(04-24-2013 08:53 AM)bullet Wrote:  

(04-24-2013 08:46 AM)Melky Cabrera Wrote:  

(04-24-2013 08:39 AM)bullet Wrote:  

(04-24-2013 08:28 AM)Melky Cabrera Wrote:  

(04-24-2013 08:21 AM)bullet Wrote:  If you don't have at least one particularly team regularly getting in the top 10-15 and one other team (doesn't have to be the same one) regularly joining them, you get ignored by the public. The BE survived longer than many expected (including me) because they did that starting in 2005 with UL and WVU both good for a few years and others rising up. But then UL went down and no one else consistently moved up. There was still some decent value, but then WVU, Pitt and SU left.

The Big East started doing this in 2005???

How about in 1991 when they had the 1-2-3-4 punch of Miami-VA Tech-Syracuse-West Virginia?

The Big East was fine before they lost Miami and VT. They needed someone else to step up in 2005 is what I was saying.

Okay. Then how did the ACC survive and thrive over the past 10 years. Even with expansion in 2004, they haven't had a premier team + a back up.

Virginia Tech with Clemson and GT occasionally moving up. And FSU and Miami are brands that still have value when they are 8-4 or 9-3. Both were ranked frequently.

And still the ACC was at risk of being picked apart prior to the GOR.

Since the ACC expanded 10 years ago, their football hasn't even been as good as the Big East. The idea that they were ever going to be picked apart has been nothing more than internet speculation. If they were ever going to be picked apart, it would have happened already. In the past 3 years, they have added 4 new members while losing just one. They have remained the predators, not the prey.

The idea that a conference has to have a premier team with a backup challenger is a flawed theory. Frankly there are other factors at work. All one has to do is to look at the ACC, which has not fit that definition since the decline of Florida State a dozen years ago. Frankly the PAC 12 hasn't been much better since the decline of USC.

(04-24-2013 10:23 AM)bullet Wrote:  

(04-24-2013 10:20 AM)TexanMark Wrote:  

(04-24-2013 08:49 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(04-24-2013 08:32 AM)cuseroc Wrote:  

(04-24-2013 08:24 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  Well, yes, i do. :)

IMO. the Big 12 never seriously wanted FSU, except for that brief period of time after the SEC raid when its existence seemed imperiled and it added TCU and WVU to stave that off.

But once the big TV contracts were signed, the Big 12 didn't need FSU and didn't seriously pursue them. Too much geographical and cultural distance there.

Then why was expansion for the Big 12 so on again and off again after adding WV an TCU? To me,it seemed that expansion was on when they thought the could land FSU. One fb coach even said something about FSU being one of the schoolsin contact with the Big 12,and then a few days later backed off. Then a couple of weeks later, expansion was off again, again.

Do you really think FSU would have left the Acc to go to the Big 12?

IMO, once they added TCU and WVU and signed the TV contracts, the Big 12 never really vacillated about expansion, at least not any more than any other P5 was. That was all internet rumor-mongering and who knows what was true about it?

My gut feeling:

Big 12: Didn't want FSU save for the brief moment after Mizzzou and A/M left.

FSU: Would have seriously considered the Big 12 if an offer had been made any time this past year. Not saying they would have joined, but FSU was seriously unhappy with ACC money, and the new deal signed after Pitt and Cuse joined did little to molify them. Maryland leaving unhinged things further.

This is why i believe the Big 12 didn't want FSU: FSU was at least somewhat ripe for picking and yet Big 12 didn't make serious bid for them.

What really saved FSU's ACC membership, and the ACC, was the Swofford master-stroke of getting Notre Dame to commit to play football games vs the ACC, making them quasi-members of ACC football. That reportedly boosted the ACC contract a lot more than adding Pitt and Cuse did, putting the dollars in the $20m a year range that FSU could live with.

Cuse and Pitt added approx $4M but extra years were tacked on.

Notre Dame added about $1M ot $1.5M per school from what we know ($18M+) I think the GORs signed is what brought it up over $20M. ESPN is paying a premium for brand stability...little threat of the ESPN owned brands (ACC) going to FOX, NBC, etc...now with the GOR in place. FOX did the same thing in '11 with the B12.

If the B12 was smart they would look at Cincy, BYU, Boise, USF, UCF and even UConn to build up. WVU will not last forever on an island.

The way to do that is schedule them ooc, not to admit them and hope.

Hope for what?

I think the B1G knows what it's doing. They took Maryland and Rutgers despite the fact that there has been nothing compelling about either program to drive the decision.

(04-24-2013 10:55 AM)apex_pirate Wrote:  

(04-24-2013 10:29 AM)TexanMark Wrote:  

(04-24-2013 10:23 AM)bullet Wrote:  

(04-24-2013 10:20 AM)TexanMark Wrote:  

(04-24-2013 08:49 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  IMO, once they added TCU and WVU and signed the TV contracts, the Big 12 never really vacillated about expansion, at least not any more than any other P5 was. That was all internet rumor-mongering and who knows what was true about it?

My gut feeling:

Big 12: Didn't want FSU save for the brief moment after Mizzzou and A/M left.

FSU: Would have seriously considered the Big 12 if an offer had been made any time this past year. Not saying they would have joined, but FSU was seriously unhappy with ACC money, and the new deal signed after Pitt and Cuse joined did little to molify them. Maryland leaving unhinged things further.

This is why i believe the Big 12 didn't want FSU: FSU was at least somewhat ripe for picking and yet Big 12 didn't make serious bid for them.

What really saved FSU's ACC membership, and the ACC, was the Swofford master-stroke of getting Notre Dame to commit to play football games vs the ACC, making them quasi-members of ACC football. That reportedly boosted the ACC contract a lot more than adding Pitt and Cuse did, putting the dollars in the $20m a year range that FSU could live with.

Cuse and Pitt added approx $4M but extra years were tacked on.

Notre Dame added about $1M ot $1.5M per school from what we know ($18M+) I think the GORs signed is what brought it up over $20M. ESPN is paying a premium for brand stability...little threat of the ESPN owned brands (ACC) going to FOX, NBC, etc...now with the GOR in place. FOX did the same thing in '11 with the B12.

If the B12 was smart they would look at Cincy, BYU, Boise, USF, UCF and even UConn to build up. WVU will not last forever on an island.

The way to do that is schedule them ooc, not to admit them and hope.

The B12 needs a strategic growth plan. The nBE showed you can take midmajors and grow them. The B12's best COA is to take 2 more teams (minimum) and grow them along with building a bridge to WV.

This is why the WVU/ECU series will continue, much to the dismay of some of the posters here. I'm not suggesting ECU has an in for a B12 invite. Just that WVU's schedule practically demands that some one close be scheduled. Our universities have a great relationship. Just as it is apparent to WVU and many posters here, WVU will need to be helped in some way. They aren't much of a threat to leave but you really need to do something to help the conference in places in hurts.

East Carolina is 500 miles and a 7-8 hour drive from Morgantown. That's closer than the Big 12 schools, but if that's "close", it leaves a lot of other schools in the mix whom WV could schedule. I would think that schools like Pitt, Maryland, Cincinnati, and Louisville would be their top priorities.

Well I guess that brief period of conference realignment talks is over. It was nice while it lasted

The ACC survived because they have/had one thing that the BE FB did not conference loyalty and the ability to see the whole picture rather than each schools own interests

(04-23-2013 10:57 PM)UCbball21 Wrote:  With the ACC's signing of the GOR there is no question what conference will survive the next round of conference realignment. The Big 12 signed its own death warrant by not inviting Louisville and Cincinnati/BYU to go along with WVU. If FSU and Clemson didn't have a football program like Louisville to lobby into the ACC and had to add UConnn to replace Maryland they would not have stayed in that conference.

A Big 12 network will never happen with its lack of markets and the LHN, eventually the television money will decline in comparison to the B1G, SEC, PAC-12, and possibly even the football-challenged ACC. Once the GOR expires, the B1G and PAC-12 will have its sights set on expansion and the Big 12 suddenly became the most vulnerable. The Big 12 is living on borrowed time, the GOR expires in 2025.

Cincy and the Bearcat nation could have saved the Big 12 and Texas...

(04-24-2013 12:03 PM)Melky Cabrera Wrote:  

(04-24-2013 10:23 AM)bullet Wrote:  

(04-24-2013 10:20 AM)TexanMark Wrote:  

(04-24-2013 08:49 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(04-24-2013 08:32 AM)cuseroc Wrote:  Then why was expansion for the Big 12 so on again and off again after adding WV an TCU? To me,it seemed that expansion was on when they thought the could land FSU. One fb coach even said something about FSU being one of the schoolsin contact with the Big 12,and then a few days later backed off. Then a couple of weeks later, expansion was off again, again.

Do you really think FSU would have left the Acc to go to the Big 12?

IMO, once they added TCU and WVU and signed the TV contracts, the Big 12 never really vacillated about expansion, at least not any more than any other P5 was. That was all internet rumor-mongering and who knows what was true about it?

My gut feeling:

Big 12: Didn't want FSU save for the brief moment after Mizzzou and A/M left.

FSU: Would have seriously considered the Big 12 if an offer had been made any time this past year. Not saying they would have joined, but FSU was seriously unhappy with ACC money, and the new deal signed after Pitt and Cuse joined did little to molify them. Maryland leaving unhinged things further.

This is why i believe the Big 12 didn't want FSU: FSU was at least somewhat ripe for picking and yet Big 12 didn't make serious bid for them.

What really saved FSU's ACC membership, and the ACC, was the Swofford master-stroke of getting Notre Dame to commit to play football games vs the ACC, making them quasi-members of ACC football. That reportedly boosted the ACC contract a lot more than adding Pitt and Cuse did, putting the dollars in the $20m a year range that FSU could live with.

Cuse and Pitt added approx $4M but extra years were tacked on.

Notre Dame added about $1M ot $1.5M per school from what we know ($18M+) I think the GORs signed is what brought it up over $20M. ESPN is paying a premium for brand stability...little threat of the ESPN owned brands (ACC) going to FOX, NBC, etc...now with the GOR in place. FOX did the same thing in '11 with the B12.

If the B12 was smart they would look at Cincy, BYU, Boise, USF, UCF and even UConn to build up. WVU will not last forever on an island.

The way to do that is schedule them ooc, not to admit them and hope.

Hope for what?

I think the B1G knows what it's doing. They took Maryland and Rutgers despite the fact that there has been nothing compelling about either program to drive the decision.

Someone suggested "projects" be admitted and built up.
Admitting them and hoping they develop is a bad idea IMO.
If you want to do that, help them by scheduling, not by admitting to the conference, and let them build themselves up the way FSU, Utah, TCU did.

(04-24-2013 12:21 PM)gosports1 Wrote:  The ACC survived because they have/had one thing that the BE FB did not conference loyalty and the ability to see the whole picture rather than each schools own interests

Or each schools own interest - $$$ - was satisfied.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2

Since the ACC expanded 10 years ago, their football hasn't even been as good as the Big East. The idea that they were ever going to be picked apart has been nothing more than internet speculation. If they were ever going to be picked apart, it would have happened already. In the past 3 years, they have added 4 new members while losing just one. They have remained the predators, not the prey.

Well, internet speculation and SI, ESPN, CBS Sports, ADs from UM,MSU and Ohio St., Duke's bb coach, board members of ACC schools, ....
The GOR makes any moves impractical for the next dozen years or so.

The idea that a conference has to have a premier team with a backup challenger is a flawed theory. Frankly there are other factors at work. All one has to do is to look at the ACC, which has not fit that definition since the decline of Florida State a dozen years ago. Frankly the PAC 12 hasn't been much better since the decline of USC.
[/quote]

Conferences get viewed by the media based on their top teams, not by their average. Virginia Tech has been ranked in the final AP poll in 13 of the 15 years of the BCS era. Only Texas and Georgia have been ranked that many times. FSU has been ranked 12 times. Oklahoma is the only other school ranked that many times. If you look at AP poll points in the BCS era, Virginia Tech is 9th, just ahead of Alabama and Michigan. VT has been very good, just not in BCS bowls. Big East has been behind the Mountain West based on the top teams since the 2005 ACC raid, even if their average team is better.

(04-24-2013 12:38 PM)bullet Wrote:  

(04-24-2013 12:03 PM)Melky Cabrera Wrote:  

(04-24-2013 10:23 AM)bullet Wrote:  

(04-24-2013 10:20 AM)TexanMark Wrote:  

(04-24-2013 08:49 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  IMO, once they added TCU and WVU and signed the TV contracts, the Big 12 never really vacillated about expansion, at least not any more than any other P5 was. That was all internet rumor-mongering and who knows what was true about it?

My gut feeling:

Big 12: Didn't want FSU save for the brief moment after Mizzzou and A/M left.

FSU: Would have seriously considered the Big 12 if an offer had been made any time this past year. Not saying they would have joined, but FSU was seriously unhappy with ACC money, and the new deal signed after Pitt and Cuse joined did little to molify them. Maryland leaving unhinged things further.

This is why i believe the Big 12 didn't want FSU: FSU was at least somewhat ripe for picking and yet Big 12 didn't make serious bid for them.

What really saved FSU's ACC membership, and the ACC, was the Swofford master-stroke of getting Notre Dame to commit to play football games vs the ACC, making them quasi-members of ACC football. That reportedly boosted the ACC contract a lot more than adding Pitt and Cuse did, putting the dollars in the $20m a year range that FSU could live with.

Cuse and Pitt added approx $4M but extra years were tacked on.

Notre Dame added about $1M ot $1.5M per school from what we know ($18M+) I think the GORs signed is what brought it up over $20M. ESPN is paying a premium for brand stability...little threat of the ESPN owned brands (ACC) going to FOX, NBC, etc...now with the GOR in place. FOX did the same thing in '11 with the B12.

If the B12 was smart they would look at Cincy, BYU, Boise, USF, UCF and even UConn to build up. WVU will not last forever on an island.

The way to do that is schedule them ooc, not to admit them and hope.

Hope for what?

I think the B1G knows what it's doing. They took Maryland and Rutgers despite the fact that there has been nothing compelling about either program to drive the decision.

Someone suggested "projects" be admitted and built up.
Admitting them and hoping they develop is a bad idea IMO.
If you want to do that, help them by scheduling, not by admitting to the conference, and let them build themselves up the way FSU, Utah, TCU did.

I think there's more to it than that. Rutgers and Maryland could both be regarded as projects to a certain extent. But the B1G took them because they served other. Interests and because the conference has a long term vision that is not based solely on who has a hot hand lately and is winning games.

(04-24-2013 12:21 PM)gosports1 Wrote:  The ACC survived because they have/had one thing that the BE FB did not conference loyalty and the ability to see the whole picture rather than each schools own interests

And that's the SEC....x10

(04-24-2013 12:36 PM)No Bull Wrote:  

(04-23-2013 10:57 PM)UCbball21 Wrote:  With the ACC's signing of the GOR there is no question what conference will survive the next round of conference realignment. The Big 12 signed its own death warrant by not inviting Louisville and Cincinnati/BYU to go along with WVU. If FSU and Clemson didn't have a football program like Louisville to lobby into the ACC and had to add UConnn to replace Maryland they would not have stayed in that conference.

A Big 12 network will never happen with its lack of markets and the LHN, eventually the television money will decline in comparison to the B1G, SEC, PAC-12, and possibly even the football-challenged ACC. Once the GOR expires, the B1G and PAC-12 will have its sights set on expansion and the Big 12 suddenly became the most vulnerable. The Big 12 is living on borrowed time, the GOR expires in 2025.

Cincy and the Bearcat nation could have saved the Big 12 and Texas...

Do you honestly think the ACC would have held together if UConn was the only viable option to replace Maryland? Especially with how hard FSU and Clemson lobbied to get Louisville in? Now that both conferences have GORs, which one is more vulnerable? The Big 12 passed on the chance to add two quality schools in hopes of adding better ones down the road, that decision will come back to haunt them most likely. Obviously Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, etc. will be fine, but what about Baylor, KState, and ISU? No major conference would ever want those programs, their subservience to Texas could very well cost them their future at the big boy table once GOR nears its expiration date and the PAC-12/B1G look to expand their markets. I don't look at Cincinnati or Louisville as would-have-been savior of the conference...rather it would have been a smart investment that, given how realignment went down in the consequential months, would have reaped a very large reward (complete exodus from the ACC).

(04-24-2013 12:48 PM)bullet Wrote:  Since the ACC expanded 10 years ago, their football hasn't even been as good as the Big East. The idea that they were ever going to be picked apart has been nothing more than internet speculation. If they were ever going to be picked apart, it would have happened already. In the past 3 years, they have added 4 new members while losing just one. They have remained the predators, not the prey.

Well, internet speculation and SI, ESPN, CBS Sports, ADs from UM,MSU and Ohio St., Duke's bb coach, board members of ACC schools, ....
The GOR makes any moves impractical for the next dozen years or so.

The idea that a conference has to have a premier team with a backup challenger is a flawed theory. Frankly there are other factors at work. All one has to do is to look at the ACC, which has not fit that definition since the decline of Florida State a dozen years ago. Frankly the PAC 12 hasn't been much better since the decline of USC.

Conferences get viewed by the media based on their top teams, not by their average. Virginia Tech has been ranked in the final AP poll in 13 of the 15 years of the BCS era. Only Texas and Georgia have been ranked that many times. FSU has been ranked 12 times. Oklahoma is the only other school ranked that many times. If you look at AP poll points in the BCS era, Virginia Tech is 9th, just ahead of Alabama and Michigan. VT has been very good, just not in BCS bowls. Big East has been behind the Mountain West based on the top teams since the 2005 ACC raid, even if their average team is better.
[/quote]

Back in post #18 you said that a conference has to have one team that is regularly in the top 10-15 and a second team joining them although it doesn't have to be the same team.

The only team that comes close to meeting the first of your two criteria is Virginia Tech. They've been in the top 15 five times in the past decade. Is that regularly?

To meet your 2nd criterion, we have VA Tech being joined by a 2nd team 4 times. So the two criteria have been met by the ACC less than half the time.

I'm going to add a 3rd criterion that the conference actually win a BCS bowl once in a while. ACC teams have won exactly 2 BCS bowls in the past ten years.

If football success is what it takes to hold a conference together, the ACC should have split up long ago.

(04-24-2013 12:12 PM)Melky Cabrera Wrote:  East Carolina is 500 miles and a 7-8 hour drive from Morgantown. That's closer than the Big 12 schools, but if that's "close", it leaves a lot of other schools in the mix whom WV could schedule. I would think that schools like Pitt, Maryland, Cincinnati, and Louisville would be their top priorities.

The Big 12 is playing nine conference games. WVU isn't going to be highly motivated to schedule difficult ooc games with only three breaks from Big 12 opponents.

(04-24-2013 01:11 PM)UCbball21 Wrote:  

(04-24-2013 12:36 PM)No Bull Wrote:  

(04-23-2013 10:57 PM)UCbball21 Wrote:  With the ACC's signing of the GOR there is no question what conference will survive the next round of conference realignment. The Big 12 signed its own death warrant by not inviting Louisville and Cincinnati/BYU to go along with WVU. If FSU and Clemson didn't have a football program like Louisville to lobby into the ACC and had to add UConnn to replace Maryland they would not have stayed in that conference.

A Big 12 network will never happen with its lack of markets and the LHN, eventually the television money will decline in comparison to the B1G, SEC, PAC-12, and possibly even the football-challenged ACC. Once the GOR expires, the B1G and PAC-12 will have its sights set on expansion and the Big 12 suddenly became the most vulnerable. The Big 12 is living on borrowed time, the GOR expires in 2025.

Cincy and the Bearcat nation could have saved the Big 12 and Texas...

Do you honestly think the ACC would have held together if UConn was the only viable option to replace Maryland? Especially with how hard FSU and Clemson lobbied to get Louisville in? Now that both conferences have GORs, which one is more vulnerable? The Big 12 passed on the chance to add two quality schools in hopes of adding better ones down the road, that decision will come back to haunt them most likely. Obviously Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, etc. will be fine, but what about Baylor, KState, and ISU? No major conference would ever want those programs, their subservience to Texas could very well cost them their future at the big boy table once GOR nears its expiration date and the PAC-12/B1G look to expand their markets. I don't look at Cincinnati or Louisville as would-have-been savior of the conference...rather it would have been a smart investment that, given how realignment went down in the consequential months, would have reaped a very large reward (complete exodus from the ACC).

How can we be sure the Big XII made an offer? Maybe FSU and Clemson turned them down. I never thought the Big XII was the first option for FSU, but that's just my opinion. Talk about an island... two games max for any eastern Big XII teams. Clemson and WVU...

(04-24-2013 01:11 PM)UCbball21 Wrote:  

(04-24-2013 12:36 PM)No Bull Wrote:  

(04-23-2013 10:57 PM)UCbball21 Wrote:  With the ACC's signing of the GOR there is no question what conference will survive the next round of conference realignment. The Big 12 signed its own death warrant by not inviting Louisville and Cincinnati/BYU to go along with WVU. If FSU and Clemson didn't have a football program like Louisville to lobby into the ACC and had to add UConnn to replace Maryland they would not have stayed in that conference.

A Big 12 network will never happen with its lack of markets and the LHN, eventually the television money will decline in comparison to the B1G, SEC, PAC-12, and possibly even the football-challenged ACC. Once the GOR expires, the B1G and PAC-12 will have its sights set on expansion and the Big 12 suddenly became the most vulnerable. The Big 12 is living on borrowed time, the GOR expires in 2025.

Cincy and the Bearcat nation could have saved the Big 12 and Texas...

Do you honestly think the ACC would have held together if UConn was the only viable option to replace Maryland? Especially with how hard FSU and Clemson lobbied to get Louisville in? Now that both conferences have GORs, which one is more vulnerable? The Big 12 passed on the chance to add two quality schools in hopes of adding better ones down the road, that decision will come back to haunt them most likely. Obviously Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, etc. will be fine, but what about Baylor, KState, and ISU? No major conference would ever want those programs, their subservience to Texas could very well cost them their future at the big boy table once GOR nears its expiration date and the PAC-12/B1G look to expand their markets. I don't look at Cincinnati or Louisville as would-have-been savior of the conference...rather it would have been a smart investment that, given how realignment went down in the consequential months, would have reaped a very large reward (complete exodus from the ACC).

How will that decision come back to haunt them?

(04-24-2013 01:23 PM)Melky Cabrera Wrote:  

(04-24-2013 01:11 PM)UCbball21 Wrote:  

(04-24-2013 12:36 PM)No Bull Wrote:  

(04-23-2013 10:57 PM)UCbball21 Wrote:  With the ACC's signing of the GOR there is no question what conference will survive the next round of conference realignment. The Big 12 signed its own death warrant by not inviting Louisville and Cincinnati/BYU to go along with WVU. If FSU and Clemson didn't have a football program like Louisville to lobby into the ACC and had to add UConnn to replace Maryland they would not have stayed in that conference.

A Big 12 network will never happen with its lack of markets and the LHN, eventually the television money will decline in comparison to the B1G, SEC, PAC-12, and possibly even the football-challenged ACC. Once the GOR expires, the B1G and PAC-12 will have its sights set on expansion and the Big 12 suddenly became the most vulnerable. The Big 12 is living on borrowed time, the GOR expires in 2025.

Cincy and the Bearcat nation could have saved the Big 12 and Texas...

Do you honestly think the ACC would have held together if UConn was the only viable option to replace Maryland? Especially with how hard FSU and Clemson lobbied to get Louisville in? Now that both conferences have GORs, which one is more vulnerable? The Big 12 passed on the chance to add two quality schools in hopes of adding better ones down the road, that decision will come back to haunt them most likely. Obviously Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, etc. will be fine, but what about Baylor, KState, and ISU? No major conference would ever want those programs, their subservience to Texas could very well cost them their future at the big boy table once GOR nears its expiration date and the PAC-12/B1G look to expand their markets. I don't look at Cincinnati or Louisville as would-have-been savior of the conference...rather it would have been a smart investment that, given how realignment went down in the consequential months, would have reaped a very large reward (complete exodus from the ACC).

How will that decision come back to haunt them?

If any rules regarding a requirement for a CCG to be playoff eligible ever comes to pass it certainly will haunt them...

(04-24-2013 01:21 PM)JunkYardCard Wrote:  

(04-24-2013 12:12 PM)Melky Cabrera Wrote:  East Carolina is 500 miles and a 7-8 hour drive from Morgantown. That's closer than the Big 12 schools, but if that's "close", it leaves a lot of other schools in the mix whom WV could schedule. I would think that schools like Pitt, Maryland, Cincinnati, and Louisville would be their top priorities.

The Big 12 is playing nine conference games. WVU isn't going to be highly motivated to schedule difficult ooc games with only three breaks from Big 12 opponents.

But I thought that the point was that they would need to keep some games on the schedule that are close to home so their fan base would have something they could travel to.

A 500 mile trip isn't exactly close to home. I would think that the Backyard Brawl would remain a high priority for them. Maryland isn't exactly a tough game these days and it's closer than ECU. I would think that their 3rd OOC game would be a "buy" game whom they won't play home-and-home. I think that they would want that extra home game especially for year when they only get 4 home games on their
Big 12 schedule.

(04-24-2013 01:26 PM)USAFMEDIC Wrote:  

(04-24-2013 01:23 PM)Melky Cabrera Wrote:  

(04-24-2013 01:11 PM)UCbball21 Wrote:  

(04-24-2013 12:36 PM)No Bull Wrote:  

(04-23-2013 10:57 PM)UCbball21 Wrote:  With the ACC's signing of the GOR there is no question what conference will survive the next round of conference realignment. The Big 12 signed its own death warrant by not inviting Louisville and Cincinnati/BYU to go along with WVU. If FSU and Clemson didn't have a football program like Louisville to lobby into the ACC and had to add UConnn to replace Maryland they would not have stayed in that conference.

A Big 12 network will never happen with its lack of markets and the LHN, eventually the television money will decline in comparison to the B1G, SEC, PAC-12, and possibly even the football-challenged ACC. Once the GOR expires, the B1G and PAC-12 will have its sights set on expansion and the Big 12 suddenly became the most vulnerable. The Big 12 is living on borrowed time, the GOR expires in 2025.

Cincy and the Bearcat nation could have saved the Big 12 and Texas...

Do you honestly think the ACC would have held together if UConn was the only viable option to replace Maryland? Especially with how hard FSU and Clemson lobbied to get Louisville in? Now that both conferences have GORs, which one is more vulnerable? The Big 12 passed on the chance to add two quality schools in hopes of adding better ones down the road, that decision will come back to haunt them most likely. Obviously Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, etc. will be fine, but what about Baylor, KState, and ISU? No major conference would ever want those programs, their subservience to Texas could very well cost them their future at the big boy table once GOR nears its expiration date and the PAC-12/B1G look to expand their markets. I don't look at Cincinnati or Louisville as would-have-been savior of the conference...rather it would have been a smart investment that, given how realignment went down in the consequential months, would have reaped a very large reward (complete exodus from the ACC).

How will that decision come back to haunt them?

If any rules regarding a requirement for a CCG to be playoff eligible ever comes to pass it certainly will haunt them...

They've been saying over and over for at least a year now that they were happy at 10. Of they really want to get to 12 for the CCG, they still have plenty of ways to get there - BYU, Memphis, Cincy, USF, UCF, and even UConn. It's not like they're out of options.

Since this thread has mostly descended into taking shots at whoever everyone has issues with, it's over...