I know football is the money, but there are solid programs left after OU and Texas. Texas hasn't been relevant in 15 years. OU leaving could mean more teams have a legit chance to win. It's a lesser trophy, but it's better than second place to OU. I would add Houston, Rice, and try to poach some lesser teams from bigger conferences. I think Nebraska would take the call as they have done little in the Big 10. Could you get Iowa? Is Arkansas tired of 3 wins and a check? Conference = money but so does winning titles and building a brand. TCU and Baylor became elite power 5 teams. I think a wide open conference could be entertaining. We know only 2 or 3 teams can possibly win the other conferences... is OU ready to finish 2nd or 3rd every year?
If the Big East can exist largely on basketball alone, not sure why a conference with the National Champions, Kansas, UH, and the likely #1 pick in the draft couldn't survive... Heck, go for Cincinnati, Memphis, and Louisville....
Honestly from a strictly athletics point of view, which group of 8 is better? Okie St, Baylor, TxTech, TCU, Iowa St, Kansas, Kansas St, West Virginia or Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Vanderbilt, Ole Miss, Miss St, South Carolina, Missouri
Because the Big East schools don't have the athletic budgets that the B12 schools do. No one is saying they physically can't survive - but their revenues are going to crash and it's going to make a mess of already-existing budgets. One of the other articles mentioned B12 schools currently make $37MM/yr. AAC schools make $5MM/yr. That's a problem for schools that have built facilities and payrolls based on the forner.
Yep, as much as I'd love to see the 8 schools pick up UH/SMU/USF/UCF/Cincy/Somebody (which I think would be a very fun conference athletically), I'm just not sure how it's economically viable. Total shame the B12 was so completely lacking in foresight
I think the SEC Group, but it's a not some giant chasm. The second group has about a 25% larger athletics budget, so it kinda stands to reason.
Economically viable or not, those B12 leftovers are gonna have to figure out their books one way or another. Waiting for Superman is not a smart strategy. Their current TV deal nets them 37M and the AAC deal is about 7M. Granted that deal will get re-structured more favorably (I'd wager 15M+), but they're gonna take a nice haircut regardless. The only programs that probably won't immediately go into a death spiral because of this are TCU and WVU because their fanbase (read: donors) are so hardened against this. The worst part is that this is when you need your donors to step up the most to cushion the fall, but this is like a giant kick to the nuts of your fundraising capabilities. Nobody wants to open up their wallet when times are tough and you're demoralized.
But it has his personal special thoughts in it. Be nice, why don't we compromise and merge them. This is a heavily moderated subforum so I'm sure it'll happen any minute now.
If you can't compete and lose constantly maybe you try something new, like go to a conference you can compete in? Winning makes you money too...
It's a fair point but the budget hit is temporary. They would have to build the brand. Also, it's real money but these schools have endowments... costs a lot of money to fly the women's softball team from Dallas to Oregon rather than driving to Austin or Houston. Expenses will jump a lot if you add miles to all the games each team plays...
Vandy is the Alabama of baseball and Tennessee should be better much like Texas. I would pick the Big 12 schools. Baylor and Kansas are great in basketball...
Sorry, i didn't spend 30 minutes looking for a thread i didn't know existed. It wasn't on the first page or two so i made one. I don't know why it matters, there's not some limit...
I think the big 12 survives but gets raided again relatively soon (2025ish?) and just turns right back into the farm league that always seems to exist right at the blurred edges of the sport.
I think the Big 12 could survive as the weakest of the conferences for now. Things can change over time. Baylor football and Kansas State have both been ranked #2 in the country. TCU has been to the playoffs... If i was them i would focus on locking down solid programs in the middle of the country and sell them on the opportunity to compete for titles. Nebraska? Iowa? Minnesota? Arkansas? Missouri? SMU? Houston? Maybe some of them would rather be a big fish in a small pond than a small fish in a big pond?
