Conference Realignment

CEB

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RonJohn said:
That analogy is far different than conference alignments. What you are describing there is fraud against one group of investors.

The contract for the Pac12 is expiring mid-year 2024. UCLA and USC are NOT breaking a contract. They have announced ahead of time that they will not renew a contract with the Pac12. There is no legal agreement among the Pac12 teams after August 1, 2024. There is no legal agreement between Fox and the Pac12 after August 1, 2024. Fox can negotiate whatever agreements they desire with whoever they desire to negotiate with. They can negotiate a sweet deal with USC, UCLA, and the current Big10 and negotiate a cut-throat deal with the remaining Pac12. They have no legal commitment to the Pac12 after August 1, 2024. The Pac12 can negotiate a contract with ESPN, NBC, or Apple and cut ties with Fox.

The Big10 contract is expiring. The Pac12 contract is expiring. Their TV contracts are expiring. All parties involved are attempting to arrange the best new contract for themselves that they can. There will be winners, and there will be losers. That is extremely normal. It is not defrauding one party for another as in your analogy.
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You’re right... With contracts expiring for BIG and PAC all is fair game. My bad. And of course my example is fraud and illegal... that was my point.
My initial comment was in the context of NBC wanting ND in the BIG and the notion that ACC teams can go to the SEC with some sort of blessing from ESPN. It can all happen in 2036 of course when contracts expire but prior to that it’s a problem.
I guess I could’ve clearly communicated and done a better job of reading too.... but that’s not what message boards are for, right?
 
Techster

Techster

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CEB said:
I get it... teams ought to be able to pursue their own interests. I also get that BIG is competing with SEC and ESPN is competing with FOX. That’s not the issue. The potential collusion is ESPN+SEC or Fox+BIG. The folks in the tin foil hats believe that ESPN can just pay off all of the remaining ACC teams and nullify GOR to facilitate programs’ departures. That’s collusion.
If Fox is telling BIG “hey, grab team A and will pay you X and grab team B and we’ll pay Y...” that’s collusion.
I’m sure the networks are being very careful with how actively involved they are in the process but the way it’s all going down certainly suggests that they’re driving it to an extent. That’s where it could get interesting because there are certainly going to be plenty of damaged parties
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There's a reason why announcements were made after UT, OU, USC, UCLA left their conferences that "they were the ones that approached the other conferences". If you believe that, there's beachfront property in Topeka Kansas I'd like to sell you. Also, something I said several times, there's also a reason why SEC and B1G went after the "head" of each conference. They're effectively killing future media deals, and also signaling to other potential targets that staying in that conference won't be a good bet since the biggest media draws are now leaving.

I fully expect Oregon/Washington/Stanford (possibly Cal) to be in the B1G in the next few years. There's a possibility Arizona/AZ State also end up in B1G as Arizona is a fast growing state.

All the signs have been lining up a few years now. It was funny when I first brought this up and a few were adamant it wasn't reality. Here we are.
 

eetech

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CEB said:
I get it... teams ought to be able to pursue their own interests. I also get that BIG is competing with SEC and ESPN is competing with FOX. That’s not the issue. The potential collusion is ESPN+SEC or Fox+BIG. The folks in the tin foil hats believe that ESPN can just pay off all of the remaining ACC teams and nullify GOR to facilitate programs’ departures. That’s collusion.
If Fox is telling BIG “hey, grab team A and will pay you X and grab team B and we’ll pay Y...” that’s collusion.
I’m sure the networks are being very careful with how actively involved they are in the process but the way it’s all going down certainly suggests that they’re driving it to an extent. That’s where it could get interesting because there are certainly going to be plenty of damaged parties
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The GOR is more collusion than anything else.

I’m surprised it’s even legal (not a lawyer). Frankly, I doubt it is. If it ever gets tested in the courts I suspect it will collapse rapidly.
 

stinger 1957

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What seems to make sense to me is for ND to first test getting out of ACC GOR, they don't have as much to lose if it doesn't work and maybe NBC wanting to do a "BIG" deal forces ND to just do that, something maybe being worked out behind the scenes for all this to happen. We don't know all the dynamics going into it all obviously, but I sense both the BIG and SEC feel self imposed pressure to get ahead of the other in all of this, so IMO this could all come down faster because they don't want to be sitting around while the other gets a jump ahead. All just some thoughts I've had and it could easily be very, very different. The one that ends up being the Big Daddy in this has an advantage in future years IMO and both conferences know this, thus lots of pressure going fwd.
 

CEB

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stinger 1957 said:
What seems to make sense to me is for ND to first test getting out of ACC GOR, they don't have as much to lose if it doesn't work and maybe NBC wanting to do a "BIG" deal forces ND to just do that, something maybe being worked out behind the scenes for all this to happen. We don't know all the dynamics going into it all obviously, but I sense both the BIG and SEC feel self imposed pressure to get ahead of the other in all of this, so IMO this could all come down faster because they don't want to be sitting around while the other gets a jump ahead. All just some thoughts I've had and it could easily be very, very different. The one that ends up being the Big Daddy in this has an advantage in future years IMO and both conferences know this, thus lots of pressure going fwd.
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I think you’re on the right track but I’m not sure that ND testing GOR is a good precedent for anyone else. I know they have agreed to GOR for non-football sports. They also have an agreement that if they were to join a conference, it has to be the ACC. What i don’t know is what penalty it carries if they violate and join another conference. I would imagine the full exit fee would apply but Surely it wouldn’t take their football rights since football was never a part... but who knows? As long as football is safe for them, they may be willing to waive media rights to other sports and leave anyway. Again, who knows.
The one thing I do know is that their situation is not really applicable to anyone else regardless of how it shakes out.
 

g0lftime

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Why are these programs looking to go into these conferences where they will be tested to win 8 or 9 games. I realize the money is very enticing for the AD's to support non revenue sports but the path to a national championship just gets that much harder. If they expand the playoff to 12 teams, can you imagine we might have a 2 or 3 loss team winning the championship.
 

RamblinRed

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Everyone keeps forgetting one important thing - ND doesn't want to be part of the B10, never has.

There has been almost no legitimate chatter that it will join the B10, in fact most of the chatter is that it will stay independent in football.
It wants a better deal from NBC and is likely to get it. NBC has hinted if it can put other games around it then it would pay a bigger contract to ND.

I think all this talk of NBC doing a deal for a piece of B10's media rights (B10 is obviously going to split its rights among multiple content providers) makes it less likely that ND ends up in the B10, rather than more likely.
 

RamblinRed

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I think the B10 media contracts are going to tell us alot going forward. First for how much revenue will they ultimately be worth, second, who do they do business with, and third, when will they expire.

I saw alot of chatter on B10 boards with expectations that the media contracts will be set up to expire in the early 2030's to likely match close to when other conference contracts will expire.
 
bobongo

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BilldGopher said:
Came across this too...

www.sportsbusinessjournal.com

ESPN out of Big Ten media rights talks; CBS, NBC set to join Fox

ESPN has pulled out of Big Ten media rights negotiations entirely, ending one of the longest sports media relationships in the business.
www.sportsbusinessjournal.com www.sportsbusinessjournal.com

May be a duplicate to Twitter post so mods please delete if not contributing to the thread. Thanks.
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Hey Bill, The Big Twelve wants you!

saturdaytradition.com

Hickey: Big 12's rumored overture to Minnesota is 10 steps past preposterous

The Big 12's rumored interest in poaching Minnesota from the Big Ten is an utterly laughable grasp at relevance.
saturdaytradition.com saturdaytradition.com

If you go, can we have your spot?
 
BilldGopher

BilldGopher

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As for the report of Big 12 interest...and Minnesota even taking the call...

1660094108420.png
Taking this should be left to professionals...
 
UgaBlows

UgaBlows

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UgaBlows said:
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If this massive NBC/BIG deal goes through as NBC’s negotiations with Notre Dame are still ongoing, will the BIG get involved behind the scenes? Would ESPN make an offer to snag ND‘s tv rights to stick it to the BIG? I have to think that the BIG will use their new agreement/partnership with NBC to influence the process and put pressure on ND via the amount of the NBC/ND offer to join their conference. If NBC plays this right they could secure ND home and most away games in the future if ND joins The BIG so the incentive is definitely there for NBC now.
 

RamblinRed

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UgaBlows said:
If this massive NBC/BIG deal goes through as NBC’s negotiations with Notre Dame are still ongoing, will the BIG get involved behind the scenes? Would ESPN make an offer to snag ND‘s tv rights to stick it to the BIG? I have to think that the BIG will use their new agreement/partnership with NBC to influence the process and put pressure on ND via the amount of the NBC/ND offer to join their conference. If NBC plays this right they could secure ND home and most away games in the future if ND joins The BIG so the incentive is definitely there for NBC now.
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The chatter for the last week or more has been that ND wants a better deal from NBC and NBC is interested in giving it to them if they can get some other college football around the ND game. So imo if NBC does a deal with B10 that actually helps ND stay independent. NBC would not need to have ND in the B10.
 
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