Conference Realignment

[Wrecked]

Auburn hasn't been relevant in 10 years. Agreed. When was the last time Army was relevant? 1935?

As an Army season ticket holder they are relevant to me. And what's your definition of relevant? Winning a bowl game? Army beat an SEC team in a bowl in 2021. Army Navy sell out a professional stadium every year (and not one with half the seats covered). One could argue Army is more relevant than Tech is on the national scene.

 

[Vespidae]

As an Army season ticket holder they are relevant to me. And what's your definition of relevant? Winning a bowl game? Army beat an SEC team in a bowl in 2021. Army Navy sell out a professional stadium every year (and not one with half the seats covered). One could argue Army is more relevant than Tech is on the national scene.

Army hasn't been relevant other than emotionally for a very, very long time. Has Army competed for anything of importance in the last 30 years? I think not.

 

[forensicbuzz]

Auburn hasn't been relevant in 10 years. Agreed. When was the last time Army was relevant? 1935?

Maybe a little later than that. Navy, probably more recent that that. But, relevancy only matters if you're affecting the championship. Most (95%?) aren't relevant

 

[Oldgoldandwhite]

Why not take the last two PAC teams if they came in under the same arrangements?
Give Cal and Stanford someone to play.

 

[g0lftime]

Seriously? As if it translates into something meaningful?

When was the last time ANY service academy competed for a natty? I can't think of any.

Had to be alive during WWII.

 

[g0lftime]

Maybe a little later than that. Navy, probably more recent that that. But, relevancy only matters if you're affecting the championship. Most (95%?) aren't relevant

For a long time, they were not allowed to go to bowl games. The last really good Navy team was when Stauback played. BTW I was in the Navy at the same time. All he really did was play on a Navy sponsored football team before he left the military. They had some really good teams made up of ex college players who had military obligations. Those were days during the draft and Vietnam.

 

[stinger 1957]

Why not take the last two PAC teams if they came in under the same arrangements?
Give Cal and Stanford someone to play.

Doubt the same arrangements would be available because the TV money probably would not be there. Look at the TV mkts for SMU and CAL, Stanford, all top 10 media mkts.

 

[orientalnc]

Doubt the same arrangements would be available because the TV money probably would not be there. Look at the TV mkts for SMU and CAL, Stanford, all top 10 media mkts.

I believe those two would have statewide TV markets.

 

[LT 1967]

The SEC is their Conference for TV games. The Big 12 is a Fox Conference so this is logical. It wouldn’t be from one ESPN Conference to another ESPN Conference. No ACC to SEC bailout.

Just a follow-up on the ESPN and FOX situation with the BIG 12 around the time Texas and OK announced their departure from the Big 12. See the attached Article from CBS (Dennis Dodd). Note that the Big 12 TV deal was a joint deal with ESPN and Fox, similar to their new deal for 2024. This is in July of 2021.

This Article indicates that ESPN will "Eat Their Own" as long as it helps their bottom Line. They want as many of the Football Factories together as possible. This apparently helps their bottom line more than keeping the Big 12 or the ACC Hold so to speak. I would not doubt that they are working behind the scenes to find a way out of the ACC's GOR for Clemson and FSU. As previous Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby noted in the Article, ESPN was in on their GOR, same as the ACC. But, when an opportunity comes for ESPN make more money, GORs don't seem to matter.

Even ESPN probably can't help with enough money to force this move at the moment due to the 13 years left on the Current GOR deal. But, I hope Jim Phillips and the ACC schools are pushing hard to really improve the overall strength of the current ACC teams so when time comes, the ACC is in a strong negotiating position.

The Articles shown previously by Too Tall and Chicago Based Jacket concerning ESPN show that Bob Bowlsby was correct in his accusations of ESPN included in the attached article. They are calling the Shots!

 

[UgaBlows]

I believe those two would have statewide TV markets.

Just curious, what determines the size of a school’s tv market?

 

[CEB]

Just curious, what determines the size of a school’s tv market?

 

[iceeater1969]

Turds are turds. Drunk people say stupid things. I don't think GT or anyone has a monopoly on that. If that's the worst things we do, that's pretty tame compared to other schools.

Sorry i called your friend or relative or someone u rush to defend.


Guess he forgot ""no man can help bring born average, but he don't have any excuse for being common".

 

[forensicbuzz]

Sorry i called your friend or relative or someone u rush to defend.


Guess he forgot ""no man can help bring born average, but he don't have any excuse for being common".

Not sure why you choose to be offended by my response. I didn’t defend anyone.

The guy was obviously a turd. Every school has them, especially when alcohol is involved. Had I been there, I’d had told him to shut up and stop embarrassing his alma mater. Not sure if you did, but I would suspect you did.

However, what you describe, however lacking in couth, pales in comparison to what I’ve seen from many of the cow colleges around us.

That was my sole point. No need to get indignant about it.

 

[Techster]

This is why ESPN/FOX/CBS/Etc are not really worried about fans or historical rivalries. Fans are loyal to the school, and not the media channel. If USC moves from PAC12/ESPN to B1G/FOX, USC fans will follow them. If Texas moves from Big12 to SEC, Texas fans will follow. When college football moves to streaming from Cable, college fans will follow.

 

[cpf2001]

“Excluding rivalry week” is doing a lot of work in that stat, of course.

I don’t think anyone is arguing that realignment and effective relegation is immediate poison, vs long term. So it could be like how the cable industry was happy about hitting new record subscriber numbers in the early 2010s… but others were pointing at YouTube, Netflix, and Hulu and saying “watch out!”

The PAC-12 failing to get a deal they were happy with should be ringing big bright warning bells for everyone getting paid in a CFB-related job.

 

[orientalnc]

“Excluding rivalry week” is doing a lot of work in that stat, of course.

I don’t think anyone is arguing that realignment and effective relegation is immediate poison, vs long term. So it could be like how the cable industry was happy about hitting new record subscriber numbers in the early 2010s… but others were pointing at YouTube, Netflix, and Hulu and saying “watch out!”

The PAC-12 failing to get a deal they were happy with should be ringing big bright warning bells for everyone getting paid in a CFB-related job.

There were four compelling games on the east coast this weekend: tOSU/ND, Bama/Miss, FSU/Clem, and Ore/Colo. I do not think the average TV watching fan knows who has NIL contracts and who doesn't. The only one of those that might be different is the Colorado game. The rest would be top draws anytime.

On the west coast the Utah/UCLA and WashST/OreST were big. The latter because of the PAC-12 demise.

This was a great weekend to watch football and the rain on Saturday pretty much killed outdoor plans. Thanks Ophelia.

 

[Randy Carson]

Oregon St. AD: Relegation model warrants study

Oregon State athletic director Scott Barnes indicated Thursday he is curious about the possibility of promotion/relegation in college football.

www.espn.com

The fun, far-fetched, so-crazy-it-just-might-work appeal of college football relegation and promotion

Relegation in European soccer is based on merit. It's often been mentioned around American sports and the Mountain West is considering it in college football, but how would that work?

www.espn.com

Is ESPN pushing promotion/relegation now? Floating a trial balloon?

 

[Randy Carson]

Just a follow-up on the ESPN and FOX situation with the BIG 12 around the time Texas and OK announced their departure from the Big 12. See the attached Article from CBS (Dennis Dodd). Note that the Big 12 TV deal was a joint deal with ESPN and Fox, similar to their new deal for 2024. This is in July of 2021.

This Article indicates that ESPN will "Eat Their Own" as long as it helps their bottom Line. They want as many of the Football Factories together as possible. This apparently helps their bottom line more than keeping the Big 12 or the ACC Hold so to speak. I would not doubt that they are working behind the scenes to find a way out of the ACC's GOR for Clemson and FSU. As previous Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby noted in the Article, ESPN was in on their GOR, same as the ACC. But, when an opportunity comes for ESPN make more money, GORs don't seem to matter.

Even ESPN probably can't help with enough money to force this move at the moment due to the 13 years left on the Current GOR deal. But, I hope Jim Phillips and the ACC schools are pushing hard to really improve the overall strength of the current ACC teams so when time comes, the ACC is in a strong negotiating position.

The Articles shown previously by Too Tall and Chicago Based Jacket concerning ESPN show that Bob Bowlsby was correct in his accusations of ESPN included in the attached article. They are calling the Shots!

And this suggests how relegation comes about. It's in ESPN's interest to have a premier league with killer games every single weekend. Maybe ESPN and Fox alternate years for who covers the premier league and the second tier league. What if the amount of money paid to the member schools for both leagues was split 50/50? or 60/40 based on estimated audiences? This is just an actuarial problem. Work it out.

BUT, and this is HUGE: with a multi-tier system, more fanbases are actually involved in pursuing championships of their respective tiers, right? Because there would be more than ONE Championship game each year. (More viewers and ticket sales.)

And every game...even the last game of the season between two last-place teams suddenly becomes do-or-die for the teams that don't want to be relegated. (More viewers and ticket sales.)

The league championship for lower tiers has MORE meaning because the winners PROMOTE. (More viewers and ticket sales.)

The CFP is ALREADY boring and predictable (unless your team is already in the elite group)...and it will only get more so as it expands to more teams. Can't we guess the final Top Ten each year before the season even begins with pretty good accuracy? (Less viewers and ticket sales.)

Why not add some meaning to the rest of the games? (More viewers...okay, you get it.)

 

[Randy Carson]

And one more point: if the superconferences continue to evolve, we are close to having a multi-tier system anyway: The SEC and the B1G will be the two elite conferences playing each other year after year after year after year for "the" national championship, with only an occasional breakthrough by another school. Occasional.

There's just too much money for it to be any other way.

At least with relegation, the two worst teams of those schools would move down while the the two best teams from the "ACC" and the "B12" move up.

Each alumni base would be free to decide how much it wants to spend on its athletic program and what tier it wants to compete in.

The money would be divided along the NFL model rather than the MLB model. I mean, is the payroll of the Mets even close to that of the A's? Not even in the same ballpark. But here's the thing: the first-place Braves are only 10th on that list.

Reward on the basis of Merit - not money.

 

[Oldgoldandwhite]

Unfortunately there is no parity in CFB. When they reduced scholarships, you saw it for a season or two until the big boys figured it out. About the only solution is to limit it to about 15 scholarships a year, but with NIL money, they would find a loophole. With the rare exception, 90% of CFB teams are eliminated before the season begins.