(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?