Conference Realignment

Northeast Stinger

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Maybe, but even across the entire state, there are a lot of UGA first fans that will tune in and watch Tech as long as they don't play at the same time. You've all met them they're the ones that say "as long as they aren't playing Georgia I pull for GT." Those fans are more common in Atl. If B1G plants a flag in Atlanta, that number who will watch will go up, plus hopefully some ticket sales

Don't listen to anyone tell you markets don't matter anymore. They may matter less, but when it's the #6 in the nation, growing exponentially, and a major hub - it matters. Especially if there is a school right in the middle of it that is a perfect fit on all levels.
Interesting. It’s been years (many decades) since I’ve encountered a uga fan who will pull for Tech. The ones I run into now laugh at our misfortunes and wish us nothing but misery. Now saying I doubt you, I would just like to hear more about these fans that I never run into.
 

roadkill

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Interesting. It’s been years (many decades) since I’ve encountered a uga fan who will pull for Tech. The ones I run into now laugh at our misfortunes and wish us nothing but misery. Now saying I doubt you, I would just like to hear more about these fans that I never run into.
I know several fans with mixed allegiances and catch the Tech games if we are playing a marque opponent or in a bowl. In a few cases, they may watch hoping to see us lose, as I sometimes do when ugag is playing an important game. But many actively root for us to win as long it's not COFH. I don’t think these fans are that uncommon in the state, especially in the Atlanta area.
 

roadkill

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Professional football is boring, in my opinion. I truly believe if not for fantasy football (and to a much lesser extent, gambling) pro football would have mediocre ratings. Just my opinion.
NFL games are more boring to me as well, but you can’t dispute their viewership numbers. The NFL sets the standard for a well-managed entertainment business that has had sustained growth and outstanding audience numbers.
As @RonJohn indicated, the college game is lacking a few things that will become necessary for it to continue growing in popularity. One of the keys is a better opportunity for closer parity among a significantly larger cohort of teams than we have now. Closely aligned with this is improving opportunities for these teams to make the playoffs and have a shot at a championship. These things will likely require a new governance organization for this top tier, as well as additional playoff expansion. The NCAA has already shown a willingness to allow the former to occur, and the CFP is likely to expand further until the money stops growing.
 

UgaBlows

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Professional football is boring, in my opinion. I truly believe if not for fantasy football (and to a much lesser extent, gambling) pro football would have mediocre ratings. Just my opinion.
It is until the playoffs, then it become incredibly compelling to me for some reason
 

stinger78

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Maybe, but even across the entire state, there are a lot of UGA first fans that will tune in and watch Tech as long as they don't play at the same time. You've all met them they're the ones that say "as long as they aren't playing Georgia I pull for GT." Those fans are more common in Atl. If B1G plants a flag in Atlanta, that number who will watch will go up, plus hopefully some ticket sales

Don't listen to anyone tell you markets don't matter anymore. They may matter less, but when it's the #6 in the nation, growing exponentially, and a major hub - it matters. Especially if there is a school right in the middle of it that is a perfect fit on all levels.
Yes, but…. It doesn’t matter, directly, how many watch. It matters more how many additional TV’s are added to monthly user fees. That happens just by living in an area.

Right now, my provider isn’t carrying the Braves despite that price being baked in to my cable bill. They are crediting me $9 per month for that - whether or not I watch Braves baseball.
 

Northeast Stinger

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NFL games are more boring to me as well, but you can’t dispute their viewership numbers. The NFL sets the standard for a well-managed entertainment business that has had sustained growth and outstanding audience numbers.
As @RonJohn indicated, the college game is lacking a few things that will become necessary for it to continue growing in popularity. One of the keys is a better opportunity for closer parity among a significantly larger cohort of teams than we have now. Closely aligned with this is improving opportunities for these teams to make the playoffs and have a shot at a championship. These things will likely require a new governance organization for this top tier, as well as additional playoff expansion. The NCAA has already shown a willingness to allow the former to occur, and the CFP is likely to expand further until the money stops growing.
Good point about parity. Most NFL fans in most markets seem to hold out hope for a playoff spot, unlike 90% of college teams.
 

LT 1967

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Outside of this message board, I've never heard this narrative mentioned. Most of my SEC/B1G friends will readily admit the ACC is the third best conference.

I attach these published ranking for your consideration. I have attached one each from Sports Illustrated, Bleacher Report, and 247 sports. these are for the 2022 season. The attached Conference ranking show the ACC 4th or 5th in the conference pecking order. The Sports Illustrated ranking does show some data to try to back up their rankings.

I don't agree with any of these, but they have a voice in the College Football world and help damage the ACC football reputation.
 

Attachments

  • College football conference rankings, from SEC to MAC - Sports Illustrated 2022.pdf
    319.6 KB · Views: 11
  • Ranking Every College Football Conference After the 2022 Season _ News, Scores, Highlights, St...pdf
    1.4 MB · Views: 6
  • Ranking college football's FBS conferences from 1-10 for the 2022 season 247 Sports.pdf
    1.8 MB · Views: 5

stinger78

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I attach these published ranking for your consideration. I have attached one each from Sports Illustrated, Bleacher Report, and 247 sports. these are for the 2022 season. The attached Conference ranking show the ACC 4th or 5th in the conference pecking order. The Sports Illustrated ranking does show some data to try to back up their rankings.

I don't agree with any of these, but they have a voice in the College Football world and help damage the ACC football reputation.
Conference “rankings” shouldn’t matter squat, but they do. They impact perception which motivates viewership. The Narrative absolutely matters, and it absolutely hurts the ACC. It’s why F$u was left out of the CFP last year.
 

yeti92

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I attach these published ranking for your consideration. I have attached one each from Sports Illustrated, Bleacher Report, and 247 sports. these are for the 2022 season. The attached Conference ranking show the ACC 4th or 5th in the conference pecking order. The Sports Illustrated ranking does show some data to try to back up their rankings.

I don't agree with any of these, but they have a voice in the College Football world and help damage the ACC football reputation.
2022 included Texas and Oklahoma, the only two powerhouse brands in that conference, and they have both left now.
 

Augusta_Jacket

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Conference “rankings” shouldn’t matter squat, but they do. They impact perception which motivates viewership. The Narrative absolutely matters, and it absolutely hurts the ACC. It’s why F$u was left out of the CFP last year.

The very first file ranked the Big-12 ahead of the B1G. That should be the red flag for using these to compare conferences as we stand today. It's based on won/loss records for a single season. Not germane to what we are discussing. These rankings are about how successful a conferences teams were in a single season. 2022, to be exact. That has little to no bearing on how conferences will be seen in the next few years, especially since the two marquee teams propping the Big-12 up in those rankings are now SEC teams.
 

Northeast Stinger

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Conference “rankings” shouldn’t matter squat, but they do. They impact perception which motivates viewership. The Narrative absolutely matters, and it absolutely hurts the ACC. It’s why F$u was left out of the CFP last year.
Perception is reality, unfortunately. And of the various narratives that we have seen over the years all of them seem to be based on the perception that the ACC is an “also ran” conference. Tech needs that to change or we need to join a conference that isn’t constantly looked down on.
 

orientalnc

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Sally Jenkins at the Washington Post has an interesting POV. I made the paywall open for this post.

My feeling is that Congress will have to undo the contracts via legislation that brings salaries and media deals in line with educational outcomes. One thing she did not say is a key for me. I think the NCAA needs to roll back freshman eligibility. When a person enrolls at a university he/she should be allowed a full year to acclimate to college life and college level academics. I would continue to allow transfers, but require a transfer to make up lost credits and be "on target" to graduate within six from original enrollment before becoming eligible at the new university. These changes would require the colleges to put the education of these athletes.

I also think academic probation or warning should suspend athletic eligibility, but I am not sure how that could be enforced uniformly.

Ms. Jenkins is saying the colleges need to get back into the business of educating the athletes as regular college students. And they should be treating athletics as an extension of the university, not as a revenue generator.
 

Randy Carson

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HOW THE SEC AND THE B1G DRIVE COLLEGE FOOTBALL OUT OF BUSINESS

Another Financial Analyst Predicts Decline:



Multiple analysts have compared college football to the auto industry and others which have consolidated dramatically. Football is on the cusp of just that.

1. The Big 10 and the SEC suck all the money out of the sport.
2. The smaller/less successful schools simply drop their football programs (or continue at an irrelevant level - looking at YOU, Ivy League).
3. The NFL drives the B1g and the SEC out of business. Because they can, and eventually no one cares about a D league.

Game over.
 

RonJohn

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HOW THE SEC AND THE B1G DRIVE COLLEGE FOOTBALL OUT OF BUSINESS

Another Financial Analyst Predicts Decline:



Multiple analysts have compared college football to the auto industry and others which have consolidated dramatically. Football is on the cusp of just that.

1. The Big 10 and the SEC suck all the money out of the sport.
2. The smaller/less successful schools simply drop their football programs (or continue at an irrelevant level - looking at YOU, Ivy League).
3. The NFL drives the B1g and the SEC out of business. Because they can, and eventually no one cares about a D league.

Game over.

Not exactly the same, but similar things have happened consistently in television channels. MTV was big because of music videos. The executives wanted exponential growth, so they dropped music videos for reality programming. There was a lot of growth, but the music video fans left. When their reality programming bump dropped off, the have become almost irrelevant as far as I can tell. TechTV was popular for computer and tech geeks. They started adding pop-content programming to try to grow the audience, and ended up merging with (or being acquired by) G4. The content was pushed away from the core audience and more towards pop-culture. They got a bump, but lost the core audience and couldn't survive the return down from the bump. TechTV/G4 never was as popular as MTV, but it followed a similar story line.

College football has to explain to people why a 13-0 team is excluded from the playoffs. College football has to create "fake" playoff excitement instead of the "organic" playoff excitement that the NFL gets. College football can grow sustainably if the schools and media companies choose to. Unfortunately, sustainability has become unimportant in American business culture. It is far more important how much growth you can achieve this year, and how much money you can make next year than whether you will still be in business in 5-10 years.
 

stinger78

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Perception is reality, unfortunately. And of the various narratives that we have seen over the years all of them seem to be based on the perception that the ACC is an “also ran” conference. Tech needs that to change or we need to join a conference that isn’t constantly looked down on.
Yes, and it would be a good start if Tech alumni/fans wouldn’t buy in to the Narrative. You see that a lot on these type boards.
 
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