Interesting...From The Athletic

Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby is scheduled to meet with new Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff on Tuesday, multiple sources told The Athletic.

Their meeting is expected to be a key first step in talks about whether the two conferences would benefit from strategically working together during college sports’ new phase of realignment.

Kliavkoff was unavailable for comment. Bowlsby and the Big 12 declined comment.

https://theathletic.com/2749212/2021/08/...ource=fbhq

If the Big 10 doesn't want to work with the PAC, the PAC may benefit from pooling their TV rights with the remaining Big 12. This gets them Central time zone money without having to add any inconvenient travel or academics

Why would the B1G not maintain their relationship with the PAC? Are they going to replace their relationship with the PAC/Rose with the Sugar/SEC?

I’ll be interested to see if anything comes of this.

I really don’t know if negotiating their tv rights jointly would be advantageous for the PAC 12. Maybe they are just trying to lay the groundwork to merge the two remnants should the PAC 12 get raided.

More from this

Discussions on a pact between the two could go in several different directions. One option would be a scheduling alliance between Big 12 and Pac-12 members. Bowlsby acknowledged this possibility on Monday during his appearance at a Texas Senate committee meeting on the future of college sports in Texas. Pursuing a merger with another conference is another possibility.

Another Big 12 source expects the Bowlsby-Kliavkoff meeting to be more of an “information download” for the Pac-12’s new commissioner to gain a better sense of what the Big 12’s eight remaining members can bring to the table.

“Time is our friend right now, so it’s not like something has to happen by Sept. 1,” the source said. “It’s a matter of starting to work through this and see what it looks like. We’ve got a runway.”

Bowlsby said Monday that these types of partnership opportunities must be explored before the Big 12 would shift its focus to expansion as the answer to replacing Texas and Oklahoma when the two schools exit the conference.

“We haven’t had formal conversations on candidate members,” Bowlsby said. “We think there’s a sequence at which we need to act, and that includes some of the collaborations that I mentioned earlier

https://theathletic.com/2749212/2021/08/...ource=fbhq

After years of relative quietude, Bowlsby has really picked up the pace recently. From spearheading the immensely popular CFP proposal, to a cease and desist letter to the Mouse that apparently has worked, to giving the lead testimony at the Texas Senate hearing and providing the most useful information (the $14 million haircut), to pursuing opportunities with the other Tier 2 conferences, he's been most active. I'm not sure what will come out of this meeting, but we'll see...

(08-03-2021 12:37 PM)Jared7 Wrote:  After years of relative quietude, Bowlsby has really picked up the pace recently. From spearheading the immensely popular CFP proposal, to a cease and desist letter to the Mouse that apparently has worked, to giving the lead testimony at the Texas Senate hearing and providing the most useful information (the $14 million haircut), to pursuing opportunities with the other Tier 2 conferences, he's been most active. I'm not sure what will come out of this meeting, but we'll see...

Actually Jim Phillips of the ACC needs to be doing the same with the Pac 12...

Very interesting.

It’s obvious why Bowlsby would want this meeting — the Big 12 is desperately searching for some way to stay in the power conference club — but what’s in it for Kliavkoff?

I think it’s most likely that Kliavkoff is just being polite. But there’s also a possibility that the rumors about the Big 10 considering cherry-picking USC and 1-3 other Pac-12 schools aren’t entirely baseless. If Kliavkoff has any doubt whatsover coming out of last week’s Pac-12 meetings that his membership is 100% united and committed to the conference, it behooves him to start building a relationship with Bowlsby so that in the worst-case scenario the Pac-12 and Big-12 leftovers are positioned to join forces, either by pooling media rights or even by merging to form a third superconference.

The single best position for the PAC to be in would be to bring in the Little 8 and form a 20-team Super Conference -- maybe WV needs to go for geography and academics, and they pull in someone else like Houston.

But, damn, this is a conference:

PAC WEST
Wash
Wash St
Or
Or St
Cal
Stan
USC
UCLA
AZ
AZ ST

PAC EAST
Utah
Colorado
Texas Tech
TCU
Kansas State
Baylor
Houston**
OSU
ISU
Kansas

**replaces WV, but, man, THIS is something that Nebraska could be interested in

(08-03-2021 12:15 PM)Maize Wrote:  More from this

Discussions on a pact between the two could go in several different directions. One option would be a scheduling alliance between Big 12 and Pac-12 members. Bowlsby acknowledged this possibility on Monday during his appearance at a Texas Senate committee meeting on the future of college sports in Texas. Pursuing a merger with another conference is another possibility.

Another Big 12 source expects the Bowlsby-Kliavkoff meeting to be more of an “information download” for the Pac-12’s new commissioner to gain a better sense of what the Big 12’s eight remaining members can bring to the table.

“Time is our friend right now, so it’s not like something has to happen by Sept. 1,” the source said. “It’s a matter of starting to work through this and see what it looks like. We’ve got a runway.”

Bowlsby said Monday that these types of partnership opportunities must be explored before the Big 12 would shift its focus to expansion as the answer to replacing Texas and Oklahoma when the two schools exit the conference.

“We haven’t had formal conversations on candidate members,” Bowlsby said. “We think there’s a sequence at which we need to act, and that includes some of the collaborations that I mentioned earlier

https://theathletic.com/2749212/2021/08/...ource=fbhq

He's saying there is a point at which the XII will have to consider new members but they are going to use their time to do a deal with the PAC.

In this 20 team Super PAC, would be very easy to have teams schedule a 9 game conf schedule within their division, then reserve 1 game for an opponent from other division

The two would play a legit Conf Champ game which, in an expanded playoff era, would firmly place this super conf as one of the Power 4.

Note as a KS fan, if this happened, I'd say KU is better off in Pac super conf than in the B1G.

This could play out differently than what you are thinking.

The XII could expand back to 10 with BYU/CSU and they create a network with the PAC which has 6 mountain time zone schools and 7 in the central.

Its clear the XII is looking west rather than east to metro league AAC for options.

There was a lot of smoke around a merger of the two conferences when the UT/OU news broke. I'm sure this is a meeting to vet that possibility. Both conferences have a little time, PAC negotiating their new TV contract and rights in a few years, and the BIGXII riding out their GOR with UT/OU, but this is how you get the ball rolling for the future.

The only thing that could be decided in this type of meeting is the scheduling alliance if it were to happen, any merger agreements would be handshakes for now and no one would know about it. To be clear I'm not saying the conferences are merging but when the meeting ends and they haven't made that kind of announcement it won't mean that it wasn't discussed and possibly agreed to.

Personally I highly doubt the PAC would be willing to take all of the existing members of the BIGXII in a merger but I think we all need to start throwing "logic" out the window with this stuff now. This is about money and TV set's, Who is going to see your product and what network is willing to pay you big dollars for that product.

Isn't realignment fun....

Going to have Utah and Colorado join the Big 12. Each will have 10 teams

(08-03-2021 12:44 PM)jgkojak Wrote:  The single best position for the PAC to be in would be to bring in the Little 8 and form a 20-team Super Conference -- maybe WV needs to go for geography and academics, and they pull in someone else like Houston.

But, damn, this is a conference:

PAC WEST
Wash
Wash St
Or
Or St
Cal
Stan
USC
UCLA
AZ
AZ ST

PAC EAST
Utah
Colorado
Texas Tech
TCU
Kansas State
Baylor
Houston**
OSU
ISU
Kansas

**replaces WV, but, man, THIS is something that Nebraska could be interested in

No it isn't.

(08-03-2021 12:46 PM)Kit-Cat Wrote:  

(08-03-2021 12:15 PM)Maize Wrote:  More from this

Discussions on a pact between the two could go in several different directions. One option would be a scheduling alliance between Big 12 and Pac-12 members. Bowlsby acknowledged this possibility on Monday during his appearance at a Texas Senate committee meeting on the future of college sports in Texas. Pursuing a merger with another conference is another possibility.

Another Big 12 source expects the Bowlsby-Kliavkoff meeting to be more of an “information download” for the Pac-12’s new commissioner to gain a better sense of what the Big 12’s eight remaining members can bring to the table.

“Time is our friend right now, so it’s not like something has to happen by Sept. 1,” the source said. “It’s a matter of starting to work through this and see what it looks like. We’ve got a runway.”

Bowlsby said Monday that these types of partnership opportunities must be explored before the Big 12 would shift its focus to expansion as the answer to replacing Texas and Oklahoma when the two schools exit the conference.

“We haven’t had formal conversations on candidate members,” Bowlsby said. “We think there’s a sequence at which we need to act, and that includes some of the collaborations that I mentioned earlier

https://theathletic.com/2749212/2021/08/...ource=fbhq

He's saying there is a point at which the XII will have to consider new members but they are going to use their time to do a deal with the PAC.

Yep, they will consider adding members at the end of their current GOR when UT/OU go to SEC. Until that point as a conference they are going to try to do everything with in their power to stay in the P4. Bowlsby's hope is that there is a landing spot for all of them but I suspect it will only be for a few of the schools...

(08-03-2021 12:42 PM)HawaiiMongoose Wrote:  Very interesting.

It’s obvious why Bowlsby would want this meeting — the Big 12 is desperately searching for some way to stay in the power conference club — but what’s in it for Kliavkoff?

I think it’s most likely that Kliavkoff is just being polite. But there’s also a possibility that the rumors about the Big 10 considering cherry-picking USC and 1-3 other Pac-12 schools aren’t entirely baseless. If Kliavkoff has any doubt whatsover coming out of last week’s Pac-12 meetings that his membership is 100% united and committed to the conference, it behooves him to start building a relationship with Bowlsby so that in the worst-case scenario the Pac-12 and Big-12 leftovers are positioned to join forces, either by pooling media rights or even by merging to form a third superconference.

His job is to maximize revenue and keep the league as stable as possible. If this does that it makes sense. That goes even more important if the Trojans are possibly leaving with either the Bruins, Ducks, or Huskies.

Fact is barring any fragmenting of the Big Ten or SEC (lol) there is unlikely to be any additional expansion targets in the Pacific, Mountain, or Central time zones that they can look at that aren't either in the current Big 12 or outside the P5 already.

Everyone who wants it to be an "exciting" move is going to imagine an "exciting" move it could be, but a boring old sensible business decision might be more likely.

If the PAC-12 is looking at some sort of an 11 Power Conference game mandate in a the next media contract, it can soften that by insisting that one Big12 game by allowed in that. That gives them the space to do a scheduling agreement ... maybe last season top four, least recently played matchup, middle four LRP, bottom four LRP. Or two seasons average to set up two years, home and away.

It also stabilizes the Big12, which is good for the PAC-12, which is well served by avoiding any kind of rush to even larger conferences. It gives BYU the cover to join the Big12, which is the Big12's best media add, and gives the Big12 a reason to expand to 12, which sets the AAC back a notch and reduces the risk of the PAC-12 ending up the 7th FBS conference champion in the coming CFP12.

It also gives the Pac-12 greater exposure in Texas, without requiring them to fight through the difficult divisional questions in raiding the Big12.

(08-03-2021 12:50 PM)Kit-Cat Wrote:  This could play out differently than what you are thinking.

The XII could expand back to 10 with BYU/CSU and they create a network with the PAC which has 6 mountain time zone schools and 7 in the central.

Its clear the XII is looking west rather than east to metro league AAC for options.

That’s true. And after ESPN and the AAC conspiring, it’s looking more and more like those call ups to the Big 12 might not even happen.