Mike Jackson

Wow, that is beyond arrogance. I had to google what city they were in and I lived in Waukegan, IL for a year. 🤣🤣🤣

Even if it is just 3 conferences instead of all 5 of the G5 conferences it is needed. Chiefly to work out something Similar to what PAC 12, ACC, and Big 10 did. Several G5 AD will probably lose their jobs in the coming months mismanaging this period of conference re-alignment. I think it would be better at this level to leave the conference administrators out the discussion. Conferences covering more than 2 time zones won’t do anything to increase TV payouts for the G5 conferences. My questions for everyone are. 1. Why isn’t this already happening? 2. Who or what group has the power to make this happen? [Amazon could be the answer to question 2. So that bring up issues if you were running Amazon would you see buying the TV rights to all these G5 conferences as a good business opportunity to increase live TV offering from basic 0 right now? Would you stipulate these conferences go regional and limit the membership to 12 teams per conference?]

Why would we want to go to the AAC? The conference payout for the league is not going to be much bigger if they don’t get better programs to replace the ones leaving for the Big 12. Are we really more hyped to play Tulsa and Tulane over over UTSA, Rice, La Tech and UTEP. If we move we like only get to keep play La Tech and/or Rice. Making SMU a conference game frees up some other non conference game opportunities but who would that be? Another regional G5 that doesn’t generate as much interest as SMU game does now? Since we are throwing around nonsensical stuff hell I think sacrificing one home game season for the next decade to open up the State Fair of Texas against Texas Tech or Oklahoma State would be more important than ANY conference move we could make at the G5 level.

I haven’t bought that “SMU snubbing us” narrative since we entered the Sun Belt and started the home & home series with them. It is a convenient boogie man every round of conference realignment that I think we have to address unfortunately for many who don’t understand the current media landscape. Going regional has been the way to go since we started playing at the FBS level again. Dominating a regional conference, increasing the interest in your brand, and revenue you generate independent of conference payout is the only way dreams of P5 upgrade are remotely possible. (If you are dreaming of a P5 upgrade within the next 10-15 years, stop doing acid). Conferences aren’t adding school based on potential unless they are in fear of losing status. (Like I posted in “Chicken or Egg). Otherwise the PAC 12 would have added Houston and/or Tech to enter the Texas market. Long term I suspect secretly PAC 12 officials might live to regret snubbing this state in this round of realignment.

Your 4 team block departure proposal to go to the MWC makes sense. However that block without a school with a major city or state in its name wouldn’t be attractive to the MWC imo. Moving with one partner is out of the question if their plus 1 is Rice that is essentially has the impact of bring into 1 school in revenue and dividing it by 2. Only the Sun Belt would be interested in that maybe. And while UTSA or UTEP might want to partner with SMU and go west I don’t see SMU wanting to go with one of them to do so. The smartest move for SMU imo would be a 4 team block going to MWC but exclusively trying to capture all/most of the remaining G5 CFB fan eyeballs in the state of Texas. So that would the candidates would be Rice, UTSA, Texas State, UTEP and UNT. Regionally the MWC would favor UTEP out of those candidates I think. So it would be Texas State, UNT and UTSA. One of those 3 get left out. Unfortunately from the viewpoint of the MWC I think it’s between UNT and Texas State. I would hope the existing rivalries with both SMU and UTSA would be the check mark that gets us in. I suspect Rice, Tulsa, and Tulane don’t excite TV partners courting a MWC package. If you don’t have a long (or recent) history of winning on big stages or a state/major city in your school’s name you are at a major disadvantage generating interest in from fans of schools you travel too. The laymen easily has a vague understanding what/who North Texas, Texas State, Houston, Texas and UTSA represent and what they are. They are large population schools as academic institutions. Conversely they don’t know who or where Tulane and Rice are. And Tulsa isn’t exactly a well known major city and the publicity from the Watchmen on HBO and the Race Riot it featured wasn’t exactly good. SMU can snub us all they want but it only hurts them in the long run. Like it NASCAR is you are too busy trying to block someone behind you, you probably get passed by several others you never saw as a threat. Embrace us a partner in getting athletic department revenue and then try to kick our ass on the field.

I buy Marshall. But UTSA, La Tech, and Rice? 😂 Give me a break. Those teams don’t draw flies in Dallas. (Marshall wouldn’t either but that wouldn’t be one the reasons the AAC brings them in.) SMU no longer has the bargaining power it once had. The leadership of the AAC would 100% foolish to let SMU veto UNT in favor of any of those schools. You only bring in UTSA in hopes that you MIGHT want to have rotating neutral field sites for a conference championship game. The Alamodome is an attractive location and having UTSA in the conference make negotiating with the that location easier. Rice is a money losing athletic department in a no win market with A&M, Tech, Houston, and the Longhorns ahead of them. Rice has all the disadvantages in the Houston market like we have in the DFW area market plus they are small and private. The AAC is now in survivor mode and SMU has no place to go except MAYBE the MWC. Because you know they aren’t going to the Sun Belt and guess who is waiting for them in CUSA 😉😂😂😂

I agree with this mostly. I think we should only focus on what we and our Athletic department can control. With that in mind anyone interested in working with me on a weekly Mean Green and G5 focused podcast since it appears the Mean Green Barbershop Podcast has been cut? I am extremely green in the podcast space but willing to do the research. [PS; I think we should focus on revenue numbers so we can speak with realistic confidence on the moves UNT can make versus other G5 programs]

I have been saying this for years since we joined the CUSA with Houston and SMU departing it. These basically lateral moves only get a temporary small bump in your athletic department’s revenue. If a conference move isn’t getting your team in a new TV market vs teams in those markets that a relevant those moves are pointless. You could craft a conference of all star P5 underdog brands and still be left with G5 revenue. (For reference anyone who attended SMU and Houston games at Apogee know they outdrew Indiana when they came to Apogee). I don’t know what the long term out of conference scheduling will look like but the smaller number of conference games required the better IMO if that allows us to schedule home & home series with bigger regional brands like OSU, Tech, Houston, Arkansas, Louisiana, Colorado, Missouri. The biggest regional brands (OU, A&M, LSU, UT, Nebraska) are never coming to Apogee with its current capacity.

If the “performance” you are talking about isn’t eyeballs on their regular season games in person, on a TV screen, or revenue generated it’s meaningless. SMU doesn’t bring college football eyeballs on screens with them in a market significant amount.

Adding any School in the state of Texas doesn’t really help the Big 12. With Houston being supported more by Houstonians (when they are good) it as least something to sell the Networks. SMU is not really the common Dallas area man’s school nor football program. More infamous for receiving the death penalty more than they are famous for anything. The PAC 12 needs to either take a couple of Texas teams not currently in the Big 12 or just hold their noses and take OSU and Texas Tech.

These Darden updates are great. I am curious as to how Jaylon Guyton is doing on the Chargers. Preseason reports on him are sparse.

A lot these P5 conference moves don’t make sense considering the “TV market based” thought process we are told. PAC 12 wouldn’t consider Tech unless they can show market share in the major Texas TV markets when they aren’t playing, UT, OU, TAMU or other regional top dog. I am all for AAC, SBC, and CUSA exchanging teams, capping conference size to 12 and reorganizing regionally but it doesn’t look like that is happening either. (I have voiced my support for regionally reorganization in other conversations here on gomeangreen.com) My frustration (which I believe many other CFB fans share) is that the P4 is selling itself as a collective elite brands and that just isn’t the case. Except for maybe the new SEC each of these conferences have 4-5 at the max elite brands. If the PAC 12 believed strongly in its brand to increase viewership in new markets by adding teams in particular markets the Houston Cougars and another large public institution would be a no brainer move. These conferences are moving like the pie is growing when it is actually shrinking like all media market shares just due to the diversity of choices. Putting all that aside, you didn’t answer the hypothetical. You Thanos snap North Texas and Houston into the PAC 12. And we are mediocre in the league. Does it change the culture here? If you believe it doesn’t what are we building the program towards? Because unless you go a long run of averaging 2 losses or less here nothing else really matters. Having beautiful newer stadium with Club Seats, Suites and Premium Seat you can’t fill and drawing numbers like you are a top flight FCS program isn’t something that can’t be sustained.

I wouldn’t call Kansas liberal in the slightest if you are comparing them to PAC 12 schools.

I am looking to purchase one club seat ticket for any home game in September - October 2021. I have work assignments that may impact November games so I can’t commit to buy any tickets that month until then. I am willing to spend anywhere between $120 - $205.

I am interested in 1 club seat also but at $180 to $205 max.

I certainly disagree with a lot of assumptions in the article. Even at its height the Big 12 was always bottom of the P5 in brand recognition or tied with the ACC at the bottom at best. [The formation of the ACC network solidified that last place position which hugely factored into Oklahoma and Texas leaving. Timeline: ACC Network goes online Fall 2019, Texas & Oklahoma start clandestine talks to join SEC late 2020 or early 2021 is not a coincidence imo] Of the teams mentioned only Cincinnati & BYU really have 1st or 2nd place College Football market share in their respective markets. You can’t logically downgrade North Texas and Houston citing the in state presence of the Sooners Texas A&M and UT Austin without doing the same for any school in the state of Florida without acknowledging the Gators, Seminoles and Hurricanes. Those 3 teams dominate the the college football eyeballs in Florida. Also in northern Florida their are a ton of Georgia Bulldog fans just like we have Sooner fans around here. I think the only way the Big 12 considers something like this is, if and only if the PAC 12 enters the state of Texas without grabbing anyone that is in the Big 12 right now. And even if they did make this move I think PAC 12 seriously considers Houston and North Texas. That is assuming there is an iron clad conference contract with the new Big 12 (16) that penalizes teams from leaving for the next decade at a level similar to what UT and OU MIGHT end up paying now. With all that said, I think (maybe in delusional way) that if the PAC 12 decides to expand they add us and Houston around the time UT and the Sooners actually start playing in the SEC if they don’t add OSU and Tech. [The writer in the article pointed it out the mascots carrying guns. I don’t think the PAC 12 likes the idea of adding two hicktowns that love guns to their conference.]

So I am looking at the PAC-12 in this round of conference realignment and I am confused. Instead of critically examining the brand names of the teams that you might invite how about evaluating the impact your brand-name will have on a particular school? Now I completely understand the reluctance of bringing in religious institutions to a West Coast market in the broad sense. Therefore I am dismissing TCU, BYU, SMU and Baylor from this conversation. So if I am interested in adding major markets in the state of Texas with Austin off the table and San Antonio basically being an extension of the Austin market (central South Texas Market) off the table that leaves DFW area and Houston. My question is, if North Texas and the Houston Cougar are added to the Pac 12 how does it change the cultures at those two schools? Also is the change big enough to make their addition to the PAC 12 worth it to the conference? I think this would be huge for the other athletic programs at North Texas but I wonder if we start consistently selling out Apogee Stadium’s current capacity to warrant expansion? I read arguments about winning and winning big and I’m just skeptical of that making an impact at the G5 level for anything less than a 5 year run averaging 2 losses or less a season. That is an extremely tall order for ANY program except for the top 5 college football brand names. (And usually the coaches that preside over such a run leave or are at a top 10 brand name program already 🤷🏽‍♂️) So the questions I have are simple; 1. Hypothetically if counter to all reasonable expectations the PAC 12 adds UNT and Houston within the next 5 years and we are middle of the road program in that conference reaching a bowl game every other year (or one out of every 3) do we get 30k plus consistently at home? 2. And if that answer is no why is their such resistance to joining a majority Texas conference like the one proposed by the writer in Abilene?

Great for game day but come Monday I have business decisions to make. I might get strange looks when I put sugar & Equal in the top of the coffee maker with the coffee grinds talking about will be “Less Filling & Tastes Great”.

Love your whole post. And college sports in general have accelerated the decline in overall viewership with cut throat business practices that should not have any place when your labor force isn’t just straight up paid and contracted. The bottom half teams of these Power conferences don’t move the TV viewership needle and never have. Smaller regional conferences are better for everyone long term even the Longhorns and Sooners. When these networks start seeing a more significant decline this national TV money will dry up.

Better attended conference games with reduced travel cost is the point. By the way A&M didn't have national interest till the Big 12 was being organized. Granted some division foes might be missed a little. Some of them are really fine programs but playing them when doesn't get casual fans to come. Abilene Christian maybe the worst pick up on the new conference schedule. But would it be worse than playing any of the CUSA East, Sun Belt East, or AAC East? None of those programs put buts in seats (except Navy who is oddly in the AAC West while being as East coast as you can get without falling off into the Atlantic Ocean). When cross division school do create buzz from having an exceptionally good season they are kicking all these Texas team's asses and not getting into the playoff so what is the point? A full stadium once every 5 years to watch a ranked East Coast team blow your team out? If we turn the tables in 5 years good luck finding an Alum from FAU, ODU, FIU, UCF, Charolette or etc to talk trash to at work the week after. 🤷🏽‍♂️

Going down with a CUSA resistant to make a pragmatic change based on geography isn't better IMO. And I don't think we can run to another conference to save FBS level football. 🤷🏽‍♂️ Going independent should be BACKUP plan depending on what the G5 conferences do.

I am not sold on the idea of independent but this should be discussing in AD departments of larger schools in Sun Belt, CUSA, and ACC. The MWC and MAC have coherent geographic footprint and relatively long established rivalries. Geography is the basis of rivalries. If we we went independent in football 2013 and contracted out a schedules were we playing the teams list below every two years it would have been much better for us I think. There are over 20 teams listed. Very achievable to map out 5 regular seasons worth of games. But that would require the AD and staff to work their asses off. But as it stands now they need to work every bit as hard getting the majority of CUSA, AAC, and Sun Belt schools to wake up and go regional. FAU, FIU, Charlotte, ODU, and etc are never going to care about a random game vs UNT or vice versa. Tulsa SMU Texas State UTEP TCU Rice Houston La Tech Arkansas State Louisiana (Lafayette) Oklahoma State Texas Tech Colorado State Air Force Army Navy Colorado New Mexico New Mexico State Kansas Kansas State Missouri Arkansas UTSA Memphis Reorganizing these G5 conferences regionally makes more sense than going independent. But if they refuse, I think considering going independent and working on an independent schedule behind the scenes to pressure some CUSA changes is the way to go.

You post makes sense except for referencing preseason polls. Preseason polls don’t generate long term revenue. None of the teams in these conferences can present decade plus run being ranked in the top 25 at the end of the season. But you nailed one of the points; reducing cost. And hopefully with more regional games you get higher gates. Just looking at UNT gate numbers they are always higher for CUSA west games and SMU. The AAC (I think you have them confused with the ACC which features teams like Clemson, Virginia Tech, North Carolina). Cincinnati is an ACC team but that conference most vunlerable to get raided after the 8 remaining Big 12 schools sign their next TV contract. The entire G5 needs to get together and map out cooperative plan for their collective survival. If the NFL operated this cut throat way the Packers, Jaguars, Buccaneers, Buffalo Bills would not exist and the Browns may not have come back.

The MAC should aggressively go after ISU, KU, KSU, and Wichita State (basketball but no football) if that is the case. The AAC is a shadow of the Big East and it’s current geographic footprint is nonsense. Of all former big boy conferences that broke up they had the most resources and messed up the worst IMO. A restructured conference built from western, AAC, Sun Belt and CUSA schools should aggressively go after Baylor, Texas Tech, TCU and OSU. The ideal conference from UNT perspective: Baylor TCU SMU Rice Oklahoma State Tulsa Houston La Tech UNT Tulane Texas Tech Southern Miss UAB Louisiana (ULL) This conference has interesting games every weekend for everyone.

No, except on paper to collectively negotiate media rights packages and bowl tie in packages. The “little guys” need to stop stabbing each other in the back and throwing up their skirts every time a blue blood flirts with them using sexy lines like “we will tolerate your existence on the field with us or even as a conference whipping boy”. SMU, TCU, UNT, Houston, and Rice should have been a conference together when the SWC dissolved. Those 4 together could have added teams like, UTEP, Tulsa, Tulane, Arkansas State, La Tech, UAB, Troy and Southern Miss. The goal is that you want be able to pitch media rights packages with the selling point of having interest (albeit secondary) in medium to large cities throughout Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Maybe if the conference efficient and effective even Texas Tech would have come on board this round when the Big 12 dies. Geographically Sun Belt and CUSA East teams are in a different boat. Just like schools in the state of Texas anchors that’s conference I proposed in the previous paragraph, schools in Florida and Georgia should anchor their new conference Sun Belt, CUSA, and AAC refugees. ECU, ODU, FAU, MTSU, Western Kentucky, Charlotte, Georgia State, Georgia Southern, App-State, Cincinnati, Memphis, UCF, USF, FAU, FIU. That is a 15 team conference already. I don’t know what you do with Temple and UConn. Any conference East of the Mississippi would gladly take their basketball programs but their football 🤷🏽‍♂️. Would this new 16 team football conference just begrudgingly take Temple in all sports and tell UConn all their programs are welcomed except football? Temple, UConn and Cincinnati make more sense in a 16 team MAC. (Memphis would need to go with them to make it 16 and that make that Florida/Georgia anchored conference 14 which is perfect) AAC, CUSA, Sun Belt need to have a summit to figure this out and the schools need to approach the whole thing like they are equals. We are stronger together.