CarlSmithCenter
Special Teams
Posts: 931
Joined: Jun 2014
Reputation: 86
I Root For: Ball So Hard U
Location:
|
RE: Vanderbilt eliminates its athletic communications (SID) department
(07-08-2020 11:22 AM)whittx Wrote: (07-08-2020 04:59 AM)XLance Wrote: (07-07-2020 09:52 PM)CarlSmithCenter Wrote: (07-07-2020 09:03 PM)JRsec Wrote: (07-07-2020 08:29 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote: Nah - Vandy’s value to the SEC is very similar to Northwestern to the Big Ten: elite academic schools that are directly in fantastic urban locations within their conference footprints. Those are the types of schools that still are invaluable even if they go 0-12.
On the flip side, P5 membership is what allows Vandy and Northwestern to win a lot of student cross-admit battles with the Ivy League or the University of Chicago/MIT-types. Their targets are extremely smart sociable kids that also want school spirit. From everything that I’ve seen, Vandy is consistently ranked as the happiest and most fun school in the country for *really* smart students and their SEC membership is an integral part of that.
Frank you are likely right about this, but you have to remember that Tennessee gives the SEC the Nashville market and while Vanderbilt is the academic bell cow of the conference and certainly has great value in that regard, we are talking about a conference which unlike the Big 10 looks at athletics and academics through separate lenses and not as a whole package. And that way of looking at athletics may be a reality everywhere sooner than we think.
Now that said dynamics for what makes a school profitable to other schools has changed and is changing still. In an era where brand power multiplies the national audience and when actual viewers may determine payouts more exclusively in the future, at some point the other 13 schools of the SEC and Big 10 may start to ask what exactly does this small viewership school that is not competitive in the revenue sports offer us besides wins on the schedule? Academic associations are nice, but Vanderbilt doesn't see itself as a peer to the Mississippi schools, or even Georgia. So their impact upon those schools academically is marginalized through nobody's fault. It simply is what it is.
Under the market model, especially if you couldn't adequately claim Nashville, Dallas/Ft. Worth / Atlanta / Chicago, etc with another large state school then having a physical presence in such a place was essential. I'm just saying that I'm not so sure that is going to be a factor in an age where technology counts precisely who it is that is watching.
We also don't know yet how some of these long established privates are going to handle the pay for play angle and the rights to image issues. So I don't just have my eye on Vanderbilt, though I consider Northwestern much less likely to make other choices than their Big 10 membership, I have my eye all all privates. Their circumstances are so unique compared to a lot of large state schools that while they may be benefitting from the social life of a big time athletic conference, many of them are more dedicated to their other missions more than they are athletics.
The space of a football field and parking for at Vanderbilt can earn the University so very much more if turned into research space. I know there is talk of using the professional stadium, but with the other issues all in a state of flux legally I think all of these administrations are having to do some very forward thinking about what to do if the relationship with athletics changes further.
Five years ago I would be right there with you in confidently proclaiming they aren't going anywhere. Now I'm simply not as sure. If they did not compete in football they would still be every bit in the hunt for the non revenue sports, bowling included, and with a lot more space on campus for research.
1) The Vols may deliver television screens in Nashville but the road trip to Nashville for other SEC East teams is always more attractive than a trip to Knoxville. The presence in Nashville also helps with Music Bowl affiliation.
2) Vandy is very good at baseball, which is more important in the SEC than in most leagues.
3) Vandy, despite being in the East Division, is not undoable for many SEC West schools and an attractive long weekend trip.
4) The Predators Arena is an attractive site for SEC men’s and women’s basketball tourneys.
5) Dichotomy between keeping the football stadium, and thus the sizable SEC network payout, or demolishing that facility to built research labs which will bring in big bucks is false. Vandy can build significant research facilities without bulldozing their field.
6) Vandy is, by virtue of their presence in a party city, an elite academic school and being in the SEC, had recruiting and revenue advantages that make them equally if not more attractive to other Southeastern/Southern FBS private schools who lack one or more of those three criteria: Duke, Wake, Tulane, Miami, TCU, SMU, Rice, Baylor and Tulsa.
7) A Tulane, Miami, TCU, SMU, Rice, Vandy, Duke and Wake league would have very desirable travel destinations in 7 of 8 conference towns. Sorry Winston-Salem. Baylor and Tulsa don’t get in because the only reason people want to visit Waco is Fixer-Upper fever and Tulsa is, well, Tulsa.
Travel is the one thing that could keep this league from happening. Because the schools are so spread apart it would be expensive to move the women's volleyball team around for a mid-week game.
That league, would be the perfect place for Army and Navy to compete.
Also possibilities: Boston College and even a public; Georgia Tech which struggles to generate dollars.
Maybe then, Northwestern (which has a larger graduate population than UG) and even Notre Dame may become interested.
Boston College, Army, Navy, Duke, Wake Forest, Georgia Tech, Miami
Notre Dame, Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Tulane, Rice, SMU, TCU
Likely? Maybe not, but something to keep on the back burner as a future scenario if NIL and pay for play are seen as not being compatible with the mission of some academic institutions.
You have 3 sets of logical travel partners. Miami/Vandy is an issue.
If the goals of this proposed pseudo-Magnolia Conference are to create an all-sports league where members won't have to maintain a P5 level football budget, including full cost of attendance and the facilities arms race, and/or to have to directly pay players for name, image and likeness rights when that inevitable change comes (where by when Congress, the states, or the courts), then I think you would have to exclude at least Georgia Tech, Miami, Notre Dame, Duke and TCU from consideration.
First, Notre Dame isn't going join a conference for football period, and this proposal would give them inferior competition in Olympic sports.
Likewise, NCAA doesn't allow single sport FBS football conferences, so if GT, TCU and Miami joined this proposed league they'd be throwing in the towel and giving up on big time football in exchange for what, exactly?
Alternatively, if this new league didn't sponsor football, I don't think the potential benefits in basketball and Olympic sports over their current leagues would be worth it for GT, Miami or TCU, or even BC, Wake, Northwestern or Vandy, to go independent in football (I don't see any of them having the clout to get what UConn couldn't from the American, i.e. leaving football but taking everything else to a new league). Even if the participating schools had some sort of scheduling alliance I would be worse than what any of the P5 members of this proposed new conference currently has.
I do think the ACC could be convinced to let move its football to another league if MBB and other sports stayed put, which isn't currently possible (unless this new league is FCS level). However, if Duke moved FB to this league, or sent all sports, it could face potential legal challenges for fully funding MBB but not football or other sports. It would certainly drive down the media rights value of this potential new league if it either didn't have football (a worse Big East) or was the FBS-Pioneer League
|
|