New Conference re-alignment thread

[Saulbadguy]

The old one has AIDS.

Anyways, Chip Brown from Orangebloods.com reports OU may apply to the Pac-12 by the end of the month.

Oklahoma will apply for membership to the Pac-12 before the end of the month, and Oklahoma State is expected to follow suit, a source close to OU's administration told Orangebloods.com.

Even though Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott said Friday the Pac-12 was not interested in expansion at this time, OU's board of regents is fed up with the instability in the Big 12, the source said.

The OU board of regents will meet within two weeks to formalize plans to apply for membership to the Pac-12, the source said.

Messages left Sunday night with OU athletic director Joe Castiglione and Oklahoma State athletic director Mike Holder were not immediately returned.

If OU follows through with what appears to be a unanimous sentiment on the seven-member Oklahoma board of regents to leave the Big 12, realignment in college athletics could be heating back up. OU's application would be matched by an application from Oklahoma State, the source said, even though OSU president Burns Hargis and mega-booster Boone Pickens both voiced their support for the Big 12 last Thursday.

There is differing sentiment about if the Pac-12 presidents and chancellors are ready to expand again after bringing in Colorado and Utah last year and landing $3 billion TV contracts from Fox and ESPN. Colorado president Bruce Benson told reporters last week CU would be opposed to any expansion that might bring about east and west divisions in the Pac-12.

Currently, there are north and south divisions in the Pac-12. If OU and OSU were to join, Larry Scott would have to get creative.

Scott's orginal plan last summer was to bring in Colorado, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State and put them in an eastern division with Arizona and Arizona State. The old Pac-8 schools (USC, UCLA, Cal, Stanford, Oregon, Oregon State, Washington and Washington State) were to be in the west division.

Colorado made the move in June 2010, but when Texas A&M was not on board to go west, the Big 12 came back together with the help of its television partners (ABC/ESPN and Fox).

If Oklahoma and Oklahoma State were accepted into the Pac-12, there would undoubtedly be a hope by Larry Scott that Texas would join the league. But Texas sources have indicated UT is determined to hang onto the Longhorn Network, which would not be permissible in the Pac-12 in its current form.

Texas sources continue to indicate to Orangebloods.com that if the Big 12 falls apart, the Longhorns would consider "all options."

Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe held an emergency conference call 10 days ago with league presidents excluding Oklahoma, Texas and Texas A&M and asked the other league presidents to "work on Texas" because Beebe didn't think the Pac-12 would take Oklahoma without Texas.

Now, it appears OU is willing to take its chances with the Pac-12 with or without Texas.

There seemed to be a temporary pause in any possible shifting of the college athletics' landscape when Baylor led a charge to tie up Texas A&M's move to the Southeastern Conference in legal red tape. BU refused to waive its right to sue the SEC over A&M's departure from the Big 12, and the SEC said it would not admit Texas A&M until it had been cleared of any potential lawsuits.

Baylor, Kansas and Iowa State have indicated they will not waive their right to sue the SEC.

It's unclear if an application by OU to the Pac-12 would draw the same threats of litigation against the Pac-12 from those Big 12 schools.

Stay tuned.

[TomBarndtsTwin]

Originally Posted by lawrenceRaider

When you are a Mizzou fan and you have nothing, you must invent something to pick at your betters about.

Kind of like Raiders fans with regards to the Chiefs?

But nevertheless, Mizzou thanks you for your concerns and assures you they are very happy to be in the SEC and have some stability going forward.

I’m sure KU will be fine when the big conference re-shuffle goes down.

[RustShack]

Scheduling would be a lot easier with 16 teams rather than 14. Play your pod every year, then two from each of the others as well. 9 conference games, play everyone in your conference at least once every two years.

[Sassy Squatch]

Originally Posted by lawrenceRaider

When you are a Mizzou fan and you have nothing, you must invent something to pick at your betters about.

Just how obsessed are you? Rams fan is a Kentucky fan, not Mizzou.

[GloucesterChief]

I could see the PAC 12 doing something potentially like this:

Pod A:
Washington
Wazzu
Oregon
OreSt

Pod B:
Stanford
Cal
UCLA
USC

Pod C:
Zona
Zona St
Okie St
TCU

Pod D:
Colorado
Utah
Houston
Kansas

[Rams Fan]

Originally Posted by lawrenceRaider

When you are a Mizzou fan and you have nothing, you must invent something to pick at your betters about.

You ****ing idiot.

I went to Kentucky. I am a Kentucky alum. I have seen Kentucky lose by 60 to Bama in person and beat Charlotte by 50 in sleet in football. I have seen them lose and win against Kansas in person.

How obsessed are you?

And also, PB’s civil in these discussions and doesn’t automatically pin an opposing viewpoint as OMGMIZZOU.

Go **** yourself.

[Rams Fan]

Originally Posted by Prison Bitch

I mean not to cherry pick but: KU-Duke 2018 Elite 8 game drew 15.6m viewers

The Bama-Ohio State FB title game in January this year was 18.7

People act like college FB is soooo popular and BB isn’t.....but that’s false

I’ll pull up numbers later, but if I’m to shoot some shit out of my ass randomly I’d guess that UK-KU regular season does not draw the same as say Arkansas-Texas will for football this year or LSU-Texas from 2 years ago

[Rams Fan]

I went to the Bragging Rights in 2019 lower level about 3 rows back in a Mizzou booster/donor section (tickets that were gifted to me) wearing a Kentucky pullover while everyone else was wearing Mizzou colors.

Go **** yourself, lawrenceraider.

[Prison Bitch]

Originally Posted by Rams Fan

I’ll pull up numbers later, but if I’m to shoot some shit out of my ass randomly I’d guess that UK-KU regular season does not draw the same as say Arkansas-Texas will for football this year or LSU-Texas from 2 years ago

Agreed.

But there’s a lot more hoops inventory. Kentucky basketball plays 3x the games Kentucky FB does. In aggregate it narrows the #s a lot. Plus FB has to go up against the NFL in the fall whereas hoops is a dead period or programming from Jan-March.

I ran the numbers a few years back from SportsMediaWatch and found about 850M viewers for college football season. 600M for college hoops (225m or so for March Madness alone. )


But those count too, and still it’s <1/2 of total eyeballs for a hoops season

[Rams Fan]

Originally Posted by Prison Bitch

Agreed.

But there’s a lot more hoops inventory. Kentucky basketball plays 3x the games Kentucky FB does. In aggregate it narrows the #s a lot. Plus FB has to go up against the NFL in the fall whereas hoops is a dead period or programming from Jan-March.

I ran the numbers a few years back from SportsMediaWatch and found about 850M viewers for college football season. 600M for college hoops (225m or so for March Madness alone. )


But those count too, and still it’s <1/2 of total eyeballs for a hoops season

You bring up a valid point and I’m not disregarding that basketball has a national following for it. It’s just not THE main factor for all of these conference alignments.

It’s football-plain and simple. And the. Anything involving basketball is an additional bonus for the most part.

Texas and Oklahoma aren’t joining the SEC because they have a large following for basketball-they’re joining because of football. And football moves the needle for decision making. You have anomalies like Kansas, Kentucky, Duke, UNC where basketball still has a large national following that probably supersedes football, but it’s still not as large of a $ driver. as footbal.

KU won’t fall to the wayside like Kansas St. because of their basketball following, but from a department and revenue standpoint, having football not be a complete embarrassment for the last decade would probably benefit them more for the next conference wars(if there’s another one).

[Prison Bitch]

Originally Posted by Rams Fan

You bring up a valid point and I’m not disregarding that basketball has a national following for it. It’s just not THE main factor for all of these conference alignments.

It’s football-plain and simple. And the. Anything involving basketball is an additional bonus for the most part.

Just looking at Kentucky. 2019 FB attendance 425,000. Hoops 390,000

Texas and Oklahoma aren’t joining the SEC because they have a large following for basketball-they’re joining because of football.

Markets. Then football second. See Buttgers, Maryland.

And football moves the needle for decision making. You have anomalies like Kansas, Kentucky, Duke, UNC where basketball still has a large national following that probably supersedes football, but it’s still not as large of a $ driver. as footbal.

2019 all NCAA levels FB attendance 47M. All hoops 31M. Again, the gap isn’t nearly what the avg fan has been told by talking heads.

KU won’t fall to the wayside like Kansas St. because of their basketball following, but from a department and revenue standpoint, having football not be a complete embarrassment for the last decade would probably benefit them more for the next conference wars(if there’s another one).

KU FB is a lost cause and it’s prinariky because they’re next door to an NFL franchise. Even when the Chiefs suck, I go to the games and watch them all because the quality is so superior. Not many programs (if any) can compete with The Shield.

[Matrix]

Originally Posted by lawrenceRaider

When you are a Mizzou fan and you have nothing, you must invent something to pick at your betters about.

Football moves the needle and KansASS hasn't posted a winning season since Twitter was invented. You would be in better shape if your dumbass dept didn't fire Mangino.

Truth hurts.

[Matrix]

Originally Posted by Superturtle

Just how obsessed are you? Rams fan is a Kentucky fan, not Mizzou.

Kentucky is more relevant than the Beaks. That's gotta suck.

[RustShack]

Obviously no one really knows anything at this point.

But latest I heard is there’s interest between the B1G and USC(there’s also previously been rumors the PAC schools want to stay together). The B1G is in no rush, and deciding if they want USC +1 or +5.

Or obviously they could stay at 14 if they want.

[Matrix]

Taylor used to work as the deputy A.D. at Iowa, and he has many contacts in the Big Ten. Based on his conversations with those colleagues, he thinks that league is happy with its current makeup.

“They have told me they’re not talking to anybody,” Taylor said. “I think they would be honest enough to tell me if they were looking at expansion. But right now, they’re telling me, ‘Hey, Gene, we have no desire to expand right now. We don’t need to expand.’ I don’t know that the ACC is looking to expand either.”

https://amp.kansas.com/sports/colleg...253273028.html

[RustShack]

I don’t know all the rules for every conference, but I know in the Big12 you’re supposed to give a 12 hour notice before talking to another conference about joining.

Which obviously Texas and Oklahoma broke that rule, but I’m guessing especially now schools/conferences are trying to keep things as hush hush as much as possible while trying to figure out the future.