Mike Jackson

And I think this points to where the buck actually stops with the issues with FBS football. Our government has abdicated its responsibility to hold these programs representing public institutions accountable. Because either of these endeavors are for-profit and completely private funded and just tacitly associated with the school via sharing trademark/brand, or they are a part of the university. That’s where the dissolution of CFA the college football alliance was definitively shortsighted and in my opinion, misguided. Anyone with a sage legal mind should have seen this coming. The future existence, a College Football is secured. As long as young people want to play the sport and people want to watch the sport it with evolve and continue. Money is a consideration for every endeavor we partake in, but it can’t be the primary focus of everything partake in. The government should immediately put legislation forward limiting the number of universities that can collude together financially to the exclusion of all other universities that play football at the DI level. We already have antitrust laws in place governing the private sector, so the legal background is already there. When we lose things like our flagship state universities, representing the systems of A&M, UT- Austin, and Tech playing each other regularly, it is the fault of government as much as it is the leaders at these schools, probably more so probably more so. These universities serve the public, not just corporate interest. Because all these media outlets are not going, broke or shutting down because if there is no college football. You can’t treat FBS football like it is just a TV show that was just recently created for national TV and get the best results. And by a large they are trying to remove the “college” and the communities they serve from football.

I definitely get that sentiment and SMU being a middling team in a PAC 12 that retains all its members (minus USC & UCLA) is optimistic for SMU. I am more concerned how the fate of the PAC-12 affects UNT and our conference. A rivalry that transcends conference affiliation is great but the more meaningful you can make the game beyond just the rivalry the better. The only ways you can do that is by either, a trophy, a unique destination neutral field or conference standings. I have long thought it was dumb and short sighted for TCU, SMU, and UNT not to play each other every year and exchange “a commander’s cup” like the service academies do. The dissolution of rivalries has been the worst aspect of conference realignment. That to me why the recent SEC expansion is the only one that isn’t a net negative to the sport as a whole IMO. So really this thread is more about conference realignment impacting the AAC more than SMU. The original poster should change the title. 🤷🏽‍♂️

The ultimate debate item all this points to is the value of a conference name. I think that value is very little without the brands under that conference umbrella that drove people to watch games in that conference. Indiana vs Northwestern is never going to draw big numbers (unless it passed the midpoint of the season and they have 1 loss combined between them). If your conference game inventory has a lot of those types of games it drives the value of the conference down. So all the non-P5 additions the PAC 12 are considered adds to that low value conference game inventory. San Diego and Dallas are great markets. But more people aren’t going to watch SDSU vs SMU just because it is a PAC 12 game. I will look up the rating the last time they played and post it here later.

That definitely isn’t official. Because the math doesn’t work unless one their media partners want to throw money in for those 2 schools. Also with it being a 5 year deal most likely it doesn’t give the media partner much incentive to build In renegotiating the payout based on better than expected rating before the contract ends. Also no one was suggesting that these programs couldn’t run off of 22 million. But survival isn’t the goal of programs like Oregon & Washington. Ask yourself this. Why would AD at most valuable programs want to be in a position of not having enough money to give themselves and employees competitive annual raises? Leaving 10 million on the table just to keep the name Pac and going on the road a thousand miles to play SMU is not a good investment. Without adding a P5 school or add a G5 that performs exponentially better expected the PAC won’t be a P5 conference by the end of the 5 year GOR. 🤷🏽‍♂️

That is a diminished PAC 12/14. Travel cost for all those adds would be horrible. SMU might have it a little easier with a major airport hub here. Also you have to take the perspective of the 2 most valuable programs left. Why would Oregon & Washington want incur the travel cost and share revenue with any of these schools? Only SMU offers access to one of the richest recruiting areas in the country.

I think that 5 year time frame/contract length is the aspect that no one is fully appreciating right now. Even if they match the Big 12 in dollars they won’t match the Big 12 in exposure with the rumored deals on the table now. If the Big 12 and their media partners offer the PAC 12 team they want +30 million dollars a year there is no reason to stay in the PAC 12. The 5 years will be a stay if execution. The Big 12 has captured all the G5 teams that are ready to compete with P5 schools in large markets west of the Mississippi River. I can’t think of a survival scenario for the PAC 12 as a P5 conference that doesn’t involve raiding another P5 for members. And the best candidates that want to get out of their current conference are ACC East coast teams.

Had a great time year. The Pit is dated but I will miss the SuperPit when we eventually move. I like the view when you walk in looking at the video board.

I think you missed the point. SMU would delude that $22 million per team unless they would forfeit a share until they get Dallas market viewing numbers justify an extra 22 million added to the contract. No media partner is paying SMU 20 million let alone 22 million. No one on this board has PAC 12’s national championship viability in their top 10 of sports concerns. 🙄😂. This was said way earlier in this comment section but people high off pony manure couldn’t accept it.

Now here is a reference to SMU I love in the first few minutes of this video. 😂

Great reference story that shows the decline of boxing. This boxer was way before my time but he sounds like a Boise State, a program that self serving greed will relegate to a FCS team exposure wise. I am listen to the talking heads saying the NFL is the model. Which is absolutely stupid because without the competitive balance of a draft and salary cap the product in half the league cities would suck. Jalen Hurts would likely be backing up Mahomes on one of the league’s top 7 revenue generators instead of facing off in a great Super Bowl.

Now there is a yawn inducing story. I don’t know where the bar is when it comes to people with connections with UNT Football we should care about decades later. Should we care enough about running backs coach for 2 seasons 20 years ago to keep updates on him? I would assume the answer is no. Best of luck to Coach Kitchens.

😂😂😂😂. You have to laugh not to be sad. They are running college football like it’s a pure TV show not connected with schools or respect anything that makes it a great TV show. It is essentially think you can make a great TV show with just 5-7 great actors that will run for 10 years. No compelling script, guest actors, settings that set the tone, special effects, good director or cgi. This “super league” talk is a prime example of that thinking. I think the best example is the decline of boxing. Boxing used to be far more relevant and popular just because we got to see boxers develop and establish their dominance on free TV or regular cable channels. If these blue blood drunk idiots really want to how valuable their brands are in a vacuum put their mediocre blue blood against actually performing blue on PPV. Most football fans aren’t going out of their way to watch 4 loss UT go to Tuscaloosa to get curb stomped by Bama. They will peak if they hear a live update that the Longhorns are making it close but they sue as hell aren’t signing up for the Amazon Prime sports package to peak at it if they don’t already have it. And these casual bandwagon fans of big brands lauding “elites vs elites” league will be the first to check out when their team starts a season off bad. 🤷🏽‍♂️ Unfortunately we will have to wait a decade to issue a fruitless “I told you so”. But by then the damage won’t be repairable. Its market presence will be more like baseball is today. Older diehards still invested following closely but sports media ignoring all by the top 10 players in the biggest markets.

Good luck with that commissioner but they’re only 3 teams in the MWC that from a TV viewing aspect teams want to travel that far west to play; Air Force, San Diego State and Boise State. And the appeal of Boise greatly diminishes if they have a couple of years outside the final top 15 in the AP poll. If CUSA had held together (with a better commissioner with more games available on extended cable) I think the fans here would have seen a move to MWC as a lateral move. I don’t know the numbers but I believe any increase in revenue for our athletic department would be eaten up by increase travel cost. If key members of the old WAC conference could have held firm together for a long term vision they would be in a great place right now. Just look at some of the teams they could have had San Diego State Fresno State Arizona Arizona State Utah Utah State Boise State Air Force Colorado State BYU TCU (or UTSA) SMU New Mexico New Mexico State UNLV Nevada

I am afraid you are more right than even I imagine. This "business only" mindset of basically turning FBS into a semi-pro league of under 60 teams will reduce revenue and viewership. The NFL has a monopoly on a pro football league in the fall seeing the same 32 teams every week. What make FBS Saturday different than NFL Sunday is a channel surfing between relevant games for 12 pm EST to at least 10 pm EST. And what they forget also is that in super conference model casual interest in "blue Blood" teams after picking up loss 2 and/or 3 will be drastically reduced. The value of a conference championship will be greatly reduced as multiple teams will have identical records with a lot of subjectivity interjected into their official finishing place in the conference: Super Conference member Washington and Penn State are both 9-3 overall and 7-2 in conference not good enough for the conference championship game. They haven't played head to head. Who is better? The next thing looming is that when the appeal of playing for anything but a big brand school is greatly diminished is a talent drain. If these other pro-leagues are smart they will start to poach guys not quite good enough to start at Alabama about to transfer to come to their league. With all these moves they are viewing the fans unconnected with big brands as a capitive audience. T-Shirt UT fans don't make Longhorns vs FCS on the Longhorn Network appointment TV. And similarly when they are out of playoff consideration they won't be turning in to watch them play Vandy or Miss State. And the inventory these outlets are buying will feature a lot more mediocre in conference games than games that have the combination of record and brand that produce the best numbers.

Please take the SEC's pure charity case out of you list. I mean we could be in the SEC and outdraw that. But not by much after the first 5 years of getting blown out regularly and seeing all the all Americans pulled out of the game before halftime. That is a product local fans would get tired of real quick.

I don't know why that would confuse you. We think may have been ranked once in that period. We were 44-44 overall and well below 0.500 vs FBS competition, and 0-5 in bowl games. Typically the only guaranteed draw we bring in to Apogee annually is a very modest crowd from SMU or UTSA and that is highly dependent on weather. And it didn't help that they lost most of the highly anticipated games at Apogee. Given the program's history it just can't afford to be mediocre. That is why I was disappointed we didn't take a huge public swing at getting Coach Sanders. I think thousands of Mean Green alumni are waiting for a big win or big name head coach hire to invest in the program. We saw proof of that in the Heart of Dallas Bowl. Just by sheer strength of raw numbers in the local alumni base, an activated engaged alumni could sellout Apogee regularly. And sustained success on the field could capture larger share of local media coverage than SMU or even a TCU having a couple of back to back losing seasons. If you really want to understand go on http://www.winsipedia.com find other G5 programs with no conference titles or time ranked in the top 20 in major metro areas with 2 of the other major sport leagues in their area. Mediocre G5 programs don't draw well unless they are the only game in town.

Hey, I was pegged as Seth hater when I wanted to see him gone before the victory against an undefeated UTSA team in weather conditions than favored our defense vs an offense best in perfect/dome conditions. But I want everyone to remember this for the 2023 and give the new coaching staff time to grow. It seems that the departing AD left just in time. Because any struggles the new staff has in 2023-2024 season I would place squarely on him. Seth was a mediocre coach at best and didn't deserve a contract LENGTH extension. That extension was the worse decision by the Athletic Department in recent history on par with hiring Dodge without bringing experienced D1 coordinators with him. Dan McCarney was available in 2007, hiring him then may have turned out better than when they hired him in 2010.

I think having Army come with them alivates that concern. Air Force's recruitment is unique and national. They will recruit fine in western states without a western partner coming with them. Also Army and Navy games becoming conference games frees two non-conference dates for them. Travel cost aren't an issue either. They could maintain their rivalry with CSU with one of those out of conference slots and schedule virtually any other MWC team they want home & home out of conference. With what's going on in the PAC 12 there bound to be a lot of western programs looking to backfill OOC games due to a conference change.

With Navy already in the conference I think it make preparation more routine. If you prepare for a triple option team every year players can adapt and keep that muscle memory fresh. And even if you have a year without one of those service Academies on your conference schedule you may be able to schedule a FCS team that runs triple option just to stay in practice defending it. *I am not sure if any FCS team runs triple option but if there is one, we could definitely find it. I think an Ivy League School run it. It would be cool to get one of those schools to Apogee.

The most difficult and best move would be getting Army and Air Force. It benefits the Service Academies and our conference equally.

Been there several times. My ex was a Midshipman. I always flew into BWI. Getting out of the DC area driving is a pain even for someone who likes driving. BWI is better. I recommend staying at a hotel near a rail station that connects to BWI.

It isn't an analogy it's the truth, plenty of businesses in the US are subsidized by tax payer money. A healthy number of NFL and NBA stadiums are financed with local taxes and fees not directly related to stadium or stadium events. It's no coincidence that the programs that could theorically operate without using student fees are the ones most active in these lastest rounds capatilistist conference realignment. The fallout of moves by Texas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, USC, and Texas A&M have caused all the other moves. If these schools did not have so much independent market power we still have geographically regional conferences.

Think they are making it way too complicated. Timing rules for everything but the last 5 minutes of each half: 1. Game clock runs after first downs (play clock doesn’t start unit ball spotted) 2. Incompletions: play clock starts when ball spotted, game clock starts 8 seconds into play clock. 3. Out of bounds ADVANCING the ball - see rules for incompletions I think anything more drastic, you would need to have a 2 minute warning like the NFL.

Hey let’s role back what coaches make more in line what department heads, deans and professors make. I think they is a part in us all that realizes how ridiculous it has gotten. But this all started with the dissolution of CFA allowing college sports programs and conferences to operate like businesses.

I like all those points. It make a too much sense to have all the Servie Academies in the "American" conference. I wouldn't even mind that automatic conference championship tie be issued to a Army or Navy if they are tied with a team they didn't play in the regular season. For the playoff they would choose the higher ranked co-champion anyway. What better intrigue than a co-championship on the line in Army vs Navy or one of them saving their season by playing spoiler? Having all the service academies would be the best thing you could do to ensure conference survival as a G5 without the ability to attract big brand schools.