(05-26-2022 03:45 PM)NJMark Wrote:  

(05-26-2022 10:26 AM)JRsec Wrote:  

(05-26-2022 09:53 AM)PeteTheChop Wrote:  

(05-26-2022 09:43 AM)ken d Wrote:  Add the top west coast brands and Notre Dame and the college sports world is your oyster. Jointly negotiate with all potential media partners and get the best broadcast windows from both FOX and ABC/ESPN. As valuable as each is separately, might they not be even more valuable together?

Money and power can erase a lot of cultural differences.

Why don't Coke and Pepsi merge.

No need, plus the B1G and S-E-C are great brands that stand on their own.

"This is a solution in search of a problem"

They did! It was called New Coke and it was universally despised.

I understand Ken D's suggestion, however. Any merger would have to be unofficial like the one they had between Slive and Delaney where cultural differences and formal relations were not discussed, only things which they mutually found beneficial.

Each conference's major appeal, as you noted, is in not being like the other, which is a wonderful mutual foil which drives interest. So, like Pepsi and Coke flavors if they merged they would be universally despised.

Coke DID have a problem - they were getting their heads handed to them by Pepsi and needed to compete for effectively. "New Coke" passed every taste-test. What they didn't count on was that people still drinking Coke didn't want it to be "The Real Thing," and not to be Pepsi.

As for the OP, nothing that says "just" has been thought out fully.

Not in the South! It was more of an urban marketing issue. When cane sugar was taken out and corn syrup replaced it nothing could save "old Coke". It was done with evil intentions to boot. The brain doesn't scream "enough!" with corn syrup as the sweetener nearly as quickly as with cane sugar. Result you sell more bottles and cans, and Big Gulps became a thing. 2 10 oz or 12 oz Soft Drinks made with cane sugar and you simply don't want anymore. It's much easier to empty 2 liters if corn syrup is substituted. End result = fatter kids and more diabetes. Corporate America, nothing like it! Tobacco to Soft Drinks to Processed Junk Food all targeted to the young who as they grow older need Big Pharma to treat lifestyle symptoms with statins, acid inhibitors, and blood pressure medication.

(05-26-2022 03:45 PM)NJMark Wrote:  

(05-26-2022 10:26 AM)JRsec Wrote:  

(05-26-2022 09:53 AM)PeteTheChop Wrote:  

(05-26-2022 09:43 AM)ken d Wrote:  Add the top west coast brands and Notre Dame and the college sports world is your oyster. Jointly negotiate with all potential media partners and get the best broadcast windows from both FOX and ABC/ESPN. As valuable as each is separately, might they not be even more valuable together?

Money and power can erase a lot of cultural differences.

Why don't Coke and Pepsi merge.

No need, plus the B1G and S-E-C are great brands that stand on their own.

"This is a solution in search of a problem"

They did! It was called New Coke and it was universally despised.

I understand Ken D's suggestion, however. Any merger would have to be unofficial like the one they had between Slive and Delaney where cultural differences and formal relations were not discussed, only things which they mutually found beneficial.

Each conference's major appeal, as you noted, is in not being like the other, which is a wonderful mutual foil which drives interest. So, like Pepsi and Coke flavors if they merged they would be universally despised.

Coke DID have a problem - they were getting their heads handed to them by Pepsi and needed to compete for effectively. "New Coke" passed every taste-test. What they didn't count on was that people still drinking Coke didn't want it to be "The Real Thing," and not to be Pepsi.

As for the OP, nothing that says "just" has been thought out fully.

If it were thought out fully it would not have been put in the form of a question, or put in a forum for discussion at all.

(05-26-2022 03:57 PM)JRsec Wrote:  ...When cane sugar was taken out and corn syrup replaced it nothing could save "old Coke". It was done with evil intentions to boot. The brain doesn't scream "enough!" with corn syrup as the sweetener nearly as quickly as with cane sugar. Result you sell more bottles and cans, and Big Gulps became a thing. 2 10 oz or 12 oz Soft Drinks made with cane sugar and you simply don't want anymore. It's much easier to empty 2 liters if corn syrup is substituted. End result = fatter kids and more diabetes...

JR, I'm disappointed in you for parroting such a conspiracy "theory". That is NOT the reason Coca Cola switched to corn syrup - it was to save on ingredient costs (corn syrup is MUCH cheaper than cane sugar - in large part thanks to government subsidies to corn farmers - now THERE's a conspiracy for you!).

As for Big Gulps, they were coming regardless; the 1980's and 90's were decades of excess, when just about everything got BIGGER. Food portions got bigger; restaurants rushed to offer "all you can eat" buffets. It was an industry-wide trend - not the evil brain child of some secret cabal!

Save your conspiracy theories for REAL conspiracies, not imagined ones - there's no shortage of the real thing, just in college football alone!

(05-27-2022 09:11 AM)ken d Wrote:  

(05-26-2022 03:45 PM)NJMark Wrote:  

(05-26-2022 10:26 AM)JRsec Wrote:  

(05-26-2022 09:53 AM)PeteTheChop Wrote:  

(05-26-2022 09:43 AM)ken d Wrote:  Add the top west coast brands and Notre Dame and the college sports world is your oyster. Jointly negotiate with all potential media partners and get the best broadcast windows from both FOX and ABC/ESPN. As valuable as each is separately, might they not be even more valuable together?

Money and power can erase a lot of cultural differences.

Why don't Coke and Pepsi merge.

No need, plus the B1G and S-E-C are great brands that stand on their own.

"This is a solution in search of a problem"

They did! It was called New Coke and it was universally despised.

I understand Ken D's suggestion, however. Any merger would have to be unofficial like the one they had between Slive and Delaney where cultural differences and formal relations were not discussed, only things which they mutually found beneficial.

Each conference's major appeal, as you noted, is in not being like the other, which is a wonderful mutual foil which drives interest. So, like Pepsi and Coke flavors if they merged they would be universally despised.

Coke DID have a problem - they were getting their heads handed to them by Pepsi and needed to compete for effectively. "New Coke" passed every taste-test. What they didn't count on was that people still drinking Coke didn't want it to be "The Real Thing," and not to be Pepsi.

As for the OP, nothing that says "just" has been thought out fully.

If it were thought out fully it would not have been put in the form of a question, or put in a forum for discussion at all.

There is a difference in the comparisons.

Should there be a drink that combines Coke and Pepsi together into one drink? Of course not. As people said, Coke drinkers prefer Coke and Pepsi drinkers prefer Pepsi.

Now the better question is should the Coke and Pepsi companies combine into one company and continue to make both Coke and Pepsi? That would be a similar question to should the SEC and Big Ten merge. Would you not buy Coke because the company produces Pepsi or vice versa? Many airline companies in our lifetimes have merged and do we like American Airlines any less because they bought US Airways? I don't think the world is going to end if the Big Ten and SEC merge and Ohio State-Michigan and Alabama-Auburn still play each other. Do people who aren't Big 12 fans think Oklahoma-Texas is going to change when it's an SEC game and not a Big 12 game? Certainly teams will debate on which teams and how many teams are in this proposed merged conference and whether or not it should happen.

I do agree that if the Big 10 were to merge with another of the Power 5 conferences the SEC would likely be less likely due to cultural differences, the Big 10 does have more in common with the ACC or Pac 12, they already have an "alliance" with both conferences.

They merge, but they'll still keep separate marketing identities (better money) and separate TV packages (better money). Not much would change.

Now, what if they go all-in on a shared playoff. Top 3 teams from each conference plus a shared committee to select 2 National at large teams. Put 4 games in Arlington, Chicago, Indianapolis, and Atlanta. Committee seeds the thing. Top 3 SEC/B1G teams, in order, get to pick their venue. At least 1 all-SEC and 1 all-B1G game.

2021:
1 Georgia vs. 8 Ole Miss (Atlanta)
2 Michigan vs. 13 Iowa (Indianapolis)
3 Alabama vs. 7 Ohio State (Chicago)
4 Cincinnati vs. 5 OK State (Arlington)

2019:
1 Ohio State vs. 10 Penn State (Indianapolis)
2 LSU vs. 6 Oklahoma (Arlington)
3 Clemson vs. 8 Wisconsin (Chicago)
4 Georgia vs. 5 Utah (Atlanta)

4 winners go to semis which continue to rotate in some semblance of the NY6, where other conferences also send their champions, if they aren't in the playoff.

(05-28-2022 12:20 PM)Crayton Wrote:  They merge, but they'll still keep separate marketing identities (better money) and separate TV packages (better money). Not much would change.

Now, what if they go all-in on a shared playoff. Top 3 teams from each conference plus a shared committee to select 2 National at large teams. Put 4 games in Arlington, Chicago, Indianapolis, and Atlanta. Committee seeds the thing. Top 3 SEC/B1G teams, in order, get to pick their venue. At least 1 all-SEC and 1 all-B1G game.

2021:
1 Georgia vs. 8 Ole Miss (Atlanta)
2 Michigan vs. 13 Iowa (Indianapolis)
3 Alabama vs. 7 Ohio State (Chicago)
4 Cincinnati vs. 5 OK State (Arlington)

2019:
1 Ohio State vs. 10 Penn State (Indianapolis)
2 LSU vs. 6 Oklahoma (Arlington)
3 Clemson vs. 8 Wisconsin (Chicago)
4 Georgia vs. 5 Utah (Atlanta)

4 winners go to semis which continue to rotate in some semblance of the NY6, where other conferences also send their champions, if they aren't in the playoff.

Ideally, the B1G would somehow take in the 9 PAC AAU schools (the number required to dissolve the PAC) and Notre Dame as soon as they can and the SEC would take whoever they want from the ACC when the GoR will allow. At that point they have pretty much all the top teams among them, such that a 16 team playoff would be possible. Every so often a team from outside this group of 44-48 schools will have a season that puts them among the top 16 teams, but I see no reason why the P2 should have to include them. If poll voters want to vote for such a team and they get enough votes to rank #1, let them claim a national champion if they want. What would it hurt?

The important thing is that the B1G and the SEC have separated themselves from the pack, and if they want to play by different rules when it comes to things like number of games, number of scholarships, etc. and the market will bear it, they should be allowed to, just like the NFL is free to have different rules than the USFL or XFL.

Schools not in those conferences are always free to set up their own rules if they choose to freely associate with like minded schools.