Confernce Realignment Chaos is Here!!!!!! (maybe ... probabbly not) (Rumor Texas and OK reach out to SEC about joining)

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If the B1G expands, I think it will be in to markets that are attractive for television. Could they get USC and UCLA? Would Syracuse and North Carolina be more realistic?

I am not sure the TV networks and the schools are really thinking this through. With Texas and Oklahoma going to the SEC, someone's going to experience a lot less success than they are used to. At some point, that's going to effect interest in that program (or programs) and that will lead to lower tv ratings, ad sales ticket sales, etc, etc. Once fans start feeling like their team can't/won't compete, it's really tough to get them back on board. It's obviously a money grab, but it's also short term thinking too. If you're Texas and this gets you more $$$ for 5 years but you don't win an SEC title in the next decade and your fan base shrinks and your brand is damaged by the losing..is it worth it? On the flip side is the additional $$$ coming to Ole Miss and Miss State worth it to those programs to bring in two more powerhouse programs that make it virtually impossible to ever see one of them win an SEC title? Wouldn't you rather be in a "lesser" conference as the Miss schools with the leftover Big 12 schools and have a real shot to compete than just be an opponent for Alabama, LSU, Auburn, Florida, A&M, Texas, and Oklahoma?
 

Sorry, but the Big Ten has to go big here. And I mean Big. Revision the whole plan for a conference. You raid the Pac 12, for TV purposes. USC, UCLA, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, and Kansas to the conference. 20 teams. Minnesota goes West with the six teams mentioned along with the quadrangle of hate of Iowa, Wisconsin and Nebraska. Tons of money in that television relationship. The Big Ten would control the #1, 2, 3, 4, (maybe 6), 7, 13, 14, 15, 17, and 19 markets in the country. And I don't care about how good the SEC is...if you have the TV markets, you have the money.
 

alltimetwinsfan said:
Sorry, but the Big Ten has to go big here. And I mean Big. Revision the whole plan for a conference. You raid the Pac 12, for TV purposes. USC, UCLA, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, and Kansas to the conference. 20 teams. Minnesota goes West with the six teams mentioned along with the quadrangle of hate of Iowa, Wisconsin and Nebraska. Tons of money in that television relationship. The Big Ten would control the #1, 2, 3, 4, (maybe 6), 7, 13, 14, 15, 17, and 19 markets in the country. And I don't care about how good the SEC is...if you have the TV markets, you have the money.
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Do Washington and Oregon come without Washington State and Oregon State ?(some state legislatures would try to get involved in blocking that, though not sure it would happen in the Pacific Northwest).

If this happens, do you play a Rose Bowl as your championship and ignore teams outside this 20 team conference? Or do you play a conference championship game (still the Rose Bowl?) and then have the winner play the SEC champion?

Why Kansas as opposed to say Arizona State? Get that Phoenix TV market in a state that figures to grow in population over the next decade or so?
 

Can someone please explain why the large majority of this thread thinks the Big Ten has to reactively make a panic move and add a bunch of teams or we are existentially threatened as a conference?

Are people going to stop watching the Big Ten because it's not the juggernaut super conference?

Are they not going to invite us to the playoffs if we don't have 16 teams just because the SEC does?

If Texas and Oklahoma wear a different conference patch on their jersey and play games against different teams than in the past, how does that impact us?

Will the Big Ten Network be dropped from cable because Texas played Vanderbilt one afternoon?

When you react to anything your "competitors" do you no longer have a strategy or an identity.
 



theTurning said:
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Conference wins are a zero sum game. If all of these teams join the same league they can't all continue to go 12-0 every year (or 5-7 for FSU and Michigan) and win the conference. If the top 20 "helmet schools" make their own league and kick everyone else out then at least a few of those schools are headed for the cellar and nobody thinks it could be them.

If this happens at least a couple schools will end up pulling a Nebraska and tanking their football tradition by thinking they can walk in and own any league.
 

Buttcheeks McGaffigan said:
Why don't think the Michigan/Ohio State rumor goes very far. There's no history of Michigan a/o Ohio State wanting to leave the B1G. Oklahoma and Texas have been tied to every major conference the last decade. This is earlier than expected but seemed inevitable at some point.
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OSU was furious with the B1G’s handling of Covid last year. And like others have said I have zero faith in Warren. Not saying it’s going to happen buuuuut.
 

theTurning said:
OSU was furious with the B1G’s handling of Covid last year. And like others have said I have zero faith in Warren. Not saying it’s going to happen buuuuut.
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It's not up to Ryan Day. University Presidents should be able to see the forest for the trees. And at some point it will turn political as well.
 

fmlizard said:
Conference wins are a zero sum game. If all of these teams join the same league they can't all continue to go 12-0 every year (or 5-7 for FSU and Michigan) and win the conference. If the top 20 "helmet schools" make their own league and kick everyone else out then at least a few of those schools are headed for the cellar and nobody thinks it could be them.

If this happens at least a couple schools will end up pulling a Nebraska and tanking their football tradition by thinking they can walk in and own any league.
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If you're Vanderbilt, Kentucky, Arkansas etc and you vote in favor of this, you're a fool. Not only are you resigning yourself to perpetual 2-10 seasons, but they will quickly tire of giving you 1/20 of that pie when there are USC's and Penn State's available.
 



WAGopher said:
The 12 team playoff has not yet been officially approved. There is still time for the colleges to decide to vote down the change in September.

With the news the SEC has been in secret talks for six months with Texas and Oklahoma, it is a natural assumption they were giving information to the playoff recommendation committee without revealing their true intentions.

With the impending chaos, I hope The College Football Playoffs board of managers will table the move to a 12 team playoff and take time to reevaluate.
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I hope they say 10 auto bids for 10 conference champs. They might have the votes to do it. ACC, Big 10, Pac 12 tell the big 12 and small conferences to pass rules like 10 bids are auto. No conference gets more than 2.

Whoops. SEC would try to break free. Good riddance
 

howeda7 said:
If you're Vanderbilt, Kentucky, Arkansas etc and you vote in favor of this, you're a fool. Not only are you resigning yourself to perpetual 2-10 seasons, but they will quickly tire of giving you 1/20 of that pie when there are USC's and Penn State's available.
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Presumably they are kicking out schools on their way to building a super conference (for football, screw all the other sports) as a way to front-run the end of the NCAA.

So let's say the "SEC" is this in 2025:

Alabama
Auburn
Clemson
Georgia
Florida
Florida State
Miami
Michigan
Ohio State
Penn State

LSU
Notre Dame
Oklahoma
Oklahoma St
Oregon
Texas A&M
Tennessee
Texas
UCLA
USC
Wisconsin

Someone has to lose. Several teams will lose big and go from being 10 win programs to 10 loss programs overnight. And nobody thinks it will be them. A scenario like this should be terrifying for Michigan fans. It could wind up beautiful for schools like Minnesota who watch the oppressive death star of Ohio State leave and suddenly can win the (nontraditional) Big Ten again.
 

fmlizard said:
Presumably they are kicking out schools on their way to building a super conference (for football, screw all the other sports) as a way to front-run the end of the NCAA.

So let's say the "SEC" is this in 2025:

Alabama
Auburn
Clemson
Georgia
Florida
Florida State
Miami
Michigan
Ohio State
Penn State

LSU
Notre Dame
Oklahoma
Oklahoma St
Oregon
Texas A&M
Tennessee
Texas
UCLA
USC
Wisconsin

Someone has to lose. Several teams will lose big and go from being 10 win programs to 10 loss programs overnight. And nobody thinks it will be them. A scenario like this should be terrifying for Michigan fans. It could wind up beautiful for schools like Minnesota who watch the oppressive death star of Ohio State leave and suddenly can win the (nontraditional) Big Ten again.
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Yup. And if that happened the non traditional big ten would still be a league worth watching to me

The big ten does have like 11-12 of the top 30-40 brands in college sports and are unlikely to be left behind.

Minnesota and Illinois are more valuable as cannon fodder to networks than as highly competitive teams in a second tier league.
 

I dont know if the re alignments are going to be so drastic, however there will be some shifting. 2-3 teams running around from each league or mid majors to fill.
 



howeda7 said:
Chuck Grassley having served in the Senate for 87 years probably pays off at times like these. Iowa State adds nothing. No media markets. No marquee team. Makes zero sense.

Even if the B1G can't pull anyone from the SEC/ACC/Pac 12, Oklahoma State or Baylor would make more sense among the Big 12 leftovers.
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I agree that obviously we're fully covered in Iowa, and it's highly unlikely that ISU alumni have enough pull in any market we don't already also have BTN coverage with.

But are you going to keep saying no teams, after what they did last year in football and after they win the Big XII in football this year?

Basketball obviously has ups and downs, but they have had success on the court.

Very good fan support, nice facilities, AAU school.


As I've said -- it would take some doing. They are not at all an obvious add. I agree.


It would really have to come down to something like that the presidents decided that the conference needs to go to 16, over staying at 14 or only adding KU at 15, and that no teams currently in the ACC or SEC are touchable.

Then, frankly, KU and ISU are the two best options from the remainder Big XII.
 

That said, there could be a reasonable argument to just going to 15 in football. The Big Ten was at 11 for years after Penn St.

If you really wanted divisions in football, you could do three groups of 5:

Minnesota
Wisconsin
Iowa
Nebraska
Kansas

NW
Illinois
Purdue
Indiana
Mich St

Michigan
Ohio St
Penn St
Maryland
Rutgers

Play everyone in your division, play two teams in each other division each year, plus one more protected game. I think that would cover most major games? Take top two ranked for the conf champ game.


Simpler is to just have no divisions.
 

HoustonTXGopher said:
Sorry, not a fan of this mentality. The SEC just made the BIG look like a total second rate conference. I have to believe that if Jim Delaney were still commissioner this would have gone down differently and possibly in favor of the BIG.

I don't think there is a glaring difference in scholastic ratings between the two conferences other than Northwestern, Michigan and Vandy. All the other schools are kind of whatever.
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That's absolutely incorrect. The Big Ten schools are head and shoulders above the average SEC school in research.


And the SEC schools are head and shoulders above most Big Ten schools in fan base and viewership. It just is what it is, outside of Ohio. People care, but not the way they do down south.
 

howeda7 said:
Oklahoma State or Baylor would make more sense among the Big 12 leftovers.
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Zero chance on Baylor. Dude, seriously? Gross

OSU, not nearly good enough to justify how low they are in academics/research.
 

Buttcheeks McGaffigan said:
Why don't think the Michigan/Ohio State rumor goes very far. There's no history of Michigan a/o Ohio State wanting to leave the B1G. Oklahoma and Texas have been tied to every major conference the last decade. This is earlier than expected but seemed inevitable at some point.
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That's just trying to get views on Twitter.

Zero chance
 

fmlizard said:
Can someone please explain why the large majority of this thread thinks the Big Ten has to reactively make a panic move and add a bunch of teams or we are existentially threatened as a conference?
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They don't. The level headed move is to stand pat, for a moment.

But it's fun to talk about.
 




howeda7 said:
Chuck Grassley having served in the Senate for 87 years probably pays off at times like these. Iowa State adds nothing. No media markets. No marquee team. Makes zero sense.

Even if the B1G can't pull anyone from the SEC/ACC/Pac 12, Oklahoma State or Baylor would make more sense among the Big 12 leftovers.
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You really think some 90 year old politician will have some influence on ISU's chances of getting into the B1G or did I miss the sarcasm?

It is kind of fun for us fans speculating on how this shakes out, tho.
 

The more I think about it....the more I think 20 team conferences makes sense. Four pods of five teams. Then you crossover with one other every year. So that's four games against the rest of the division and then five against one other region. You end up hitting every other team in the conference at least once every three years.

Then you could also do a four team conference playoff.

Really.....this is what the G5 conferences should do. Three 20 team conferences. More exposure with a conference playoffs and a chance to tack on a few extra wins for CFP contention.
 

stocker08 said:
The more I think about it....the more I think 20 team conferences makes sense. Four pods of five teams. Then you crossover with one other every year. So that's four games against the rest of the division and then five against one other region. You end up hitting every other team in the conference at least once every three years.

Then you could also do a four team conference playoff.

Really.....this is what the G5 conferences should do. Three 20 team conferences. More exposure with a conference playoffs and a chance to tack on a few extra wins for CFP contention.
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Maybe they could form a 40 team conference and break into 3 divisions called the big ten, ACC, and Pac 12
 

the massive reactionary takes here are interesting. would imagine it will go to 4 16 team conferences as has been discussed for, well forever. The B12 is one of the youngest conferences and there have been political divisions there since the league formed. I don't think OK and TX leaving are now the dominoes that lead OSU and MI to leave the B10. There is far too much political tracking, academics, etc within the B10. I would much faster see the B10 absorbing 2 additional markets to get to 16. MI and OSU are the biggest fish in our pond from a market/following standpoint across sports. I wouldn't imagine they want to move down the heirarchy (will be even with Bama, Georgia, Florida, rather than be clear top dogs) in coverage. The money comes from TV viewership, which is already prominent across the country. The Big Ten's contract runs out in 2023 I believe so I'd imagine now is when the hyper aggressive push to pull in ND, plus whoever you think gives you a blend of football and basketball from either the ACC or remains of the B12. I can't see any real traction to OSU and MI leaving behind what would be influxes of money and the ability to remain at the top. If they did, it would be beyond foolish/short-sighted and, while it would make me sad to see the B10 flipped around, it would be a chance to see MI pull a Nebraska and have their program drop like a rock, probably similar to how we'll see Texas plummet with this move (and it'll happen to another 1 of the upper mid tier programs in the SEC or Oklahoma).

On a side note, I think it's funny people are using that joining a super conference increases your chances to get in given you can make it with 2-3 losses. Well, if it goes to 12, you'll still make it with 1-2 losses in your shittier conference and have an easier time winning that number of games. These moves are made for money, but you're clearly going to see some pissed off fans when their team is the one who ends up suffering (the same as how Nebraska football fans rue that they came to the B10).
 

howeda7 said:
If you're Vanderbilt, Kentucky, Arkansas etc and you vote in favor of this, you're a fool. Not only are you resigning yourself to perpetual 2-10 seasons, but they will quickly tire of giving you 1/20 of that pie when there are USC's and Penn State's available.
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agreed 100%. Short sighted move for both those moving (one of TX or OK is going to be the Nebraska with the move, probably TX) as well as taking them in (what does Arkansas add to the pie in terms of winning or market? Vanderbilt I guess can still claim academics?).
 

EG#9 said:
If the B1G expands, I think it will be in to markets that are attractive for television. Could they get USC and UCLA? Would Syracuse and North Carolina be more realistic?

I am not sure the TV networks and the schools are really thinking this through. With Texas and Oklahoma going to the SEC, someone's going to experience a lot less success than they are used to. At some point, that's going to effect interest in that program (or programs) and that will lead to lower tv ratings, ad sales ticket sales, etc, etc. Once fans start feeling like their team can't/won't compete, it's really tough to get them back on board. It's obviously a money grab, but it's also short term thinking too. If you're Texas and this gets you more $$$ for 5 years but you don't win an SEC title in the next decade and your fan base shrinks and your brand is damaged by the losing..is it worth it? On the flip side is the additional $$$ coming to Ole Miss and Miss State worth it to those programs to bring in two more powerhouse programs that make it virtually impossible to ever see one of them win an SEC title? Wouldn't you rather be in a "lesser" conference as the Miss schools with the leftover Big 12 schools and have a real shot to compete than just be an opponent for Alabama, LSU, Auburn, Florida, A&M, Texas, and Oklahoma?
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this. 100% this. someone has to move down the tiers. Regarding the money, college football is already a massive national brand. Can you imagine Texas fans are going to be pumped when they're relegated to the SEC Network as where their games are played in the 11am timeslot because they suck/are playing Vandy? ESPN is still going to feature who they think will get the most views, and unless they're going to say fuck you to the B10 (they won't), there's only so many channels/timeslots. Now add in you're gutting rivalry games and taking away meaning and you hurt interest in the program.
 

Been reading some articles about what happens to the remaining teams in the Big 12 assuming TX and OK leave for the SEC.

I found several people discussing some kind of a merger between the Pac 12 and remaining Big 12 teams - possibly resulting with a 20-team mega-conference.

For the leftover teams in the Big 12, there is really no one they could add that would allow them to retain Power-conference status for FB. So, they either resign themselves to lower status and lower money, or try to make a deal with the Pac 12.

I think all of this probably leads to 4 mega-conferences. And a few teams could find themselves standing when the music stops, and be forced to fall to second-tier status.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
Yup. The 12 team playoff will now be 6 SEC teams and 6 other teams.
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I don't know about that. Depends on what the comittee views things. Pairing the 6th best SEC team vs the 3rd best SEC team in a first round matchup probably ain't going to feel real enticing to the country (assuming top 4 get byes who are SEC winner, B10 winner, P12 or B12 remainders winner/ND, and SEC runner up). Too many head to heads come together in that scenario. At some point they can't all get in. I unerstand you're perhaps being a bit hyperbolic but just was addressing I don't think it'll get that extreme
 

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