Houston Chronicle: Texas, Oklahoma reach out to SEC about joining conference

[Big Frog II]

Two-Cincy and UCF
Four-Cincy, UCF, Memphis, and UH or USF

 

[Frog Island]

I'd say there's a really close to 0% chance that anymore Texas schools are added if/when the leftover 8 start down that path. It adds no value at all to your tv deal and there isn't anyone with a good enough team to draw neutral audiences in nationally.

UCF may be an outlier geographically but geography went by the wayside a long time ago. They check every other box moreso than any other available G5 team. Then you can have an argument over 5-6 other schools who are fairly similar.

If our option to PAC is gone and is down to keeping B12 alive by adding schools.

It should be: UCF and Cincinnati if you add 2.

If 4, next in line should be Memphis and BYU (football only)

 

[gohornedfrogs]

I think instead of two 8 school divisions, the most logical thing for the SEC to do would be to have a rotating 4x4 pod structure, similar to what the NFL does with its divisions. Each year you play the three schools in your pod, plus four schools from a different pod, which will rotate every two years.

Year 1 & 2:
Pods A & B play, and Pods C & D play. School with the best record from A/B plays school with best record from C/D in the conference championship game

Year 3 & 4:
Pods A & C play, and Pods B & D play. School with the best record from A/C plays school with best record from B/D in the conference championship game

Year 5 & 6:
Pods A & D play, and Pods B & C play. School with the best record from A/D plays school with best record from B/C in the conference championship game

So, will the pod Alabama is in be called the Tide Pod?

 

[Eight]

If our option to PAC is gone and is down to keeping B12 alive by adding schools.

It should be: UCF and Cincinnati if you add 2.

If 4, next in line should be Memphis and BYU (football only)

saying that the frogs option to the pac being gone assumes that ever was a viable option and there is no proof anywhere that was the case other than internet and twitter rumors

based upon gsr's comments that has never really been an option

think whether we like it or not, this is simply are matter of patience as poker is being played right now and this is going to play out at a speed most are going to find far too slow and frustrating, but just as there is no value for the pac to act in haste there is no value for the big 12 and the remaining 8 to act in haste as well

 

[CountryFrog]

We don't know what was going down, all we know is there were a lot of things being discussed with other conferences and this Cease and Desist letter is going to make those conferences gun shy.

Sorry Tech fans. Despite what your rumor mill "reporters" may have said, no P5 conference is banging down the door to get a perennial doormat unless it's part of a bigger play with multiple other schools involved. And if that were the case then it would've already been done.

 

[Wexahu]

Bowlsby may have just boxed himself into a corner with that Cease and Desist letter, though.

What's gonna stop the AAC commissioner from doing the same kind of Cease and Desist order preventing their schools from talking to the B12 and ESPN in order to protect his league from being poached?

Don't know the legality of it, but ESPN was working behind the scenes trying to break up the conference. A conference they have contracts with. This would seem different. Bowlsby would just be talking to individual schools about expanding, presumably not behind closed doors. That happens all the time with conferences, doesn't it? It did several years back when the Big 12 "interviewed" a handful of schools.

 

[jake102]

Don't know the legality of it, but ESPN was working behind the scenes trying to break up the conference. A conference they have contracts with. This would seem different. Bowlsby would just be taling to individual schools about expanding, presumably not behind closed doors. That happens all the time with conferences, doesn't it?

Yeah I don't think there are any lawsuits with what UT/OU did by announcing they are leaving.

The issue would come down to what obligations the G5 schools have to their league. Just like UT/OU have obligations through 2025, I'm assuming the G5 schools have something similar, although obviously much smaller in scale. Might have to buy them out of their contracts, just like UT/OU are looking at with Big12.

 

[Frognosticator]

Bowlsby may have just boxed himself into a corner with that Cease and Desist letter, though.

I don't understand why you see it this way. UT, OU, the SEC and ESPN are basically trying to steal, yes steal, hundreds of millions of dollars from the remaining 8 Big XII schools, and basically ruin these schools financially. The Big XII is attempting to stop that. Anybody would do the same in a similar situation.

 

[MagicFrog]

Lol the Big 12 wishes.

Well, tortious interference laws in Texas appear to be pretty specific. I doubt anyone from UT or ESPN would want to be on the stand under oath given this situation and based on what we know, so I imagine the Big 12 does have some leverage there.

 

[Frognosticator]

The more I think about this, the madder I get, considering the BS powerplay UT is attempting to make here.

 

[Eight]

The more I think about this, the madder I get, considering the BS powerplay UT and ESPN are attempting to make here.

fixed it because as much as i enjoy saying scheissing texas there is little doubt the more accurate phrasing is scheiss texas and espn.

 

[Frognosticator]

fixed it because as much as i enjoy saying scheissing texas there is little doubt the more accurate phrasing is scheiss texas and espn.

Absolutely.

If this is done correctly, we can really catch ESPN's hand in the cookie jar and make them pay big time. Mother scheissers.

 

[Eight]

Absolutely.

If this is done correctly, we can really catch ESPN's hand in the cookie jar and make them pay big time. Mother scheissers.

think they should pay double for making mike greenberg and lowell galindo anchors on their network

 

[TCUWIN]

Big 12 should wait until the Friday night before OUT’s first conference game this season and then tell them their services are no longer required. Have backup games scheduled secretly to replace the games against them. Because why not? They are going to get their way in this anyway. Could use the mental health excuse. Would be fun to see them not playing the rest of the season. Or tell them quitters aren’t eligible for conference championship.

Or perhaps tell the dang officials to call the holding on OU in conference games! May be an official calling a fair game may give the rest of the conference a chance against them. May be a few years of 8-4 for OU and 4-8 for UT will make the SEC wish they had planned better.

 

[Bob Sugar]

Or perhaps tell the dang officials to call the holding on OU in conference games! May be an official calling a fair game may give the rest of the conference a chance against them. May be a few years of 8-4 for OU and 4-8 for UT will make the SEC wish they had planned better.

Or maybe eject a player when they throw punches.

 

[TCUWIN]

I don't necessarily disagree but it won't happen. I think what happened tonight will tell us a lot over the next couple of days.

This was a busy day with some key things starting to happen that are beginning to make things appear to maybe/potentially/could be starting to take shape:

1) The Big 12 sends Cease and Desist letter to ESPN for working with a couple of conferences allegedly to break up the remainder of the Big 12.

2) We find that one of the deals that ESPN was working on was helping the AAC pick off 5 remaining Big 12 teams. How do we know? Because almost immediately after the C/D letter went out, a Manhattan KS reporter writes a scoop about it. He has all the details except which 5 schools were targeted (and his full written scoop which *had* to have been written before all the news came public because of he detail it had in it came out well before any tweets from the DMN, Chronicle

3) From reading various articles/message boards, the prevailing thought is that one of those 5 schools was KSU. The rationale is that KSU is the one who leaked the whole plan to the Big 12 office, and the thought behind that is that they do NOT want to go to the AAC (If they did, they would have most likely been quiet and let everything play out).

4) The next prevailing thought is that ESPN is doing this because they want the Big 12 to fully break up so OU and UT can move to the SEC sooner rather than later.

5) The fact that the letter refers to another conference would suggest that the other 3 schools not included in the AAC proposal would be headed to either the Pac-12 or ACC. The ACC is an ESPN conference and the Pac-12 is not. However, ESPN could still broker a deal based on new or future contracts.

6) The prevailing thought is that the 5 teams in the AAC deal would be the relative "have-nots" out of the remaining Big 12 schools, and the 3 that are NOT part of the AAC would be the "haves" that would move on to another (at least for now) P5 league.

There you have it, cobbled together with all sorts of non-facts, observations, opinions, and a handful of facts that came out of Manhattan KS. Obviously KSU doesn't like which bucket it's in and is trying to do something to avoid allowing it to happen. Once we know who their 4 stablemates are we just might have a very clear picture of where things are headed.

I’m just throwing this out here to get clarity. I’m pretty sure I know the answer, but if ESPN is trying to broker the deal with the AAC, would they become a P5 with the addition of the Big 12 schools? Otherwise, why would they allow themselves to get into a legal battle to remain at the same status?

 

[McFroggin]

Who currently controls the playoff situation? Other conferences (outside of SEC) wouldn’t vote to exclude the Big12 for fear they are next. ACC, PAC, and Big12 interests would be aligned

 

[Eight]

Who currently controls the playoff situation? Other conferences (outside of SEC) wouldn’t vote to exclude the Big12 for fear they are next. ACC, PAC, and Big12 interests would be aligned

on paper the cfp is run by a group of committees who are comprised of representatives from 10 conferences

their television partner is espn and here is a link to the cfp for their governance groups

https://collegefootballplayoff.com/sports/2019/4/3/governance.aspx​

 

[MagicFrog]

Okie State thinks they are a bigger fish than what they are. Solid university but stillwater sucks, it's in the middle of nowhere, and nobody cares about the Oklahoma TV markets.

Apparently they and Tech are tied at the hip right now. Their current AD used to work for Kirby Hockut at Tech and apparently are in lock step with each other. OSU's former AD Holder is also working on OSU's behalf.

I'm not so sure they are as big a fish as they think they are, but they clearly won't be outworked on this whole thing.

 

[CountryFrog]

Apparently they and Tech are tied at the hip right now. Their current AD used to work for Kirby Hockut at Tech and apparently are in lock step with each other. OSU's former AD Holder is also working on OSU's behalf.

I'm not so sure they are as big a fish as they think they are, but they clearly won't be outworked on this whole thing.

No way is OSU limiting their options by "tying themselves at the hip to Tech." I have no doubt that OSU is in constant communication with Tech and almost all of the other schools but it's not like they're telling people "hey you gotta take this school in the desert with [ Finebaum ]ty academics and an even worse football program too if you want us."