Arkstfan

There aren’t four move the needle programs Pac12 can add. Boise Stare? Just another Washington State in Pac12. Look at the remaining Big 12. Who can increase the take home pay of their potential home? Kansas. Maybe. In there era of conference networks KU hoops has a lot of value. Iowa State and Oklahoma State are pretty good but second fiddles in their states and not a lot of brand name that draws casual viewers. Why on earth would PAC-12 or B1G or ACC want to travel to Waco or Lubbock if it isn’t boosting their money? Texas and OU likely represent half the $370 million the Big 12 distributed. Nobody goes to 16 for the sake of 16. They go there to put more dollars in their pockets.

Be absolutely effing hilarious if TAMU sued and the SEC expelled them. And no Hogs ain’t voting no. Their world view is built around the idea that 1969 Arkansas Texas is universally agreed to be greatest game ever and they had a great mutual rivalry with Texas.

Edit misread headline. So new response. There’s just not enough value left to do full on merger. TCU, Baylor, Tech, Iowa State are filler. They’ve got good fan bases that may not be so large if a season ticket doesn’t get you Texas or OU and ESPN has you in slots that AAC and Sun Belt have been in.

Remember USC saber rattled leaving Pac12. Imagine USC, UCLA, Cal, Stanford, Washington, Oregon, Arizona, and either Colorado or Arizona State in B1G. 22 teams and not a lot of travel from Midwest to the West.

I have thought 20-24 makes a lot of sense for SEC and B1G. Cull the Wake Forest and Texas Tech’s to maximize money. Have top two rated teams play in league title game. Let conference in consultation with TV set up 4-6 games for each member and then let the schools work out the rest of the schedule within conference. Play a 9 or 10 game league schedule and value goes even higher.

BYU. The most BCS like school in the non-BCS got left out while Utah, TCU and Louisville made it.

Exactly. Right now there are 65 P5 teams. No way it grows to 66 much less 80. The number is going to drop. The power leagues are made up of dogs and ticks. The dogs make the money and the ticks feed off the work of the dogs. You take Nebraska, OU UT and TAMU off the schedules and KU off in hoops and who outside the respective fan bases cares? I’d just as soon watch Fresno and San Diego State as Baylor and Kansas State.

How many people volunteer to take a big pay cut?

I’d think SMU is a top pick AFTER BYU, Air Force, Colorado State, Boise, Houston, Cincinnati, Memphis, USF and UCF. I would expect Kansas has good shot at B1G but no one else in B12 is the sort of academic powerhouse and no one has a great national brand. KState ain’t who they were. WVU got snubbed before by ACC. If B1G says no to KU would ACC try to add a third blue blood and then a KState or OKST or Iowa State to balance travel? I don’t see more than 5 B12 finding refuge and might only be just OU and UT. Logical play is to stay together if you can’t get into a P4 and really only B1G and ACC are options unless SEC wants to go over 16 and add a second blue blood in hoops. Assuming Kansas gets out and no one else then best play is get five more and best tv value out there is BYU so you want another western team and Boise and Air Force are best remaining brands but Colorado State isn’t an awful choice but after that New Mexico is best left and everyone else is either ugly geographically or on field or both. One of Cincinnati and Temple are best choices if WVU can’t escape for travel, then you start looking at mixes of Houston, UCF, USF, and Memphis. Dangerous time for MWC. After NMSU there’s no body in the west currently in FBS looking that way. A MWC that loses one or more headliners is looking at something around Sun Belt level TV money. AAC will have enough left to backfill with where depending on the losses. My expectation is come next playoff deal the P4 get auto bids and next best champ gets one unless they are worried about antitrust issues especially after knifing B12 then it will be top six champions. World looks like this: Power 4 ACC B1G P12 SEC Middle 3 AAC B12 MWC with MWC teetering if raided Others participating MAC and one or both of CUSA and Sun Belt. The bad outcome is for both CUSA and Sun Belt to around because it means they backfilled with FCS schools

Open practice is nice but I’d just settle for injury honesty. Blake Anderson and Steve Roberts were both awful about it at AState. There were times I knew for a fact that a player wasn’t cleared for Saturday and wouldn’t be and those goobs were “he’s day to day” or we only held him out of practice this week out of an abundance of caution. Anderson would only reliably say a guy was hurt if he was done for the year then he’d be honest so he could say well we have x guys out for the year when he landed on his butt in a winnable game. But back on topic, at least one practice a week should be designated and promoted as open to the fans unless say it’s a short week.

It is actually a new pie. Remember the player at Colorado declared ineligible years ago because he was a pro skier and had earned endorsement contracts for equipment? Players weren’t tapping into that money. Schools really weren’t either except jersey sales and then school could use the player’s number but not name. Sell the jersey with the kid’s name on it and give him a few bucks royalties. That’s just fair. For the most part NIL money isn’t going to change recruiting. World isn’t full of kids turning down UT for Texas Tech or Texas State. The schools players most want to play for are likely to be places where the most NIL money is. Most coaches won’t pull a scholarship. ADs and presidents have taken the stance that as long as the player stays eligible, comes to practice, and doesn’t cause problems the scholarship should be honored. Now that doesn’t mean the coach can’t or won’t explain that they are better off leaving if they want playing time but Bob’s Pawnshop sure as heck will turn off the NIL spigot if the four star can’t miss player is a bust. There will be some shifts. Maybe Cincinnati can offer a TE more than Indiana. The guy who might have stayed close to home at Tulane picks Memphis to sponsor FedEx but there won’t be widespread radical differences in recruiting.

The NCAA was at first only a playing rules association. Conferences set eligibility and aid rules and conferences of 20 teams not unheard of. As NCAA started being the body setting definition of aid and limits and running money generators like the tournament and football tv contract we had small leagues. NCAA goes out of TV business leagues grow. Back in 1970 AState won the College Division I title and beat two Univeristy Division teams Wichita State and The Citadel but in 1970 there was no scholarship limit in football. Conferences could set one or none and AState despite being in a lower division wasn’t out-manned because the Valley and Southern had caps at around 75 and Southland cap was 70 or 75. That’s what deregulation looked like back then. When 105 became the limit in 1973 you still had Division I ranging from 105 to 0 scholarships in the Ivy and several leagues at 70-80 dropped to 95 in 1978 and then 85 in 1992 and that was when the MAC gave up the 75 cap. Reforming the NCAA is overdue. A bunch of Arkansas schools left NAIA for Division II because the larger schools could save money on dues. The NCAA dues are basically symbolic while NAIA dues provide most of their operating income. Central Arkansas and Arkansas-Pine Bluff like about 70 or so other schools the past 40 years figured out for very little more money they could move Division I and get 1/10th or 1/12th of a conference’s NCAA tournament units and some other revenue sharing and be Division I with not a huge investment of their own money. The system does need to reformed because you’ve got 350ish schools in Division I and maybe 225-275 making an honest effort. I don’t mean they are going toe-to-toe and dollar for dollar with OU or Kentucky but they aren’t just doing the least and lazily collecting student fees with no sincere effort at fund-raising, ticket sales, and providing student-athletes with sincere support. UNT ain’t going to be OU or OKST but UNT isn’t just throwing squads out there I’ll-equipped and gobbling up schedule money like a ULM or declaring oops we aren’t making the money we expected and need to raise an already large student fee even more like UTSA. Make me emperor of the NCAA and the dues would be at least half the operating budget. No more using the tournament to fund the bulk of operations. I’d keep basketball units but I’d also have smaller units available based on performance in the FCS playoffs, women’s tournament, baseball and softball because last I looked those were the four most watched events besides men’s tournament. Adds a carrot to stay FCS and adds carrot to perform well in women’s sports. The BS of being Division I by only funding 50% of allowed scholarships goes away. Fund 90% of scholarships, grandfathering in Ivy. In team competition sports where you play a home and away head-to-head competition schedule (ie not track or golf etc) you have to play 40% of contests at home. Goodbye to the SWAC and MEAC sacrificial lamb tours in basketball. Two years ago I believe it was UA-Pine Bluff played half their conference basketball schedule and two non-Division I teams at home rest was money games and conference games on the road that ain’t Division I behavior. I would beef up the program study program. Can’t remember what it is called but it is like accreditation. Few years ago Grambling should have been under warning because their football weight room roof leaked on players, the ceiling tiles were moldy and falling apart and they had a significant MRSA outbreak because of poor sanitation/hygiene in the weight room. Schools should be on the clock to do right and become ineligible for post-season and revenue sharing if they don’t fix it.

Saw this on ESPN app. Awful. Just awful. Prayers for all.

He grew up in a lower middle class neighborhood of North Little Rock, dude’s just happy to not have to go to the liquor store to buy. We’ve advanced beyond that but I’m not sure we allowed beer and wine at grocery stores until after he bought the Cowboys.

We have four state songs because our legislature is a complete cluster eff. One is pop country. One is the traditional Arkansas Traveller and the other two completely totally awfully blow.

One game in 2025

I think the flying worm on white and the interlock NT are you best designs. Unique and memorable. Great identity marks.

It’s the right call. UAPB should be first. Only reason UAPB exists is because the land grant act required states to either have integrated education or provide education to Black students. UA was integrated initially but when the former Confederate soldiers got the right to vote they took over the legislature and segregated UA. School has been woefully underfunded until about 40 years ago. They need the money for athletics far worse. We ended up with a good deal. $900,000 plus 10,000 tickets so we will have about 1/5th of the crowd. Priority will go to season ticket holders so next five years fans will be hammered with buy if you want to go. On top of that, we host Iowa State that year so lot of incentive to buy.

Hire staff, run league events and cope with the 8-14 university presidents and equal number of ADs all of whom believe they are the boss.

When FS1 walked away what was the solution? When the presidents said we don’t want Tuesday, Wednesday games nor stuck in an online backwater what was the solution. Commisdioner is most likely not your problem. The school presidents are the problem. Sun Belt took weeknight games and has been rewarded with quite a few late season ESPN family telecasts on Saturdays and not just in this Covid season. The Sun Belt deal was mocked for having schools producing games but I can see every men’s and women’s basketball conference game and most baseball and volleyball. Instead CUSA TV was the alternative and required schools to produce and your subscription fee got you no other content. I can watch NHL, MLB etc on ESPN+ But it was a point of pride to not play weeknights and not be on ESPN+ Since presidents balked at weeknights. That’s your partners not the figurehead

In the G5 conference exists to get access to the CFP pools, provide scheduling, assign officials, calculate league stats, reward weekly and season play with player and coach awards and honors. Bowls are less the negotiation skills of the conference and much more about the options available to a bowl and the financial commitment the conference is willing to make. Likewise television is more about the wants and needs of the networks than negotiation skill. Commissioners don’t hire and fire coaches, they don’t build facilities or determine allocation of resources on campus. They don’t pick the non-conference schedule and don’t have a significant role in fan engagement. They don’t raise money nor have a notable role in holding players, coaches, staff and administrators accountable.

Conference success = money. The computer ratings of the G5 leagues determines CFP distribution of money. Success influences the interest of casual viewers and TV interest A conference is an equity partnership. In the real world a partner failing to carry their weight eventually gets ousted. MWC exists because a group of partners in WAC got sick of the partners not carrying their weight. Big 8 was born of disgruntled Missouri Valley partners. SEC and ACC come from disgruntled Southern Conference partners. Boise got special revenue sharing to get them back in the partnership. Texas and OU to keep them. Always in a team’s best interest for partners to be successful outside of league play.

The new bowl deal with ESPN is supposed to do that though centered around ESPN’s best interests

Camellia Bowl has had remarkable luck. Played seven times and largest margin of victory in any game has been 8 points.

Harsin blocked every AState fan on Twitter who was critical. He’s far from ready for the crazy of SEC media and fans. I do respect him for firing himself as playcaller at AState after an awful start and promoting Gus leftover Eli Drinkwitz to the role saved the season. I think he’s a terrible fit