Rational College Football Realignment Discussion

[Obvious Troll]

https://www.kansas.com/sports/college/big-12/article253552469.html
https://www.kansas.com/sports/college/big-12/article253632073.html
https://athlonsports.com/college-football/acc-football-conference-expansion-candidates

The future is up for grabs by the Big12. If the Big12 wants justice, then making OUT pay out the nose for leaving would be a great start. A great next step would be to focus on the long-term. The Big12 has a solid base to build on, and new additions are in order. Colorado State, USF and UCF, Cincinnati, Houston, BYU and Memphis offer metropolitan TV markets, suitable for a P5 conference. Boise State, Air Force and Navy also have strong football followings.

Bringing many, most or all of these teams into the Big12 would cut earnings. The ESPN/FOX pie is only so big, and now there are twice as many mouths to feed. Just like TCU and WVU, ramp up the TV payments over time. Even with stepped revenues, the AAC teams will fare better making the transition to the B12. But the Big12 needs to act quickly, to bring on the new teams quickly, before the other conferences throw up roadblocks. The faster the new Big12 can be built, the sooner the TV networks will see the value of a conference that spans four time zones.

But there must be a way to cushion the hurt from reduced per-team revenues, right? Yes there is. Make OUT pay through the nose for leaving. $80-120 million each should keep the jolted 8 Big12 teams much closer to revenue neutral initally, even with splitting the pie with 8 more teams.

The final stroke of genius will be to expand the football audience and by consequence the future Big12 revenue stream by moving forward with a TV network that is not ESPN. Apple? Amazon? Netflix? Fox Sports? All of the above? Taking the long view will never be easy, but now is the time to act. The Big12 has a chance for a very bright future. All it takes is some enlightened leadership and immediate action. For the sake of the future Big12, I hope someone at the top has the cahones to take action, now.

 

[TRF51]

I think if the PAC 12 offers TCU we are gone. If no one offers any of the big 12 schools your plan makes sense. I am not sure how important the TV markets are going to be if streaming is the future. I think the amount of eyes each team would generate matters the most. I would like to add BSU to the mix to increase the overall strength of the conference.

 

[HG73]

Stick together and add one more team to get to 9. Balanced 4 home and 4 away games, CCG between the top two. Smaller pie but bigger pieces.