You want your rivalry? Nebraska - Oklahoma forget the RRR.....welcome to the Big Ten West and a much easier Path to the playoff than through the SEC West....I know, I know the Texas recruiting. I dont buy it myself, if you build the relationships, you can recruit any State. I'll give you one example of why I think you dont have to play much, if at all, in a particular state to recruit it. Since 1984 Nebraska has had 143 recruits from California, they have 126 Texas recruits in that same time. I'm guessing Nebraska played far more games in Texas during that time.
I agree. No one really cares about the RRR except people in Texas and Oklahoma. With the demise of football at both schools (especially Texas), the RRR is really not that big of a deal. I cannot remember the last time the game was televised on prime time. Obviously A&M did not lose any sleep telling Texas where to go. Why should Oklahoma? It is time for OU to either crap or get off the pot. I have never seen so many schools be so hesitant about making any kind of move at all as we see in the Big 12-2. Colorado, Nebraska, and Texas A&M have told the Big 12 to take it and shove it. Let's see if any other teams have that kind of guts. Now is the time to act, with laughables Baylor and TCU on top of the Big 12-2 heap.
These teams who have left the conference, I'm not sure they are as better off as you stated. In money figures, some may be better off than they were. But did they improve their position in the college football world? That remains to be seen, but right now, no. Face it, everybody not named OU or Texas doesn't have a choice but to remain where they are. They would be like BYU and wouldn't have a leg to stand on if they left the conference. They would end up in a non-power 5 conference somewhere. So any school President with a half a brain would keep his mouth shut about leaving. This is why UT can get away with the things they do. They know they have everybody by the short hairs except OU. And lets not forget, OU is a minor culprit in the Big 12 demise too. Boren should have kept his mouth shut and not made empty threats to bolt the conference a few years ago when they never had any intention to. We lost Mizzou because of that incident..And he should have never been a wallflower when Nebraska and UT were having their dispute. OU was way too quiet when it came to Nebraska and A&M leaving the conference. He should have fought tooth and nail to keep it from happeneing.. With OU I put all of this on Boren's shoulders. If he's going to open his mouth again like he is now, he needs to shit or get off the pot. But after what I've seen from him in the past, I'm not holding my breath. By the way, OU fans are as fed up with Boren as any of the people outside of the Big 12. Personally I don't think we would be talking about any of this if OU and UT were back at the top of the football world. No one would care we only have 10 teams, and the RRR would be a huge event again like it was just 6 or 7 years ago.
This is an interesting comment for me because it kind of falls in line with why I think Boren made the comments. Win called it a pre-emptive strike, but it seems more passive to me than that. To me he's thrown some chum in the water (a la Mizzery) and he's content with letting whichever conference takes the bait and start the next feeding frenzy. Whoever makes the first move, Oklahoma will be sitting pretty because they didn't start it and everybody will be courting them. Every conference would take them.
Given his past history about turning down the conference, I don't think Boren suddenly wants the SEC, but possibly trying to get Texas to abadon the LHN while staying in the Big 12. But I think he's wasting his time if this is his intention. UT is making too much money off of this failure to give it up. If you're UT, what's the point of staying in the Big 12 without the ego boost and money provided by the LHN? In a roundabout way, that network is the only reason the Big 12 exists. OU and Texas would probably be in the Pac-12 right now if they didn't have it.
A lot will depend on what happens to the Big 12 this season as far as getting a team into the playoff is concerned. It should be obvious to everyone by now that the Big 12 is #5 of the 5 Power Conference teams, and that the other 4 Power Conferences will gang up to see to it that the Conference that does not have 12 teams or play a CC game will suffer for this. If, for some reason the Big 12 loses out again, then you will see a major rush to grab two teams and go to a 12 team conference with a CC game. The Big 12 is in a tough spot because Oklahoma, and Texas (especially Texas) do not have teams capable of going through a season with one or less losses. Those two are the Marquee teams in the Big 12 and when they take a back seat to TCU (who was a member of the MWC just 4 year ago) and Baylor (A team that just expanded their stadium to hold 45,000 people) the Big 12 looks very weak. I think that OU President Boren is opening the door a crack just in case this happens.
Now out of two possibilities (expansion or a conference collapse), expansion is by far the easiest way to go. As Texas has already found out, the Pac 12 will NOT accept them and their Mickey Mouse network. They either drop the network, or go looking elsewhere. Texas would be blackballed from the SEC by A&M. The SEC is very strict on this. NO new schools from states that have an existing school in the Conference. That leaves Texas with no choice but to vote to expand the Big 12. What Texas has to realize is that their football program is doing a long, drawn out death roll, without the excuse of having been on probation, ala USC, Penn State, and others. They are simply NOT a National Championship caliber team, nor will they be in the long run. Too many Big 12 teams have caught and passed them. OU is not in that position. One solid recruiting class and OU is back in the picture. This is why many now believe that OU, and not Texas, should run the show in the Big 12.
Now out of two possibilities (expansion or a conference collapse), expansion is by far the easiest way to go. As Texas has already found out, the Pac 12 will NOT accept them and their Mickey Mouse network. They either drop the network, or go looking elsewhere. Texas would be blackballed from the SEC by A&M. The SEC is very strict on this. NO new schools from states that have an existing school in the Conference. That leaves Texas with no choice but to vote to expand the Big 12. What Texas has to realize is that their football program is doing a long, drawn out death roll, without the excuse of having been on probation, ala USC, Penn State, and others. They are simply NOT a National Championship caliber team, nor will they be in the long run. Too many Big 12 teams have caught and passed them. OU is not in that position. One solid recruiting class and OU is back in the picture. This is why many now believe that OU, and not Texas, should run the show in the Big 12.
Oklahoma's biggest problems are due to the consequences that it has suffered from having the life choked out of its football program for far too long. That is most easily expressed as a lack of decisive action on their part. It doesn't appear to be a matter of life and death nor has it been that in the past. Just some blue or gray around the gills that has resulted in some discoloration. This hasn't been good for the school on many levels. But it's that place where they have come closer and closer to a tipping point without actually hitting it that now translates to a sign of cumulative weakness over time.
When Colorado, Mizzou, Nebraska and A&M took exception to bullying at the hands of Texas and amid cries of "I've had all I can take and I cant take it anymore" one might conclude that each of the four hit their tipping point along the way. Oklahoma had something the others didn't -- resilience and endurance that it had gained over time as an elite partner (or competitor) on the same level as other elite CFB programs. But there's a downside that isn't much fun to watch resembling decay and ruination. First the shine comes off of their shoes, then a couple of scuff marks and "being only human" sets them up for further decay, an upset or two. But these things are easily spotted.. then few too many losses and people start predicting further demise without understanding what lies behind the recent failures.
IMHO every way Oklahoma hitched its wagon to Texas in any way shape or form has led them to where they are today. Even just tolerating Longhorn antics unlike the 4 rebel states contributed to the Sooner's steady diet of pablum and milk-toast while the rest of the B12-2 sizzled angrily in the frying pan. Anyone that perhaps saw itself above the frey and in league with UT is pridefully guilty; and while I'm on the subject, does anyone else here sense that Boren is very confused politician who for once in his life does not have the answers? Better still, he seems to have all of them and he is yet undecided. He changes his tune about once per 2 weeks. If he had any guts at all, he would have summarily rejected everything Texas has stood for and then bolted for a decent noodling spot. Oklahoma's biggest mistake was to ally itself with Texas. Texas is on a massive downward spiral (perhaps with a momentary reprieve or 2 but it's only temporary,) the administrators are far too dank and dirty to lead anyone anywhere anytime soon.
It's arrogance... Texas style and people in the State of Oklahoma have a lot less in common with them than they know. The last thing I ever expected to see from Oklahoma was David Boren walking, talking and wheeling around his office like a mule with a big heavy political load on his back, but that fits him to a Tee. He's a career politician. Texas is an example for Oklahomans to follow or not to follow. As much as anyone might fear it, Texas is fraught with political corruption and graft. I did not realize that next door Boren in Oklahoma was basically a political machine who has NOTHING TO SAY! He's plum run out of ideas.
And by the way, isn't a conference supposed to run itself? Texas (of course) cheated/leveraged their way into a principle role in conference affairs and I'd wish that job on no one. Through a lot of ESPN money, numerous threats of leaving the rank and file B12-2 in the lurch without TV clout and owning the conferences ESPN TV deal who actually thinks they can vote out Texas and install Oklahoma as the next posse commitatus to run the B12-2? VOTE? LOL. If I was Oklahoma, I'd make a b-line for the nearest exit singing The Yellow Rose of Texas on my way out the door. That right there would grow some chest hairs on the Sooners. When are they going to realize that they DON'T NEED TEXAS!! For that matter, no one does.
When Colorado, Mizzou, Nebraska and A&M took exception to bullying at the hands of Texas and amid cries of "I've had all I can take and I cant take it anymore" one might conclude that each of the four hit their tipping point along the way. Oklahoma had something the others didn't -- resilience and endurance that it had gained over time as an elite partner (or competitor) on the same level as other elite CFB programs. But there's a downside that isn't much fun to watch resembling decay and ruination. First the shine comes off of their shoes, then a couple of scuff marks and "being only human" sets them up for further decay, an upset or two. But these things are easily spotted.. then few too many losses and people start predicting further demise without understanding what lies behind the recent failures.
IMHO every way Oklahoma hitched its wagon to Texas in any way shape or form has led them to where they are today. Even just tolerating Longhorn antics unlike the 4 rebel states contributed to the Sooner's steady diet of pablum and milk-toast while the rest of the B12-2 sizzled angrily in the frying pan. Anyone that perhaps saw itself above the frey and in league with UT is pridefully guilty; and while I'm on the subject, does anyone else here sense that Boren is very confused politician who for once in his life does not have the answers? Better still, he seems to have all of them and he is yet undecided. He changes his tune about once per 2 weeks. If he had any guts at all, he would have summarily rejected everything Texas has stood for and then bolted for a decent noodling spot. Oklahoma's biggest mistake was to ally itself with Texas. Texas is on a massive downward spiral (perhaps with a momentary reprieve or 2 but it's only temporary,) the administrators are far too dank and dirty to lead anyone anywhere anytime soon.
It's arrogance... Texas style and people in the State of Oklahoma have a lot less in common with them than they know. The last thing I ever expected to see from Oklahoma was David Boren walking, talking and wheeling around his office like a mule with a big heavy political load on his back, but that fits him to a Tee. He's a career politician. Texas is an example for Oklahomans to follow or not to follow. As much as anyone might fear it, Texas is fraught with political corruption and graft. I did not realize that next door Boren in Oklahoma was basically a political machine who has NOTHING TO SAY! He's plum run out of ideas.
And by the way, isn't a conference supposed to run itself? Texas (of course) cheated/leveraged their way into a principle role in conference affairs and I'd wish that job on no one. Through a lot of ESPN money, numerous threats of leaving the rank and file B12-2 in the lurch without TV clout and owning the conferences ESPN TV deal who actually thinks they can vote out Texas and install Oklahoma as the next posse commitatus to run the B12-2? VOTE? LOL. If I was Oklahoma, I'd make a b-line for the nearest exit singing The Yellow Rose of Texas on my way out the door. That right there would grow some chest hairs on the Sooners. When are they going to realize that they DON'T NEED TEXAS!! For that matter, no one does.
Good write up Conan. Right now this latest rant by Boren sounds like what he was doing at the end of the Pac-12 conversation a few years ago, acting like we control our destiny when in reality (because of academics) nobody but the SEC wants us without Texas. This is the problem. It won't be easy as people think getting away from UT. Boren acts like OU has the power that we/he don't have. My fear in all of this is by the time conference expansion happens again we will no longer be so athletically competitive, because right now the Big 12 is sucking the life right out of our program. I hope I'm wrong and OU somewhat turns it around this year. But I have my doubts this will happen. I love my school, but Boren and Castiglione totally mismanaged conference realignment and we could suffer for decades for it. I'm already starting to see signs of it. Like I said, I hope I'm wrong, but don't think that I am.
we all know how well Orangebloods' predictions work (saban coaching UT by now i'm sure) so let's try this fella....
Jul 07, 2015 | 11:44 am[h=1]THE NEXT BIG MOVE IN REALIGNMENT?[/h]
[FONT=bebas_neue]Chip BrownHornsDigest.com
[/FONT]
[FONT=sanchez_semibold]Schools jumping from one Power Five conference to another almost seem cliche compared to what is likely to be the next big move in realignment.
Unless Oklahoma president David Boren was giving us some kind of warning – saying the Big 12 needs to be 12 – before grabbing Oklahoma State and making a mad dash to the SEC, let’s talk about what is likely to be the next big move in realignment:
The Power Five conferences – all 65 teams (if you include Notre Dame) - collectively bargaining one TV contract, instead of each negotiating a TV deal, sometime in the next 10 years.
After discussions with several people connected to P5 schools, this scenario could become more plausible as we get closer to 2024.
That’s when the major TV contracts in the SEC and Pac-12 expire, and it’s a year before the TV deals of the Big 12, Notre Dame and the College Football Playoff expire. And three years before the ACC’s TV deal with ESPN expires.
Only the Big Ten, which has TV rights through 2016-17 that are about to be renegotiated, is on a vastly different timeline. But the Big Ten would be wise to include a “look-in window” giving the league an “out” option around 2024.
******
Why would the Power Five give up the vanity of each league having its own TV deal and commissioner to go back to a world eerily reminiscent of the pre-1984 landmark court ruling that allowed schools and conferences to break away from the NCAA’s hold on TV rights?
Why?
Two huge reasons: 1) Because that’s where the most money can be made to combat the rising costs of college athletics. 2) Because you could put some geographic sense back into college athletics (more on that in a second).
You think the NFL, which has 32 teams, has it good with $27 billion worth of TV deals through 2022?
Watch the dollar figures soar when the Power Five - the SEC, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12 and ACC plus Notre Dame – throw open the bidding for one TV contract.
“If you wanted to draw up a really inefficient system in terms of leveraging TV dollars, you’d draw up what we currently have,” said one official tied to a Power Five conference.
The naysayers will vow the Power Five will never collectively bargain because you'd have too many egos to navigate, because of antitrust concerns, because Congress would object and because TV contracts in each conference don't currently end at the same time.
But where there’s billions of dollars, there’s a way.
The P5 is already working together to write new rules with the autonomy granted by the NCAA Division I Board of Directors. Now, just carry those conversations about full cost of attendance scholarship increases and possible early signing dates for football to television revenue.
If members of Congress cry foul and question the status of athletic departments as tax exempt, the P5 can have them call Texas athletic director Steve Patterson.
Patterson, the king of doom and gloom forecasts about the rising costs of college athletics, can tell Congress how every school is about to be coated in red ink.
Patterson reported a $2.8 million shortfall in Texas athletics for the 2013-14 school year. If Texas, which earns more TV revenue than any other school, is getting pinched, other P5 school presidents will probably soon be jumping for the chance to make NFL TV type money.
******
The real fun comes in trying to align a collective Power Five into divisions. Do you split into four divisions? Six? Eight? 16?
By the time we get to this point, everyone will realize the most money is in a 16-team playoff, and it would be best to cut the regular-season back to 11 games.
For efficiency and geographic proximity, the best model may be six divisions with 11 teams, which means – BYU – congratulations, you’ve become the 66th and final school in the Power Five.
That way, you play all the other 10 teams in your division and then go make like the SEC and schedule one non-conference game - the FCS school of your choice – before your biggest rivalry game (come on down Western Carolina and Tennessee-Chattanooga ... or whoever is in Baylor's non-con rolodex).
Talk about games week-in and week-out that appeal to television.
You could have three divisions in the WEST:
1. USC
2. UCLA
3. Stanford
4. Cal
5. Oregon
6. Oregon State
7. Washington
8. Washington State
9. Utah
10. BYU
11. Colorado
1. Texas
2. Texas A&M
3. Oklahoma
4. Oklahoma State
5. Arkansas
6. TCU
7. Texas Tech
8. Baylor
9. Arizona
10. Arizona State
11. Nebraska
1. Ohio State
2. Michigan
3. Michigan State
4. Purdue
5. Iowa State
6. Indiana
7. Illinois
8. Northwestern
9. Iowa
10. Wisconsin
11. Minnesota
And three divisions in the EAST
1. Alabama
2. Auburn
3. LSU
4. Ole Miss
5. Miss State
6. South Carolina
7. Tennessee
8. Missouri
9. Kansas
10. Kansas State
11. Clemson
1. Florida
2. Florida State
3. Miami
4. Georgia
5. Georgia Tech
6. Virginia
7. Virginia Tech
8. North Carolina
9. North Carolina State
10. Duke
11. Wake Forest
1. Notre Dame
2. Penn State
3. Pitt
4. West Virginia
5. Boston College
6. Louisville
7. Kentucky
8. Vanderbilt
9. Maryland
10. Syracuse
11. Rutgers
Two teams from each of the six divisions qualify for the 16-team playoff as well as four wildcard teams – two wildcards from the West and two from the East.
Everyone's bottom line increases. Fans will eat it up so much they won't mind absorbing the increased costs for a College Football Channel as well as a DIRECTV type college football package or other games on pay-per-view.
“Hey, UFC this week? Or Texas vs Texas A&M?”
In this TV money-driven world of college athletics, we’ve learned only the strongest survive – and the strongest always find a way to the most money.
It's what we learned in those classes called economics back in the day.
And once the Power Five dissolve their current agreements - as quickly as you can say "look-in-window" – and head to the collective bargaining table, the money begins pouring in, possibly superseding the NFL, which has a goal of $25 billion per year in revenue by 2027.
*****
But back to OU president David Boren for a moment.
Boren said the Big 12 was “psychologically disadvantaged” as a 10-member league. There’s not a consensus in the conference to make 12 happen.
Boren knows that.
So is Boren really telling us something else? Like he’s ready to shop for a new home for the Sooners again? That’s not exactly clear yet.
My sources connected to the Big 12, SEC and Pac-12 say there aren’t any flags going up that would signal Boren is ready to make a mad dash to the SEC with an invitation extended back in 2011.
Back then, Boren made headlines when Texas A&M left for the SEC by announcing Oklahoma would be exploring all its conference options. OU and Oklahoma State looked west, but the Pac-12 presidents and chancellors weren’t interested in the Sooners and Cowboys without Texas.
So is Boren ready to become the first to test the legal strength of the grant of rights agreement the Sooners signed – turning their Tier 1 and Tier 2 TV rights over to the Big 12 through 2025?
We’ll see. Again, there’s no current indication that that’s about to happen.
Oklahoma also has more than five years remaining on a Tier 3 television agreement with Fox that pays OU roughly $5 million per year. If OU bolted for the SEC, which has no TV relationship with Fox, you’d have to figure the Sooners would be facing a hefty lawsuit from Fox for breach of contract.
The only way OU could dodge lawsuits over violating the grant of rights is if the Big 12 disappears.
So the ultimate question – if Boren was just crazy enough to take up a new address in the SEC (with Ok State in tow) – is what would Texas do?
Would the Horns then look west, where one of Steve Patterson’s closest confidantes – Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott – probably lays awake at night conjuring up when he might be able to reel in his Moby Dick (Texas) after UT got away in 2010?
Or would Patterson look at where the most money is and maybe drive a full-on merger of the Big 12 and SEC? Then, you’d have a 24-team, expanded SEC with the best college football teams in the south as part of one, giant, TV revenue-generating machine.
You could put some rivalries back together, such as Texas and Texas A&M, Texas v Arkansas, Missouri v KU, etc.
And the SEC, whose third-tier network is run by ESPN, is probably the only place where Texas, with the help of ESPN, could resolve the LHN contract (by making Texas whole for the $300 million and then dissolving LHN and folding UT into the SEC Network).
Or if OU bolted for the SEC, would Patterson and Scott be licking their chops for the chance to finally have UT rub shoulders with academic powers Stanford and Cal in the Pac-12?
The word from industry executives is the Pac-12’s third-tier television deal is not performing well. Sources indicate the payout is roughly $1 million per school.
If Texas ended up in the Pac-12, LHN would have to be morphed into one of the Pac-12’s regional networks (shared with one other school). How would ESPN view that? How would anyone view it? Right now, LHN is in more households nationally than the Pac-12 Network.
Here’s to Boren skipping the now cliché move of schools jumping from one P5 conference to another, especially when there appears to be greener (cash) pastures in the near future.
The ultimate destination for realignment is likely to be the Power Five conferences coming together and collectively bargaining one TV contract – closer to 2024, when all but the Big Ten Network’s contract would be coming up for renewal.
But is David Boren, a former U.S. senator still upset he couldn’t get Louisville andPittsburgh into the B12 when TCU and West Virginia were added (in hindsight, Boren was right on that one), willing to wait that long?
[/FONT]
Jul 07, 2015 | 11:44 am[h=1]THE NEXT BIG MOVE IN REALIGNMENT?[/h]
[/FONT]
[FONT=sanchez_semibold]Schools jumping from one Power Five conference to another almost seem cliche compared to what is likely to be the next big move in realignment.
Unless Oklahoma president David Boren was giving us some kind of warning – saying the Big 12 needs to be 12 – before grabbing Oklahoma State and making a mad dash to the SEC, let’s talk about what is likely to be the next big move in realignment:
The Power Five conferences – all 65 teams (if you include Notre Dame) - collectively bargaining one TV contract, instead of each negotiating a TV deal, sometime in the next 10 years.
After discussions with several people connected to P5 schools, this scenario could become more plausible as we get closer to 2024.
That’s when the major TV contracts in the SEC and Pac-12 expire, and it’s a year before the TV deals of the Big 12, Notre Dame and the College Football Playoff expire. And three years before the ACC’s TV deal with ESPN expires.
Only the Big Ten, which has TV rights through 2016-17 that are about to be renegotiated, is on a vastly different timeline. But the Big Ten would be wise to include a “look-in window” giving the league an “out” option around 2024.
******
Why would the Power Five give up the vanity of each league having its own TV deal and commissioner to go back to a world eerily reminiscent of the pre-1984 landmark court ruling that allowed schools and conferences to break away from the NCAA’s hold on TV rights?
Why?
Two huge reasons: 1) Because that’s where the most money can be made to combat the rising costs of college athletics. 2) Because you could put some geographic sense back into college athletics (more on that in a second).
You think the NFL, which has 32 teams, has it good with $27 billion worth of TV deals through 2022?
Watch the dollar figures soar when the Power Five - the SEC, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12 and ACC plus Notre Dame – throw open the bidding for one TV contract.
“If you wanted to draw up a really inefficient system in terms of leveraging TV dollars, you’d draw up what we currently have,” said one official tied to a Power Five conference.
The naysayers will vow the Power Five will never collectively bargain because you'd have too many egos to navigate, because of antitrust concerns, because Congress would object and because TV contracts in each conference don't currently end at the same time.
But where there’s billions of dollars, there’s a way.
The P5 is already working together to write new rules with the autonomy granted by the NCAA Division I Board of Directors. Now, just carry those conversations about full cost of attendance scholarship increases and possible early signing dates for football to television revenue.
If members of Congress cry foul and question the status of athletic departments as tax exempt, the P5 can have them call Texas athletic director Steve Patterson.
Patterson, the king of doom and gloom forecasts about the rising costs of college athletics, can tell Congress how every school is about to be coated in red ink.
Patterson reported a $2.8 million shortfall in Texas athletics for the 2013-14 school year. If Texas, which earns more TV revenue than any other school, is getting pinched, other P5 school presidents will probably soon be jumping for the chance to make NFL TV type money.
******
The real fun comes in trying to align a collective Power Five into divisions. Do you split into four divisions? Six? Eight? 16?
By the time we get to this point, everyone will realize the most money is in a 16-team playoff, and it would be best to cut the regular-season back to 11 games.
For efficiency and geographic proximity, the best model may be six divisions with 11 teams, which means – BYU – congratulations, you’ve become the 66th and final school in the Power Five.
That way, you play all the other 10 teams in your division and then go make like the SEC and schedule one non-conference game - the FCS school of your choice – before your biggest rivalry game (come on down Western Carolina and Tennessee-Chattanooga ... or whoever is in Baylor's non-con rolodex).
Talk about games week-in and week-out that appeal to television.
You could have three divisions in the WEST:
1. USC
2. UCLA
3. Stanford
4. Cal
5. Oregon
6. Oregon State
7. Washington
8. Washington State
9. Utah
10. BYU
11. Colorado
1. Texas
2. Texas A&M
3. Oklahoma
4. Oklahoma State
5. Arkansas
6. TCU
7. Texas Tech
8. Baylor
9. Arizona
10. Arizona State
11. Nebraska
1. Ohio State
2. Michigan
3. Michigan State
4. Purdue
5. Iowa State
6. Indiana
7. Illinois
8. Northwestern
9. Iowa
10. Wisconsin
11. Minnesota
And three divisions in the EAST
1. Alabama
2. Auburn
3. LSU
4. Ole Miss
5. Miss State
6. South Carolina
7. Tennessee
8. Missouri
9. Kansas
10. Kansas State
11. Clemson
1. Florida
2. Florida State
3. Miami
4. Georgia
5. Georgia Tech
6. Virginia
7. Virginia Tech
8. North Carolina
9. North Carolina State
10. Duke
11. Wake Forest
1. Notre Dame
2. Penn State
3. Pitt
4. West Virginia
5. Boston College
6. Louisville
7. Kentucky
8. Vanderbilt
9. Maryland
10. Syracuse
11. Rutgers
Two teams from each of the six divisions qualify for the 16-team playoff as well as four wildcard teams – two wildcards from the West and two from the East.
Everyone's bottom line increases. Fans will eat it up so much they won't mind absorbing the increased costs for a College Football Channel as well as a DIRECTV type college football package or other games on pay-per-view.
“Hey, UFC this week? Or Texas vs Texas A&M?”
In this TV money-driven world of college athletics, we’ve learned only the strongest survive – and the strongest always find a way to the most money.
It's what we learned in those classes called economics back in the day.
And once the Power Five dissolve their current agreements - as quickly as you can say "look-in-window" – and head to the collective bargaining table, the money begins pouring in, possibly superseding the NFL, which has a goal of $25 billion per year in revenue by 2027.
*****
But back to OU president David Boren for a moment.
Boren said the Big 12 was “psychologically disadvantaged” as a 10-member league. There’s not a consensus in the conference to make 12 happen.
Boren knows that.
So is Boren really telling us something else? Like he’s ready to shop for a new home for the Sooners again? That’s not exactly clear yet.
My sources connected to the Big 12, SEC and Pac-12 say there aren’t any flags going up that would signal Boren is ready to make a mad dash to the SEC with an invitation extended back in 2011.
Back then, Boren made headlines when Texas A&M left for the SEC by announcing Oklahoma would be exploring all its conference options. OU and Oklahoma State looked west, but the Pac-12 presidents and chancellors weren’t interested in the Sooners and Cowboys without Texas.
So is Boren ready to become the first to test the legal strength of the grant of rights agreement the Sooners signed – turning their Tier 1 and Tier 2 TV rights over to the Big 12 through 2025?
We’ll see. Again, there’s no current indication that that’s about to happen.
Oklahoma also has more than five years remaining on a Tier 3 television agreement with Fox that pays OU roughly $5 million per year. If OU bolted for the SEC, which has no TV relationship with Fox, you’d have to figure the Sooners would be facing a hefty lawsuit from Fox for breach of contract.
The only way OU could dodge lawsuits over violating the grant of rights is if the Big 12 disappears.
So the ultimate question – if Boren was just crazy enough to take up a new address in the SEC (with Ok State in tow) – is what would Texas do?
Would the Horns then look west, where one of Steve Patterson’s closest confidantes – Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott – probably lays awake at night conjuring up when he might be able to reel in his Moby Dick (Texas) after UT got away in 2010?
Or would Patterson look at where the most money is and maybe drive a full-on merger of the Big 12 and SEC? Then, you’d have a 24-team, expanded SEC with the best college football teams in the south as part of one, giant, TV revenue-generating machine.
You could put some rivalries back together, such as Texas and Texas A&M, Texas v Arkansas, Missouri v KU, etc.
And the SEC, whose third-tier network is run by ESPN, is probably the only place where Texas, with the help of ESPN, could resolve the LHN contract (by making Texas whole for the $300 million and then dissolving LHN and folding UT into the SEC Network).
Or if OU bolted for the SEC, would Patterson and Scott be licking their chops for the chance to finally have UT rub shoulders with academic powers Stanford and Cal in the Pac-12?
The word from industry executives is the Pac-12’s third-tier television deal is not performing well. Sources indicate the payout is roughly $1 million per school.
If Texas ended up in the Pac-12, LHN would have to be morphed into one of the Pac-12’s regional networks (shared with one other school). How would ESPN view that? How would anyone view it? Right now, LHN is in more households nationally than the Pac-12 Network.
Here’s to Boren skipping the now cliché move of schools jumping from one P5 conference to another, especially when there appears to be greener (cash) pastures in the near future.
The ultimate destination for realignment is likely to be the Power Five conferences coming together and collectively bargaining one TV contract – closer to 2024, when all but the Big Ten Network’s contract would be coming up for renewal.
But is David Boren, a former U.S. senator still upset he couldn’t get Louisville andPittsburgh into the B12 when TCU and West Virginia were added (in hindsight, Boren was right on that one), willing to wait that long?
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