Realignment Megathread (All The Moves)

[Die4Cy]

People still seem to be scratching their heads over why realignment has gone the way it has.

Conferences are just the cardboard packaging that football tv viewership comes in, and the networks have decided they prefer shopping for Costco sized packages where they can save money on a variety pack they buy in volume.

 

[SEIOWA CLONE]

Based on what evidence?

Everything we heard was that the only teams of interest at that point were the other corner schools and if those schools turned us down we'd round things out with UConn.

There's no evidence the big 12 had any interest in Stanford\Cal.



Yes. 100% the league would absolutely turn them down. All reporting has indicated this. Stanford isn't this high value option you keep claiming it is.

I have never claimed that Stanford is a high value, but it would be silly to turn down one of the best athletic and academic programs in the country. The key is "everything we have heard," which does not tell us whether the B12 reached out and were told no, or if Stanford did the reaching to tell the league they were not interested. The would be true after Oregon and Washington left the conference and the 4 corner schools had accepted. You mean to tell me that the B12 commish would not even give Stanford a phone call and see if they are just a little bit interested?
Its very easy to see the call was made, Stanford said they wanted to "explore other options" and no one found out about it.

Just because Stanford has little to no value to the Big Easy conference, already have two teams in California, does not mean that they would not have value to the B12 conference.

 

[Nolaeer]

I have never claimed that Stanford is a high value, but it would be silly to turn down one of the best athletic and academic programs in the country. The key is "everything we have heard," which does not tell us whether the B12 reached out and were told no, or if Stanford did the reaching to tell the league they were not interested. The would be true after Oregon and Washington left the conference and the 4 corner schools had accepted. You mean to tell me that the B12 commish would not even give Stanford a phone call and see if they are just a little bit interested?
Its very easy to see the call was made, Stanford said they wanted to "explore other options" and no one found out about it.

Just because Stanford has little to no value to the Big Easy conference, already have two teams in California, does not mean that they would not have value to the B12 conference.

Stanford is too far from WVU, UCF, and cinn to justify. They add too little value for that kind of travel. If Stanford was in Houston, yeah sure, no brainer.

I wouldnt want Stanford in the big 12 even if they took zero as a payout forever. 20 is the magic number for the big 12, and right now my top 4 (BY's too im sure) are VT, Nc State, Pitt, and Loysville in that order. Miami would be number 3 if it is available.

 

[SEIOWA CLONE]

Stanford is too far from WVU, UCF, and cinn to justify. They add too little value for that kind of travel. If Stanford was in Houston, yeah sure, no brainer.

I wouldnt want Stanford in the big 12 even if they took zero as a payout forever. 20 is the magic number for the big 12, and right now my top 4 (BY's too im sure) are VT, Nc State, Pitt, and Loysville in that order. Miami would be number 3 if it is available.

I agree I would rather have the ACC schools than Stanford, but when the P12 was falling about, do you not have to make the call and tell them they would have a place at the table if they wanted?

Maybe Yormark didn't call them and was waiting the arrogant SOB's to call him first, no one knows the truth unless they are on the inside, but getting a school like Stanford always makes a league look better.

 

[isucy86]

Seems like a lot of ink wasted over the last 20-ish pages of this thread on Stanford, not sure why. What part of 0.0 do you not see in terms of Stanford ever agreeing to join the B12? We are beneath them in their eyes, we meaning the traditional B8/B12 teams other than Texas.

Money often gets in the way of ideals. But agree it's unlikely the Big12 is interested unless ESPN is willing to dig deep.

If the Big12 invited Stanford to join, they would. There is a huge financial difference between being in a P4 conference and G5- I'd estimate $40M annually starting in 2026.

Stanford has a huge endowment, but the people who donated that money, Stanford's alumni and student population would be in an uproar if endowment money was used toward athletics. Otherwise donors would have endowed that money specifically to the Athletic Department.

 

[Nolaeer]

Stanford was never getting in. Corner schools were the home run. If we had got colo. onl;y, we wouldve added uconn.

had we got arz colo and arz state, uconn would have been 16, not stanford.

 

[2speedy1]

Based on what evidence?

Everything we heard was that the only teams of interest at that point were the other corner schools and if those schools turned us down we'd round things out with UConn.

There's no evidence the big 12 had any interest in Stanford\Cal.



Yes. 100% the league would absolutely turn them down. All reporting has indicated this. Stanford isn't this high value option you keep claiming it is.

I have never claimed that Stanford is a high value, but it would be silly to turn down one of the best athletic and academic programs in the country. The key is "everything we have heard," which does not tell us whether the B12 reached out and were told no, or if Stanford did the reaching to tell the league they were not interested. The would be true after Oregon and Washington left the conference and the 4 corner schools had accepted. You mean to tell me that the B12 commish would not even give Stanford a phone ca

ll and see if they are just a little bit interested?
Its very easy to see the call was made, Stanford said they wanted to "explore other options" and no one found out about it.

Just because Stanford has little to no value to the Big Easy conference, already have two teams in California, does not mean that they would not have value to the B12 conference.

I will admit...I am one of the ones that has appeared to say Stanford has highish value....that some believe I think they are a high value good add.

But this is not what I have said or meant. If their was any truth to the RUMOR that there were discussions between them and the B12, and the media partners wanted to pay for them, then the B12 then the notion that we have to wait and hold spots for the ACC is not exactly a great plan.

I believe A) IF and ONLY IF the media partners want to pay for them, they are possible adds. And that teams like Stan, Cal are just as valuable or more valuable than the Bottom ACC.

With that the B12 has to decide ultimately what number they are eventually planning on going to, to see how much room they have for teams. And then decide where the value is for those spots, then who is a possible future add. There is no use comparing the value of Stanford to Clemson, because Clemson will never be a B12 add. But you can compare them to teams like Louisville, Syracuse, BC etc. Because those school would be on the list of possible adds if the ACC falls apart, and would be on the lower end of the ACC, just like the remaining Pac teams are the low end on the Pac.

I dont believe that we should add any of the remaining PAC schools at this point, nor that it really is even being discussed. I believe it is a rumor started by them to push the ACC into letting them in. But when the time does come, I think you have to look at the entire pool of teams available and compare them, with that I think some of the PAC4 might be more valuable than some of the ACC.

 

[isucy86]

Stanford is too far from WVU, UCF, and cinn to justify. They add too little value for that kind of travel. If Stanford was in Houston, yeah sure, no brainer.

I wouldnt want Stanford in the big 12 even if they took zero as a payout forever. 20 is the magic number for the big 12, and right now my top 4 (BY's too im sure) are VT, Nc State, Pitt, and Loysville in that order. Miami would be number 3 if it is available.

If the Big12 is 20 or 24 teams, that means schools like WVU might have to fly to West Coast once a year for a football game. Seems manageable and not "sky is falling" mantra we read on message boards and online media.

 

[LonelyCyKC]

Except most of what you are saying is not true. VT viewership last 2 years has been on par with G5 schools. Averaging 350K views is not good and it seems no-one really cares. If they have such a great fanbase, and demand, they would have viewership numbers to match.

Pitt-WVU is a better rivalry. You a WVU fan and are by far biased for the eastern teams especially those in close prox to WVU. But that does not make the numbers any better.

If they had market share those numbers would show up.

Travel for the Eastern schools sure is better with eastern schools, but travel for the western schools is better to Stanford than to VT.

Cal sucks and still has better viewership than VT when you average the last 2 years. And VT isnt even the bottom of the ACC. Which says something. Hell Kansas has had double the views as VT over the last 2 years, and they are the bottom of the irate 8. Kansas is on par with Pitt.....FOR FOOTBALL!! Damn close to half the ACC is below Kansas, frickin KANSAS in viewership for football. Duke is lucky to get 100K viewership. Great basketball but their football is all but nonexistent, and we say KU is bad. KU looks like a rockstar to half the ACC.

So again tell me what VT has?

You are obviously biased to want eastern schools, And I am not saying we should not take some of those eastern schools, but saying the bottom half of the ACC is somehow superior to whats left in the Pac is not true. And Stanford while I dont think they are a great add has better stats than most.

If you want to go east and can't get NC or NCSt (both basketball schools), I would take Louisville (basketball) and Pitt (football) before Vt. and add Miami to pair with CFU,

 

[keepngoal]

If the Big12 is 20 or 24 teams, that means schools like WVU might have to fly to West Coast once a year for a football game. Seems manageable and not "sky is falling" mantra we read on message boards and online media.

the mantra is about all the other sports doing the same WC trip.

 

[SEIOWA CLONE]

If the Big12 is 20 or 24 teams, that means schools like WVU might have to fly to West Coast once a year for a football game. Seems manageable and not "sky is falling" mantra we read on message boards and online media.

Somehow flying to SF is too far for WVU but flying to Arizona or Utah a couple times a year for two schools in each state is OK?

Stanford is not in the B12, because Stanford thinks it beneath them to be in the B12. The Big Easy conference does not need them for BTN sucking money out of California, and Fox, must think the money is not there in the market to make the difference.

If I was in charge, I would have asked them, what's the worst they can say, "not interested" and you move on. Where Stanford ends up is not the B12's problem, let them deal with it.

 

[SCNCY]

Personally, I would only consider adding Stanford if it meant it would help the academic prestige of our member institutions through cooperative research funding. I think that would be worth it, even if Athletics media payout takes a little hit because the media's take on our conferences academics is poor.

However, I think someone mentioned previously on this site that Stanford doesn't like to share in their research funding. Which if that's the case, they should be a hard no.

 

[LonelyCyKC]

Stanford's "high value" is the belief that Notre Dame will request them to be their "pair" when joining a conference. No idea if that is actually true or not, but if it is then any conference will take them.

Notre Dame has national value as a sports show, Stanford not so much. I think that Notre Dame will stay as is until the ACC dissolves. After that they will be forced into the B1G in order to get games with something better (tv better) than the ACC remnant and the AAC. (As the 3 major conferences expand, they will need to reduce the number of non-conference games. And, who wants to play ND and risk losing, rather than a rummy and win.)

Stanford is now looking from the outside - in with no TV as an independent or merge the PAC4 with who ever will take them next year. They might end up as part of a future Mountain Pacific Conference in which the California schools can fly to the mountains to meet and lose to Airforce and Colorado State.

Sorry too many topics in one comment.

 

[Nolaeer]

lol at taking anyone not named VT over NC state, stanford, louisville, pitt, and even miami.

Wait and see, VT and nc state are likely sec bound. states of va and nc are too huge to ignore.

If the big 12 can get VT, NC state, pitt, louisville that's even better than the 4 corner schools. Pitt and louisville are not that great, but having market in nc and va would be huge.

 

[HouClone]

No to Stanford (and Cal). They think they are better than the Big 12. Yeah, their academics and their Olympic sports are superior. But we don't need this attitude in the conference. We thought it may be a problem with Utah and so far it is on course. They are having buyer's remorse as most wish they could have tagged along with Stanford/Cal to the ACC, and they never wanted the Big 12 anyways. Sucks having another minor OU and UT in the conference, and adding Stanford/Cal would add to "us" versus "them" groups.

 

[Daserop]

People still seem to be scratching their heads over why realignment has gone the way it has.

Conferences are just the cardboard packaging that football tv viewership comes in, and the networks have decided they prefer shopping for Costco sized packages where they can save money on a variety pack they buy in volume.

I like Costco

 

[2speedy1]

lol at taking anyone not named VT over NC state, stanford, louisville, pitt, and even miami.

Wait and see, VT and nc state are likely sec bound. states of va and nc are too huge to ignore.

If the big 12 can get VT, NC state, pitt, louisville that's even better than the 4 corner schools. Pitt and louisville are not that great, but having market in nc and va would be huge.

LMFAO!!! VT is G5 level. Virginia is even worse.

(2022 Viewership for those that didnt understand!!)



Whats worse is those Virginia schools have P5 level TV promotion and availability. The G5 schools have much less promotion and availability for their media content. So it is even worse because with their P5 level Media, and playing teams like Clemson and FSU to bring up their averages, they still can only manage G5 level viewership. SAD

 

[alarson]

Stanford is not in the B12, because Stanford thinks it beneath them to be in the B12.

Stanford is not in the big 12 because they don't add much value in football or basketball and their academic success doesn't mean anything in realignment.

 

[TXCyclones]

LMFAO!!! VT is G5 level. Virginia is even worse.

View attachment 116032
View attachment 116033

Whats worse is those Virginia schools have P5 level TV promotion and availability. The G5 schools have much less promotion and availability for their media content. So it is even worse because with their P5 level Media, and playing teams like Clemson and FSU to bring up their averages, they still can only manage G5 level viewership. SAD

What are those numbers even representing? The lack of context is silliness.

 

[SEIOWA CLONE]

LMFAO!!! VT is G5 level. Virginia is even worse.

View attachment 116032
View attachment 116033

Whats worse is those Virginia schools have P5 level TV promotion and availability. The G5 schools have much less promotion and availability for their media content. So it is even worse because with their P5 level Media, and playing teams like Clemson and FSU to bring up their averages, they still can only manage G5 level viewership. SAD

This is a prime example of why you must examine what the stats are saying and just not take them at face value. Because there is no way in hell that Toledo of Ohio has more fans than large state schools like Virginia or Virginia tech that are watching their games.

Attendance 2022: Virginia 40,681, VT 64,356 to Toledo 19,557.

So how did Toledo draw better numbers? Looking at their schedule last year, you see that Toledo played Ohio State, that is always great for a ratings bump, and they played two games on Tuesday nights and one game on a Friday night. On the weeknight games there would be little competition from other games, allowing the school to rack up some rating points average, from the hardcore football fan that just wants to watch a game on TV, regardless of the teams playing. I tend to be one of those.

Stats can mislead you, that is why you have to look into them, otherwise you come off looking silly.

2022 FBS Attendance Trends | College Athletics News | D1 ticker

A look at FBS attendance for the 2022 season compared to year-over-year and five-year-over-year averages.

www.d1ticker.com

Toledo Rockets 2022 Regular Season NCAAF Schedule - ESPN

ESPN has the full 2022 Toledo Rockets Regular Season NCAAF schedule. Includes game times, TV listings and ticket information for all Rockets games.

www.espn.com