Folks inside the Big 12 believe they’ll land Pac-12 schools as soon as this month.

PAC-12 Commissioner Kliavkoff is facing pressure to deliver a new media rights deal to his members by the end of the month. If the dollar figures or the details are underwhelming, March may be the moment when the Big 12 finally strikes. Sources briefed on the discussions say the conference has been in recent contact with the so-called Four Corners schools — Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah — which has renewed optimism that convincing them to join is possible.

Brett Yormark has eyed westward expansion since the day he was hired as the Big 12’s new commissioner last summer. Yormark has never been shy about his interest in expanding the Big 12 into the “fourth time zone” to establish a truly national conference and boost the value of his league’s media rights. The arrival of BYU this summer will get the Big 12 into the Mountain Time Zone. Yormark wants more, though he has always said any additions need to be additive and not dilutive.

CBS Sports is reporting the same thing, so you gotta believe there's something to it. Doesn't add much in the way of quality football, other than TV sets and eyes. Basketball, on the other hand, this would be a crazy tough conference.

However, this would make any potential road to P5 for Memphis even more difficult than it already is.

Hopefully not…

We'll see if the Pac commissioner is up to the job. In any case, if the tv numbers are bad, then I'd imagine we'd see those 4 schools move almost immediately to the B12. THere would be no reason to hang around with bad money, try to get more money in a few years, only to see two more schools leave for the B1G.

(03-03-2023 04:40 PM)BigTigerMike Wrote:  

Folks inside the Big 12 believe they’ll land Pac-12 schools as soon as this month.

PAC-12 Commissioner Kliavkoff is facing pressure to deliver a new media rights deal to his members by the end of the month. If the dollar figures or the details are underwhelming, March may be the moment when the Big 12 finally strikes. Sources briefed on the discussions say the conference has been in recent contact with the so-called Four Corners schools — Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah — which has renewed optimism that convincing them to join is possible.

Brett Yormark has eyed westward expansion since the day he was hired as the Big 12’s new commissioner last summer. Yormark has never been shy about his interest in expanding the Big 12 into the “fourth time zone” to establish a truly national conference and boost the value of his league’s media rights. The arrival of BYU this summer will get the Big 12 into the Mountain Time Zone. Yormark wants more, though he has always said any additions need to be additive and not dilutive.

This would indicate that reports of Oregon, Washington, and the 2 Bay Area schools to the B1G are real. That leaves WSU and Oregon State homeless.

The Big 12 has been eyeing them pretty much since USCLA decided to leave so technically that isn't new. What is "new" is will the PAC media deal be bad enough that it would make them leave on their own? As it stands now it would take the B1G taking more teams to get the others to go to the Big 12. A bad media deal has the potential to change that.

As for Memphis USCLA leaving was bad. That immediately shutdown that Big 12 "second expansion" talk. Add to it Yormark's talk of teams needing to be additive. That pretty much put us in the position of having to wait and see what happens with ACC. Now that FSU and Clemson are making noise publicly, maybe that door opens sooner than 2036.

(03-03-2023 05:06 PM)micman Wrote:  

(03-03-2023 04:40 PM)BigTigerMike Wrote:  

Folks inside the Big 12 believe they’ll land Pac-12 schools as soon as this month.

PAC-12 Commissioner Kliavkoff is facing pressure to deliver a new media rights deal to his members by the end of the month. If the dollar figures or the details are underwhelming, March may be the moment when the Big 12 finally strikes. Sources briefed on the discussions say the conference has been in recent contact with the so-called Four Corners schools — Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah — which has renewed optimism that convincing them to join is possible.

Brett Yormark has eyed westward expansion since the day he was hired as the Big 12’s new commissioner last summer. Yormark has never been shy about his interest in expanding the Big 12 into the “fourth time zone” to establish a truly national conference and boost the value of his league’s media rights. The arrival of BYU this summer will get the Big 12 into the Mountain Time Zone. Yormark wants more, though he has always said any additions need to be additive and not dilutive.

This would indicate that reports of Oregon, Washington, and the 2 Bay Area schools to the B1G are real. That leaves WSU and Oregon State homeless.

Not necessarily. It could simply mean the new Pac media contract is so bad that several PAC schools are considering jumping ship or at least getting details from the B12 to make that determination.

(03-03-2023 06:10 PM)Atlanta Wrote:  

(03-03-2023 05:06 PM)micman Wrote:  

(03-03-2023 04:40 PM)BigTigerMike Wrote:  

Folks inside the Big 12 believe they’ll land Pac-12 schools as soon as this month.

PAC-12 Commissioner Kliavkoff is facing pressure to deliver a new media rights deal to his members by the end of the month. If the dollar figures or the details are underwhelming, March may be the moment when the Big 12 finally strikes. Sources briefed on the discussions say the conference has been in recent contact with the so-called Four Corners schools — Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah — which has renewed optimism that convincing them to join is possible.

Brett Yormark has eyed westward expansion since the day he was hired as the Big 12’s new commissioner last summer. Yormark has never been shy about his interest in expanding the Big 12 into the “fourth time zone” to establish a truly national conference and boost the value of his league’s media rights. The arrival of BYU this summer will get the Big 12 into the Mountain Time Zone. Yormark wants more, though he has always said any additions need to be additive and not dilutive.

This would indicate that reports of Oregon, Washington, and the 2 Bay Area schools to the B1G are real. That leaves WSU and Oregon State homeless.

Not necessarily. It could simply mean the new Pac media contract is so bad that several PAC schools are considering jumping ship or at least getting details from the B12 to make that determination.

The PAC was allegedly negotiating with ION.

Maybe..MAYBE..they get two, but not all 4.

It would be Utah and CU or the AZ schools, but not all 4, if they get any of them at all.

we need to PAC to stay alive and come together.

I like more regional conferences for a lot of reasons.

If this happens I think it's bad for Memphis.

(03-03-2023 08:32 PM)gotigers1 Wrote:  Maybe..MAYBE..they get two, but not all 4.

It would be Utah and CU or the AZ schools, but not all 4, if they get any of them at all.

All 4 are considering jumping and have been talking to the Big 12 since last July. As a comparison USC had been talking to the B1G for nearly a year before jumping. If two Pac-12 schools jump there's no way that the other two stay on a clearly sinking ship.

We’re just gonna have to wait for the Big 10 & SEC to gut the ACC and hope there’s a spot for us with those leftovers. Best case would be

Louisville
Pitt
Syracuse
Boston College
Wake
Duke (no one wants their football)
VA Tech
GA Tech
NC State

are all left behind. You would assume they’d add at least 3 to get to 12. Memphis USF and ………. maybe Temple?? “Philly market” and they’d blend in with Cuse, BC, Pitt in the northeast. Who knows. Would be an ok football league, and still a pretty damn good hoops conf assuming UL and GA Tech fix their coaching problems soon.

(03-04-2023 08:30 AM)MemTigers1998 Wrote:  We’re just gonna have to wait for the Big 10 & SEC to gut the ACC and hope there’s a spot for us with those leftovers. Best case would be

Louisville
Pitt
Syracuse
Boston College
Wake
Duke (no one wants their football)
VA Tech
GA Tech
NC State

are all left behind. You would assume they’d add at least 3 to get to 12. Memphis USF and ………. maybe Temple?? “Philly market” and they’d blend in with Cuse, BC, Pitt in the northeast. Who knows. Would be an ok football league, and still a pretty damn good hoops conf assuming UL and GA Tech fix their coaching problems soon.

I think it depends on what we want:
1.Do we want a shot at the G5 slot each year? Then a conference of weak sisters might be in order.
Or, 2.Do we want higher level athletics? Then your conference of “pretty-high-level” schools idea makes sense.
I think different folks in our fanbase want different things.
That may also be true of our UM adm.

I think this speculation has been going on for about 9 months. At this point I guess anything is possible, but Pac-12 to Big-12 has always seemed like a step down to me.

If the Big 12 was a step down ESPN and Fox would have signed the Pac-12 to a TV deal instead of the Big 12. The new Big 12 also has multiple CFP teams and a national runner-up in football and elite basketball and Olympic Sports. Also 10 of their schools are R1 academically. The same Pac-12 schools also are not willing to jump to the ACC so it's not a step down. Even the G5/non-BCS excuse is flawed considering the fact that Utah, Louisville and TCU were in that category. People are just choosing to believe a flawed narrative.

By the way, this is what I was talking about in I believe the SMU thread, when I said that Memphis should be in contact with the Pac-12. There were already reports that the Pac-12 has been in contact with Rice, Tulane and Colorado State. There's a VERY real possibility that the Four Corner schools are jumping to the Big 12. I'm not so sure that Oregon abd Washington will join them or jump to the ACC. So the Pac-12 will likely backfill and sign a new TV deal and GORs for 5 years and Oregon and Washington will wait it out for the B1G. I could see the Pac-12 expanding and trying a national version similar to the B1G and Pac-12 while also targeting academics. They lose the Four Corner schools and respond by adding SMU, SDSU, Rice, Tulane, Colorado State, Gonzaga and Memphis. Memphis is R1 so you should be able to clear their academic hurdle and they're going to be desperate for marquee basketball. That gives you at least 5 years to build up your program in a P5 conference with P5 money, even in an unequal revenue sharing program, and in a best case scenario you become attractive to the Big 12 or ACC or, worse case scenario, the Pac-12 lives on with Oregon abd Washington or they jump to the B1G and the remaining Pac-12 build up enough cache to retain its autonomous status similar to the Big 12 or the Big East retaining BCS status.

Totally Delusional before USC and UCLA left — now?

Totally Realistic and probable—


The Pac12 is falling apart and Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and Arizona State don’t have any options that look better than the Big12 if the Pac12 ends up completing the fall ( the 4 Corners school could be the final straw)

(03-04-2023 09:22 AM)MemphisFootballFan Wrote:  I think this speculation has been going on for about 9 months. At this point I guess anything is possible, but Pac-12 to Big-12 has always seemed like a step down to me.

It was always a step down. Primarily because the PAC was stable due to all of the schools being somewhat similar, all preferred playing each other, overall have (had) enormous tv markets, and they were regional.

Then the PAC got a new commissioner who has been very inept.
In the meantime, the B12 got a commissioner who has been crushing it.

Then two PAC teams with their largest markets gets poached. Then the new tv deal hasnt been forthcoming.

Which is why the B12 is no longer a step down. I still believe the remaining PAC teams want to stay together, but I also see the 4 teams planning an out in case the tv contract isnt great.

So many people are constantly complaining about how the transfer portal and NIL have destroyed college sports. The truth is that the large conferences have been destroying colleges sports for decades and it's only getting worse.

Why these 4 schools to the BiG12, if Washington and Oregon are the big $$ schools remaining after UCLA and USC, why isn't the Big12 pursuing them? The only reason is that the reports of B1G pursuing UW, Oregon, Stanford, and Cal are credible.

If so, that may not be terrible for Memphis. Then the scenario may be B1G to 20 schools (and leaves UVa and UNC alone). Big 12 takes the 4 schools mentioned and goes to 16. SEC at 16. Does SEC try to go to 20, taking VT, UNC, Clemson, and FSU? The ACC can't stand at 10.5 schools and has to go after whomever is left (us, UConn, USF, etc). Ike has been talking ACC for a while, he may be on the right track.