(04-17-2017 12:15 PM)JRsec Wrote:  

(04-17-2017 11:26 AM)XLance Wrote:  

(04-17-2017 10:19 AM)JRsec Wrote:  

(04-17-2017 07:16 AM)XLance Wrote:  

(04-16-2017 08:38 PM)JRsec Wrote:  Well, maybe we could just add both Virginia's along with Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas and move to 24. 4 divisions of 6 should do it.

You are starting to get delusional.

The likelihood of ESPN having the SEC sell off a few properties to the Big 12 to keep Texas happy seems to be growing.
If ESPN can completely engulf the Big 12, then the move to smaller conferences could reverse the trend of something bigger.
By moving Arkansas and Missouri to the Big 12 ESPN could create two 12 team leagues that could easily flow back and forth, much like the SEC and ACC so now.
That would essentially give ESPN three leagues (38.5 schools) more control over their own situation while limiting the power of the conferences.
With a 12 team Big 12 and SEC coupled with a 15 team ACC the WWL would be well positioned with multiple types of broadcasts in any format well into the future and boast a lock of the majority of the football, basketball and baseball content in collegiate sports.
Three networks (the LHN becomes the Big 12 network) marketed as one to the most receptive fans in the country.
At the same time it isolates the B1G into a small portion of the upper mid-west, the great-lakes area and with a sliver of the Northeast, and the PAC with nowhere else to go.
A strategic move that could pay huge dividends for all members of the SEC, ACC and Big 12.

Nice fiction X. The brand of the SEC is by itself worth so much more that such an agenda would not be profitable. SECN on ESPN is a marriage of brands that is worth 3 x the money of the Big 10 Network and you can look that up. Missouri and Arkansas aren't leaving it and the Big 12 won't be merging intact with the SEC either. The only conference that ever might merge with the SEC is yours and even then I believe it would not be a full merger.

The idea here is still to make moves that maximize profits, or protect key brands. ESPN is going to be looking to add brands to the ACC if they are indeed serious about your network. The Achilles heel of the plan for the ACCN is weak branding within sports categories. Your basketball branding is strong so no problems there. But you only have 1 strong national brand in football, F.S.U.. Clemson is a strong and growing regional brand. Virginia Tech, Miami, Georgia Tech, and Pittsburgh are old fading brands but there is hope for Miami and Virginia Tech. Louisville is a growing brand but not of the strength of Clemson. So just like your football season last year you have great breadth in the middle, but really only two brands producing. This leaves you weak in brand vs brand content in the one sport that produces almost 85% of all revenue.

What I could see is the promotion in income of Virginia Tech, Miami, Louisville, Clemson, Georgia Tech and maybe a Pitt and the brand acquisition of North Carolina and Duke and possibly Syracuse if the taking of Syracuse and Pitt would still help to attract the commitment of Notre Dame, and the taking of N.C. State and Virginia as catalysts for some kind of merger of product between the SEC and ACC. Then those 27 schools could have Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, West Virginia, and Iowa State added to them. Now ESPN keeps all of the states presently under its control except Massachusetts. Takes the best possible branding and mixes them into that uber football, uber basketball, uber baseball, uber softball, conference. The combined 32 schools would include and 12 AAU schools which could form a quite powerful academic alliance.

Divisions:
Arkansas, Iowa State, Kansas, L.S.U., Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, Texas A&M

Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Tennessee, Vanderbilt

Kentucky, Louisville, Notre Dame, Miami, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, West Virginia, Virginia Tech

Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, N.C. State, South Carolina, Virginia

Now those divisions would all have great regional interest. The three more easterly divisions all have a Florida School. The Western division has two Texas schools. That gives all schools important trips into recruiting grounds. I don't think North Carolina could ask for a much better division for them. Texas keeps its buddies and gains better games. Alabama and Auburn have their two most important other rivals in the division.

And by doing this and using the SEC as the glue in the middle to pull it together ESPN keeps the name, but adds major brands to the East and West to combine their overhead and multiply their content value. They essentially have 80% of the branding of college sports contained within what would have amounted to 2 conferences of 16 but under one roof and associated with the top brand.

Dick Tracy's two way wrist radio was thought to be fiction too!

That's because Dick Tracy was fiction. But that's not because of the crime or gadgets, it's because there is no woman out there as perfect as Tess Trueheart!

Check this out:

Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State, Missouri

Texas, Arkansas, TCU, Baylor, Texas Tech, West Virginia


Texas A&M, LSU, Ole Miss, Miss State, Vanderbilt, Alabama

Auburn, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky, South Carolina


That surely makes a lot of people happy and makes it easy to sell network subscriptions. I would think the LHN would have to compensate the SECN or the loan of a couple of schools, but if coupled with the ACCN, that sure is a lot of states/people....just look at it on a map.
The ACC could stay as is and just have 7 teams fight for what the Big 12 and SEC could advance with 6. When Notre Dame is ready we just have an 8 team division and a 7 team division.

Compact, very regional and comprehensive.

(04-17-2017 03:45 PM)XLance Wrote:  

(04-17-2017 12:15 PM)JRsec Wrote:  

(04-17-2017 11:26 AM)XLance Wrote:  

(04-17-2017 10:19 AM)JRsec Wrote:  

(04-17-2017 07:16 AM)XLance Wrote:  You are starting to get delusional.

The likelihood of ESPN having the SEC sell off a few properties to the Big 12 to keep Texas happy seems to be growing.
If ESPN can completely engulf the Big 12, then the move to smaller conferences could reverse the trend of something bigger.
By moving Arkansas and Missouri to the Big 12 ESPN could create two 12 team leagues that could easily flow back and forth, much like the SEC and ACC so now.
That would essentially give ESPN three leagues (38.5 schools) more control over their own situation while limiting the power of the conferences.
With a 12 team Big 12 and SEC coupled with a 15 team ACC the WWL would be well positioned with multiple types of broadcasts in any format well into the future and boast a lock of the majority of the football, basketball and baseball content in collegiate sports.
Three networks (the LHN becomes the Big 12 network) marketed as one to the most receptive fans in the country.
At the same time it isolates the B1G into a small portion of the upper mid-west, the great-lakes area and with a sliver of the Northeast, and the PAC with nowhere else to go.
A strategic move that could pay huge dividends for all members of the SEC, ACC and Big 12.

Nice fiction X. The brand of the SEC is by itself worth so much more that such an agenda would not be profitable. SECN on ESPN is a marriage of brands that is worth 3 x the money of the Big 10 Network and you can look that up. Missouri and Arkansas aren't leaving it and the Big 12 won't be merging intact with the SEC either. The only conference that ever might merge with the SEC is yours and even then I believe it would not be a full merger.

The idea here is still to make moves that maximize profits, or protect key brands. ESPN is going to be looking to add brands to the ACC if they are indeed serious about your network. The Achilles heel of the plan for the ACCN is weak branding within sports categories. Your basketball branding is strong so no problems there. But you only have 1 strong national brand in football, F.S.U.. Clemson is a strong and growing regional brand. Virginia Tech, Miami, Georgia Tech, and Pittsburgh are old fading brands but there is hope for Miami and Virginia Tech. Louisville is a growing brand but not of the strength of Clemson. So just like your football season last year you have great breadth in the middle, but really only two brands producing. This leaves you weak in brand vs brand content in the one sport that produces almost 85% of all revenue.

What I could see is the promotion in income of Virginia Tech, Miami, Louisville, Clemson, Georgia Tech and maybe a Pitt and the brand acquisition of North Carolina and Duke and possibly Syracuse if the taking of Syracuse and Pitt would still help to attract the commitment of Notre Dame, and the taking of N.C. State and Virginia as catalysts for some kind of merger of product between the SEC and ACC. Then those 27 schools could have Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, West Virginia, and Iowa State added to them. Now ESPN keeps all of the states presently under its control except Massachusetts. Takes the best possible branding and mixes them into that uber football, uber basketball, uber baseball, uber softball, conference. The combined 32 schools would include and 12 AAU schools which could form a quite powerful academic alliance.

Divisions:
Arkansas, Iowa State, Kansas, L.S.U., Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, Texas A&M

Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Tennessee, Vanderbilt

Kentucky, Louisville, Notre Dame, Miami, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, West Virginia, Virginia Tech

Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, N.C. State, South Carolina, Virginia

Now those divisions would all have great regional interest. The three more easterly divisions all have a Florida School. The Western division has two Texas schools. That gives all schools important trips into recruiting grounds. I don't think North Carolina could ask for a much better division for them. Texas keeps its buddies and gains better games. Alabama and Auburn have their two most important other rivals in the division.

And by doing this and using the SEC as the glue in the middle to pull it together ESPN keeps the name, but adds major brands to the East and West to combine their overhead and multiply their content value. They essentially have 80% of the branding of college sports contained within what would have amounted to 2 conferences of 16 but under one roof and associated with the top brand.

Dick Tracy's two way wrist radio was thought to be fiction too!

That's because Dick Tracy was fiction. But that's not because of the crime or gadgets, it's because there is no woman out there as perfect as Tess Trueheart!

Check this out:

Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State, Missouri

Texas, Arkansas, TCU, Baylor, Texas Tech, West Virginia


Texas A&M, LSU, Ole Miss, Miss State, Vanderbilt, Alabama

Auburn, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky, South Carolina


That surely makes a lot of people happy and makes it easy to sell network subscriptions. I would think the LHN would have to compensate the SECN or the loan of a couple of schools, but if coupled with the ACCN, that sure is a lot of states/people....just look at it on a map.
The ACC could stay as is and just have 7 teams fight for what the Big 12 and SEC could advance with 6. When Notre Dame is ready we just have an 8 team division and a 7 team division.

Compact, very regional and comprehensive.

Who are you talking to that says it's becoming more likely the SEC will sell off a couple schools to the Big 12? Including a school that just left that league that happens to be on the verge of collapse? These people haven't tried to get you to go snipe hunting have they?

(04-18-2017 02:17 AM)AllTideUp Wrote:  

(04-17-2017 03:45 PM)XLance Wrote:  

(04-17-2017 12:15 PM)JRsec Wrote:  

(04-17-2017 11:26 AM)XLance Wrote:  

(04-17-2017 10:19 AM)JRsec Wrote:  Nice fiction X. The brand of the SEC is by itself worth so much more that such an agenda would not be profitable. SECN on ESPN is a marriage of brands that is worth 3 x the money of the Big 10 Network and you can look that up. Missouri and Arkansas aren't leaving it and the Big 12 won't be merging intact with the SEC either. The only conference that ever might merge with the SEC is yours and even then I believe it would not be a full merger.

The idea here is still to make moves that maximize profits, or protect key brands. ESPN is going to be looking to add brands to the ACC if they are indeed serious about your network. The Achilles heel of the plan for the ACCN is weak branding within sports categories. Your basketball branding is strong so no problems there. But you only have 1 strong national brand in football, F.S.U.. Clemson is a strong and growing regional brand. Virginia Tech, Miami, Georgia Tech, and Pittsburgh are old fading brands but there is hope for Miami and Virginia Tech. Louisville is a growing brand but not of the strength of Clemson. So just like your football season last year you have great breadth in the middle, but really only two brands producing. This leaves you weak in brand vs brand content in the one sport that produces almost 85% of all revenue.

What I could see is the promotion in income of Virginia Tech, Miami, Louisville, Clemson, Georgia Tech and maybe a Pitt and the brand acquisition of North Carolina and Duke and possibly Syracuse if the taking of Syracuse and Pitt would still help to attract the commitment of Notre Dame, and the taking of N.C. State and Virginia as catalysts for some kind of merger of product between the SEC and ACC. Then those 27 schools could have Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, West Virginia, and Iowa State added to them. Now ESPN keeps all of the states presently under its control except Massachusetts. Takes the best possible branding and mixes them into that uber football, uber basketball, uber baseball, uber softball, conference. The combined 32 schools would include and 12 AAU schools which could form a quite powerful academic alliance.

Divisions:
Arkansas, Iowa State, Kansas, L.S.U., Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, Texas A&M

Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Tennessee, Vanderbilt

Kentucky, Louisville, Notre Dame, Miami, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, West Virginia, Virginia Tech

Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, N.C. State, South Carolina, Virginia

Now those divisions would all have great regional interest. The three more easterly divisions all have a Florida School. The Western division has two Texas schools. That gives all schools important trips into recruiting grounds. I don't think North Carolina could ask for a much better division for them. Texas keeps its buddies and gains better games. Alabama and Auburn have their two most important other rivals in the division.

And by doing this and using the SEC as the glue in the middle to pull it together ESPN keeps the name, but adds major brands to the East and West to combine their overhead and multiply their content value. They essentially have 80% of the branding of college sports contained within what would have amounted to 2 conferences of 16 but under one roof and associated with the top brand.

Dick Tracy's two way wrist radio was thought to be fiction too!

That's because Dick Tracy was fiction. But that's not because of the crime or gadgets, it's because there is no woman out there as perfect as Tess Trueheart!

Check this out:

Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State, Missouri

Texas, Arkansas, TCU, Baylor, Texas Tech, West Virginia


Texas A&M, LSU, Ole Miss, Miss State, Vanderbilt, Alabama

Auburn, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky, South Carolina


That surely makes a lot of people happy and makes it easy to sell network subscriptions. I would think the LHN would have to compensate the SECN or the loan of a couple of schools, but if coupled with the ACCN, that sure is a lot of states/people....just look at it on a map.
The ACC could stay as is and just have 7 teams fight for what the Big 12 and SEC could advance with 6. When Notre Dame is ready we just have an 8 team division and a 7 team division.

Compact, very regional and comprehensive.

Who are you talking to that says it's becoming more likely the SEC will sell off a couple schools to the Big 12? Including a school that just left that league that happens to be on the verge of collapse? These people haven't tried to get you to go snipe hunting have they?

XLance, Have Bag, Will Travel! I have the sticks. Now if he'll just stand in the ditch where we tell him too.....

(04-18-2017 02:17 AM)AllTideUp Wrote:  

(04-17-2017 03:45 PM)XLance Wrote:  

(04-17-2017 12:15 PM)JRsec Wrote:  

(04-17-2017 11:26 AM)XLance Wrote:  

(04-17-2017 10:19 AM)JRsec Wrote:  Nice fiction X. The brand of the SEC is by itself worth so much more that such an agenda would not be profitable. SECN on ESPN is a marriage of brands that is worth 3 x the money of the Big 10 Network and you can look that up. Missouri and Arkansas aren't leaving it and the Big 12 won't be merging intact with the SEC either. The only conference that ever might merge with the SEC is yours and even then I believe it would not be a full merger.

The idea here is still to make moves that maximize profits, or protect key brands. ESPN is going to be looking to add brands to the ACC if they are indeed serious about your network. The Achilles heel of the plan for the ACCN is weak branding within sports categories. Your basketball branding is strong so no problems there. But you only have 1 strong national brand in football, F.S.U.. Clemson is a strong and growing regional brand. Virginia Tech, Miami, Georgia Tech, and Pittsburgh are old fading brands but there is hope for Miami and Virginia Tech. Louisville is a growing brand but not of the strength of Clemson. So just like your football season last year you have great breadth in the middle, but really only two brands producing. This leaves you weak in brand vs brand content in the one sport that produces almost 85% of all revenue.

What I could see is the promotion in income of Virginia Tech, Miami, Louisville, Clemson, Georgia Tech and maybe a Pitt and the brand acquisition of North Carolina and Duke and possibly Syracuse if the taking of Syracuse and Pitt would still help to attract the commitment of Notre Dame, and the taking of N.C. State and Virginia as catalysts for some kind of merger of product between the SEC and ACC. Then those 27 schools could have Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, West Virginia, and Iowa State added to them. Now ESPN keeps all of the states presently under its control except Massachusetts. Takes the best possible branding and mixes them into that uber football, uber basketball, uber baseball, uber softball, conference. The combined 32 schools would include and 12 AAU schools which could form a quite powerful academic alliance.

Divisions:
Arkansas, Iowa State, Kansas, L.S.U., Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, Texas A&M

Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Tennessee, Vanderbilt

Kentucky, Louisville, Notre Dame, Miami, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, West Virginia, Virginia Tech

Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, N.C. State, South Carolina, Virginia

Now those divisions would all have great regional interest. The three more easterly divisions all have a Florida School. The Western division has two Texas schools. That gives all schools important trips into recruiting grounds. I don't think North Carolina could ask for a much better division for them. Texas keeps its buddies and gains better games. Alabama and Auburn have their two most important other rivals in the division.

And by doing this and using the SEC as the glue in the middle to pull it together ESPN keeps the name, but adds major brands to the East and West to combine their overhead and multiply their content value. They essentially have 80% of the branding of college sports contained within what would have amounted to 2 conferences of 16 but under one roof and associated with the top brand.

Dick Tracy's two way wrist radio was thought to be fiction too!

That's because Dick Tracy was fiction. But that's not because of the crime or gadgets, it's because there is no woman out there as perfect as Tess Trueheart!

Check this out:

Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State, Missouri

Texas, Arkansas, TCU, Baylor, Texas Tech, West Virginia


Texas A&M, LSU, Ole Miss, Miss State, Vanderbilt, Alabama

Auburn, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky, South Carolina


That surely makes a lot of people happy and makes it easy to sell network subscriptions. I would think the LHN would have to compensate the SECN or the loan of a couple of schools, but if coupled with the ACCN, that sure is a lot of states/people....just look at it on a map.
The ACC could stay as is and just have 7 teams fight for what the Big 12 and SEC could advance with 6. When Notre Dame is ready we just have an 8 team division and a 7 team division.

Compact, very regional and comprehensive.

Who are you talking to that says it's becoming more likely the SEC will sell off a couple schools to the Big 12? Including a school that just left that league that happens to be on the verge of collapse? These people haven't tried to get you to go snipe hunting have they?

Which final model do you subscribe to?
We know that the reason for realignment is money, right?
And the increase in money is going to come from the networks because playoffs are going to be expanded and viewership always escalates during the playoffs. Playoffs generate interest which draws in the casual fan. You only have to look at the World Series and Superbowl tournament to know that.
College football looked at the pod model, which is how the NFL is set up. Where the NFL had 32 teams the College version was going to have 64 (and maybe plus 1) divided into 4 conferences of 16, but for various reasons it didn't work out. Nobody could agree on who went where.
Enter the baseball model.
30 teams divided into two leagues. Each league has three divisions of 5. Eventually you get to three champions and a wild card entry that battle it out for the League championship to advance to the World Series. Pretty simple, lots of folks get involved, baseball makes money.
How did baseball attain the symmetry to make all of this work?
The National League gave up their stake in Texas and the Texas market and allowed the Houston Astros to leave the National league (where they had been for over 50 years) and join the American League so that each league could have an equal number of teams (15), the same number of divisions (3) and the same number of teams in a division (5). Now imagine that the number of teams might be 11 or 12 for college football. And if it is 11 for all conferences with the exception of the PAC (which keeps 12) then every conference would have to shed some teams, right? Because we would need to add at least one more division which could be made up of discarded teams.
Of the 4 schools that the SEC has added in the last 30 years or so (A&M, Missouri, South Carolina and Arkansas) which one has the most value to the SEC? If you said anything other than A&M you would be wrong! Can you imagine where this is going? Lets cut to the chase.

Arkansas and Missouri to the Big 12
New division is formed by: Penn State, Maryland, Rutgers, Louisville, Cincinnati, West Virginia, Pitt, Temple, UConn, Boston College and Syracuse.
South Carolina joins the other ACC schools for 11.

Notre Dame remains semi-independent, has their other sports attached to either the ACC or the New division, but plays at least 5 games per year with each league and keeps their NBC deal.

So your two leagues are...let's call them ESPN and FOX
With three divisions each:
New division, B1G and PAC in the FOX League and the ACC, SEC and Big 12 in the ESPN League

Who might think this stuff up? ....that would dare move three SEC schools and organize a structure for profitable playoffs. Just folks who devise various strategies and develop scenarios to maximize ROI. Interesting, don't you think?

Don't miss what's really important.

(04-18-2017 03:13 PM)XLance Wrote:  

(04-18-2017 02:17 AM)AllTideUp Wrote:  Who are you talking to that says it's becoming more likely the SEC will sell off a couple schools to the Big 12? Including a school that just left that league that happens to be on the verge of collapse? These people haven't tried to get you to go snipe hunting have they?

Which final model do you subscribe to?
We know that the reason for realignment is money, right?
And the increase in money is going to come from the networks because playoffs are going to be expanded and viewership always escalates during the playoffs. Playoffs generate interest which draws in the casual fan. You only have to look at the World Series and Superbowl tournament to know that.
College football looked at the pod model, which is how the NFL is set up. Where the NFL had 32 teams the College version was going to have 64 (and maybe plus 1) divided into 4 conferences of 16, but for various reasons it didn't work out. Nobody could agree on who went where.
Enter the baseball model.
30 teams divided into two leagues. Each league has three divisions of 5. Eventually you get to three champions and a wild card entry that battle it out for the League championship to advance to the World Series. Pretty simple, lots of folks get involved, baseball makes money.
How did baseball attain the symmetry to make all of this work?
The National League gave up their stake in Texas and the Texas market and allowed the Houston Astros to leave the National league (where they had been for over 50 years) and join the American League so that each league could have an equal number of teams (15), the same number of divisions (3) and the same number of teams in a division (5). Now imagine that the number of teams might be 11 or 12 for college football. And if it is 11 for all conferences with the exception of the PAC (which keeps 12) then every conference would have to shed some teams, right? Because we would need to add at least one more division which could be made up of discarded teams.
Of the 4 schools that the SEC has added in the last 30 years or so (A&M, Missouri, South Carolina and Arkansas) which one has the most value to the SEC? If you said anything other than A&M you would be wrong! Can you imagine where this is going? Lets cut to the chase.

Arkansas and Missouri to the Big 12
New division is formed by: Penn State, Maryland, Rutgers, Louisville, Cincinnati, West Virginia, Pitt, Temple, UConn, Boston College and Syracuse.
South Carolina joins the other ACC schools for 11.

Notre Dame remains semi-independent, has their other sports attached to either the ACC or the New division, but plays at least 5 games per year with each league and keeps their NBC deal.

So your two leagues are...let's call them ESPN and FOX
With three divisions each:
New division, B1G and PAC in the FOX League and the ACC, SEC and Big 12 in the ESPN League

Who might think this stuff up? ....that would dare move three SEC schools and organize a structure for profitable playoffs. Just folks who devise various strategies and develop scenarios to maximize ROI. Interesting, don't you think?

Don't miss what's really important.

There's a few problems with your analogy.

1. The division of teams in the NFL or MLB or any pro sport for that matter is mostly academic. Why? They exist under the same corporate structure. Yes, individual teams might have opportunities to gain a little more money through various channels, but they profit off of each other. Not so in college athletics. Each conference is its own entity and the level of cooperation that would have to exist in order for schools to move freely from one grouping to another for nothing more than structural reasons simply isn't there.

2. The playoffs will never generate as much money as the primary TV contracts for the leagues. Sacrificing regular season content for extra post season cash will never level out.

3. The trends are working in the wrong direction for this to be realistic. Leagues are making more money by getting larger because they are also getting more selective. Better brands and better markets lead to profit. No one is going to reverse course and go back to a setup similar to 20 years ago when that setup clearly didn't profit as much.

(04-18-2017 03:13 PM)XLance Wrote:  

(04-18-2017 02:17 AM)AllTideUp Wrote:  

(04-17-2017 03:45 PM)XLance Wrote:  

(04-17-2017 12:15 PM)JRsec Wrote:  

(04-17-2017 11:26 AM)XLance Wrote:  

Dick Tracy's two way wrist radio was thought to be fiction too!

That's because Dick Tracy was fiction. But that's not because of the crime or gadgets, it's because there is no woman out there as perfect as Tess Trueheart!

Check this out:

Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State, Missouri

Texas, Arkansas, TCU, Baylor, Texas Tech, West Virginia


Texas A&M, LSU, Ole Miss, Miss State, Vanderbilt, Alabama

Auburn, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky, South Carolina


That surely makes a lot of people happy and makes it easy to sell network subscriptions. I would think the LHN would have to compensate the SECN or the loan of a couple of schools, but if coupled with the ACCN, that sure is a lot of states/people....just look at it on a map.
The ACC could stay as is and just have 7 teams fight for what the Big 12 and SEC could advance with 6. When Notre Dame is ready we just have an 8 team division and a 7 team division.

Compact, very regional and comprehensive.

Who are you talking to that says it's becoming more likely the SEC will sell off a couple schools to the Big 12? Including a school that just left that league that happens to be on the verge of collapse? These people haven't tried to get you to go snipe hunting have they?

Which final model do you subscribe to?
We know that the reason for realignment is money, right?
And the increase in money is going to come from the networks because playoffs are going to be expanded and viewership always escalates during the playoffs. Playoffs generate interest which draws in the casual fan. You only have to look at the World Series and Superbowl tournament to know that.
College football looked at the pod model, which is how the NFL is set up. Where the NFL had 32 teams the College version was going to have 64 (and maybe plus 1) divided into 4 conferences of 16, but for various reasons it didn't work out. Nobody could agree on who went where.
Enter the baseball model.
30 teams divided into two leagues. Each league has three divisions of 5. Eventually you get to three champions and a wild card entry that battle it out for the League championship to advance to the World Series. Pretty simple, lots of folks get involved, baseball makes money.
How did baseball attain the symmetry to make all of this work?
The National League gave up their stake in Texas and the Texas market and allowed the Houston Astros to leave the National league (where they had been for over 50 years) and join the American League so that each league could have an equal number of teams (15), the same number of divisions (3) and the same number of teams in a division (5). Now imagine that the number of teams might be 11 or 12 for college football. And if it is 11 for all conferences with the exception of the PAC (which keeps 12) then every conference would have to shed some teams, right? Because we would need to add at least one more division which could be made up of discarded teams.
Of the 4 schools that the SEC has added in the last 30 years or so (A&M, Missouri, South Carolina and Arkansas) which one has the most value to the SEC? If you said anything other than A&M you would be wrong! Can you imagine where this is going? Lets cut to the chase.

Arkansas and Missouri to the Big 12
New division is formed by: Penn State, Maryland, Rutgers, Louisville, Cincinnati, West Virginia, Pitt, Temple, UConn, Boston College and Syracuse.
South Carolina joins the other ACC schools for 11.

Notre Dame remains semi-independent, has their other sports attached to either the ACC or the New division, but plays at least 5 games per year with each league and keeps their NBC deal.

So your two leagues are...let's call them ESPN and FOX
With three divisions each:
New division, B1G and PAC in the FOX League and the ACC, SEC and Big 12 in the ESPN League

Who might think this stuff up? ....that would dare move three SEC schools and organize a structure for profitable playoffs. Just folks who devise various strategies and develop scenarios to maximize ROI. Interesting, don't you think?

Don't miss what's really important.

Your premise is in error. See the bold print. Content is what adds the revenue. Playoffs are merely an extension of content vs content games.

Content is why the SEC won't be giving up any brands and the conferences will get larger and not smaller.

Content is what the ACC lacks outside of basketball (at least in revenue sports).

Content is what the Big 12 needs.

If the SEC grows it will be with content. Content will be valuable when markets are in the dust. The SEC only has one market addition. The ACC was built on market additions. Hence why you are 34 million behind the SEC in Gross Total Revenue even after you enjoyed a slight lead in TV revenue and were much closer in than that category in '92 than you are today.

Schools don't leave conferences that pay the way more than another. So the SEC isn't losing anyone.

Networks don't take product from 4.5 billion dollar bonanza's called the SECN (which is soon to debut across Mexico). Networks take product from conferences that finish dead last in revenue production, dead last in attendance, and dead last in market penetration and saturation.

It is the biggest reason why you are still vulnerable and we aren't.

But you guys keep telling yourselves "like Kevin Bacon in Animal House" that all is well! You'll be happier in that delusion than if you were to be truly cognizant of the truth!