Gonzaga adding must see games, then that would be worth it. Again are you creating games for CBS/NBC/ESPN or just adding more digital games?

It makes more sense to allow the stronger schools to schedule games against better OOC opponents or play a conference challenge than to add a school that only gives you digital games.

The Big 12 is a conference where just over half the schools in any given year go to the tournament. That is a very high bar to for a 10th school to reach. And a school that doesn't come close to that might have a negative ripple effect reducing the number of bids the Big 12 gets, making them a net negative to add.

This is why I am not at all convinced the math works for a 10th. Maybe one or two schools are small positive returns, but most are net negatives. It gets worse and worse with each school beyond 10 as you have more negative side effects and the values of the schools are a bit lower than the ones picked before them.

Its not about how good they are, its about giving those other schools enough games. Multiple power conferences are playing 20 conference games, thats less room to get quality OOC games. They're also probably going to lose their challenge with the Big East after all of this especially if they only have 9 teams.

I don't know what math you're doing but more inventory is worth more money for any conference.