• The KillerFrogs

Anyone subscribe to The Athletic? (Realignment article)

NYC Horned Frog

Full Member
Would be interested to see what this says. I know it's a long shot with how the Big 12 is very reactive and not proactive, but one can dream of a stable conference. Hell, maybe even a situation where the Big 12 has 12 teams! Also, doesn't it seem more likely that it would be the AZ schools and not the CA schools?


 

Purp

Active Member
If done right there are opportunities to make the basketball and baseball conference stronger. Basketball is already regarded as one of the best in the country every year (been the best the last several years), but adding some tradition like UCLA and Arizona can't be bad for the conference and would likely help boost those declining programs. Baseball seems to have lagged behind the SEC and maybe the ACC, but adding UCLA and Arizona schools instantly raises the profile.

I really think adding them in football doesn't make the conference much tougher, but it would add more mid-pack teams and add stability. From a money standpoint, I could easily see that making sense (and cents) for the conference.
 
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He advocates taking six Pac 12 schools... USC, UCLA, Arizona, Arizona St, Oregon, and Washington and making a Big 16 conference... He admits that'd be very hard, and it may end up that you only get 2-4 of those, but that it would still be worth it. Also bats around subbing in Stanford, or maybe going nationwide with UCF and Cinci plus some good Pac schools.

The media networks will determine whether this does or does not have legs. Don't want to get to deep, but I'd tell you ESPN would broadly be in favor of this and would go all in... They also offered to buy the Pac 12 network and roll it into ESPN+ for way more than I'd offer, and the Pac 12 said no at first... We shall see what happens there in the next year or two.
 

Frog-in-law1995

Active Member
West Virginia in a conference with UCLA just seems weird. Take USC, UCLA, AZ, AZ State and Colorado, 5 and let the ‘eers find something local. The ACC would be a good fit and they immediately be a higher-end team.
 

Purp

Active Member
West Virginia in a conference with UCLA just seems weird. Take USC, UCLA, AZ, AZ State and Colorado, 5 and let the ‘eers find something local. The ACC would be a good fit and they immediately be a higher-end team.
I'm fine with this except I'd maybe go 7 instead of 5 to get to 16 teams and 4 pods. I really think the 14 team conference is too messy. I think 4 pods can get a little messy too, but not to the extent 14 does with 7 team divisions. The cross division scheduling in SEC/B1G football leaves a lot to be desired.
 

NYC Horned Frog

Full Member
He advocates taking six Pac 12 schools... USC, UCLA, Arizona, Arizona St, Oregon, and Washington and making a Big 16 conference... He admits that'd be very hard, and it may end up that you only get 2-4 of those, but that it would still be worth it. Also bats around subbing in Stanford, or maybe going nationwide with UCF and Cinci plus some good Pac schools.

The media networks will determine whether this does or does not have legs. Don't want to get to deep, but I'd tell you ESPN would broadly be in favor of this and would go all in... They also offered to buy the Pac 12 network and roll it into ESPN+ for way more than I'd offer, and the Pac 12 said no at first... We shall see what happens there in the next year or two.

Always appreciate your inside info, keep us in the loop when you can Shirtless Gary!
 

Eight

Member
West Virginia in a conference with UCLA just seems weird. Take USC, UCLA, AZ, AZ State and Colorado, 5 and let the ‘eers find something local. The ACC would be a good fit and they immediately be a higher-end team.

i don't see a 4-time zone conference is going to work especially when you consider the impact on sports that play more than once a week.

never understood adding west virginia other than the conference had a hole to fill.
 

CountryFrog

Active Member
i don't see a 4-time zone conference is going to work especially when you consider the impact on sports that play more than once a week.

never understood adding west virginia other than the conference had a hole to fill.
Theoretically you're talking about divisions forming with all of this and the West Coast schools would be in a different division than WVU. I think it's easy enough to setup scheduling where there are very few cross country trips by emphasizing divisional matchups. Could actually result in EASIER travel overall for WVU if their travel is dedicated to going to fewer locations more frequently.
 

Frog-in-law1995

Active Member
I'm fine with this except I'd maybe go 7 instead of 5 to get to 16 teams and 4 pods. I really think the 14 team conference is too messy. I think 4 pods can get a little messy too, but not to the extent 14 does with 7 team divisions. The cross division scheduling in SEC/B1G football leaves a lot to be desired.

yeah, 7 makes more sense. I’d want Utah and UNLV. (Yeah, they aren’t worth it monetarily, but it’s Vegas).
 

Eight

Member
Theoretically you're talking about divisions forming with all of this and the West Coast schools would be in a different division than WVU. I think it's easy enough to setup scheduling where there are very few cross country trips. Could actually result in EASIER travel overall for WVU if their travel is dedicated to going to fewer locations more frequently.

true, but you are not starting to operate outside the basic rules of viewer attraction found in most college conferences and starting to act like the nfl or nba.

does anyone truly believe a viewer in seattle or eugen is going to suddenly have an interest in west virginia football or basketball?

espn wants content and content it can control and doesn't have to spend much money to develop plain and simple. great, they need product to fill the enormous amount of video shelf space they have bought and any interest they have is in the interest of espn and they don't give a [ Finebaum ] about college athletics.

if they did you wouldn't have noon games on television in august and college games on thursday and friday nights.

what conference expansion has truly worked where a conference was simply adding teams regardless of any geographic connection?

the big 10 is bigger after adding rutgers and maryland, but is it really stronger? same with the acc.

running a conference across geographic america is good for espn and that is about it.
 

Wexahu

Full Member
yeah, 7 makes more sense. I’d want Utah and UNLV. (Yeah, they aren’t worth it monetarily, but it’s Vegas).

The SEC has 14 teams and A&M and Georgia have played each other once in football in 8 years. With 16 teams you'd have conference mates you literally almost never face, it just doesn't make much sense. If we like Vegas and the nice destinations of the west coast we could just make sure we schedule a OOC west coast opponent every few years and we'd play out there just as frequently.

I don't see why 10 isn't a sustainable number for a conference. It's by far the best arrangement for scheduling.
 

Frog-in-law1995

Active Member
The SEC has 14 teams and A&M and Georgia have played each other once in football in 8 years. With 16 teams you'd have conference mates you literally almost never face, it just doesn't make much sense. If we like Vegas and the nice destinations of the west coast we could just make sure we schedule a OOC west coast opponent every few years and we'd play out there just as frequently.

I don't see why 10 isn't a sustainable number for a conference. It's by far the best arrangement for scheduling.

So your point is that the SEC model is...bad?
 

BrewingFrog

Was I supposed to type something here?
It's all about time zones, and the issue of content filler. The drag on the PAC has been comparatively late starts as seen by the East Coast: 10pm kickoffs guarantee a small viewer base in the most population rich time zone. There's no way to fix that. But, one can improve matters...

As it stands now, the PAC consists of the Mountain and Pacific time zones. If one leavens this by adding some Central viewers (the 2nd most populous) then things look considerably brighter! 9pm kickoffs aren't bad if you have a rooting interest.

A 16-team league would be fine. 14 would be better, but with careful scheduling a 16 team league with a Championship would be great.

CDC would be the driver of this if it ever came to pass. As UT AD, he has the clout to make things happen, and he grew up in the PAC and knows all the people over there in the decision making group.

2023 isn't that far off, and the clock is ticking...
 

Eight

Member
or the fact that they only play 8 conference games, decreasing their losses as a group, and can avoid inter-divisional matchups between good teams to remain top heavy?

maybe, be when did an intraconference loss hurt the sec in regards to the cfp, the bcs, or the former rankings?

seems the loss in the conference championship game has hurt uga more than a regular season loss.
 
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