Speculation on who is joining which conference

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If Notre Dame decides they hate the Big Ten enough to fully join the ACC, that definitely saves that conference.

But there are just so many "lesser" (sorry) brands in the ACC, that don't pull TV ratings, that it's hard for me to see how they can get anywhere near the money that the Big Ten could get.


Who else is out there, that the ACC could also grab, to get TV money up higher??

Kansas, Okla State, West Virginia, Cincy, Houston? Not sure how much that moves the needle.
 

swelna said:
I think Washington and Oregon follow close behind to get to 18. to get to 20 I think its Stanford and either ND or Cal. Personally I would take ND over Cal, but maybe Stanford makes it a package deal.

SEC probably makes a play for Clemson and honestly ND, so I think if the Big Ten wants ND they need to start the convincing now, however that would leave Cal out of the conversation unless you go above 20. Past that I'm not sure who you would take to get to 20.

If they go past 20 I think it becomes a game of finding teams that give you some more flexibility scheduling geographically and maybe please member schools by reviving rivalries lost in earlier shuffles.
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Wouldn't make any sense for them to join the SEC. Geographically....the Big Ten makes far more sense....including two in-state Big Ten teams. I don't think they have any rivalries with any SEC teams....while they do with USC, Purdue, Michigan, MSU, and Northwestern. They also have a serious hockey program and already compete in the Big Ten hockey conference.

Basically....once ND decides to join a conference....I'd say there's little chance they go to the SEC over the Big Ten.
 

Panthadad2 said:
Adding Stanford would be great, but that 6th West Coast team would mess up the numbers geographically unless the conference explodes to 24. That said, there's no question in my mind that if more Pac12 teams go to the BG10, it will be Cal and/or Stanford for the Bay Area market. Cal makes sense from being a large public institution with high academics. Same with Washington.


Edit add: I'm too lazy to look it up, but Stanford probably produces more national exposure and more athletic department revenue than Cal. Plus, Stanford's Olympic sports are some of the best in the nation.... I'm convincing myself that Stanford should be a primary target.
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That's my issue....and I'm guessing the Big Ten's issue right now. How do you expand by another four teams without destroying traditional rivalries. 20 teams looks to be the goal at this point. And if that's the case....along with Notre Dame....I think they have to seriously consider either three west coast teams OR three east coast teams. Breaking into four divisions....you could then group either USC/UCLA or Maryland/Rutgers in with the three new coastal teams and maintain more traditional divisions throughout the rest of the conference. I suppose they could tell Nebraska to kick rocks and put them in with the West if only two more Pac-12 teams were taken.
 

Also....with the Pac-12 destabilized at this point....I think this opens up a big opportunity for the Big-12. Obviously they will still be missing traditional powers....but they could shore things up by reclaiming Colorado and then pulling in the remaining Pac-12 South teams (Arizona, ASU, Utah).

Would leave the North in quite a predicament though. lol.....they could woo Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming? Maybe convince the University of British Columbia to join.
 

stocker08 said:
That's my issue....and I'm guessing the Big Ten's issue right now. How do you expand by another four teams without destroying traditional rivalries. 20 teams looks to be the goal at this point. And if that's the case....along with Notre Dame....I think they have to seriously consider either three west coast teams OR three east coast teams. Breaking into four divisions....you could then group either USC/UCLA or Maryland/Rutgers in with the three new coastal teams and maintain more traditional divisions throughout the rest of the conference. I suppose they could tell Nebraska to kick rocks and put them in with the West if only two more Pac-12 teams were taken.
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At 20 you could have 4 divisions of 5. So you play everyone in your division. That's 4 games. Leaving 5 more games. You could play two locked in rivals outside your division, and then rotate through the rest of the schools three at a time.

Wash
Oregon
Stanford - Notre Dame
USC - Notre Dame
UCLA
(Sorry Cal ... don't know what to tell ya)

Minnesota
Iowa
Wisconsin
Nebraska
ILL - NW, Ohio St

NW - ILL
Purdue
IU - Mich St
Notre Dame - USC, Stanford
Michigan - Mich St, Ohio St

Michigan State - Michigan
Ohio State - Michigan, ILL
Penn State
Rutgers
Maryland


Schools to the right of hyphen are just some obvious ones to me. Mich St-IU and Ohio St-ILL are actually trophy games. Could easily be that not everyone has two schools they want to play every year. In which case, you just make them up and can then potentially switch it up every X years.


No idea how the post-season works. Still just top two, somehow, for the champ game? CFP still? Or go to a Big Ten playoff?
 


Gophers_4life said:
If Notre Dame decides they hate the Big Ten enough to fully join the ACC, that definitely saves that conference.

But there are just so many "lesser" (sorry) brands in the ACC, that don't pull TV ratings, that it's hard for me to see how they can get anywhere near the money that the Big Ten could get.


Who else is out there, that the ACC could also grab, to get TV money up higher??

Kansas, Okla State, West Virginia, Cincy, Houston? Not sure how much that moves the needle.
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That wouldn't save the ACC. They're not large enough geographically to get TV payouts anywhere near the Big Ten.
 

Gophers_4life said:
At 20 you could have 4 divisions of 5. So you play everyone in your division. That's 4 games. Leaving 5 more games. You could play two locked in rivals outside your division, and then rotate through the rest of the schools three at a time.

Wash
Oregon
Stanford - Notre Dame
USC - Notre Dame
UCLA
(Sorry Cal ... don't know what to tell ya)

Minnesota
Iowa
Wisconsin
Nebraska
ILL - NW, Ohio St

NW - ILL
Purdue
IU - Mich St
Notre Dame - USC, Stanford
Michigan - Mich St, Ohio St

Michigan State - Michigan
Ohio State - Michigan, ILL
Penn State
Rutgers
Maryland


Schools to the right of hyphen are just some obvious ones to me. Mich St-IU and Ohio St-ILL are actually trophy games. Could easily be that not everyone has two schools they want to play every year. In which case, you just make them up and can then potentially switch it up every X years.


No idea how the post-season works. Still just top two, somehow, for the champ game? CFP still? Or go to a Big Ten playoff?
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Here's my dream scenario for an expansion to 20 teams. A little different than the typical division format in most leagues since it would incorporate subdivisions. Don't think it would work if they went beyond that number though.

First......the smart move is to keep as many traditional rivalries in the same subdivision as possible. And as I brought up prior....I think the best thing they could do with four five-team subdivisions is have two of them merge each season to create one of six divisions. Northeast/Southwest, Northwest/Southeast, Northsouth/EastWest. Ten teams....each play every other team for a nine game conference schedule. Removes a lot of the hand wringing with unbalanced schedules. If one division is much stronger than the other....they get to send two teams to the four team playoff as each subdivision is not guaranteed a playoff spot.

Could have a tenth conference game as a protected rivalry if needed. Doesn't count toward division record....but does count in cases of tiebreakers.

Am I the only one who thinks this would kind of kickass? Now you don't really have any other 'faceless' conference opponents as each team will be directly and indirectly competing with every other conference team at least every three years. Obviously subdivision opponents every year.
 

TruthSeeker said:
That wouldn't save the ACC. They're not large enough geographically to get TV payouts anywhere near the Big Ten.
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Right. But would ND joining the ACC as a full football member (as they were in 2020) be enough to prolong the ACC’s demise for about another 12 years or so?
 





stocker08 said:
Here's my dream scenario for an expansion to 20 teams. A little different than the typical division format in most leagues since it would incorporate subdivisions. Don't think it would work if they went beyond that number though.

First......the smart move is to keep as many traditional rivalries in the same subdivision as possible. And as I brought up prior....I think the best thing they could do with four five-team subdivisions is have two of them merge each season to create one of six divisions. Northeast/Southwest, Northwest/Southeast, Northsouth/EastWest. Ten teams....each play every other team for a nine game conference schedule. Removes a lot of the hand wringing with unbalanced schedules. If one division is much stronger than the other....they get to send two teams to the four team playoff as each subdivision is not guaranteed a playoff spot.

Could have a tenth conference game as a protected rivalry if needed. Doesn't count toward division record....but does count in cases of tiebreakers.

Am I the only one who thinks this would kind of kickass? Now you don't really have any other 'faceless' conference opponents as each team will be directly and indirectly competing with every other conference team at least every three years. Obviously subdivision opponents every year.
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Conference expansion to 14-18 sucks because you see traditional rivals less

But once you get to 20 and it’s a given you see people less…you might actually see the original rivals MORE because of the necessity of divisions
 

I’m getting the impression that these schools don’t care much about traditional rivalries.
 

I would take ND and Oregon asap. Don’t care much for Washington. I feel like just take programs that are huge, and Oregon and ND do that, without diluting. If ACC does crumble, add Clemson and NC and stay at 20 and call it a day.

What scraps are left that matter? I saw teams like Kansas (seriously), FS (maybe), BC (again seriously) and a couple more teams that just dilute the product
 



stocker08 said:
Also....with the Pac-12 destabilized at this point....I think this opens up a big opportunity for the Big-12. Obviously they will still be missing traditional powers....but they could shore things up by reclaiming Colorado and then pulling in the remaining Pac-12 South teams (Arizona, ASU, Utah).

Would leave the North in quite a predicament though. lol.....they could woo Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming? Maybe convince the University of British Columbia to join.
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does splitting entirely from the SEC and beginning to merge a college sports division with Canada really seem that far from the realm of possibility these days?
 

GopherFanatic19 said:
I would take ND and Oregon asap. Don’t care much for Washington. I feel like just take programs that are huge, and Oregon and ND do that, without diluting. If ACC does crumble, add Clemson and NC and stay at 20 and call it a day.

What scraps are left that matter? I saw teams like Kansas (seriously), FS (maybe), BC (again seriously) and a couple more teams that just dilute the product
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I would take Stanford over Oregon. ND, Stanford, Washington, Cal.
 

GopherFanatic19 said:
I would take ND and Oregon asap. Don’t care much for Washington. I feel like just take programs that are huge, and Oregon and ND do that, without diluting. If ACC does crumble, add Clemson and NC and stay at 20 and call it a day.

What scraps are left that matter? I saw teams like Kansas (seriously), FS (maybe), BC (again seriously) and a couple more teams that just dilute the product
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Clemson isn’t an AAU member so I seriously doubt they would be a consideration where ACC schools are concerned. I did however see a report on the Clemson message board that their 247 reporter is saying someone told him Clemson has reached out to the Big10. Even if true, I still can’t see Clemson in the Big10. That’s not a desirable tv market. I only see 3 ACC schools as desirable from an AAU and tv market standpoint. North Carolina, Virginia and Georgia Tech. UNC and UVA make the most sense, but a Big10 team in a top 10 tv market in the heart of Atlanta and SEC country would be interesting. And some folks on the Tech message board are now openly regretting not joining the Big10 years ago when the possibility presented itself. I think I’d rather the conference go southward from her on out, but I think adding USC and UCLA means we are much more likely to take at least one more PAC-12 school to help the Bruins’ and Trojans’ travel in regards to the school and fans.
 
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U2Gopher said:
Clemson isn’t an AAU member so I seriously doubt they would be a consideration where ACC schools are concerned. I did however see a report on the Clemson message board that their 247 reporter is saying someone told him Clemson has reached out to the Big10. Even if true, I still can’t see Clemson in the Big10. That’s not a desirable tv market. I only see 3 ACC schools as desirable from an AAU and tv market standpoint. North Carolina, Virginia and Georgia Tech. UNC and UVA make the most sense, but a Big10 team in a top 10 tv market in the heart of Atlanta and SEC country would be interesting.
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I agree that AAU membership is important to the B1G, especially university Presidents and Chancelors. They're the ones that vote for acceptance. I don't like to bring this up too much as ND is not AAU and everyone is drooling over the possibility that they will join the B1G. Even though I would restrict any member to AAU, it wouldn't surprise me if they crumble under the pressure.
 

TruthSeeker said:
That wouldn't save the ACC. They're not large enough geographically to get TV payouts anywhere near the Big Ten.
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All depends what you mean by "save". I can't see every current team in it getting taken by other conferences. So the remainders (BC, Cuse, Wake, NC State) would pluck other teams and trudge on.
 

PMWinSTP said:
No
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You think if Notre Dame joins full time that the rest of the ACC schools leave, now?

GOR in place until 2036. They maybe get $50M per school per year? Yeah, that's half, but that's not nothing.

At the end of that GOR contract, I could see a lot of movement. Sure
 


nitramnaed said:
I agree that AAU membership is important to the B1G, especially university Presidents and Chancelors. They're the ones that vote for acceptance. I don't like to bring this up too much as ND is not AAU and everyone is drooling over the possibility that they will join the B1G. Even though I would restrict any member to AAU, it wouldn't surprise me if they crumble under the pressure.
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Yeah, I think there is ONE non-AAU school, and only one non-AAU school, that the Big10 Presidents would hold their nose and allow in and that is ND. I don’t think any other non-AAU school will be given serious consideration. There are plenty of quality AAU schools out there with good tv markets and athletic departments for the Presidents to consider. One that hasn’t been mentioned much that I find intriguing is Utah. Now they have supposedly already reached out to the Big12, but I’d take Utah in the Big10 in a second.

List of potential AAU schools we could still add..
Utah
Washington
Oregon
Stanford
Cal
Arizona
Virginia
North Carolina
Georgia Tech
Kansas
Duke
Pittsburgh

If we are going to 20, it’s coming from that list right there…and possibly Notre Dame.
 

Been visiting an ACC-AAU school fan site very akin to GH.

Very interesting to see the view from outside the current B1G and SEC memberships.

I think we can be glad to be a charter Big 10 institution...and also be glad that as the super-conference model evolves the Gophers will be on the inside.

However a point can be made whether future fans...in terms of streaming and eyeballs...will actually pay to support the money being thrown around now? Although this track will indeed create haves and have-nots, being a have may end up pyrrhic at best as a delayed, slow-motion fall instead of relatively quick.

Since I don't expect to live forever, should be good for me. Looking forward to it.
 
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GopherFanatic19 said:
I would take ND and Oregon asap. Don’t care much for Washington. I feel like just take programs that are huge, and Oregon and ND do that, without diluting. If ACC does crumble, add Clemson and NC and stay at 20 and call it a day.

What scraps are left that matter? I saw teams like Kansas (seriously), FS (maybe), BC (again seriously) and a couple more teams that just dilute the product
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It might be my Husky bias, but what happens if Oregon’s Nike money dries up? They weren’t much before it, and may struggle after.

Washington is much better academically, the campus is nicer, and they have a great sports tradition.

I would want OR in to compliment WA and give them a nearby school. Stanford is over 800 miles from UW and 500 miles from OR. Alone, either one would have the longest distance to the closest conference school of any other team in the country, except Hawaii.
 

U2Gopher said:
Yeah, I think there is ONE non-AAU school, and only one non-AAU school, that the Big10 Presidents would hold their nose and allow in and that is ND. I don’t think any other non-AAU school will be given serious consideration. There are plenty of quality AAU schools out there with good tv markets and athletic departments for the Presidents to consider. One that hasn’t been mentioned much that I find intriguing is Utah. Now they have supposedly already reached out to the Big12, but I’d take Utah in the Big10 in a second.

List of potential AAU schools we could still add..
Utah
Washington
Oregon
Stanford
Cal
Arizona
Virginia
North Carolina
Georgia Tech
Kansas
Duke
Pittsburgh

If we are going to 20, it’s coming from that list right there…and possibly Notre Dame.
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Imo...along with ND...the Big Ten should be looking at three more Pac-12 schools. When the conference breaks into four, five team pods...who goes west with the current teams we have? Nebraska would be fine. But now you are looking at breaking up Minnesota/Wisconsin/Iowa....which is my biggest concern right now. There are enough good programs in the Pac-12 where the B10 could grab three more and create a division where those teams retain some rivalries while also keeping the current Big Ten teams with their rivals.

Best case scenario, imo.
 

stocker08 said:
Imo...along with ND...the Big Ten should be looking at three more Pac-12 schools. When the conference breaks into four, five team pods...who goes west with the current teams we have? Nebraska would be fine. But now you are looking at breaking up Minnesota/Wisconsin/Iowa....which is my biggest concern right now. There are enough good programs in the Pac-12 where the B10 could grab three more and create a division where those teams retain some rivalries while also keeping the current Big Ten teams with their rivals.

Best case scenario, imo.
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Yeah, I agree too in regards to the divisions. While I’d rather add some schools from the ACC, the PAC-12 makes more sense if we are going to have division splits. A 20 team league with 4 five teams divisions with only 2 PAC-12 schools is…..odd.

USC
UCLA
NEBRASKA
IOWA
MINNESOTA

We would of course still play Wisconsin every year in that scenario but it wouldn’t feel right imho.
 



BilldGopher said:
Stumbled across this...

View attachment 19183
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Don't like the idea of expanding to 24. Think it should be capped at 20. And if there are only two more west coast teams added....the B10 could send Nebraska over with them. Would still prefer for them to be in a pod with Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin....but I would be alright with that scenario.
 

BilldGopher said:
Stumbled across this...

View attachment 19183
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I can see, and like the scenario on the left, if the end goal one day is 24 teams in the SEC and BIG10. I’m having a harder time however with the PAC-12 schools and the scenario on the right. Washington seems to make more sense to me than Stanford unless Notre Dame is telling the Big10 that they want Stanford involved. I’d love North Carolina but I’d think you need another ACC to come with them (Tech, Duke, UVA).
 

BilldGopher said:
More scuttle...

View attachment 19184
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I know Ga Tech’s football program has been down for a while, and they will always be second fiddle in Georgia to UGA, but I wanted Tech when we expanded the first time and would take them now too. Many of their fans are hoping that now too as the ACC future looks murky. I’ve already peeked at some Tech forums. Big10 traditional powers playing conference road games in Atlanta would be unsettling for some in the SEC. Selfishly, I hope it is Tech as it would give me greater access to in person Big10 football since I live in the Peach State.
 
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