Division 1 College Conference Realignment

[OnWis97]

19 minutes ago, McCall said:

Which makes it even more mind boggling when you look at the popularity of the SEC and they're in nowhere near the amount of major markets the Big Ten is.

True...some of what they're getting is nationwide viewing because of the traditional powers.  And they're all over huge states like Florida and Texas. They're doing pretty well.

 

To Old School Vike's point, it never ceases to amaze me that people don't understand what's really going on. Yeah, Rutgers is not the quintessential Big Ten school but they get into the NYC market, Maryland gets into the DC market, and now there's LA to go along with Chicago.  If anything, Nebraska makes less sense...but traditional brands help too.

I wish it wasn't, but it's about money; not geography and not on-field/court competition. The old geographic nature of the conferences is based on train travel and no national TV audience to try to capture.

[PrimalCookie]

15 minutes ago, Sec19Row53 said:

This is pretty cool

 

Also shows how USC and UCLA are burning over a century of tradition by making this move. Yknow, tradition, what makes college sports great.

 

I get why it happened. The Big Ten's payout even before their addition would be 2-3x what they'd be getting in the Pac-12. And obviously the rest of the conference would love to add two storied brands in a massive market and significantly increase what they get from media deals as well. But it's still a sad day for college sports and everyone that's getting left behind by the LA duo.

 

I just can't help but wonder what Oregon State and Washington State can do here, if anything. They're not in big markets, they're the second fiddle in their state, they're not elite academic institutions. If the rest of the conference splinters and goes its separate ways they are completely and utterly screwed. Hello Mountain West, I guess.

[MJWalker45]

14 hours ago, Dynasty said:

Can we even call it the "Power 5" anymore?

No, It's the Super 2 and the Big Name 3. 

[MJWalker45]

53 minutes ago, heavybass said:

Big Twenty eventually?

At least, I'd think. I saw reports of Oregon and Washington planning to jump, but if the rest of the PAC-12 decides to sail away from the imminent dead carcass, 24 could be a possibility with PAC-12 teams moving to the big Ten or the Big XII. 

[Sec19Row53]

17 minutes ago, MJWalker45 said:

At least, I'd think. I saw reports of Oregon and Washington planning to jump, but if the rest of the PAC-12 decides to sail away from the imminent dead carcass, 24 could be a possibility with PAC-12 teams moving to the big Ten or the Big XII. 

There was a June 30 deadline to get out, which is why this happened as quickly as/when it did. nobody else is leaving the Pac-12 NOW unless it falls apart from the inside.

[MJWalker45]

Just now, Sec19Row53 said:

There was a June 30 deadline to get out, which is why this happened as quickly as/when it did. nobody else is leaving the Pac-12 NOW unless it falls apart from the inside.

With the short notice no other PAC-12 teams can leave for the 2024-25 season, but I wouldn't be surprised if those dominos don't start falling in a few weeks.

 

[Sec19Row53]

1 minute ago, MJWalker45 said:

With the short notice no other PAC-12 teams can leave for the 2024-25 season, but I wouldn't be surprised if those dominos don't start falling in a few weeks.

 

I'd be surprised, if only because it lengthens the amount of time that they get in-conference backlash.

 

We'll see. I agree that there will be more dominoes, one way or the other.

[leopard88]

1 hour ago, McCall said:

Which makes it even more mind boggling when you look at the popularity of the SEC and they're in nowhere near the amount of major markets the Big Ten is.

 

One advantage the SEC has is that many of its schools are in states with little to no competition in the Big Four sports.  Alabama, Auburn, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Kentucky, Arkansas and South Carolina are the only games in town. Beyond that Tennessee and Vanderbilt were the only games in town until the mid-90s.

[oldschoolvikings]

1 hour ago, OnWis97 said:

 

 

 If anything, Nebraska makes less sense...but traditional brands help too.

 

Actually Nebraska could be on shaky ground. They recently lost the kind of accreditation that the Big Ten school presidents take really seriously (believe it or not) and they pissed some other schools off by making trouble during the Covid year. I don’t really think anybody is getting the boot but if I had to pick the best candidate it’s them. 

[DG_ThenNowForever]

It really sucks to have lost the Big East and the PAC 12 within a decade.

[LMU]

At least the SEC can still claim to be a conference in the southeastern half of the country.  This isn't ECHL "the letters mean nothing" chicanery.

 

The B1G, on the other hand, is an affront to every math, accounting, and science major attending its member institutions and has been since Penn State snuck in and they crammed a negative space 11 in the logo.  The one thing that the ruins of the Pac 12 had going for it was that they had logos for all the different numbers of possible member schools already drawn up when they rebranded.

[Sec19Row53]

1 minute ago, LMU said:

At least the SEC can still claim to be a conference in the southeastern half of the country.  This isn't ECHL "the letters mean nothing" chicanery.

 

The B1G, on the other hand, is an affront to every math, accounting, and science major attending its member institutions and has been since Penn State snuck in and they crammed a negative space 11 in the logo.  The one thing that the ruins of the Pac 12 had going for it was that they had logos for all the different numbers of possible member schools already drawn up when they rebranded.

That was the B1G that did that. I'm not aware of the Pac-12 also doing it.

[LMU]

3 minutes ago, Sec19Row53 said:

That was the B1G that did that. I'm not aware of the Pac-12 also doing it.

When they unveiled the current identity it started with Pac 10 and quickly transitioned to Pac 12 and they also had Pac 14 and Pac 16 logos ready to go.  Larry Scott went as far as to mock the B1G by saying that the Pac would be the mathematically accurate conference.

[WestCoastBias]

1 hour ago, Magic Dynasty said:

Also shows how USC and UCLA are burning over a century of tradition by making this move. Yknow, tradition, what makes college sports great.

 

I get why it happened. The Big Ten's payout even before their addition would be 2-3x what they'd be getting in the Pac-12. And obviously the rest of the conference would love to add two storied brands in a massive market and significantly increase what they get from media deals as well. But it's still a sad day for college sports and everyone that's getting left behind by the LA duo.

 

I just can't help but wonder what Oregon State and Washington State can do here, if anything. They're not in big markets, they're the second fiddle in their state, they're not elite academic institutions. If the rest of the conference splinters and goes its separate ways they are completely and utterly screwed. Hello Mountain West, I guess.

 

I'm an Oregon State and honestly I'm fine with either having to join the MW or basically making the Pac-12 the MW.  At this point I don't even want to be part of major college football anymore. Over 100 years of tradition thrown out the window for tv money due to USC's and UCLA's own ineptitude in major sports, it's a real shame and most people aren't even realizing how bad of a thing this is for the sport. Just let me know what conference the Beavs will be in and I'll watch them, I'm not a college football fan anymore just going to support my alma mater and that's it. You guys have fun with your playoff and super conferences. 

[Dilbert]

6 hours ago, dont care said:

This is a joke right? College athletes constantly get excusals from class, especially D1 football players.

I dont know about football players but I saw an interview with West Virginia basketball coach Bob Huggins who basically said the same thing about Cincinnati and UCF joining the Big 12 with the constant travel they will have to make to the southwest.

[McCall]

3 hours ago, OnWis97 said:

True...some of what they're getting is nationwide viewing because of the traditional powers.  And they're all over huge states like Florida and Texas. They're doing pretty well.

 

To Old School Vike's point, it never ceases to amaze me that people don't understand what's really going on. Yeah, Rutgers is not the quintessential Big Ten school but they get into the NYC market, Maryland gets into the DC market, and now there's LA to go along with Chicago.  If anything, Nebraska makes less sense...but traditional brands help too.

I wish it wasn't, but it's about money; not geography and not on-field/court competition. The old geographic nature of the conferences is based on train travel and no national TV audience to try to capture.

Oh I know. Nebraska is partially the Kansas City market (lot of Nebraska fans down through western MO actually). But my point was to the fact that they're literally going coast to coast and also picking not-typical Big Ten schools like Rutgers when the SEC stays pretty well in their traditional footprint. Mizzou is a little far north, but the state borders 3 SEC states. Where I live, Tennessee, Kentucky and Arkansas are all an hour or so away.

[Discrim]

I've had a day to let it sink in...and if there's something else that simultaneously makes sense as to why it happened yet also feels as completely wrong as USC and UCLA becoming members of the Big Ten, let me know.

[Red Comet]

On 7/1/2022 at 2:24 PM, McCall said:

Oh I know. Nebraska is partially the Kansas City market (lot of Nebraska fans down through western MO actually). 

Can absolutely confirm this. Mainly because a lot of Nebraskans moved down to Kansas City for work like my grandparents among many others. Unrelated, there also a lot of Michigan fans here too for similar reasons.

 

Heh, tell me more about the Bootheel though. 

Edited July 2, 2022 by Red Comet

[GDAWG]

So if Notre Dame joins a conference, the only teams left as Independents would be Army, UMass and UConn.

[The_Admiral]

You know why I like college sports better? For them, it's not about the money. I mean, it's about the money for someone, but for them, it's not about the money.