Realignment Megathread (All The Moves)



Entertaining group of folks together for a "healthy" debate. :D

I really wish sports talking heads would quit trying to make this false assertion that the athletic conference in which a school is part of impacts the research funding they receive.

Here's the reality. PAC tends to have better schools, that can more easily recruit talent. As a result, those schools get more research dollars. The fact they are in the PAC MAKES. ZERO. DIFFERENCE.

If ISU went to the PAC tomorrow it would have zero impact on research dollars. If Cal went to the Big 12 tomorrow, it would have zero impact on research dollars. Does a president at KU want to rub elbows with the Cal schools instead of Texas schools? Probably. But it isn't going to create some boost in research dollars. That's not at all how any of this works. The fact that KU plays football in CA sometimes isn't going to suddenly make Tech companies on the west coast dump money in KU. It isn't going to make tech geniuses in CA any more inclined to go to school or become a researcher at KU.

The athletic conference someone is in does not, never has, and never will impact whether an agency or company funds their research. Zero research dollars flow to an athletic conference.

People need to stop with this nonsense.
 
Pretty extensive discussion beginning at about the 18:00 mark.

Most interesting point that I haven’t heard anybody make is ESPN feeling pressure from the SEC to pony up for each team to play a 9th conference game.

Wetzel chimed in that if he’s ESPN, he’d rather have 8 additional SEC games per season than a handful of pac-12 matchups.

It’s no secret that ESPN is being extra diligent on new spending right now, so having additional pressure from other conferences (as well as upcoming NBA, NASCAR, and UFC rights) can’t be good for the PAC-12.

 


Trying to guess this out.

Probably not an Oregon State or Washington State recruit because they are hoping to still be in the Pac 12. Utah, Cal and Stanford harder to say.

Could easily be an Arizona/ASU/Colorado program talking about being Big 12 or Washington/Oregon talking about being Big Ten, but in the case of Washington/Oregon they're really talking about something the programs have very little control of themselves. I think the schools headed to Big 12 control their own destiny in that choice.
 
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Trying to guess this out.

Probably not an Oregon State or Washington State recruit because they are hoping to still be in the Pac 12. Utah, Cal and Stanford harder to say.

Could easily be an Arizona/ASU/Colorado program talking about being Pac or Washington/Oregon talking about being Big Ten, but in the case of Washington/Oregon they're really talking about something the programs have very little control of themselves. I think the schools headed to Big 12 control their own destiny in that choice.
I’m skeptical it’s UW or Oregon, as it seems like we’d have seen some smoke. There’s been smoke about the Big 12 for months now.
 
I’m skeptical it’s UW or Oregon, as it seems like we’d have seen some smoke. There’s been smoke about the Big 12 for months now.
OU and UT were talking to the SEC for quite some time before it broke. If you keep the circle small and everyone keeps their mouths shut, you can go for a while before the smoke starts.
 
Pretty extensive discussion beginning at about the 18:00 mark.

Most interesting point that I haven’t heard anybody make is ESPN feeling pressure from the SEC to pony up for each team to play a 9th conference game.

Wetzel chimed in that if he’s ESPN, he’d rather have 8 additional SEC games per season than a handful of pac-12 matchups.

It’s no secret that ESPN is being extra diligent on new spending right now, so having additional pressure from other conferences (as well as upcoming NBA, NASCAR, and UFC rights) can’t be good for the PAC-12.

Agreed on the 9th conference game which makes more sense for the SEC now that the playoffs are expanding.

Is NASCAR still a thing that ESPN will want to invest in? Not to go off topic but that just seems like you’re investing in a dying sport.
 
The endless pretending of these ******** that UCLA and USC didn’t just peace the **** out of the PAC-12 is astounding. Holy ****.

 
I really wish sports talking heads would quit trying to make this false assertion that the athletic conference in which a school is part of impacts the research funding they receive.

Here's the reality. PAC tends to have better schools, that can more easily recruit talent. As a result, those schools get more research dollars. The fact they are in the PAC MAKES. ZERO. DIFFERENCE.

If ISU went to the PAC tomorrow it would have zero impact on research dollars. If Cal went to the Big 12 tomorrow, it would have zero impact on research dollars. Does a president at KU want to rub elbows with the Cal schools instead of Texas schools? Probably. But it isn't going to create some boost in research dollars. That's not at all how any of this works. The fact that KU plays football in CA sometimes isn't going to suddenly make Tech companies on the west coast dump money in KU. It isn't going to make tech geniuses in CA any more inclined to go to school or become a researcher at KU.

The athletic conference someone is in does not, never has, and never will impact whether an agency or company funds their research. Zero research dollars flow to an athletic conference.

People need to stop with this nonsense.

I don't think people realize the massive size/quality of the CA public/private universities outside of the four pac schools. I didn't until I moved here. It's not like the other state schools are garbage after Cal/UCLA. I'm no academic expert but it seems like quite a few publics and privates in CA do amazingly well without Pac 12 conference affiliation or even having sports at all.
 
I really wish sports talking heads would quit trying to make this false assertion that the athletic conference in which a school is part of impacts the research funding they receive.

Here's the reality. PAC tends to have better schools, that can more easily recruit talent. As a result, those schools get more research dollars. The fact they are in the PAC MAKES. ZERO. DIFFERENCE.

If ISU went to the PAC tomorrow it would have zero impact on research dollars. If Cal went to the Big 12 tomorrow, it would have zero impact on research dollars. Does a president at KU want to rub elbows with the Cal schools instead of Texas schools? Probably. But it isn't going to create some boost in research dollars. That's not at all how any of this works. The fact that KU plays football in CA sometimes isn't going to suddenly make Tech companies on the west coast dump money in KU. It isn't going to make tech geniuses in CA any more inclined to go to school or become a researcher at KU.

The athletic conference someone is in does not, never has, and never will impact whether an agency or company funds their research. Zero research dollars flow to an athletic conference.

People need to stop with this nonsense.
That was proven when the big tin added nebraska.
 
The endless pretending of these ******** that UCLA and USC didn’t just peace the **** out of the PAC-12 is astounding. Holy ****.



If only there were any other indicator like non conference football record, bowl record, NCAA tournament bids, NCAA basketball championships.
 
Hearing some chatter that Yormark is interested in SDSU and Fresno State... yikes! I hope that is wrong. It does feed into the whole Big 12 Mexico thing.

Not crazy about SDSU and REALLY not crazy about Fresno State, but the more I look at a football game in Monterey it seems pretty amazing.

IMHO the rest of that deal is just window dressing to play a yearly game in that beautiful stadium in that setting. It grades out better than something like Ireland in every single comparison. I'm guessing the first two B12 fan bases come back from the game and the other 12 are instantly jealous. Ireland is a dog$*** choice for that sort of thing compared to Monterey when you dig into the details.
 
Agreed on the 9th conference game which makes more sense for the SEC now that the playoffs are expanding.

Is NASCAR still a thing that ESPN will want to invest in? Not to go off topic but that just seems like you’re investing in a dying sport.
NASCAR had an increase in ratings last year over the year before, after a few years of decline. And had its best year in 5 years. Its current deal is worth $8.2 Billion and expires after '24.

Sounds like they are looking and talking with some streaming companies to take a small package of their 36 races that way. While keeping their major events on a major network. Since the current deal is with Fox and NBC, it is possible that streaming package could end up on Peacock, or possibly move to something like Apple etc.

I dont disagree that NASCAR has declined overall, but it still has a huge media value. I think it will just depend on how they pursue broadcasting in the next contract, but I dont doubt their total deal will be in the Billions of dollars, likely above $10 Billion.

With that it is notable that NASCAR has not been on ESPN for several years now. I believe since the last media deal, but might have been longer. And used to be on TNT as well but also not anymore.



 
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Not crazy about SDSU and REALLY not crazy about Fresno State, but the more I look at a football game in Monterey it seems pretty amazing.

IMHO the rest of that deal is just window dressing to play a yearly game in that beautiful stadium in that setting. It grades out better than something like Ireland in every single comparison. I'm guessing the first two B12 fan bases come back from the game and the other 12 are instantly jealous. Ireland is a dog$*** choice for that sort of thing compared to Monterey when you dig into the details.
The problem with going to Mexico... losing a home game. I pay enough for my season tickets, I dont want to lose my home games to Mexico. Sure if they want to add an extra game to the schedule etc for that game I dont mind, but losing one of my games, especially the limited number of home football games already, is not something I am looking forward to. Play a non con basketball game there sure, or host a tournament in the non con, fine. But its bad enough having a neutral site game in KC instead of home, its worse when its 1500 miles away.
 
I know literally zero about NASCAR or ESPN’s interest in it, but a huge chunk of the rabid NASCAR fans I grew up with are also rabid SEC football fans. And with ESPN paying gobs of cash to secure that demographic with exclusive SEC rights, it might make sense to have complimentary programming to keep those viewers around on non-football weekends and fall Sundays.
 

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