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Let's Take a Closer Look at What ESPN Holds:
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JRsec Offline
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Let's Take a Closer Look at What ESPN Holds:
AAC: Central Florida, Cincinnati, Connecticut, East Carolina, Houston, Memphis, Navy, South Florida, Southern Methodist, Temple, Tulane, Tulsa

ACC: Boston College, Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Miami, North Carolina, N.C. State, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest and Notre Dame as a partial.

SEC: Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana State, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Missouri, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt

They have a 50% share in the PAC.
They have a 50% share in the Big 12 (T3 advantages with Texas and Kansas)
They have about a 40% share of the Big 10.

If you look at a map you will find that they have 100% of the top P5 and G5 product in the following states: Alabama (2), Arkansas (1), Connecticut (1), Florida (5), Georgia (2), Kentucky (2), Louisiana (2), Massachusetts (1), Mississippi (2), Missouri (1), North Carolina (5), New York (1) and would be 2 if Army joins the AAC, Tennessee (3)

Here are the states where they share product. These counts will be in a fraction with the product they own completely on top and the total number of product in which they only own 50% or less on bottom: Indiana 1/3, Iowa 0/2, Kansas 0/2, Maryland 1/2, Ohio 1/2, Oklahoma 1/3, Pennsylvania 2/3, Texas 3/7, West Virginia 0/1

So let's assume that in the final realignment ESPN is satisfied with the conference placement of the ACC, SEC, and of the AAC and that they don't wish to promote or demote any of the schools in those conferences. Of the States that ESPN has less than 100% of control which constitute the most profitable investment in order to completely have rights to those states?

1. Texas: Baylor, T.C.U., Texas Tech and Texas are all 50% shared more or less. To effectively control that State ESPN needs to add Texas and Texas Tech in full. They can maintain complete control over Baylor in the AAC. T.C.U. could be a full P4 addition in an ESPN held conference, or they could also be fully controlled in the AAC.

2.
A. Since they already control as much as they will in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana the best ESPN could hope to do is pick up an addition in Iowa. Iowa State could serve as a market sharing addition if added to a P5. That would make for the most effective entry into the Iowa market. Otherwise in the AAC they would merely be a presence in Iowa.

B. They could own all of Oklahoma and Kansas if they desired to pursue them. Since Oklahoma and Oklahoma State will want to move together and ESPN already has Tulsa this is an easier pick up. Make a juicy offer for the pair and they make obtaining all of Texas even easier. Especially if....

C. They also make a strong play for Kansas and let Kansas State slip into the AAC.

3. Controlling a state as a network allows for more leverage in the procuring of the highest advertising rates. In Texas that can be lucrative.

So the objectives should be Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Kansas, and Iowa State if they want to solidly market the region.

West Virginia may be picked up as a solo if need be.

That's a total of 7 Big 12 schools.

Put Texas, Texas Tech, and West Virginia in the ACC with Texas as an independent and relegate T.C.U. and Baylor to the AAC and the state of Texas is completely accounted for.

Put Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Kansas and Iowa State in the SEC and Kansas State in the AAC and Oklahoma and Kansas are completely accounted for. Add Iowa State and you have a presence in a key Big 10 state.

The SEC and ACC move to 18. The AAC picks up Army to go with Kansas State, Baylor and T.C.U. and they move to 16.

4. If ESPN truly wanted to wield effective power they would encourage a joint academic association between the AAU schools of their three conferences:

From the SEC (6): Florida, Iowa State, Kansas, Missouri, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt
From the ACC (6): Duke, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Texas, Virginia
From the AAC (1) : Tulane

That consortium would equal the AAU members of the Big 10. By forming such an association schools would not be reticent at all to join any of the 3 ESPN held conferences.

Associations of note but not AAU then become: Notre Dame, Syracuse, Boston College, Army, Navy, Miami (which may become AAU soon), Kentucky, Georgia, N.C. State, Wake Forest, South Carolina, Clemson, and Tennessee.

By focusing on additions in this manner it becomes quite clear that ESPN can benefit all of us through scheduling alliances, academic associations, and by having complete control over the entire Eastern Seaboard from Virginia to Miami with all of the Southeastern states into Texas thereby controlling the entire Gulf of Mexico region into the Plains as far as Kansas and Missouri.

And for that solidarity we all benefit in payouts due to not having to split ad revenues within our region with another network.

So when questions arise about why take a little brother, total control of each state is essential to maintain the leverage and of all of the 7 additions suggested only 2 would be redundant. I'd say it is worth it! At the very least we need the Texa-homa schools.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

An addendum: With the Big 12 gone eventually the PAC and Big 10 will have to have a kind of merger. When that happens the AAC could be elevated to the 4th P Conference. They would also make an excellent device to pick up left over PAC schools following the Big 10 / PAC merger. Washington State, Oregon State, Air Force, San Diego State, Boise State, U.N.L.V. and a couple of more could help to form a 20 school AAC that would comprise the 4th power conference.
(This post was last modified: 06-24-2017 12:19 AM by JRsec.)
06-23-2017 11:23 PM
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RE: Let's Take a Closer Look at What ESPN Holds:
(06-23-2017 11:23 PM)JRsec Wrote:  4. If ESPN truly wanted to wield effective power they would encourage a joint academic association between the AAU schools of their three conferences:

From the SEC (6): Florida, Iowa State, Kansas, Missouri, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt
From the ACC (6): Duke, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Texas, Virginia
From the AAC (2) : Tulane, Tulsa

That consortium would outnumber the AAU members of the Big 10 by 1. By forming such an association schools would not be reticent at all to join any of the 3 ESPN held conferences.

Associations of note but not AAU then become: Notre Dame, Syracuse, Boston College, Army, Navy, Miami (which may become AAU soon), Kentucky, Georgia, N.C. State, Wake Forest, South Carolina, Clemson, and Tennessee.

Only issue there is Tulsa is not an AAU school. I assume it's a pretty good school although I honestly don't know much about them.

What they could do is this...

Have the AAC add Kansas State, TCU, Baylor, Rice, Buffalo, and Army...going to 18 in the process. They could have more regional divisions which would be lighter on the pocket book for what will be a cash strapped conference.

Rice and Buffalo are both AAU schools and wouldn't be geographic outliers in that league. Buffalo has the added benefit of being more serious about building an athletic program. They'll never be a Power school, but they could be a relevant G5 in a region with very little major collegiate penetration. With Rice, you get more games in TX and all the original SWC members are accounted for so that's a little boost as well.

I would also throw in Virginia Tech as a significant academic association for this grouping. While we're at it, see if we can get Emory to partner.
06-24-2017 12:06 AM
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JRsec Offline
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RE: Let's Take a Closer Look at What ESPN Holds:
(06-24-2017 12:06 AM)AllTideUp Wrote:  
(06-23-2017 11:23 PM)JRsec Wrote:  4. If ESPN truly wanted to wield effective power they would encourage a joint academic association between the AAU schools of their three conferences:

From the SEC (6): Florida, Iowa State, Kansas, Missouri, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt
From the ACC (6): Duke, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Texas, Virginia
From the AAC (1) : Tulane

That consortium would equal the AAU members of the Big 10. By forming such an association schools would not be reticent at all to join any of the 3 ESPN held conferences.

Associations of note but not AAU then become: Notre Dame, Syracuse, Boston College, Army, Navy, Miami (which may become AAU soon), Kentucky, Georgia, N.C. State, Wake Forest, South Carolina, Clemson, and Tennessee.

Only issue there is Tulsa is not an AAU school. I assume it's a pretty good school although I honestly don't know much about them.

What they could do is this...

Have the AAC add Kansas State, TCU, Baylor, Rice, Buffalo, and Army...going to 18 in the process. They could have more regional divisions which would be lighter on the pocket book for what will be a cash strapped conference.

Rice and Buffalo are both AAU schools and wouldn't be geographic outliers in that league. Buffalo has the added benefit of being more serious about building an athletic program. They'll never be a Power school, but they could be a relevant G5 in a region with very little major collegiate penetration. With Rice, you get more games in TX and all the original SWC members are accounted for so that's a little boost as well.

I would also throw in Virginia Tech as a significant academic association for this grouping. While we're at it, see if we can get Emory to partner.

I must have posted my addendum after you read my post. I was suggesting a 20 member AAC that would be elevated to P status when the Big 10 eventually merges with the PAC. We would need to leave slots for about 8 Western schools. Rice could certainly slip in there.

You are right about Tulsa. I think they once had the status so they must have dropped out.

And I fixed the OP post.

The biggest issue I see is Texas Tech going ACC with Texas. They are a bit of an Outlier. I suppose the ACC could work Iowa State in and we could take Tech if need be.
(This post was last modified: 06-24-2017 12:27 AM by JRsec.)
06-24-2017 12:18 AM
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AllTideUp Offline
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RE: Let's Take a Closer Look at What ESPN Holds:
(06-24-2017 12:18 AM)JRsec Wrote:  
(06-24-2017 12:06 AM)AllTideUp Wrote:  
(06-23-2017 11:23 PM)JRsec Wrote:  4. If ESPN truly wanted to wield effective power they would encourage a joint academic association between the AAU schools of their three conferences:

From the SEC (6): Florida, Iowa State, Kansas, Missouri, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt
From the ACC (6): Duke, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Texas, Virginia
From the AAC (1) : Tulane

That consortium would outnumber the AAU members of the Big 10 by 1. By forming such an association schools would not be reticent at all to join any of the 3 ESPN held conferences.

Associations of note but not AAU then become: Notre Dame, Syracuse, Boston College, Army, Navy, Miami (which may become AAU soon), Kentucky, Georgia, N.C. State, Wake Forest, South Carolina, Clemson, and Tennessee.

Only issue there is Tulsa is not an AAU school. I assume it's a pretty good school although I honestly don't know much about them.

What they could do is this...

Have the AAC add Kansas State, TCU, Baylor, Rice, Buffalo, and Army...going to 18 in the process. They could have more regional divisions which would be lighter on the pocket book for what will be a cash strapped conference.

Rice and Buffalo are both AAU schools and wouldn't be geographic outliers in that league. Buffalo has the added benefit of being more serious about building an athletic program. They'll never be a Power school, but they could be a relevant G5 in a region with very little major collegiate penetration. With Rice, you get more games in TX and all the original SWC members are accounted for so that's a little boost as well.

I would also throw in Virginia Tech as a significant academic association for this grouping. While we're at it, see if we can get Emory to partner.

I must have posted my addendum after you read my post. I was suggesting a 20 member AAC that would be elevated to P status when the Big 10 eventually merges with the PAC. We would need to leave slots for about 8 Western schools. Rice could certainly slip in there.

You are right about Tulsa. I think they once had the status so they must have dropped out.

And I fixed the OP post.

Yeah, I saw the addendum after I posted.

I would maybe go with 24 if there is to be such a league stretching across all the time zones. That way the divisions can be a little more regional with less cross country travel.

If two got relegated from the PAC then I could see it being the ones you mentioned.

AAC

West: Washington State, Oregon State, San Diego State UNLV, Boise State, BYU

Central: Colorado State, Air Force, TCU, SMU, Tulsa, Kansas State

South: Baylor, Houston, Rice, Tulane, Memphis, Navy

East: UConn, Temple, Cincinnati, East Carolina, UCF, USF

I actually think I'd enjoy watching that league...

SEC adds Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Kansas, and Iowa State

ACC adds Texas, Texas Tech, Notre Dame, and West Virginia

Both move to 18.

If the PAC and B1G merge minus 2 then that's 24 as well.
06-24-2017 01:42 AM
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RE: Let's Take a Closer Look at What ESPN Holds:
THE NEW P4


B1G West: California, Oregon, Stanford, U.C.L.A., U.S.C., Washington

B1G Central: Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, Nebraska, Minnesota, Utah

B1G North Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Northwestern, Wisconsin

B1G East: Indiana, Maryland, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, Rutgers

*****************************************************************************

ACC North: Boston College, Iowa State, Louisville, Notre Dame*, Pittsburgh, Syracuse

ACC Central: Duke, North Carolina, N.C. State, Virginia, Virginia Tech, West Virginia

ACC South: Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Miami, Texas*, Wake Forest

* Denotes Independence. They move to 6 conference games and play the five in their division and rotate another. If they win their division they make the ACC playoffs.

*****************************************************************************

SEC East: Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina Tennessee, Vanderbilt

SEC Central: Alabama, Auburn, L.S.U., Mississippi, Miss State, Texas A&M

SEC West: Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech

**************************************************************************************

AAC East: Central Florida, Connecticut, East Carolina, Navy, South Florida, Temple

AAC North: Army, Cincinnati, Kansas State, Memphis, Tulane, Tulsa

AAC South: Air Force, Baylor, Colorado State, Houston, S.M.U., T.C.U.

ACC West: Boise State, Brigham Young, Nevada Las Vegas, Oregon State, San Diego State, Washington State
(This post was last modified: 06-24-2017 05:57 PM by JRsec.)
06-24-2017 05:51 PM
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Let's Take a Closer Look at What ESPN Holds:
If we go to a P4 then independence should be revoked, no one who plays a partial conference schedule should be allowed to play for a conference championship. Why stop with just ND & Texas? Why not allow Alabama, Ohio State or any others have that advantage?
06-25-2017 10:28 AM
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RE: Let's Take a Closer Look at What ESPN Holds:
(06-25-2017 10:28 AM)Lenvillecards Wrote:  If we go to a P4 then independence should be revoked, no one who plays a partial conference schedule should be allowed to play for a conference championship. Why stop with just ND & Texas? Why not allow Alabama, Ohio State or any others have that advantage?

Lenville I totally agree with your position and hope it comes to pass. I'm just afraid that it won't. At least not for quite some time.
06-25-2017 12:18 PM
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RE: Let's Take a Closer Look at What ESPN Holds:
(06-23-2017 11:23 PM)JRsec Wrote:  AAC: Central Florida, Cincinnati, Connecticut, East Carolina, Houston, Memphis, Navy, South Florida, Southern Methodist, Temple, Tulane, Tulsa

ACC: Boston College, Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Miami, North Carolina, N.C. State, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest and Notre Dame as a partial.

SEC: Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana State, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Missouri, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt

They have a 50% share in the PAC.
They have a 50% share in the Big 12 (T3 advantages with Texas and Kansas)
They have about a 40% share of the Big 10.

If you look at a map you will find that they have 100% of the top P5 and G5 product in the following states: Alabama (2), Arkansas (1), Connecticut (1), Florida (5), Georgia (2), Kentucky (2), Louisiana (2), Massachusetts (1), Mississippi (2), Missouri (1), North Carolina (5), New York (1) and would be 2 if Army joins the AAC, Tennessee (3)

Here are the states where they share product. These counts will be in a fraction with the product they own completely on top and the total number of product in which they only own 50% or less on bottom: Indiana 1/3, Iowa 0/2, Kansas 0/2, Maryland 1/2, Ohio 1/2, Oklahoma 1/3, Pennsylvania 2/3, Texas 3/7, West Virginia 0/1

So let's assume that in the final realignment ESPN is satisfied with the conference placement of the ACC, SEC, and of the AAC and that they don't wish to promote or demote any of the schools in those conferences. Of the States that ESPN has less than 100% of control which constitute the most profitable investment in order to completely have rights to those states?

1. Texas: Baylor, T.C.U., Texas Tech and Texas are all 50% shared more or less. To effectively control that State ESPN needs to add Texas and Texas Tech in full. They can maintain complete control over Baylor in the AAC. T.C.U. could be a full P4 addition in an ESPN held conference, or they could also be fully controlled in the AAC.

2.
A. Since they already control as much as they will in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana the best ESPN could hope to do is pick up an addition in Iowa. Iowa State could serve as a market sharing addition if added to a P5. That would make for the most effective entry into the Iowa market. Otherwise in the AAC they would merely be a presence in Iowa.

B. They could own all of Oklahoma and Kansas if they desired to pursue them. Since Oklahoma and Oklahoma State will want to move together and ESPN already has Tulsa this is an easier pick up. Make a juicy offer for the pair and they make obtaining all of Texas even easier. Especially if....

C. They also make a strong play for Kansas and let Kansas State slip into the AAC.

3. Controlling a state as a network allows for more leverage in the procuring of the highest advertising rates. In Texas that can be lucrative.

So the objectives should be Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Kansas, and Iowa State if they want to solidly market the region.

West Virginia may be picked up as a solo if need be.

That's a total of 7 Big 12 schools.

Put Texas, Texas Tech, and West Virginia in the ACC with Texas as an independent and relegate T.C.U. and Baylor to the AAC and the state of Texas is completely accounted for.

Put Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Kansas and Iowa State in the SEC and Kansas State in the AAC and Oklahoma and Kansas are completely accounted for. Add Iowa State and you have a presence in a key Big 10 state.

The SEC and ACC move to 18. The AAC picks up Army to go with Kansas State, Baylor and T.C.U. and they move to 16.

4. If ESPN truly wanted to wield effective power they would encourage a joint academic association between the AAU schools of their three conferences:

From the SEC (6): Florida, Iowa State, Kansas, Missouri, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt
From the ACC (6): Duke, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Texas, Virginia
From the AAC (1) : Tulane

That consortium would equal the AAU members of the Big 10. By forming such an association schools would not be reticent at all to join any of the 3 ESPN held conferences.

Associations of note but not AAU then become: Notre Dame, Syracuse, Boston College, Army, Navy, Miami (which may become AAU soon), Kentucky, Georgia, N.C. State, Wake Forest, South Carolina, Clemson, and Tennessee.

By focusing on additions in this manner it becomes quite clear that ESPN can benefit all of us through scheduling alliances, academic associations, and by having complete control over the entire Eastern Seaboard from Virginia to Miami with all of the Southeastern states into Texas thereby controlling the entire Gulf of Mexico region into the Plains as far as Kansas and Missouri.

And for that solidarity we all benefit in payouts due to not having to split ad revenues within our region with another network.

So when questions arise about why take a little brother, total control of each state is essential to maintain the leverage and of all of the 7 additions suggested only 2 would be redundant. I'd say it is worth it! At the very least we need the Texa-homa schools.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

An addendum: With the Big 12 gone eventually the PAC and Big 10 will have to have a kind of merger. When that happens the AAC could be elevated to the 4th P Conference. They would also make an excellent device to pick up left over PAC schools following the Big 10 / PAC merger. Washington State, Oregon State, Air Force, San Diego State, Boise State, U.N.L.V. and a couple of more could help to form a 20 school AAC that would comprise the 4th power conference.

I stopped at the last bold part above so please forgive me for not continuing to read.... I’m breaking your post into practical parts and when I got to, “That's a total of 7 Big 12 schools”—this is where your suggestion becomes unpractical in my opinion… and this is why:

We need to start with how the AAC was formed to fully understand why what you're suggesting is not practical in my opinion: There is a conference hierarchy is college sports, which is why Cincy, UCONN, and USF were able to dismantle CUSA into the SBC despite not having a name and being unstable. Those three schools were not going to abase themselves by joining G4 conferences that were perceived as being lower in status. Consequently, they decided to elevate certain schools to where they were in the hierarchy of college sports conferences.

With that said JRsec, the B12 is far above the AAC in the conference hierarchy of college sports. The B12 brand alone would entice many AAC schools to join Baylor, TCU, and Kansas St. Being part of the Big East brand was a major reason why some schools left CUSA and joined the oBE/AAC when the expected $$ didn’t materialize. Even when the Big East name and brand was sold, other CUSA schools joined an unnamed and unstable conference. Baylor, TCU, and Kansas St also know the aforementioned history of how the AAC was formed and that almost every school would leave in lifeboats to rescue them…. Furthermore, the schools in the AAC would likely be locked into a tv contract—but if they joined the rebuilt B12, a new and better contract would likely be negotiated. The B12 would also be in the best position to assemble a true “tweener” conference that so many AAC fans currently claim.

However, let’s just say for the sake of discussion that all the schools in the AAC turn down a B12 invite. Baylor, TCU, and Kansas St would simple invite schools from the MWC or CUSA before abasing themselves (regarding perception) by joining the AAC. Therefore, I have to respectfully disagree with that part of your post. I will respond to the rest of it later….
(This post was last modified: 06-25-2017 04:33 PM by Underdog.)
06-25-2017 04:26 PM
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JRsec Offline
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RE: Let's Take a Closer Look at What ESPN Holds:
(06-25-2017 04:26 PM)Underdog Wrote:  
(06-23-2017 11:23 PM)JRsec Wrote:  AAC: Central Florida, Cincinnati, Connecticut, East Carolina, Houston, Memphis, Navy, South Florida, Southern Methodist, Temple, Tulane, Tulsa

ACC: Boston College, Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Miami, North Carolina, N.C. State, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest and Notre Dame as a partial.

SEC: Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana State, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Missouri, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt

They have a 50% share in the PAC.
They have a 50% share in the Big 12 (T3 advantages with Texas and Kansas)
They have about a 40% share of the Big 10.

If you look at a map you will find that they have 100% of the top P5 and G5 product in the following states: Alabama (2), Arkansas (1), Connecticut (1), Florida (5), Georgia (2), Kentucky (2), Louisiana (2), Massachusetts (1), Mississippi (2), Missouri (1), North Carolina (5), New York (1) and would be 2 if Army joins the AAC, Tennessee (3)

Here are the states where they share product. These counts will be in a fraction with the product they own completely on top and the total number of product in which they only own 50% or less on bottom: Indiana 1/3, Iowa 0/2, Kansas 0/2, Maryland 1/2, Ohio 1/2, Oklahoma 1/3, Pennsylvania 2/3, Texas 3/7, West Virginia 0/1

So let's assume that in the final realignment ESPN is satisfied with the conference placement of the ACC, SEC, and of the AAC and that they don't wish to promote or demote any of the schools in those conferences. Of the States that ESPN has less than 100% of control which constitute the most profitable investment in order to completely have rights to those states?

1. Texas: Baylor, T.C.U., Texas Tech and Texas are all 50% shared more or less. To effectively control that State ESPN needs to add Texas and Texas Tech in full. They can maintain complete control over Baylor in the AAC. T.C.U. could be a full P4 addition in an ESPN held conference, or they could also be fully controlled in the AAC.

2.
A. Since they already control as much as they will in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana the best ESPN could hope to do is pick up an addition in Iowa. Iowa State could serve as a market sharing addition if added to a P5. That would make for the most effective entry into the Iowa market. Otherwise in the AAC they would merely be a presence in Iowa.

B. They could own all of Oklahoma and Kansas if they desired to pursue them. Since Oklahoma and Oklahoma State will want to move together and ESPN already has Tulsa this is an easier pick up. Make a juicy offer for the pair and they make obtaining all of Texas even easier. Especially if....

C. They also make a strong play for Kansas and let Kansas State slip into the AAC.

3. Controlling a state as a network allows for more leverage in the procuring of the highest advertising rates. In Texas that can be lucrative.

So the objectives should be Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Kansas, and Iowa State if they want to solidly market the region.

West Virginia may be picked up as a solo if need be.

That's a total of 7 Big 12 schools.

Put Texas, Texas Tech, and West Virginia in the ACC with Texas as an independent and relegate T.C.U. and Baylor to the AAC and the state of Texas is completely accounted for.

Put Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Kansas and Iowa State in the SEC and Kansas State in the AAC and Oklahoma and Kansas are completely accounted for. Add Iowa State and you have a presence in a key Big 10 state.

The SEC and ACC move to 18. The AAC picks up Army to go with Kansas State, Baylor and T.C.U. and they move to 16.

4. If ESPN truly wanted to wield effective power they would encourage a joint academic association between the AAU schools of their three conferences:

From the SEC (6): Florida, Iowa State, Kansas, Missouri, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt
From the ACC (6): Duke, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Texas, Virginia
From the AAC (1) : Tulane

That consortium would equal the AAU members of the Big 10. By forming such an association schools would not be reticent at all to join any of the 3 ESPN held conferences.

Associations of note but not AAU then become: Notre Dame, Syracuse, Boston College, Army, Navy, Miami (which may become AAU soon), Kentucky, Georgia, N.C. State, Wake Forest, South Carolina, Clemson, and Tennessee.

By focusing on additions in this manner it becomes quite clear that ESPN can benefit all of us through scheduling alliances, academic associations, and by having complete control over the entire Eastern Seaboard from Virginia to Miami with all of the Southeastern states into Texas thereby controlling the entire Gulf of Mexico region into the Plains as far as Kansas and Missouri.

And for that solidarity we all benefit in payouts due to not having to split ad revenues within our region with another network.

So when questions arise about why take a little brother, total control of each state is essential to maintain the leverage and of all of the 7 additions suggested only 2 would be redundant. I'd say it is worth it! At the very least we need the Texa-homa schools.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

An addendum: With the Big 12 gone eventually the PAC and Big 10 will have to have a kind of merger. When that happens the AAC could be elevated to the 4th P Conference. They would also make an excellent device to pick up left over PAC schools following the Big 10 / PAC merger. Washington State, Oregon State, Air Force, San Diego State, Boise State, U.N.L.V. and a couple of more could help to form a 20 school AAC that would comprise the 4th power conference.

I stopped at the last bold part above so please forgive me for not continuing to read.... I’m breaking your post into practical parts and when I got to, “That's a total of 7 Big 12 schools”—this is where your suggestion becomes unpractical in my opinion… and this is why:

We need to start with how the AAC was formed to fully understand why what you're suggesting is not practical in my opinion: There is a conference hierarchy is college sports, which is why Cincy, UCONN, and USF were able to dismantle CUSA into the SBC despite not having a name and being unstable. Those three schools were not going to abase themselves by joining G4 conferences that were perceived as being lower in status. Consequently, they decided to elevate certain schools to where they were in the hierarchy of college sports conferences.

With that said JRsec, the B12 is far above the AAC in the conference hierarchy of college sports. The B12 brand alone would entice many AAC schools to join Baylor, TCU, and Kansas St. Being part of the Big East brand was a major reason why some schools left CUSA and joined the oBE/AAC when the expected $$ didn’t materialize. Even when the Big East name and brand was sold, other CUSA schools joined an unnamed and unstable conference. Baylor, TCU, and Kansas St also know the aforementioned history of how the AAC was formed and that almost every school would leave in lifeboats to rescue them…. Furthermore, the schools in the AAC would likely be locked into a tv contract—but if they joined the rebuilt B12, a new and better contract would likely be negotiated. The B12 would also be in the best position to assemble a true “tweener” conference that so many AAC fans currently claim.

However, let’s just say for the sake of discussion that all the schools in the AAC turn down a B12 invite. Baylor, TCU, and Kansas St would simple invite schools from the MWC or CUSA before abasing themselves (regarding perception) by joining the AAC. Therefore, I have to respectfully disagree with that part of your post. I will respond to the rest of it later….

Underdog I'm looking at the bigger picture here. It doesn't matter if it is called the AAC or Big 12 and I didn't mean to open a can of worms on semantics. I do see your point about nomenclature and branding. But the gist of my point is what ESPN holds and controls. That is the sole focus.

They have amassed sole possession of all of the P5 and top G5 schools in every state that these 3 conferences represent plus the Big 12 save these: Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New York, Indiana and Ohio.

In those states they have:
Texas: 50% ownership in the 4 Big 12 schools. Majority ownership in Houston, S.M.U. and Texas A&M.
Oklahoma: 50% ownership in the 2 Big 12 schools. Majority ownership in Tulsa.
Kansas: 50% ownership in the 2 Big 12 schools.
Iowa: 50% ownership in the 1 Big 12 school.
New York: Majority ownership in Syracuse. Should Army also join the AAC/NewBig12 then they have 100%

In these state the % won't change: Ohio 1 of 2, Pennsylvania 2 of 3, Maryland 1 of 2, Indiana 1 of 3 and that one is only partial.

States where there is Big 12 product that they currently have a 50% stake in: Iowa State, West Virginia.

I was pointing out the advantage of looking at this from purely the network position. There is a clear M.O. at work here. And one that would indicate that ESPN's priority will be to hold the rights to all of the Texas schools which are currently in the P5 or top of the G5. And possibly those in Oklahoma and Kansas. West Virginia would be easy to accomplish and 50% of Iowa State give them another back door into Big 10 advertising regions.

And, the reason ESPN has been able to gain the SECN universal carriage and garner as much revenue for the ACC (even with their rotten numbers) is because they are the only avenue advertisers can take if they want to utilize and extremely popular means of acquiring the attention of viewers in one of the growing areas of the country. Since no other network has a single way to garner advertising in the Mid Atlantic and Southeast they have to go through ESPN and they have to pay a premium rate to do so.

Acquiring Texas in full is huge. It's the largest college sports regional market in the world. Having the leverage on ad rates there is worth the investment in the product.

What I'm asserting here is that by placing 4 of the present Big 12 in the SEC and 3 in the ACC and the rest in the AAC/NewBig12 this is what is set up and if you had read far enough you might have realized it.

The Big 10 in order to gain the market size it needs would be forced to merge with 8 to 10 of the present PAC and since the monetary disparity between the two conferences is about to reach 19 million a year that is highly likely.

If that happens then by making the AAC/NewBig12 a national conference with 4 very distinct regional divisions ESPN can now access advertising in every region of the nation through the ACC, SEC, and the enhanced AAC/NewBig12. That means no need to invest in the PAC since they would have good West Coast games for the 9 PM time slot. Having Notre Dame, Cincinnati, Temple, Army and Navy to go along with Pitt, Syracuse, B.C., WVU, Missouri and Kansas puts them into every major Big 10 city except: Omaha, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Detroit, and Madison. That's not bad at all. And if N.D. continues to play Michigan or Michigan State they get into to Detroit too. Schedule some OOC games between any of their three conferences and Nebraska, Minnesota and Wisconsin and you've accessed all of them.

With the PAC out of the way the new AAC/B12 becomes the 4th power conference. There's your promotion! And at that point I don't think any of your schools will give a hoot what it is called.
06-25-2017 05:22 PM
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Post: #10
RE: Let's Take a Closer Look at What ESPN Holds:
B1G
East: Rutgers, Maryland, Penn St, Ohio St, Michigan, Michigan St
North: Indiana, Purdue, Illinois, Northwestern, Wisconsin, Minnesota
South: Iowa, Nebraska, Arizona, Arizona St, USC, UCLA
West: California, Stanford, Oregon, Oregon St, Washington, Washington St

SEC
West: BYU, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa St
Central: Kansas St, Oklahoma, Oklahoma St, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech
South: Arkansas, LSU, Mississippi, Mississippi St, Alabama, Auburn
East: Kentucky, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina

ACC
West: Baylor, TCU, Houston, Memphis, Louisville, Cincinnati
North: Notre Dame, West Virginia, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Boston College, Connecticut
East: Virginia, Virginia Tech, North Carolina, North Carolina St, Duke, Wake Forest
South: Clemson, Georgia Tech, Florida St, Miami, Central Florida, South Florida
06-25-2017 11:26 PM
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Win5002 Offline
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RE: Let's Take a Closer Look at What ESPN Holds:
(06-25-2017 11:26 PM)BePcr07 Wrote:  B1G
East: Rutgers, Maryland, Penn St, Ohio St, Michigan, Michigan St
North: Indiana, Purdue, Illinois, Northwestern, Wisconsin, Minnesota
South: Iowa, Nebraska, Arizona, Arizona St, USC, UCLA
West: California, Stanford, Oregon, Oregon St, Washington, Washington St

SEC
West: BYU, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa St
Central: Kansas St, Oklahoma, Oklahoma St, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech
South: Arkansas, LSU, Mississippi, Mississippi St, Alabama, Auburn
East: Kentucky, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina

ACC
West: Baylor, TCU, Houston, Memphis, Louisville, Cincinnati
North: Notre Dame, West Virginia, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Boston College, Connecticut
East: Virginia, Virginia Tech, North Carolina, North Carolina St, Duke, Wake Forest
South: Clemson, Georgia Tech, Florida St, Miami, Central Florida, South Florida

I like your number of schools and the list of schools you have BUT, you need to get 4 leagues of 18 note 3 leagues of 24. College football really has a lousy ending to a great product. Post season exhibition games otherwise known as bowl games is one of the worst ideas ever!!!! College football, please note everyone else plays exhibition games before a season not afterwards.

Four leagues of 18 would be great. Do away with the bowl games and expand the conference playoffs to 6 teams(same format as NFL) or 8 teams. Those conference playoff games would be so much better than meaningless bowl games. I don't care if you have to cut a regular season game out to make it work or get creative. Use the last game of the year to start the preliminary conference playoff round, teams that are not involved in conference playoffs get scheduled a matchup, share gate receipts for non conference playoff participants or whatever you have to do to make it happen!
06-26-2017 12:03 PM
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RE: Let's Take a Closer Look at What ESPN Holds:
I like the TWO power conference scenario, where the SEC and B1G absorb the ACC, B12, and PAC. Sets up a nice model similar to the AFC-NFC structure - but on a wider scale. The two conferences stage their own playoffs, with their respective champions (Rose and Sugar Bowl winners) meeting in the national championship game.

Each conference playoff involves 8 schools, including division champs plus wild cards. Round 1 played the first weekend in December on campus. Conference FINAL FOUR played at the SAME LOCATION about a week before Christmas (around 15-20 of December). Winners play in the Rose or Sugar Bowls for the conference championship.

Still keep a number of marquee bowl games, but position them as CFP consolation matchups - rather than pure exhibitions.

B1G [30 teams = 6 x 5 model]
NORTH: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas
CENTRAL: Illinois, Northwestern, Purdue, Indiana, Iowa St.
EAST: Ohio St., Michigan, Penn St., Michigan St., Rutgers
SOUTH: Virginia, North Carolina, Duke, Georgia Tech, Maryland
ATLANTIC: Notre Dame, Pitt, Syracuse, Boston College, Miami
PACIFIC: USC, Oregon, Stanford, Washington, Colorado

The B1G coup is landing Notre Dame, along with the ACC, PAC, and B12 academic elites. The glaring hole is in Texas, but B1G extends from Florida to New York to Illinois to California.

SEC [30 teams = 5 x 6 model]
SOUTH: LSU, Ole Miss, Mississippi St., Alabama, Auburn, Vanderbilt
EAST: Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina, Kentucky, WVU
ATLANTIC: Florida St., Clemson, NC State, Virginia Tech, Louisville, Wake Forest
WEST: Arkansas, Texas A&M, Missouri, Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma St.
PACIFIC: UCLA, Cal, Arizona St., Arizona, Utah, Oregon St.

SEC lands big fish Texas and Oklahoma, the strongest ACC football brands, and a strong Pacific division. The SEC doesn't get further north than West Virginia, but controls the South, owns Texas, and stretches to California.

Left out: Texas Tech, TCU, Baylor, Kansas St., Washington St. (no surprises here)
(This post was last modified: 06-26-2017 03:14 PM by YNot.)
06-26-2017 03:10 PM
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RE: Let's Take a Closer Look at What ESPN Holds:
(06-26-2017 03:10 PM)YNot Wrote:  I like the TWO power conference scenario, where the SEC and B1G absorb the ACC, B12, and PAC. Sets up a nice model similar to the AFC-NFC structure - but on a wider scale. The two conferences stage their own playoffs, with their respective champions (Rose and Sugar Bowl winners) meeting in the national championship game.

Each conference playoff involves 8 schools, including division champs plus wild cards. Round 1 played the first weekend in December on campus. Conference FINAL FOUR played at the SAME LOCATION about a week before Christmas (around 15-20 of December). Winners play in the Rose or Sugar Bowls for the conference championship.

Still keep a number of marquee bowl games, but position them as CFP consolation matchups - rather than pure exhibitions.

B1G [30 teams = 6 x 5 model]
NORTH: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas
CENTRAL: Illinois, Northwestern, Purdue, Indiana, Iowa St.
EAST: Ohio St., Michigan, Penn St., Michigan St., Rutgers
SOUTH: Virginia, North Carolina, Duke, Georgia Tech, Maryland
ATLANTIC: Notre Dame, Pitt, Syracuse, Boston College, Miami
PACIFIC: USC, Oregon, Stanford, Washington, Colorado

The B1G coup is landing Notre Dame, along with the ACC, PAC, and B12 academic elites. The glaring hole is in Texas, but B1G extends from Florida to New York to Illinois to California.

SEC [30 teams = 5 x 6 model]
SOUTH: LSU, Ole Miss, Mississippi St., Alabama, Auburn, Vanderbilt
EAST: Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina, Kentucky, WVU
ATLANTIC: Florida St., Clemson, NC State, Virginia Tech, Louisville, Wake Forest
WEST: Arkansas, Texas A&M, Missouri, Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma St.
PACIFIC: UCLA, Cal, Arizona St., Arizona, Utah, Oregon St.

SEC lands big fish Texas and Oklahoma, the strongest ACC football brands, and a strong Pacific division. The SEC doesn't get further north than West Virginia, but controls the South, owns Texas, and stretches to California.

Left out: Texas Tech, TCU, Baylor, Kansas St., Washington St. (no surprises here)

I do struggle with who to leave out.

I think Washington St (as an original PAC-8 member) will stay.
Baylor is out if there is contraction.
I don't think Kansas St will be feeling comfortable but they could get a lifeline. Same with Iowa St. Same with TCU.
I think Texas Tech would feel slightly safer than Kansas St and Iowa St.

I would favor slight expansion before contraction. Like going to 72 with BYU, Houston, Memphis, Cincinnati, Connecticut, South Florida, and Central Florida.

I'm a Boise St fan to the core and I have yet to say that Boise St should get a lifeline in a minimal expansion scenario. Should the PAC want to remain its own conference and not merge with the B1G but still feel the need to expand, I think Boise St has a decent shot.
06-26-2017 03:30 PM
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RE: Let's Take a Closer Look at What ESPN Holds:
(06-26-2017 12:03 PM)Win5002 Wrote:  
(06-25-2017 11:26 PM)BePcr07 Wrote:  B1G
East: Rutgers, Maryland, Penn St, Ohio St, Michigan, Michigan St
North: Indiana, Purdue, Illinois, Northwestern, Wisconsin, Minnesota
South: Iowa, Nebraska, Arizona, Arizona St, USC, UCLA
West: California, Stanford, Oregon, Oregon St, Washington, Washington St

SEC
West: BYU, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa St
Central: Kansas St, Oklahoma, Oklahoma St, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech
South: Arkansas, LSU, Mississippi, Mississippi St, Alabama, Auburn
East: Kentucky, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina

ACC
West: Baylor, TCU, Houston, Memphis, Louisville, Cincinnati
North: Notre Dame, West Virginia, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Boston College, Connecticut
East: Virginia, Virginia Tech, North Carolina, North Carolina St, Duke, Wake Forest
South: Clemson, Georgia Tech, Florida St, Miami, Central Florida, South Florida

I like your number of schools and the list of schools you have BUT, you need to get 4 leagues of 18 note 3 leagues of 24. College football really has a lousy ending to a great product. Post season exhibition games otherwise known as bowl games is one of the worst ideas ever!!!! College football, please note everyone else plays exhibition games before a season not afterwards.

Four leagues of 18 would be great. Do away with the bowl games and expand the conference playoffs to 6 teams(same format as NFL) or 8 teams. Those conference playoff games would be so much better than meaningless bowl games. I don't care if you have to cut a regular season game out to make it work or get creative. Use the last game of the year to start the preliminary conference playoff round, teams that are not involved in conference playoffs get scheduled a matchup, share gate receipts for non conference playoff participants or whatever you have to do to make it happen!

This is very hard because the PAC is not viable for the best non-XII schools. Even most of the XII schools would probably decline an invitation and it wouldn't be worth it to the PAC if they were left with Iowa St, Kansas St, TCU, and Baylor as options.

The PAC has not verbally endorsed or spoke about expansion regarding MWC schools. If they felt that strongly about any of them, they'd already be a member.

If anything, a P4 would require both the PAC and XII to have key members leaving and merging the rest into a nationwide superconference necessitating many, many schools for travel purposes.

B1G + California, Stanford, USC, UCLA
SEC + Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma St
ACC + Notre Dame, Cincinnati, West Virginia, Connecticut

The new new Big East / the new American ---

TAC: Trans-American Conference

West: Washington, Washington St, Oregon, Oregon St, San Diego St, UNLV, Arizona, Arizona St
Central: Boise St, Utah, BYU, Colorado, TCU, Kansas, Kansas St, Iowa St
East: Baylor, Houston, Memphis, Central Florida, South Florida, Temple, East Carolina, Navy (fb) / Wichita St (oly)
06-26-2017 03:52 PM
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Post: #15
Let's Take a Closer Look at What ESPN Holds:
(06-25-2017 05:22 PM)JRsec Wrote:  
(06-25-2017 04:26 PM)Underdog Wrote:  
(06-23-2017 11:23 PM)JRsec Wrote:  AAC: Central Florida, Cincinnati, Connecticut, East Carolina, Houston, Memphis, Navy, South Florida, Southern Methodist, Temple, Tulane, Tulsa

ACC: Boston College, Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Miami, North Carolina, N.C. State, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest and Notre Dame as a partial.

SEC: Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana State, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Missouri, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt

They have a 50% share in the PAC.
They have a 50% share in the Big 12 (T3 advantages with Texas and Kansas)
They have about a 40% share of the Big 10.

If you look at a map you will find that they have 100% of the top P5 and G5 product in the following states: Alabama (2), Arkansas (1), Connecticut (1), Florida (5), Georgia (2), Kentucky (2), Louisiana (2), Massachusetts (1), Mississippi (2), Missouri (1), North Carolina (5), New York (1) and would be 2 if Army joins the AAC, Tennessee (3)

Here are the states where they share product. These counts will be in a fraction with the product they own completely on top and the total number of product in which they only own 50% or less on bottom: Indiana 1/3, Iowa 0/2, Kansas 0/2, Maryland 1/2, Ohio 1/2, Oklahoma 1/3, Pennsylvania 2/3, Texas 3/7, West Virginia 0/1

So let's assume that in the final realignment ESPN is satisfied with the conference placement of the ACC, SEC, and of the AAC and that they don't wish to promote or demote any of the schools in those conferences. Of the States that ESPN has less than 100% of control which constitute the most profitable investment in order to completely have rights to those states?

1. Texas: Baylor, T.C.U., Texas Tech and Texas are all 50% shared more or less. To effectively control that State ESPN needs to add Texas and Texas Tech in full. They can maintain complete control over Baylor in the AAC. T.C.U. could be a full P4 addition in an ESPN held conference, or they could also be fully controlled in the AAC.

2.
A. Since they already control as much as they will in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana the best ESPN could hope to do is pick up an addition in Iowa. Iowa State could serve as a market sharing addition if added to a P5. That would make for the most effective entry into the Iowa market. Otherwise in the AAC they would merely be a presence in Iowa.

B. They could own all of Oklahoma and Kansas if they desired to pursue them. Since Oklahoma and Oklahoma State will want to move together and ESPN already has Tulsa this is an easier pick up. Make a juicy offer for the pair and they make obtaining all of Texas even easier. Especially if....

C. They also make a strong play for Kansas and let Kansas State slip into the AAC.

3. Controlling a state as a network allows for more leverage in the procuring of the highest advertising rates. In Texas that can be lucrative.

So the objectives should be Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Kansas, and Iowa State if they want to solidly market the region.

West Virginia may be picked up as a solo if need be.

That's a total of 7 Big 12 schools.

Put Texas, Texas Tech, and West Virginia in the ACC with Texas as an independent and relegate T.C.U. and Baylor to the AAC and the state of Texas is completely accounted for.

Put Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Kansas and Iowa State in the SEC and Kansas State in the AAC and Oklahoma and Kansas are completely accounted for. Add Iowa State and you have a presence in a key Big 10 state.

The SEC and ACC move to 18. The AAC picks up Army to go with Kansas State, Baylor and T.C.U. and they move to 16.

4. If ESPN truly wanted to wield effective power they would encourage a joint academic association between the AAU schools of their three conferences:

From the SEC (6): Florida, Iowa State, Kansas, Missouri, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt
From the ACC (6): Duke, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Texas, Virginia
From the AAC (1) : Tulane

That consortium would equal the AAU members of the Big 10. By forming such an association schools would not be reticent at all to join any of the 3 ESPN held conferences.

Associations of note but not AAU then become: Notre Dame, Syracuse, Boston College, Army, Navy, Miami (which may become AAU soon), Kentucky, Georgia, N.C. State, Wake Forest, South Carolina, Clemson, and Tennessee.

By focusing on additions in this manner it becomes quite clear that ESPN can benefit all of us through scheduling alliances, academic associations, and by having complete control over the entire Eastern Seaboard from Virginia to Miami with all of the Southeastern states into Texas thereby controlling the entire Gulf of Mexico region into the Plains as far as Kansas and Missouri.

And for that solidarity we all benefit in payouts due to not having to split ad revenues within our region with another network.

So when questions arise about why take a little brother, total control of each state is essential to maintain the leverage and of all of the 7 additions suggested only 2 would be redundant. I'd say it is worth it! At the very least we need the Texa-homa schools.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

An addendum: With the Big 12 gone eventually the PAC and Big 10 will have to have a kind of merger. When that happens the AAC could be elevated to the 4th P Conference. They would also make an excellent device to pick up left over PAC schools following the Big 10 / PAC merger. Washington State, Oregon State, Air Force, San Diego State, Boise State, U.N.L.V. and a couple of more could help to form a 20 school AAC that would comprise the 4th power conference.

I stopped at the last bold part above so please forgive me for not continuing to read.... I’m breaking your post into practical parts and when I got to, “That's a total of 7 Big 12 schools”—this is where your suggestion becomes unpractical in my opinion… and this is why:

We need to start with how the AAC was formed to fully understand why what you're suggesting is not practical in my opinion: There is a conference hierarchy is college sports, which is why Cincy, UCONN, and USF were able to dismantle CUSA into the SBC despite not having a name and being unstable. Those three schools were not going to abase themselves by joining G4 conferences that were perceived as being lower in status. Consequently, they decided to elevate certain schools to where they were in the hierarchy of college sports conferences.

With that said JRsec, the B12 is far above the AAC in the conference hierarchy of college sports. The B12 brand alone would entice many AAC schools to join Baylor, TCU, and Kansas St. Being part of the Big East brand was a major reason why some schools left CUSA and joined the oBE/AAC when the expected $$ didn’t materialize. Even when the Big East name and brand was sold, other CUSA schools joined an unnamed and unstable conference. Baylor, TCU, and Kansas St also know the aforementioned history of how the AAC was formed and that almost every school would leave in lifeboats to rescue them…. Furthermore, the schools in the AAC would likely be locked into a tv contract—but if they joined the rebuilt B12, a new and better contract would likely be negotiated. The B12 would also be in the best position to assemble a true “tweener” conference that so many AAC fans currently claim.

However, let’s just say for the sake of discussion that all the schools in the AAC turn down a B12 invite. Baylor, TCU, and Kansas St would simple invite schools from the MWC or CUSA before abasing themselves (regarding perception) by joining the AAC. Therefore, I have to respectfully disagree with that part of your post. I will respond to the rest of it later….

Underdog I'm looking at the bigger picture here. It doesn't matter if it is called the AAC or Big 12 and I didn't mean to open a can of worms on semantics. I do see your point about nomenclature and branding. But the gist of my point is what ESPN holds and controls. That is the sole focus.

They have amassed sole possession of all of the P5 and top G5 schools in every state that these 3 conferences represent plus the Big 12 save these: Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New York, Indiana and Ohio.

In those states they have:
Texas: 50% ownership in the 4 Big 12 schools. Majority ownership in Houston, S.M.U. and Texas A&M.
Oklahoma: 50% ownership in the 2 Big 12 schools. Majority ownership in Tulsa.
Kansas: 50% ownership in the 2 Big 12 schools.
Iowa: 50% ownership in the 1 Big 12 school.
New York: Majority ownership in Syracuse. Should Army also join the AAC/NewBig12 then they have 100%

In these state the % won't change: Ohio 1 of 2, Pennsylvania 2 of 3, Maryland 1 of 2, Indiana 1 of 3 and that one is only partial.

States where there is Big 12 product that they currently have a 50% stake in: Iowa State, West Virginia.

I was pointing out the advantage of looking at this from purely the network position. There is a clear M.O. at work here. And one that would indicate that ESPN's priority will be to hold the rights to all of the Texas schools which are currently in the P5 or top of the G5. And possibly those in Oklahoma and Kansas. West Virginia would be easy to accomplish and 50% of Iowa State give them another back door into Big 10 advertising regions.

And, the reason ESPN has been able to gain the SECN universal carriage and garner as much revenue for the ACC (even with their rotten numbers) is because they are the only avenue advertisers can take if they want to utilize and extremely popular means of acquiring the attention of viewers in one of the growing areas of the country. Since no other network has a single way to garner advertising in the Mid Atlantic and Southeast they have to go through ESPN and they have to pay a premium rate to do so.

Acquiring Texas in full is huge. It's the largest college sports regional market in the world. Having the leverage on ad rates there is worth the investment in the product.

What I'm asserting here is that by placing 4 of the present Big 12 in the SEC and 3 in the ACC and the rest in the AAC/NewBig12 this is what is set up and if you had read far enough you might have realized it.

The Big 10 in order to gain the market size it needs would be forced to merge with 8 to 10 of the present PAC and since the monetary disparity between the two conferences is about to reach 19 million a year that is highly likely.

If that happens then by making the AAC/NewBig12 a national conference with 4 very distinct regional divisions ESPN can now access advertising in every region of the nation through the ACC, SEC, and the enhanced AAC/NewBig12. That means no need to invest in the PAC since they would have good West Coast games for the 9 PM time slot. Having Notre Dame, Cincinnati, Temple, Army and Navy to go along with Pitt, Syracuse, B.C., WVU, Missouri and Kansas puts them into every major Big 10 city except: Omaha, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Detroit, and Madison. That's not bad at all. And if N.D. continues to play Michigan or Michigan State they get into to Detroit too. Schedule some OOC games between any of their three conferences and Nebraska, Minnesota and Wisconsin and you've accessed all of them.

With the PAC out of the way the new AAC/B12 becomes the 4th power conference. There's your promotion! And at that point I don't think any of your schools will give a hoot what it is called.

Just to interject here, I don't think that it should be overlooked at just how much money Cincinnati, UCONN & USF had from exit fees, NCAA credits & the C7 settlement. That money was used to entice new members to join.
06-27-2017 11:29 AM
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RE: Let's Take a Closer Look at What ESPN Holds:
I believe Cincy, UConn, and USF kept the lion's share of the exit fee and NCAA credit pot. The upgrade from the CUSA was enough to entice everyone else.
06-29-2017 04:44 PM
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RE: Let's Take a Closer Look at What ESPN Holds:
Some of you have missed the whole point of the OP. It represents what ESPN has now. The network isn't going to let the Big 10 expand with ACC properties because those are ESPN properties. ESPN has a pattern here if you will drop the fantasy scenarios long enough to look at a real one.

ESPN has been stealthily acquiring all of the P and top G products in every state they are in. They are only sharing properties in the two conferences they don't have the majority of rights to (PAC & Big 10) They have split rights in the Big 12 but if realignment claims the Big 12 the current map shows quite clearly that they will go after all of the Texas Big 12 schools and likely the Oklahoma schools as well.

That may well prompt a PAC / B1G merger with perhaps a couple of other pick ups in the process. But the SEC / ACC / B1G / and PAC will stay intact with the SEC/ACC belonging to ESPN and no FOX stake in those TV rights. The B1G and PAC may wind up being majority FOX properties but ESPN will retain some rights to both.

I could see the PAC FOX group possibly picking up UNLV and maybe going after UConn. They could also pick up Kansas and Iowa State and maybe Oklahoma, but more likely not if they can't offer OSU as well.

ESPN will grow with Texas, Texas Tech, T.C.U., W.V.U., and possibly O.S.U. and OU.

ESPN's strategy has been to own exclusivity in Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and the other states in the Southeast. They will go for exclusivity in Texas and Oklahoma. That way they control ad rates and earn more revenue for themselves and for us.
06-29-2017 05:14 PM
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RE: Let's Take a Closer Look at What ESPN Holds:
(06-27-2017 11:29 AM)Lenvillecards Wrote:  
(06-25-2017 05:22 PM)JRsec Wrote:  
(06-25-2017 04:26 PM)Underdog Wrote:  
(06-23-2017 11:23 PM)JRsec Wrote:  AAC: Central Florida, Cincinnati, Connecticut, East Carolina, Houston, Memphis, Navy, South Florida, Southern Methodist, Temple, Tulane, Tulsa

ACC: Boston College, Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Miami, North Carolina, N.C. State, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest and Notre Dame as a partial.

SEC: Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana State, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Missouri, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt

They have a 50% share in the PAC.
They have a 50% share in the Big 12 (T3 advantages with Texas and Kansas)
They have about a 40% share of the Big 10.

If you look at a map you will find that they have 100% of the top P5 and G5 product in the following states: Alabama (2), Arkansas (1), Connecticut (1), Florida (5), Georgia (2), Kentucky (2), Louisiana (2), Massachusetts (1), Mississippi (2), Missouri (1), North Carolina (5), New York (1) and would be 2 if Army joins the AAC, Tennessee (3)

Here are the states where they share product. These counts will be in a fraction with the product they own completely on top and the total number of product in which they only own 50% or less on bottom: Indiana 1/3, Iowa 0/2, Kansas 0/2, Maryland 1/2, Ohio 1/2, Oklahoma 1/3, Pennsylvania 2/3, Texas 3/7, West Virginia 0/1

So let's assume that in the final realignment ESPN is satisfied with the conference placement of the ACC, SEC, and of the AAC and that they don't wish to promote or demote any of the schools in those conferences. Of the States that ESPN has less than 100% of control which constitute the most profitable investment in order to completely have rights to those states?

1. Texas: Baylor, T.C.U., Texas Tech and Texas are all 50% shared more or less. To effectively control that State ESPN needs to add Texas and Texas Tech in full. They can maintain complete control over Baylor in the AAC. T.C.U. could be a full P4 addition in an ESPN held conference, or they could also be fully controlled in the AAC.

2.
A. Since they already control as much as they will in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana the best ESPN could hope to do is pick up an addition in Iowa. Iowa State could serve as a market sharing addition if added to a P5. That would make for the most effective entry into the Iowa market. Otherwise in the AAC they would merely be a presence in Iowa.

B. They could own all of Oklahoma and Kansas if they desired to pursue them. Since Oklahoma and Oklahoma State will want to move together and ESPN already has Tulsa this is an easier pick up. Make a juicy offer for the pair and they make obtaining all of Texas even easier. Especially if....

C. They also make a strong play for Kansas and let Kansas State slip into the AAC.

3. Controlling a state as a network allows for more leverage in the procuring of the highest advertising rates. In Texas that can be lucrative.

So the objectives should be Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Kansas, and Iowa State if they want to solidly market the region.

West Virginia may be picked up as a solo if need be.

That's a total of 7 Big 12 schools.

Put Texas, Texas Tech, and West Virginia in the ACC with Texas as an independent and relegate T.C.U. and Baylor to the AAC and the state of Texas is completely accounted for.

Put Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Kansas and Iowa State in the SEC and Kansas State in the AAC and Oklahoma and Kansas are completely accounted for. Add Iowa State and you have a presence in a key Big 10 state.

The SEC and ACC move to 18. The AAC picks up Army to go with Kansas State, Baylor and T.C.U. and they move to 16.

4. If ESPN truly wanted to wield effective power they would encourage a joint academic association between the AAU schools of their three conferences:

From the SEC (6): Florida, Iowa State, Kansas, Missouri, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt
From the ACC (6): Duke, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Texas, Virginia
From the AAC (1) : Tulane

That consortium would equal the AAU members of the Big 10. By forming such an association schools would not be reticent at all to join any of the 3 ESPN held conferences.

Associations of note but not AAU then become: Notre Dame, Syracuse, Boston College, Army, Navy, Miami (which may become AAU soon), Kentucky, Georgia, N.C. State, Wake Forest, South Carolina, Clemson, and Tennessee.

By focusing on additions in this manner it becomes quite clear that ESPN can benefit all of us through scheduling alliances, academic associations, and by having complete control over the entire Eastern Seaboard from Virginia to Miami with all of the Southeastern states into Texas thereby controlling the entire Gulf of Mexico region into the Plains as far as Kansas and Missouri.

And for that solidarity we all benefit in payouts due to not having to split ad revenues within our region with another network.

So when questions arise about why take a little brother, total control of each state is essential to maintain the leverage and of all of the 7 additions suggested only 2 would be redundant. I'd say it is worth it! At the very least we need the Texa-homa schools.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

An addendum: With the Big 12 gone eventually the PAC and Big 10 will have to have a kind of merger. When that happens the AAC could be elevated to the 4th P Conference. They would also make an excellent device to pick up left over PAC schools following the Big 10 / PAC merger. Washington State, Oregon State, Air Force, San Diego State, Boise State, U.N.L.V. and a couple of more could help to form a 20 school AAC that would comprise the 4th power conference.

I stopped at the last bold part above so please forgive me for not continuing to read.... I’m breaking your post into practical parts and when I got to, “That's a total of 7 Big 12 schools”—this is where your suggestion becomes unpractical in my opinion… and this is why:

We need to start with how the AAC was formed to fully understand why what you're suggesting is not practical in my opinion: There is a conference hierarchy is college sports, which is why Cincy, UCONN, and USF were able to dismantle CUSA into the SBC despite not having a name and being unstable. Those three schools were not going to abase themselves by joining G4 conferences that were perceived as being lower in status. Consequently, they decided to elevate certain schools to where they were in the hierarchy of college sports conferences.

With that said JRsec, the B12 is far above the AAC in the conference hierarchy of college sports. The B12 brand alone would entice many AAC schools to join Baylor, TCU, and Kansas St. Being part of the Big East brand was a major reason why some schools left CUSA and joined the oBE/AAC when the expected $$ didn’t materialize. Even when the Big East name and brand was sold, other CUSA schools joined an unnamed and unstable conference. Baylor, TCU, and Kansas St also know the aforementioned history of how the AAC was formed and that almost every school would leave in lifeboats to rescue them…. Furthermore, the schools in the AAC would likely be locked into a tv contract—but if they joined the rebuilt B12, a new and better contract would likely be negotiated. The B12 would also be in the best position to assemble a true “tweener” conference that so many AAC fans currently claim.

However, let’s just say for the sake of discussion that all the schools in the AAC turn down a B12 invite. Baylor, TCU, and Kansas St would simple invite schools from the MWC or CUSA before abasing themselves (regarding perception) by joining the AAC. Therefore, I have to respectfully disagree with that part of your post. I will respond to the rest of it later….

Underdog I'm looking at the bigger picture here. It doesn't matter if it is called the AAC or Big 12 and I didn't mean to open a can of worms on semantics. I do see your point about nomenclature and branding. But the gist of my point is what ESPN holds and controls. That is the sole focus.

They have amassed sole possession of all of the P5 and top G5 schools in every state that these 3 conferences represent plus the Big 12 save these: Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New York, Indiana and Ohio.

In those states they have:
Texas: 50% ownership in the 4 Big 12 schools. Majority ownership in Houston, S.M.U. and Texas A&M.
Oklahoma: 50% ownership in the 2 Big 12 schools. Majority ownership in Tulsa.
Kansas: 50% ownership in the 2 Big 12 schools.
Iowa: 50% ownership in the 1 Big 12 school.
New York: Majority ownership in Syracuse. Should Army also join the AAC/NewBig12 then they have 100%

In these state the % won't change: Ohio 1 of 2, Pennsylvania 2 of 3, Maryland 1 of 2, Indiana 1 of 3 and that one is only partial.

States where there is Big 12 product that they currently have a 50% stake in: Iowa State, West Virginia.

I was pointing out the advantage of looking at this from purely the network position. There is a clear M.O. at work here. And one that would indicate that ESPN's priority will be to hold the rights to all of the Texas schools which are currently in the P5 or top of the G5. And possibly those in Oklahoma and Kansas. West Virginia would be easy to accomplish and 50% of Iowa State give them another back door into Big 10 advertising regions.

And, the reason ESPN has been able to gain the SECN universal carriage and garner as much revenue for the ACC (even with their rotten numbers) is because they are the only avenue advertisers can take if they want to utilize and extremely popular means of acquiring the attention of viewers in one of the growing areas of the country. Since no other network has a single way to garner advertising in the Mid Atlantic and Southeast they have to go through ESPN and they have to pay a premium rate to do so.

Acquiring Texas in full is huge. It's the largest college sports regional market in the world. Having the leverage on ad rates there is worth the investment in the product.

What I'm asserting here is that by placing 4 of the present Big 12 in the SEC and 3 in the ACC and the rest in the AAC/NewBig12 this is what is set up and if you had read far enough you might have realized it.

The Big 10 in order to gain the market size it needs would be forced to merge with 8 to 10 of the present PAC and since the monetary disparity between the two conferences is about to reach 19 million a year that is highly likely.

If that happens then by making the AAC/NewBig12 a national conference with 4 very distinct regional divisions ESPN can now access advertising in every region of the nation through the ACC, SEC, and the enhanced AAC/NewBig12. That means no need to invest in the PAC since they would have good West Coast games for the 9 PM time slot. Having Notre Dame, Cincinnati, Temple, Army and Navy to go along with Pitt, Syracuse, B.C., WVU, Missouri and Kansas puts them into every major Big 10 city except: Omaha, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Detroit, and Madison. That's not bad at all. And if N.D. continues to play Michigan or Michigan State they get into to Detroit too. Schedule some OOC games between any of their three conferences and Nebraska, Minnesota and Wisconsin and you've accessed all of them.

With the PAC out of the way the new AAC/B12 becomes the 4th power conference. There's your promotion! And at that point I don't think any of your schools will give a hoot what it is called.

Just to interject here, I don't think that it should be overlooked at just how much money Cincinnati, UCONN & USF had from exit fees, NCAA credits & the C7 settlement. That money was used to entice new members to join.

That $$$ is almost gone—which is why the AAC isn’t adding any B12 leftovers unless the conference is dissolved. The three B12 schools in JRsec's realignment scenario would have plenty of exit fee $$$ to "entice" AAC schools to join them. I see the following realignment scenario:

The B16

West: *Air force, Baylor, Houston, Kansas St, Memphis, TCU, Tulane, Tulsa

East: *Army, ECU, Navy, Temple, UC, UCF, UConn, USF

The AAC is dissolved, which eliminates exit fees.

AAC Leftovers: WS (no football program) and SMU (a small private that would be an unnecessary market duplication)
(This post was last modified: 07-01-2017 07:52 PM by Underdog.)
07-01-2017 07:51 PM
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Underdog Offline
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Post: #19
RE: Let's Take a Closer Look at What ESPN Holds:
(06-29-2017 04:44 PM)YNot Wrote:  I believe Cincy, UConn, and USF kept the lion's share of the exit fee and NCAA credit pot. The upgrade from the CUSA was enough to entice everyone else.

This ^ is true:

"In 2015-16, UConn received $10,523,469 from the AAC, followed by Cincinnati ($9.485 million) and South Florida ($9.144 million). The three schools compensated the least were Navy ($2.757 million), Central Florida ($3.514 million) and SMU ($3.57 million)."

http://www.courant.com/sports/uconn-husk...story.html
(This post was last modified: 07-01-2017 08:04 PM by Underdog.)
07-01-2017 08:03 PM
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Post: #20
Let's Take a Closer Look at What ESPN Holds:
(07-01-2017 07:51 PM)Underdog Wrote:  
(06-27-2017 11:29 AM)Lenvillecards Wrote:  
(06-25-2017 05:22 PM)JRsec Wrote:  
(06-25-2017 04:26 PM)Underdog Wrote:  
(06-23-2017 11:23 PM)JRsec Wrote:  AAC: Central Florida, Cincinnati, Connecticut, East Carolina, Houston, Memphis, Navy, South Florida, Southern Methodist, Temple, Tulane, Tulsa

ACC: Boston College, Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Miami, North Carolina, N.C. State, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest and Notre Dame as a partial.

SEC: Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana State, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Missouri, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt

They have a 50% share in the PAC.
They have a 50% share in the Big 12 (T3 advantages with Texas and Kansas)
They have about a 40% share of the Big 10.

If you look at a map you will find that they have 100% of the top P5 and G5 product in the following states: Alabama (2), Arkansas (1), Connecticut (1), Florida (5), Georgia (2), Kentucky (2), Louisiana (2), Massachusetts (1), Mississippi (2), Missouri (1), North Carolina (5), New York (1) and would be 2 if Army joins the AAC, Tennessee (3)

Here are the states where they share product. These counts will be in a fraction with the product they own completely on top and the total number of product in which they only own 50% or less on bottom: Indiana 1/3, Iowa 0/2, Kansas 0/2, Maryland 1/2, Ohio 1/2, Oklahoma 1/3, Pennsylvania 2/3, Texas 3/7, West Virginia 0/1

So let's assume that in the final realignment ESPN is satisfied with the conference placement of the ACC, SEC, and of the AAC and that they don't wish to promote or demote any of the schools in those conferences. Of the States that ESPN has less than 100% of control which constitute the most profitable investment in order to completely have rights to those states?

1. Texas: Baylor, T.C.U., Texas Tech and Texas are all 50% shared more or less. To effectively control that State ESPN needs to add Texas and Texas Tech in full. They can maintain complete control over Baylor in the AAC. T.C.U. could be a full P4 addition in an ESPN held conference, or they could also be fully controlled in the AAC.

2.
A. Since they already control as much as they will in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana the best ESPN could hope to do is pick up an addition in Iowa. Iowa State could serve as a market sharing addition if added to a P5. That would make for the most effective entry into the Iowa market. Otherwise in the AAC they would merely be a presence in Iowa.

B. They could own all of Oklahoma and Kansas if they desired to pursue them. Since Oklahoma and Oklahoma State will want to move together and ESPN already has Tulsa this is an easier pick up. Make a juicy offer for the pair and they make obtaining all of Texas even easier. Especially if....

C. They also make a strong play for Kansas and let Kansas State slip into the AAC.

3. Controlling a state as a network allows for more leverage in the procuring of the highest advertising rates. In Texas that can be lucrative.

So the objectives should be Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Kansas, and Iowa State if they want to solidly market the region.

West Virginia may be picked up as a solo if need be.

That's a total of 7 Big 12 schools.

Put Texas, Texas Tech, and West Virginia in the ACC with Texas as an independent and relegate T.C.U. and Baylor to the AAC and the state of Texas is completely accounted for.

Put Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Kansas and Iowa State in the SEC and Kansas State in the AAC and Oklahoma and Kansas are completely accounted for. Add Iowa State and you have a presence in a key Big 10 state.

The SEC and ACC move to 18. The AAC picks up Army to go with Kansas State, Baylor and T.C.U. and they move to 16.

4. If ESPN truly wanted to wield effective power they would encourage a joint academic association between the AAU schools of their three conferences:

From the SEC (6): Florida, Iowa State, Kansas, Missouri, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt
From the ACC (6): Duke, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Texas, Virginia
From the AAC (1) : Tulane

That consortium would equal the AAU members of the Big 10. By forming such an association schools would not be reticent at all to join any of the 3 ESPN held conferences.

Associations of note but not AAU then become: Notre Dame, Syracuse, Boston College, Army, Navy, Miami (which may become AAU soon), Kentucky, Georgia, N.C. State, Wake Forest, South Carolina, Clemson, and Tennessee.

By focusing on additions in this manner it becomes quite clear that ESPN can benefit all of us through scheduling alliances, academic associations, and by having complete control over the entire Eastern Seaboard from Virginia to Miami with all of the Southeastern states into Texas thereby controlling the entire Gulf of Mexico region into the Plains as far as Kansas and Missouri.

And for that solidarity we all benefit in payouts due to not having to split ad revenues within our region with another network.

So when questions arise about why take a little brother, total control of each state is essential to maintain the leverage and of all of the 7 additions suggested only 2 would be redundant. I'd say it is worth it! At the very least we need the Texa-homa schools.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

An addendum: With the Big 12 gone eventually the PAC and Big 10 will have to have a kind of merger. When that happens the AAC could be elevated to the 4th P Conference. They would also make an excellent device to pick up left over PAC schools following the Big 10 / PAC merger. Washington State, Oregon State, Air Force, San Diego State, Boise State, U.N.L.V. and a couple of more could help to form a 20 school AAC that would comprise the 4th power conference.

I stopped at the last bold part above so please forgive me for not continuing to read.... I’m breaking your post into practical parts and when I got to, “That's a total of 7 Big 12 schools”—this is where your suggestion becomes unpractical in my opinion… and this is why:

We need to start with how the AAC was formed to fully understand why what you're suggesting is not practical in my opinion: There is a conference hierarchy is college sports, which is why Cincy, UCONN, and USF were able to dismantle CUSA into the SBC despite not having a name and being unstable. Those three schools were not going to abase themselves by joining G4 conferences that were perceived as being lower in status. Consequently, they decided to elevate certain schools to where they were in the hierarchy of college sports conferences.

With that said JRsec, the B12 is far above the AAC in the conference hierarchy of college sports. The B12 brand alone would entice many AAC schools to join Baylor, TCU, and Kansas St. Being part of the Big East brand was a major reason why some schools left CUSA and joined the oBE/AAC when the expected $$ didn’t materialize. Even when the Big East name and brand was sold, other CUSA schools joined an unnamed and unstable conference. Baylor, TCU, and Kansas St also know the aforementioned history of how the AAC was formed and that almost every school would leave in lifeboats to rescue them…. Furthermore, the schools in the AAC would likely be locked into a tv contract—but if they joined the rebuilt B12, a new and better contract would likely be negotiated. The B12 would also be in the best position to assemble a true “tweener” conference that so many AAC fans currently claim.

However, let’s just say for the sake of discussion that all the schools in the AAC turn down a B12 invite. Baylor, TCU, and Kansas St would simple invite schools from the MWC or CUSA before abasing themselves (regarding perception) by joining the AAC. Therefore, I have to respectfully disagree with that part of your post. I will respond to the rest of it later….

Underdog I'm looking at the bigger picture here. It doesn't matter if it is called the AAC or Big 12 and I didn't mean to open a can of worms on semantics. I do see your point about nomenclature and branding. But the gist of my point is what ESPN holds and controls. That is the sole focus.

They have amassed sole possession of all of the P5 and top G5 schools in every state that these 3 conferences represent plus the Big 12 save these: Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New York, Indiana and Ohio.

In those states they have:
Texas: 50% ownership in the 4 Big 12 schools. Majority ownership in Houston, S.M.U. and Texas A&M.
Oklahoma: 50% ownership in the 2 Big 12 schools. Majority ownership in Tulsa.
Kansas: 50% ownership in the 2 Big 12 schools.
Iowa: 50% ownership in the 1 Big 12 school.
New York: Majority ownership in Syracuse. Should Army also join the AAC/NewBig12 then they have 100%

In these state the % won't change: Ohio 1 of 2, Pennsylvania 2 of 3, Maryland 1 of 2, Indiana 1 of 3 and that one is only partial.

States where there is Big 12 product that they currently have a 50% stake in: Iowa State, West Virginia.

I was pointing out the advantage of looking at this from purely the network position. There is a clear M.O. at work here. And one that would indicate that ESPN's priority will be to hold the rights to all of the Texas schools which are currently in the P5 or top of the G5. And possibly those in Oklahoma and Kansas. West Virginia would be easy to accomplish and 50% of Iowa State give them another back door into Big 10 advertising regions.

And, the reason ESPN has been able to gain the SECN universal carriage and garner as much revenue for the ACC (even with their rotten numbers) is because they are the only avenue advertisers can take if they want to utilize and extremely popular means of acquiring the attention of viewers in one of the growing areas of the country. Since no other network has a single way to garner advertising in the Mid Atlantic and Southeast they have to go through ESPN and they have to pay a premium rate to do so.

Acquiring Texas in full is huge. It's the largest college sports regional market in the world. Having the leverage on ad rates there is worth the investment in the product.

What I'm asserting here is that by placing 4 of the present Big 12 in the SEC and 3 in the ACC and the rest in the AAC/NewBig12 this is what is set up and if you had read far enough you might have realized it.

The Big 10 in order to gain the market size it needs would be forced to merge with 8 to 10 of the present PAC and since the monetary disparity between the two conferences is about to reach 19 million a year that is highly likely.

If that happens then by making the AAC/NewBig12 a national conference with 4 very distinct regional divisions ESPN can now access advertising in every region of the nation through the ACC, SEC, and the enhanced AAC/NewBig12. That means no need to invest in the PAC since they would have good West Coast games for the 9 PM time slot. Having Notre Dame, Cincinnati, Temple, Army and Navy to go along with Pitt, Syracuse, B.C., WVU, Missouri and Kansas puts them into every major Big 10 city except: Omaha, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Detroit, and Madison. That's not bad at all. And if N.D. continues to play Michigan or Michigan State they get into to Detroit too. Schedule some OOC games between any of their three conferences and Nebraska, Minnesota and Wisconsin and you've accessed all of them.

With the PAC out of the way the new AAC/B12 becomes the 4th power conference. There's your promotion! And at that point I don't think any of your schools will give a hoot what it is called.

Just to interject here, I don't think that it should be overlooked at just how much money Cincinnati, UCONN & USF had from exit fees, NCAA credits & the C7 settlement. That money was used to entice new members to join.

That $$$ is almost gone—which is why the AAC isn’t adding any B12 leftovers unless the conference is dissolved. The three B12 schools in JRsec's realignment scenario would have plenty of exit fee $$$ to "entice" AAC schools to join them. I see the following realignment scenario:

The B16

West: *Air force, Baylor, Houston, Kansas St, Memphis, TCU, Tulane, Tulsa

East: *Army, ECU, Navy, Temple, UC, UCF, UConn, USF

The AAC is dissolved, which eliminates exit fees.

AAC Leftovers: WS (no football program) and SMU (a small private that would be an unnecessary market duplication)

My point was simply that the 3 remaining BE schools had $ to lure in new members to form a new conference instead of having to join an existing one. The remaining B12 schools would have the B13 brand & the $ received from exit fees so yes, they could annihilate the American. That would be a challenge to ESPN plans as JR laid out.
07-01-2017 10:38 PM
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