Conference Realignment

[eetech]

I think the free-money-era and media arms race prompted by the emergence of streaming made people confuse revenue growth spurred by media company turf wars with actual growth.

I'm worried about attendance trends. I'm worried about viewership trends. Even the highest rated playoff games the past three years have gotten a fair bit fewer viewers (more than 10% less) than the highest rated one of the years before that: https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/college-football-playoff-ratings-bcs-history/ And we haven't come close to the 34M who watched Ohio State/Oregon in 2014.



I think it's shortsighted to look at the cycle within the sport instead of around the sport. IMO the competition is every other sports league, and CFB's fractured management is very bad at making moves that will position it to be relevant nationally against other leagues.

Every program that gets left by the wayside is some fraction of fan eyeballs and $$$ from the 2000-2015ish heyday of the sport. And there's a smaller pool of programs with a smaller geographical footprint, and smaller combined student bodies, to replace them from.

If the NHL contracted down to just the Canadian teams + Minnesota/NY/Bos/Pitt/Philly, say... would you consider that a positive for the sport's future revenue? How's that sort of geographical retrenchment around the biggest names different than what CFB's doing?

This entire post is very astute.

Also, you just need to look at student attendance around the country to realize college football viewership will only be declining.

 

[MWBATL]

As far as Memphis, Tulane and SMU. I suspect that is a financial decision.
The B12 pro rata agreement with ESPN was for P5 additions (Which is why their non-P5 additions are getting less money). If ACC's contract with ESPN is similar than those three won't bring in full additional shares and therefore dilute the shares of the current members. If this expansion happens it is only going to happen because the 3 newcomers are willing to come in for less than full shares so there is some additional money to spread around to the current members.

Also, whether sports fans like it or not both the B1G and ACC put some weight on the quality of the school wanting to join that they are going to associate with. Probably the only time ACC really hasn't followed that is with L'ville. It is the Presidents, not the AD's, who vote on this and sports is only part of the equation for them.

FSU is no academic powerhouse, is it? (Certainly can't tell it by how they have been handling things recently...)

 

[slugboy]

FSU is no academic powerhouse, is it? (Certainly can't tell it by how they have been handling things recently...)

They have some distinguished professors

Sir Harold Kroto - GradWorld FSU

gradworld.fsu.edu

Florida State University

FSU, designated a preeminent university in the state of Florida, is one of the most respected research and learning institutions in the country.

www.fsu.edu

 

[yeti92]

It is indeedy. But I think it would be more fun for us than for members of the volleyball, softball, and baseball teams who have to get back to class the day after a game.

This seems an overplayed imo. Have schools forgotten how to stream classes online since 2020? Teams have also traveled cross country to play one another in the past thousands of times and seem to have made it out ok. If anything, this seems less of an issue now than ever.

 

[yeti92]

FSU is no academic powerhouse, is it? (Certainly can't tell it by how they have been handling things recently...)

Prior to Louisville being added, yea I believe they would have been the dunce of the conference. Supposedly they've been trying to improve a lot in hopes of getting AAU status (and an invite to the B1G).

 

[Augusta_Jacket]

FSU is no academic powerhouse, is it? (Certainly can't tell it by how they have been handling things recently...)

They have moved up to #55 in the national university rankings.

 

[CuseJacket]

Discussion with the ND AD

 

[forensicbuzz]

They have moved up to #55 in the national university rankings.

USN&WR? Not a very good metric, and one academicians don’t use except when the general public is concerned. It’s alol a PR game now.

AAU schools aren’t judged by wholly different criteria.

 

[Augusta_Jacket]

USN&WR? Not a very good metric, and one academicians don’t use except when the general public is concerned. It’s alol a PR game now.

AAU schools aren’t judged by wholly different criteria.

It's an industry accepted metric whether you agree with it or not.

But, per Forbes:

#67
Top Colleges 2022
#24
In Public Colleges
#54
In Research Universities
#15
In The South

 

[GT05]

In academia fsu is to uf what uga is to gt

 

[Techwood Relict]

In academia fsu is to uf what uga is to gt

Comic relief?

 

[GT05]

Inferior

 

[AugustaSwarm]

I'd bet that we go thru this same realignment exercise every summer until the dam breaks and college football is overhauled. Again.

It's disgusting that the NCAA continues to portray college football as anything related to academics. It's not...stop pretending. All of the decisions are driven by money, not academics. The academic argument is nothing more than a red herring.

 

[SOWEGA Jacket]

I'd bet that we go thru this same realignment exercise every summer until the dam breaks and college football is overhauled. Again.

It's disgusting that the NCAA continues to portray college football as anything related to academics. It's not...stop pretending. All of the decisions are driven by money, not academics. The academic argument is nothing more than a red herring.

It’s been this way for at least 60 years and no one has cared except a very few. The reason people bring it up now is to sound like they care. The NCAA has always been a corrupt organization and the fans have eaten it up like candy. The entire history of college football is fake. It’s been professional wrestling. Journalists picking national champs was a worse process than having the East Germans score gymnasts. And the polling system is another tool encouraged by the NCAA to keep it corrupt and fake.

An extended playoff (which is going to 30plus teams) will finally bring us a true national champ like in every level of college sports. But until then we continue to watch a fake sport with a predetermined final four.

 

[slugboy]

The NCAA doesn’t control the bowls, or the CFB playoffs, or the media contracts for the conferences. I do love to bash the NCAA for a lot of reasons, but they’re only partially in charge of football, and less in charge every day.

They keep pretending to be in charge, and that might be their biggest offense.

 

[LT 1967]

It's an industry accepted metric whether you agree with it or not.,

But, per Forbes:

#67
Top Colleges 2022
#24
In Public Colleges
#54
In Research Universities
#15
In The South

Over the last several years, I have noticed that GT has dropped in some of the different rankings, partially due to University of California schools like CAL at San Diego, CAL at Davis, CAL at Irvin have moved ahead of us. Also, Florida moved up to #6 (Forbes). We once occupied #5 several years ago (US News). I am referring to Public Universities only.

To me, I guess it shows that you can have more than 36 majors (GT) and still be highly regarded academically.

 

[iceeater1969]

The NCAA doesn’t control the bowls, or the CFB playoffs, or the media contracts for the conferences. I do love to bash the NCAA for a lot of reasons, but they’re only partially in charge of football, and less in charge every day.

They keep pretending to be in charge, and that might be their biggest offense.

The pass by some that is given to our past prezs is amazing. We have no fund raisng for coaches but build 200 million stuff to get more fans in bds. Then for decades we pay interst only. Once we get accn tv $ , they assume things will work out AND DECIDE TO BUILD EDGE CENTER. The donors and ticket buyers for gtaa outside of building flat lined. Others - took winning seriously. On our football site We blab about millionaires and look down our academic nose at FSU and UF. Gt coachs along w donations and ticket sales at approx 25 million 0r 80% of tv money. Fsu and uf are at close to 100 million.

Now Disney is having trouble in other operations besides espn. Espn is declining as straming grows.
After this current cannibalism shuffle the tv guys will be deciding which schools can sustain quality football. The ncaa board of govs (All college prez) has elected a former State Governor to be Prez of board.

When our Prez was prez of ncaa, they have had authority to keep certian $$$ large schools from dominating the sport. The pro sports knew this was critical. But college Prez missed that. Then when the pay players and free transfer hit them, they did nothing about big guys stock piling players.

 

[SOWEGA Jacket]

The NCAA doesn’t control the bowls, or the CFB playoffs, or the media contracts for the conferences. I do love to bash the NCAA for a lot of reasons, but they’re only partially in charge of football, and less in charge every day.

They keep pretending to be in charge, and that might be their biggest offense.

I agree. But they have always had the biggest tool to rig the entire system - rules enforcement. I’m not going to rehash (shocking I know) the history of the NCAA’s INTENTIONAL abuse of the rule enforcement to pick winners and losers but I’m hoping that a smart fanbase by now understands that all the corruption starts here.

When coach A or conference A get the “nod” from the NCAA while coach B or conference B doesn’t, how long until one becomes a powerhouse and the other gets mocked? Then you add in those getting the nods whining and dining the bowl reps and you get a totally corrupt post season system. Was GT giving out Masters tickets to bowl reps for decades or was that another school in our state? It all needs to die and it is. We finally have people with money forcing a true playoff system. Now, sure they aren’t doing it for the good of the sport but out of greed which is absolutely fine. As long as it brings more teams into the “nod“ fold the better. And thank god the NCAA rules enforcement has finally been neutered so at least every school now has the option to sign illiterates and players with low morals.

Case study - I’m in Albany. At the high school level everyone in every town knows who the state association lets get away with rule breaking. When Probst was hired at Colquitt County and started doing the same thing that Lowndes and Valdosta were doing they went nuts. It was funny talking to friends from Lowndes who were pissed that Probst was allowed to recruit from an 8 county radius and set families up with jobs or housing all for a local address. Lee County has been doing this for years now with kids from Albany and other areas. Same thing in Atlanta. It’s all corrupt so just do away with rules that only affect a few anyway.

 

[forensicbuzz]

Over the last several years, I have noticed that GT has dropped in some of the different rankings, partially due to University of California schools like CAL at San Diego, CAL at Davis, CAL at Irvin have moved ahead of us. Also, Florida moved up to #6 (Forbes). We once occupied #5 several years ago (US News). I am referring to Public Universities only.

To me, I guess it shows that you can have more than 36 majors (GT) and still be highly regarded academically.

you have to look at the criteria they use to rank the schools. These criteria are randomly arbitrary. There have been many reports about how USN&WR first came up with their rankings. 3 journalists sat around in a room coming up with the metrics they'd use to assess each school. There's nothing scientific about these rankings.

If you want something more scientific, look at the rankings produced by the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Everything else is equivalent to the CF polls. Not scientific and very perception-forward.

 

[CEB]

I agree. But they have always had the biggest tool to rig the entire system - rules enforcement. I’m not going to rehash (shocking I know) the history of the NCAA’s INTENTIONAL abuse of the rule enforcement to pick winners and losers but I’m hoping that a smart fanbase by now understands that all the corruption starts here.

When coach A or conference A get the “nod” from the NCAA while coach B or conference B doesn’t, how long until one becomes a powerhouse and the other gets mocked? Then you add in those getting the nods whining and dining the bowl reps and you get a totally corrupt post season system. Was GT giving out Masters tickets to bowl reps for decades or was that another school in our state? It all needs to die and it is. We finally have people with money forcing a true playoff system. Now, sure they aren’t doing it for the good of the sport but out of greed which is absolutely fine. As long as it brings more teams into the “nod“ fold the better. And thank god the NCAA rules enforcement has finally been neutered so at least every school now has the option to sign illiterates and players with low morals.

Case study - I’m in Albany. At the high school level everyone in every town knows who the state association lets get away with rule breaking. When Probst was hired at Colquitt County and started doing the same thing that Lowndes and Valdosta were doing they went nuts. It was funny talking to friends from Lowndes who were pissed that Probst was allowed to recruit from an 8 county radius and set families up with jobs or housing all for a local address. Lee County has been doing this for years now with kids from Albany and other areas. Same thing in Atlanta. It’s all corrupt so just do away with rules that only affect a few anyway.

The pass by some that is given to our past prezs is amazing. We have no fund raisng for coaches but build 200 million stuff to get more fans in bds. Then for decades we pay interst only. Once we get accn tv $ , they assume things will work out AND DECIDE TO BUILD EDGE CENTER. The donors and ticket buyers for gtaa outside of building flat lined. Others - took winning seriously. On our football site We blab about millionaires and look down our academic nose at FSU and UF. Gt coachs along w donations and ticket sales at approx 25 million 0r 80% of tv money. Fsu and uf are at close to 100 million.

Now Disney is having trouble in other operations besides espn. Espn is declining as straming grows.
After this current cannibalism shuffle the tv guys will be deciding which schools can sustain quality football. The ncaa board of govs (All college prez) has elected a former State Governor to be Prez of board.

When our Prez was prez of ncaa, they have had authority to keep certian $$$ large schools from dominating the sport. The pro sports knew this was critical. But college Prez missed that. Then when the pay players and free transfer hit them, they did nothing about big guys stock piling players.

Can’t disagree with much in either of these two posts and at the same time I recognize that the NCAA has little control over football (which was the gist of the post you’re replying to). BUT, that didn’t happen overnight, and some of the smaller schools should have used influence they had by virtue of the NCAA (ironically) to actually try to police these issues a LONG LONG time ago. Instead, most were content to ride coattails, cash checks and continue the lip service / illusion of fair play. Suffice to say, that decision is likely going to bite many middle to lower D1 schools in the butt.