At the moment the West is clearly superior (last year the West had 5 teams finish in the top 20 IIRC) and we already do a lot of our recruiting in GA and FL. But who knows if this will always be the case? While not a big fan of change, if moving to the East is what it takes to keep the SEC dominate I'll go for it. Hopefully though the rumors are true that we are grabbing WVU and then we add another team to the East to balance it out.
Texas must not have been willing to make any concessions re: Longhorn Network. Otherwise I can't think of anything that would have derailed this.
One thing that has been made abundantly clear the last couple of weeks is how giant a douche Texas is. Sucks for the rest of you hangersons, but I'm glad she's finding out it's harder to get a date to the prom than she thought.
http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/6998751/pac-12-conference-decides-expand-further Yep. So basically Texas is the reason no one wants to be in the conference, and Texas is the reason the others can't join another. How long are the other three gonna remain tied to Texas?
Sounds like the PAC 12 is playing hardball, and good for them when it comes to Texas. If the PAC does want to go to 16 though they have their own issues. At some point geography does come into play, who else would they be able to add? BYU, Boise? The TX/OK schools offer a nice package in that regard. At this point it's not going to surprise me if the remaining Big East raids the Big 12 for Kansas and Kansas State, assuming Missouri leaves. KU would be a coup for the Big East in regards to basketball. Fucking Texas man.
cnnSI.com was reporting yesterday that Texas now wants to "create stability" in the Big 12, and that "nothing is off the table" in terms of negotiating. I assume this means they'd be willing to do equal revenue-sharing with other Big 12 teams. Not sure if that's enough. It sounds like nobody wants to be the one who starts the whole avalanche of realignment that would result in killing the Big 12 and/or Big East. But it'll happen, sooner or later.
If the Big 12 wants to stick around then they need to raid the Big East and other Conferences and re-expand. Maybe they could be the first 16 team conference in some deal with the better Big East Programs or grab BYU/TCU/Boise State/U of H, and fill in the rest with those programs. They won't be the best conference no matter what they do but they could get a lot more interesting.
Sounds like the only change now could come if the SEC can convince the Sooners to become their 14th team. It's doubtful, but it could happen if they really want to stick it to Texas.
They won't share tier 3 television revenue. That's the Longhorn Network. It's a conference killer. ESPN and Texas have killed any chance of there ever being a Big 12 network. Because of that, the LHN is the de facto conference network. That is unacceptable to any school with an ounce of ambition.
The real kicker is that they did it over a network that I believe has a very low chance of even being successful. They can show exactly one football game a year and almost no one has the channel anyway. Texas volleyball and women's soccer viewership certainly can't be enough create the revenue it would take to support a network. And I really doubt that the one football game a year is going to pay for the whole thing.
The pussy schools will allow more games to be on the LHN. Tech said no, but KState already caved. ESPN will flat our bribe the small fish for any game that doesn't get picked up.
Tech should have gone to the Pac 12 last year when they had an open invite. We've got no power, what are we going to do, join the Mountain West? Since Texas was being such a douche I'm a little surprised the Pac 12 didn't just go ahead and say come on in to everyone else and just leave them hanging out there on their own. Oklahoma must have come off pretty bad too I guess.
I have no real problem with Auburn moving to the SEC East. However, I have a huge problem with the idea of moving the Iron Bowl away from the last game of the regular season. This crap of playing it during the afternoon on the Friday after Thanksgiving is bad enough. I don't want to make it worse. I'll also miss LSU. Over the last two decades, that's become a very real rivalry in it's own right. Those late night games down on the Plains and in Death Valley have been legendary.
Since it looks like Missouri is backing out, maybe we can grab WVU and for the moment at least won't have to move to the East.
Great article, too much data and charts to do a good copy/paste: The Geography of College Football Fans (and Realignment Chaos)
I know, as far as the Conferences are concerned, it's about new TV and recruiting markets, but if the SEC needs to expand the East, I'd like to bring Georgia Tech back into the fold.
Now there is a man bites dog story: Old Man wants return of Traditional Rival.... .... to also include traditional parade where co-eds march through campus in their pjs. Wreck Tech Pajama Parade
An interesting concept, and some nice statistical work. However, their method for assigning fans to a team is flawed. They used responses from people who had visited a particular web site, which does not create a valid statisical sample of the country. As you can see from the comments, some of their results are questionable. In looking at teams that might be interested in changing conferences, I have a simple way to estimate their fan support. The capacity of their football stadium. This is just one factor in determining how attractive a school might be, to a conference. Florida State ......................... 84,000 Missouri ................................ 71,000 Virginia Tech ......................... 66,000 South Florida ......................... 65,000 BYU ..................................... 64,000 West Virginia ......................... 60,000 Louisville .............................. 55,000 Air Force .............................. 52,500 Rutgers ................................ 52,000 Central Florida ....................... 45,000 TCU ..................................... 44,000 after current renovation Connecticut .......................... 40,000 Cincinnati ............................. 35,000 Colorado State ...................... 34,000 If you're trying to do your own conference realignment, maybe this will help.
A&M officially accepted in the SEC; start playing the 2012-2013 season. http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/7019493/texas-officially-gets-accepted-sec
http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/6946317/texas-aggies-hit-tipping-point-bolting-sec This kind of brings up something I noticed when it looked like the Big 12 was finally going to take it's last gasp. Everything was about Texas and OU, with Texas Tech and OSU included as tag alongs. Maybe I've just never noticed it, but I've never felt like Auburn played second fiddle to Alabama. Yeah, the State Government and even our Federal Reps are highly tilted towards Alabama, which gives them more money (who's more likely to become a politician, Lawyers and Businessmen or Farmers and Engineers?) but when it came to the school and the programs we've beaten them more than they've beaten us in recent years. So first off, how do you guys see Auburn? Secondly whats keeping OSU and Tech from pulling an A&M and do their own negotiations?
They simply don't bring the TV sets and political stroke that OU/Texas/A&M do. Texas has been ranked the most valuable college football program by Forbes, with OU well into the top ten. They're high up in the merchandising rankings as well. What makes A&M attractive is their fanbase, access to Texas recruiting, and that 87,000 seat stadium. Though the effectiveness of that stadium is in now question. And don't act like Auburn hasn't ever played second fiddle to Alabama, they've had their streaks.
Oh yeah, there have been streaks on both sides, not claiming that, and overall they're in the lead 40–34–1. It's just that in my mind Auburn is a program in it's own right. In bizarro universe where the SEC is being divided up, I don't see Auburn being dependent on Alabama to get into a conference. Is the OSU/OU relationship getting more balanced or less balanced as time goes on?
Well not on the field but we are filling our constitutionally mandated role and giving OU a good win for the BCS rankings. :marthon: Actually things aren't too divided at the moment, OU's president Boren was governor/senator for the whole state, and OSU's president is an OSU grad with an OU law degree. Boone's money helped a lot, we now have the best athletic facilities in the state.
Oklahoma State is definitely comnig up in the world. In my opinion, that has more to do with Mike Gundy than Boone Pickens. Oklahoma State would be great addition to any conference, even the SEC.
Flow pretty much covered it all but I will say this: Conferences looking to expand from 12 to 16 only have 4 slots to give up. They are going to look for a certain set of criteria with weighted importance. First is obviously money, then football program quality, then basketball program quality, then academic quality. That means the 3 big fish out there are Texas, OU, and Notre Dame. After that the conferences will probably be willing to wait it out and see if any other big names are unhappy with their current situation. If nothing else comes up then schools like OSU and TTU both look like ok choices, but there are no doubt lots of phone calls behind the scenes being made between these universities and conferences. The discussions they are having keep either OSU or Tech from moving on their own. Our only options would be to downgrade to the Mountain West or some other crap conference (not that the Big 12 is looking that great). So with that in mind, the real best option for both OSU and Tech is to just ride on the coattails of our big brothers.
So since it looks like the move to Superconferences and a playoff aren't going to be in our immediate future (posting this at 281015DSEP11, subject to change at any moment), the SEC has brought up an interesting point. With the addition of the BCS Championship game bringing the total bids to 10, and the two most successful BCS conferences both adding top tier teams is it time to do away with the 2 team BCS bowl limit for conferences? http://espn.go.com/college-football...-commissioners-lift-two-team-conference-limit
I think that is a terrible idea. I don't just want to watch the SEC play in every game. Either leave the broken system as it is or work the BCS into an actual playoff with the conference champions. I also think every conference should be required to have a 12 team minimum and a championship to even qualify to send teams to BCS bowls.
