Conference Realignment: What Next?

[butlerguy03]

Here's what you guys are heading for... 1. You're not a FB school. Temple thought it was a FB school. Syracuse thought it was a FB school. They sunk millions into chasing the brass ring and their demise is imminent. The best ACC FB schools will get gobbled up. Heck, why stop at 16. Those 2 conference might become (2) 20+ team conferences. UT and OU are just the start. Everyone else is a FB mid major at that point. UConn is not a FB school; they will not survive additional realignment (a year, 2 years, 5 years from now). Just a matter of when...

Agreed, though I'd put forth that 2/3 of the FBS schools are already mid-majors. The powers that be should just go ahead and put the schools that invest heavily in football, have a football driven fan base/culture and generate revenue as a result, into their own division. Regardless of current conference affiliations, the idea that Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State, Michigan, etc. are playing the same level of football as Duke, UConn, Boston College, Kansas, any school with a directional name, etc., is naive. We already know the pool of schools from which the playoff teams will come from...and it's not a long list.

Every time realignment and the possibility of "super conferences" get mentioned, I wonder if the Vanderbilt board of trustees look at each other and say, "Do you think they remember we're still in the SEC?"

In all seriousness, this would be a great way to set up a euro football style relegation system, just for football.

Take the top however many teams, the Alabama's, Ohio State's, and put them in the champions league. You could probably get two more legit tiers before we really stop caring. Bottom teams drop down, top teams get promoted.

Other than the fact that your average football fan would have a seizure doing anything "euro style", wouldn't that work out? And stop football from screwing up local rivalries in all other sports

Why would you punish the incoming freshmen for what the outgoing seniors didn't accomplish?

[DeltaV]

Agreed, though I'd put forth that 2/3 of the FBS schools are already mid-majors. The powers that be should just go ahead and put the schools that invest heavily in football, have a football driven fan base/culture and generate revenue as a result, into their own division. Regardless of current conference affiliations, the idea that Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State, Michigan, etc. are playing the same level of football as Duke, UConn, Boston College, Kansas, any school with a directional name, etc., is naive. We already know the pool of schools from which the playoff teams will come from...and it's not a long list.

Every time realignment and the possibility of "super conferences" get mentioned, I wonder if the Vanderbilt board of trustees look at each other and say, "Do you think they remember we're still in the SEC?"

In all seriousness, this would be a great way to set up a euro football style relegation system, just for football.

Take the top however many teams, the Alabama's, Ohio State's, and put them in the champions league. You could probably get two more legit tiers before we really stop caring. Bottom teams drop down, top teams get promoted.

Other than the fact that your average football fan would have a seizure doing anything "euro style", wouldn't that work out? And stop football from screwing up local rivalries in all other sports

Why would you punish the incoming freshmen for what the outgoing seniors didn't accomplish?

With free agency (the transfer portal), does that even matter anymore?

[Wizard of Westroads]

I’m confused why the Big 12 would want UConn. I know the Huskies have an elite basketball pedigree, but they are in a football wasteland.

I don't follow this stuff that closely, so I'm also confused, by this:

For years, it had been thought that the football schools would eventually pare down to 64 for playoffs, but now the P5 is up 69 teams. Why would you drop Duke, Wake Forest or BC from big time football and then add UConn? Or is the plan now is to allow more schools into the football mix? Doesn't seem likely since it would go back to the old argument of diluting the pool of money.

[Jet915]

Not sure where to put this or how accurate this is but looks like the Big East spends more than anyone for hoops.
https://twitter.com/TJAltimore/status/1 ... 7924344835

[Xudash]

Push back in the Big 12 by some of its AD's Re UCONN and Gonzaga:

https://www.oklahoman.com/story/sports/college/big-12/2023/06/05/big-12-conference-expansion-brett-yormark-faces-resistance-on-adding-gonzaga-uconn/70289562007/

UCONN is getting played in these discussions - there is no way in hell Yormark wants them for football. That just doesn't seem viable, as UCONN cannot enter the Big 12 for all sports with the $31mm per school payout being maintained for all Big 12 members. As each day goes by, it is becoming clearer that this is about prying Zona and the Buffs away from the PAC (n).

The good news from all this, assuming we survive not losing UCONN, is that Yormark keeps yapping about the standalone value of basketball. If that is indeed the case, then Val and Company would seem to be well positioned for going into the next round of media negotiations.

The grand irony from where I sit? Gonzaga is in a terrible place in all this both figuratively and physically. I don't mean now or even for the next few years; I'm talking about long term. The smartest thing they could want is an invite from the Big East. Is the Big East even thinking that is a good idea. As is always the case, someone will call a couple of media outlets - the ones that right the checks - to see what they think.

[Django]

Not sure where to put this or how accurate this is but looks like the Big East spends more than anyone for hoops.
https://twitter.com/TJAltimore/status/1 ... 7924344835

Lol Georgetown$14 mil…. They have a good business school, don’t they teach a thing called ROI?

[Xudash]

Some additional perspective:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/2023/06/14/sec-big-ten-2-billion-athletics-revenue-power-five/70313053007/

In 2022, when money from student fees and forms of institutional and government support is not counted, there was a $62.1 million difference between the median revenue generated by an SEC school and that generated by a Pac-12 school.

For some context, in 2022, only nine public schools outside the Power Five conferences had more than $62.1 million in total operating expenses for their entire athletics program.

In 2022, there were 19 Power Five schools that received at least $10 million in allocated revenue; eight were in the Pac-12.

The emphasis on winning in a financial environment in which profits don’t matter makes it likely that as revenues continue to recover from the pandemic and then start growing again, spending increases will follow.

Read that last excerpt again. Schools like UCONN, Wake, BC and Syracuse, to name a few, don't have a snowball's chance in hell in this rodeo.

[DeltaV]

Some additional perspective:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/2023/06/14/sec-big-ten-2-billion-athletics-revenue-power-five/70313053007/

In 2022, when money from student fees and forms of institutional and government support is not counted, there was a $62.1 million difference between the median revenue generated by an SEC school and that generated by a Pac-12 school.

For some context, in 2022, only nine public schools outside the Power Five conferences had more than $62.1 million in total operating expenses for their entire athletics program.

In 2022, there were 19 Power Five schools that received at least $10 million in allocated revenue; eight were in the Pac-12.

The emphasis on winning in a financial environment in which profits don’t matter makes it likely that as revenues continue to recover from the pandemic and then start growing again, spending increases will follow.

Read that last excerpt again. Schools like UCONN, Wake, BC and Syracuse, to name a few, don't have a snowball's chance in hell in this rodeo.

It's not just those schools. NCAA really just needs to let those tier one football programs break off and be their own league. Not the whole schools, just the football programs, let them be on their own and have the rest of sports go back to sensible organization of regional ish conferences.

[Omaha1]

Pretty awesome that San Diego State doesn’t have an offer to join either the PAC12 or Big 12, but asked the MWC for an extra month to see if an offer comes so that when they decide to leave they only have to pay $17 million bucks instead of $34.

[ArmyVet]

Pretty awesome that San Diego State doesn’t have an offer to join either the PAC12 or Big 12, but asked the MWC for an extra month to see if an offer comes so that when they decide to leave they only have to pay $17 million bucks instead of $34.

This could end terribly for SDSU. MWC tells them that they have accepted their "resignation" and are withholding their TV med payout.