Geoff

Exactly. They're like UCF.

UCF is UCF, they don't want to be called the University of Central Florida. TCU has long been insisting on being TCU, not Texas Christian or Texas Christian University. It's ruffled some feathers with older alums but not enough to turn off donations.

Jonesy going from studio to in the glass should be interesting. I've always liked him.

Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Sources say Houston and TCU were ‘this close’ to receiving an invite to the Pac-12

Um... didn't see that coming.

I totally forgot about pods when I posted that. I do think they'll do pods (much to the delight of the robot Bill Connelly). Point still remains that if they stayed with divisions, the E/W split is easy to remedy.

I think we're gonna see the pods you've laid out which makes me laugh because it's "HEY WE HAVE THE SEC AND A THIRD OF THE BIG XII!" Sticking the old Big XII guys together makes too much sense.

11 hours ago, heavybass said:

It is when you get BYU Basketball in the mix to go with Baylor and the likes.... now that Gonzaga might be leaving since one of their big rivals is gone.

All you're doing is making my point. $1M is not a lot of money in this situation.

I'm honestly not sure what you're trying to say. It seems you're saying it's a lot of money to pay just for BYU basketball while at the same time you also seem to be saying it isn't a lot of money because Gonzaga might leave the WCC due to lack of BYU and financial motivation to stay.

6 hours ago, MJWalker45 said:

I think the travel issue is what would make Boise State stay where they are. If they were joining the Big XII, the costs are immaterial. To the AAC, they aren't getting those bigger numbers that they would if they played Kansas and Iowa State to make up for the cost of the trip east. 

I think they'd probably keep the current set up so they can guarantee the two best teams are the ones that play in the championship. I can see the SEC doing that too when Texas and Oklahoma come in. Imagine the SEC West with all those strong teams and the East with just Florida and Georgia. It could actually weaken Alabama over time if they start losing 2-3 games a year within just the SEC. 

Should have gotten this when Missouri and A&M left. 

 

UT and OU joining the SEC moves Bama and Auburn to the East. Shift Mizzou to the West.

9 hours ago, heavybass said:

Big 12 is going to be buying out all the BYU sports at WCC for 1 mil... that's how serious they want BYU.

And again its a major shift in power.

You think $1M is a lot of money in this situation?

Enjoy your last night of Cinci, Houston, BYU, and UCF not being Big XII members, y'all. It's going down tomorrow.

21 hours ago, heavybass said:

It's a better take than say beg Uconn to rejoin.

1. It's the Falwell's school

If that's not enough

2. Ian McCaw

Some of y'all's obsession with insisting the hierarchy is the same it was 10 years ago is weird. Like, are we watching the same sport? Some of y'all seem to think it's a requirement for the AAC  to go to CUSA then CUSA to SBC then SBC to FCS.

I think you're going to see the AAC look at schools with a commitment to athletics and specifically football. I've been hearing UAB for a while and Georgia State as possibilities. Georgia State would get the AAC into Georgia making recruiting easier for some teams. The bought the Undead Ted to refurb it into a pretty damn nice stadium and the surrounding area is being revamped to get away from being a commuter school. Both UAB and Georgia State are urban campuses which fits the overall culture of the league. 

One thing I'm intrigued about, has the change in leadership in Boise been enough to smooth over the relationship with the MWC? If not, does the AAC look west again to woo Boise State? Even if rocky, does Boise State view the AAC as more ideal even without UCF, Cinci, and Houston? 

That's an interesting take. Dead wrong but interesting. 

The AAC asks UConn back?

14 hours ago, Dilbert said:

If BYU doesnt join the Big 12 id say Memphis or Boise State.

 

If the American loses Cincinnati, Houston and UCF. I think good replacements for them would be UAB, Louisiana,, Army and Buffalo. Keep in mind currently Army and Navy are Patriot League members with Navy football only for the AAC. Maybe if Navy and Army become full members of the American it might work.  

 

To replace UAB in CUSA Id say James Madison or Kennesaw State, or Sam Houston State

 

To replace Buffalo in the MAC maybe Youngstown State, Indiana State, Murray State, Morehead State or Eastern Kentucky.

 

To replace Louisiana in the Sun Belt maybe Liberty or Chattanooga.

Army likes independence and Navy has buyer's remorse. Of the three major academies, the one that's happy in a conference seems to be AFA. Navy isn't unhappy enough to get out the American (at least not yet) but they're not in love with their situation either. Also, I don't think any conference wants the Army-Navy game (played after championship weekend) to be a conference game.

To pile on CUSA (don't get me wrong, I've had a soft spot for the league forever but admin has run it terribly), there are former Sun Belt schools who have varying levels of regret about making the switch. 

4 hours ago, Dilbert said:

While I have no doubt Cincinnati, Houston and UCF would jump to the Big 12, BYU is still a big question mark. Like Notre Dame I have heard BYU enjoys their football independence and controlling their schedule. Would they be willing to give that up to join the Big 12?

There's really no point in speculating. The big names that are tied in to the Big 12 are saying it's a done deal and these will likely be official additions in a week.

The speed of this all leads me to believe there's at least a handshake agreement in place with UT and OU.

At this point, the conversation is pretty much shifted to the AAC. I think they'll be adding 4 teams. There wasn't enough motivation to replace UConn but with the league being down to 8, they have all the motivation in the world to get back to 12.

On 8/31/2021 at 5:48 PM, Red Comet said:

Yeah, didn’t they basically try to make the UAB program “willingly disband” about a decade ago and the guy who made that decision was Bear Bryant’s son? I swear I’m not making that last part up either. 
 

EDIT: Here’s an interesting article about the allegations that Bear Bryant Jr. was responsible for initially trying to kill potential competition to Tuscaloosa in the cradle

 

Article does make the argument that it probably wasn’t Bear Bryant Jr. but the fact that it was the son of Alabama’s (now probably 2nd) greatest coach didn’t help matters at all. 

It goes further than that. Jimbo Fisher was going to be the HC at UAB before Tuscaloosa stepped in and killed the deal. That led to Jimbo taking the OC job at FSU. Fast forward to 2021 and one of Bama's SEC West rivals has made it to where Jimbo has more money than god.

And don't get me started on Tuscaloosa's hatchet job on UAH hockey.

#FreeUAB #FreeUAH

It's literally the opposite. If the leagues felt they could improve their TV contracts with any of the left overs, they would have pulled the trigger. Instead, they did this performative, "we don't care about money *whispers* but that TV money thooooooooooooooooo"

Nah, the alliance is in response to these three leagues realizing none of these schools move the needle in the right way when it comes to TV money.

If anything, I think this just solidifies the fruition of the Big American or some other conferences rising out of the dust. The American has been looking to pick up UAB and/or Georgia State. While TV markets aren't the main driving force, both schools are in good markets and shown recent commitment to athletic (chiefly football) success. If the Big XII comes out of this picking off some AAC schools, these two to the AAC wouldn't surprise me.

This is what happens whenever these types of jerseys are done.

Smart person: Hey, let's tastefully tie in some aspects of the city.

Idiot who is actually in the position of power: SCREW THAT! Let's jam pack 29448392 things into one jersey.

Deion ain't not gonna Deion.

That man is good at a number of things, chief among then is generating headlines.

I don't know how many of y'all subscribe to Extra Points, but in today's email he wrote about what he's heard about realignment. 

He mentioned that TCU might be more attractive to the PAC than TTU. Growing grad studies program, urban-ish campus (only one left in the Big XII), and, yes, it a religious private school but it's no where near the level of BYU or Baylor. When I was out in Texas, I spent a decent bit of time around TCU and it's not an overly religious outfit. My roommate was in grad school there for evolutionary psychology and knew quite a few fellow atheists. In the end, DFW is a helluva lot easier to get to than Lubbock.

10 hours ago, See Red said:

Feels like there would be more sense in the Big XII poaching some AAC teams, like UCF, Houston, Cincinnati, and Memphis, no?

 

I feel like either way you still have a second tier conference that lacks any star power, for lack of a better term, but at least that way some of the deadweight gets shed.

 

But then again it's probably ESPN behind all this, so what makes sense to them is what matters. 

 

 

The Big XII has been dying for over a decade. I doubt any of the remaining members want to remain in a conference where the commissioner said just days before this all leaked that conference realignment wasn't a thing at this time. Bowlsby has bungled this whole thing and has been reactive since. It seems like he hasn't even tried to improve the future of the conference, likely because he knows it's dead. The best thing he and the remaining 8 can do is say, "sure , y'all can leave for 2023 ... if you pay us everything."

The NAIA says, "hi." The NCAA isn't really needed.

The NCAA is really just the schools and if they want to create a new governing body, they can. It wouldn't surprise me to see multiple new governing bodies but I doubt it happens. I think the NCAA sticks around more for centralized eligibility standards while we see a less centralized sports governance structure.

I wasn't trying to say that they're as bad as Kansas, just that a move to take ISU and Kansas would be mostly basketball motivated which would be a dumb move in a world were the breadwinner for every conference is football. 

After thinking it over, I think WVU's only hope is if ND joins the league. Since that's not happening, there's no way in hell WVU and _______ moves the needle enough to justify adding teams and re-doing the TV deal.

Kansas and Iowa State to the B1G screams basketball move (despite the Cyclones recent football success) and I don't know if the B1G is really going to take on a football team as bad as Kansas just to bolster the basketball brand and turn El Assico into a conference game.

If we don't see a Pac 16 or 20 (why would they do 20 and have a team in Morgantown, WV?), we're gonna see the AAC calling the Big XII teams. One of the podcasts I was listening today (may have been The Audible from Friday, it all blends together when I have it on while working lol) made a good point that Aresco can make the argument of "Bowlsby was asleep at the wheel. Why don't you come over here where you'll actually be valued?"

Soooooo who does the ACC go after if Notre Dame doesn't want to join?

The ND-ACC deal is through 2036 but with an expanded playoff, they're probably cool with having more access to the playoff and wouldn't feel the need to join, they'll just keep their 5 ACC games a year. 

If that's the case, I could see Cinci or Memphis getting the call. They're both decent to good enough at least in basketball and football, add back old rivalries (both were in the Metro with GT, Louisville, Florida State, and VT). This assumes TT, TCU, Baylor, and Okie State go to the PAC. Memphis doesn't get the league much in recruiting but Cinci would get the league into Ohio.

The greatest thing of the whole realignment will be if Liberty is still stuck without a conference when the music stops.

9 hours ago, Luigi74 said:

The Big Ten isn't going to add a school in a state they already have a member, so no ISU or Pitt.

Why wouldn't they? You're thinking about the TV angle like this is 10 years ago. Back then, TV markets were the driving factor. Now they don't matter, what matters if viewers. That's why the SEC is kicking the tires on Texas and OU. What does Texas get the SEC when it comes to markets? Nothing. What does OU bring? The 43rd biggest TV market in the country. That's not nothing but it's not as big as the viewership of OU and Texas would bring just because they're OU and Texas.

3 hours ago, heavybass said:

Big 10 will take West Virginia and Iowa State, ACC takes both Kansas and then the Pac 12 takes Baylor, TCU, Texas Tech and Oklahoma State.... if imploding is happening.

 Who's your dealer? Seriously, I want whatever you're having. B1G ain't taking a school with academics the level of WVU.