USC and UCLA Planning to join BIG TEN.


Well that about does it for me. Not going to go to watch minor league professional football. Have fun gents, I'm sure nationalizing college football with bring in all sorts of fans.
 

Well that about does it for me. Not going to go to watch minor league professional football. Have fun gents, I'm sure nationalizing college football with bring in all sorts of fans.
I understand how you feel, and there is a part of me that feels the exact same way. Having said that, as much as I think NIL and perhaps this, will mean the death of this sport for my interests, I’m willing to give it a chance until I can’t stomach it anymore. I haven’t reached that point just yet.
 


Good academics, national brand in football, cultural fit.
Sorry Truth, but that doesn't cut it. 13 of the 14 B1G schools are AAU. Nebby was an AAU school when they came to the B1G. I'm sure their expulsion caught the B1G by surprise and without any recourse. To quote Joan Gabel the B1G wants "schools grounded in education and research". AAU accreditation confirms that.
 



Sorry Truth, but that doesn't cut it. 13 of the 14 B1G schools are AAU. Nebby was an AAU school when they came to the B1G. I'm sure their expulsion caught the B1G by surprise and without any recourse. To quote Joan Gabel the B1G wants "schools grounded in education and research". AAU accreditation confirms that.
The B1G has pursued the Irish multiple times in the past 100 years. They absolutely are different.
 


Sorry Truth, but that doesn't cut it. 13 of the 14 B1G schools are AAU. Nebby was an AAU school when they came to the B1G. I'm sure their expulsion caught the B1G by surprise and without any recourse. To quote Joan Gabel the B1G wants "schools grounded in education and research". AAU accreditation confirms that.
Wrong. Notre Dame has been coveted for decades. They're in if they want in.
 




The PAC12 Network is awful and hardly watched, it has little chance to compete with BIG Network or SEC Network. UCLA/USC will make so much more money by leaving and the current BIG teams will also receive huge windfalls.

Would you have rather had OU/Texas or USC/UCLA join the BIG?
 

The B1G has pursued the Irish multiple times in the past 100 years. They absolutely are different.
Okay. That's not true. ND was denied entrance in the early days of the conference and the only documented pursuit of ND was by Jim Delaney in the 90's. I'm not saying there maybe wasn't private talks going on, but so much of this is speculation.
 

The PAC12 Network is awful and hardly watched, it has little chance to compete with BIG Network or SEC Network. UCLA/USC will make so much more money by leaving and the current BIG teams will also receive huge windfalls.

Would you have rather had OU/Texas or USC/UCLA join the BIG?
Yup, that's the tough part of this. Regardless of culture / history, the incentives are 100% aligned with this move and it also benefits Minnesota.
 




So, let me get this straight, there are a number of supposedly "diehard" Gophers fans (you are if you're on this message board and you aren't a troll) who are going to stop caring about a team/sport they have followed for 20/30/40/50 years because we added two of the best West Coast schools to our conference? I just don't get that.

I'll watch the Gophers every week if we were playing any team in the country. The fact we now get some regular games with brand schools like these is just more exciting.

Maybe that is exactly what it means? Let's face it, the diehards keep saying the changes in the college sports won't change the attendance and viewership, but the numbers seem to contradicting that. If you want to keep watching and attending more power to you, but there are less and less people that feel the way you do.
 


If I'm Big XII, I'm contacting Arizona/Arizona State/Colorado/Utah immediately. While definitely behind Big Ten/SEC, they have a chance to make out on this
Guessing the Big12 wishes they had not just added Houston and Cincinnati. Maybe the PAC 12 goes in and picks off some of the bigger schools in the Big 12. If they tried to get to 16 teams, I‘m guessing they‘d like to take Kansas, K State, Iowa State, Oklahoma State. This would probably lead us to 4 major conferences.
 
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So we are slowly going towards one big super conference that will span the country. This is the beginning of the end. I hate it.
 

The BIG is supposed to be the Midwest's conference and all the schools have a similar profile with high level/public academics and enthusiastic sporting support with historic rivalries that predate professional football. This is turning into a sick money grab now. I don't want Rutgers, Maryland, or the LA schools. the Power 5 is now down to two actual legit conferences (maybe would consider ACC a strong 3rd in between the dying Big 12/PAC 12 and the SEC/BIG which will be the super conferences before it all merges into one) and the rest will slowly dissipate as they scramble to keep up, with no success
 

On the topic of adding ND, one thing that might be enticing is the USC rivalry! Adding Stanford in the future could seal the deal!
 

On the topic of adding ND, one thing that might be enticing is the USC rivalry! Adding Stanford in the future could seal the deal!
Yep. I think we end up with 20 and the next 4 are Stanford, Cal, Notre Dame, and Washington. Washington is the most attractive last team in because of the Seattle market and academics. Colorado is a possibility too.

That could make a 4 divisions of 5 setup, or one could re-form the pre-93 Big Ten as one division and Penn State and everything after as another with massive travel.

The Oregon and Arizona schools are left out and join up with the remnants of the Big 12.
 



It's difficult to find a non-monetary positive for the middle of the pack to lower schools on these super conferences. Are the gophers ever going to be able to compete for a conference title in any of the major sports at this point?
 

I think we'll be good at 16 for a bit.

The SEC upped the ante, and we called. On paper, USC + Notre Dame would've been the ultimate call, but this is still a pretty good call.

Now add Notre Dame, Oregon, Washington and a Texas School.

20 is a nice round number
World domination...
 

A lot of people, including myself, are concerned about the dilution of the Big Ten's history as it goes nationwide. One possible outcome could be a bigger conference allowing for tighter historical groupings of schools under a larger umbrella.

A few possibilities for the U:

  • A 4 team division with The Quadrangle
  • A 5 team division with Quadrangle + Illinois or Northwestern, or a newcomer like Kansas or Colorado.
  • The Original Six could be re-formed (Minnesota, Purdue, Wisconsin, Northwestern, Michigan, Illinois...a very competitively balanced division)
  • The pre-1993 Big Ten could re-form as a side of a 20 team league
  • ...and so on
There are many outcomes in which our rivalries become tighter and more traditional than today. In the small pod divisions there's also a reasonable path to a postseason playoff, at least at the Big Ten level.

In this world the Big Ten brand becomes more of a pseudo-NCAA and we still have a league within it consisting of a lot of our old frenemies. But this time, we're definitely going to play in the Rose Bowl at some point.
 

Now add Notre Dame, Oregon, Washington and a Texas School.

20 is a nice round number
World domination...
Notre Dame might come if we add Stanford.

They (ND) have yearly series with USC and Stanford. Gets them out to the Calif. Catholics, yearly.

If we did that and then wanted to go to 20, I would be fine with Wash and Oregon. But at this point, does anything matter? The ACC schools are supposedly locked up in a contract until 2036? But ... so? I think technically ND is bound by a similar contract to join the ACC in football. But again .... so?

Even with ND, the ACC probably wouldn't be able to deliver even half of the SEC and Big Ten $100M/year/school figures.
 


But ND is not an AAU school.
True, they're not. That has mostly to do with research, and then within research it really has to do with how many NIH grants you pull down. There certainly are exceptions to that, some AAU schools don't have a medical school obviously, and still make up for that. There are other federal agencies funding university research, certainly. Big one is NSF. But by far and away, the NIH funds the most.

Schools like ND, BC, etc. have rigorous, difficult undergraduate programs and are selective about who they admin. So there is that kind of "academics". But that kind is really nothing more than the same kind as liberal arts colleges. It's not a flashy thing. It doesn't get you in "the club".
 

Yeah if they are expanding west it means they want a national conference. And maybe 20-30 teams

To expand to 16 and make it pay for itself it had to be huge names USC fits that bill


Candidates in my mind:
North Carolina
Georgia tech
Virginia
Florida state
Clemson
Boston college
Syracuse
Notre dame
Stanford
Cal
Washington
Oregon
Ok state
TCU or Texas tech or Houston (probably only 1)
Oklahoma state
Kansas is the only remaining Big XII school that makes sense, and that would be for bball.


A lot of the ACC schools you list, of course make sense. But can they get out of the ACC contract? We will see ...
 




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