Mike Jackson

That does what to dig Cal and the other 2 left overs dig their way out of a severe financial disadvantage faster? If they are contemplating this Stanford and Cal should stop wasting everyone's time and go independent. Their non revenue sports would be served well in the WCC with Gonzaga.

I can definitely understand the anti ESPN sentiment. However ALL CFB problems can be traced back to the greed of the schools. As the payouts for their media rights, ticket sales and etc skyrocketed, that money could've went to education. These programs have been run like business without the real financial responsibility to be 100% self sufficient and turn a profit. Looking at our own program I don't believe it could responsibly pay a head coach a million dollars if the mandate was for the program to have a balanced budget. There was always enough money to go around for about a 100 universities to play FBS. At least half of all media revenue generated should be in a pot distributed equally to give each program an operating budget floor. A system where UCLA is making 4 times more than Cal within the same university system playing the same level of sport is just ridiculous. And there are more egregious examples of this in other states that we are just comfortable with because that is just the way it has always been. The BUSINESS of football made Haden Fry leave. Because our program wasn't getting what it deserved base on its on the field performance. And make no mistake this will continue with this super conference system. These teams can't play everyone in their conference and even inside conferences their strength of schedules can be very different. Conferences won't even have true champions unless they have a in conference playoff. So it is the colleges that were always willing to take a massive 💩on tradition for bigger checks. Now they have become so dependent on those checks living beyond their means that budget wise many can't say no for the good of their student athletes. Their long standing hypocrisy is now laid bare in the destruction of a great conference. And now their long time Rose Bowl partner/rival is like Marilyn Monroe bastardized for 2023 with a BBL, caterpillar fake lashes, cartoonish makeup, and 20 pounds of saline in her breast. Very appropriate that the last official Pac 12 game will be in a dome staduim (looking nothing like the sun drenched packed stadiums of a late afternoon in Berkeley, Tucson, or Eugene with mountains in the background) in Las Vegas where hubris and greed has been the downfall of many. 🤷🏽‍♂️

Cowardice that is bit of an overstatement. I barely watch Apple TV+ and I am all about the Apple environment. Other than Foundation (an extremely unque show) rarely think of visiting the app board looking for something to watch. As you go east from the Pacific time zone the far less likely a random fan is going to shutoff scrolling between games on Fox, NBC, ESPN, or ABC to focus on a Pac 12 game on Apple. How many sports bars east of Denver were going to sign up for Apple TV+ which would be unless to them except on Friday and Saturday nights when Oregon, Stanford, Colorado, or Washington were on? Also it was my understanding that the Pac 12 was on the hook for production cost. Apple has no experience presenting American football. And if you follow futbol (soccer) the broadcast of Messi's debut was fubared from what I hear. I hate all of this as much as any fan. But the programs left behind were just being pragmatic. Colorado lost money when they let pie in dreams and wounded ego make them leave the Big 12. I sincerely doubt they would even equal the 31 million the Big 12 is going to get once you factor in the production costs. Y’all can roll your eyes at my suggestions to the conferences to reorganize their non-revenue sports into more regional conferences to save more on travel and improve the student athlete experience. Men basketball at most 80% of programs in G5 conferences are probably operating at a deficit so consider them non-revenue also. Dragging these nonrevenue sports into 3 time zone G5 super conferences just don't make sense. A good CSU football team vs a good USF football team in late October Saturaday should be entertaining and make sense. USF vs CSU in basketball on Monday-Thursday during the semester won't get many TV viewers. So why are we committed championing the creation of a conference forcing them to do that just to have the Football money?

🤔 Interesting, according to many people on this board, I thought Wyoming was a slam dunk positive add to our out of conference schedule. Stanford and Cal probably should go independent. They can put their other sports into a regional conference that doesn’t sponsor FBS. Actually the MWC, AAC, and Sun Belt probably should reorganize themselves to separate football membership from the other sports. For instance the Sun Belt members for everything but football should be SMU, Texas State, Rice, UTSA, Tulsa, Tulane, UNT, La Tech, Louisiana, Louisiana Monroe, Arkansas State, Wichita State. If these schools a pragmatic instead of arrogant it is a no brainer. Let's us all get those as many of the good basketball and other sports athletes concerned and their quality of life during the season. How valuable is the scholarship to a great instution like UCLA if sports travel forces you major in General Studies or Liberal Arts to maintain eligibility and scholarship?

I understand why losing SMU would bother a Mean Green fan. But I don’t get the affinity for Rice and Tulane? Why do you hate losing them? It is unfortunate overall but I think the days of smaller private universities playing above FCS will be over by 2032 or shortly after. So any FBS private university program not in a P5 conference today will be operating at huge disadvantage. The private schools named for their city or region have a better shot of making it because they gain regional support easier.

I think that would fall on deaf ear in the Big 12 without bumping up the per team payout for 12 that are already in the fold this season. I also think if ESPN is watching their budget they are opting for the cheapest way to add games of the forgotten PAC 4 to their portfolio with minimal cost. Getting them into the AAC or MWC are the best options for ESPN and CBS to save money acquiring their games.

Right everyone does it. This isn’t good for Football in general beyond just UNT. Playing FCS is just a financial transaction masked as a legit football game. If a FCS game is the way we get a 7th home game I understand and approve but that has yet to happen.

I have watched USF and their attendance looks worst than it actually is. Raymond James Stadium holds 70k (expandable to 75k). When they were on the cusp of being BCS Bowl Buster they averaged over 40k. Beyond Rice or SMU we need to pause whenever being critical of another AAC program’s attendance.

It isn’t about football or educating future professionals and leaders; it is about MONEY generation. If your programs win but don’t generate big viewership numbers in key markets and 40k+ home stadium tickets sales the people offering media contracts don’t care. Stanford water polo, volleyball, track, fencing, gymnastics or etc isn’t generating significant revenue from media. It sucks and I believe we going to a 30-50 team super FBS with regular season with a lot less drama and very few annual regional rivalries. These big programs could have been playing each other regularly out of conference for decades but didn’t. Now ironically when Conference play dictate them playing when they are both highly ranked it will lack drama because the top 4 teams from SEC, Big 10, and likely/hopefully the Big 12 🤷🏽‍♂️ will be in the playoff every year. And in many years they might rematch in a conference championship game or excuse my 🤮🤮 “conference playoff game”. I’m not interested in semi-pro leagues whether it USFL, CFL, AAFL, XFL or whatever this Super FBS ends up being. These checks they are writing are going to come due. Fans will check out and organically without their greedy short sightedness assistance, sport interest in younger generations is on the decline. My teenage sons haven’t sat down to watch a NFL, NBA, or MLB game on their own in years but they all about their favorite YouTubers and Twitch Streamers. Hell a Twitch Streamer started a riot in NYC requiring a 1000 NYPD officers to respond.

No, some of the blocking techniques are no longer legal. Clock domination isn't as sound a strategy today with most good teams having quick scoring offenses. Even Saban's team throw the ball more now to keep pace. If Saban's teams can't hold teams with par level athletes to under 25 points a game most of the time, I am not betting on any program to do that. That means your offense has to have 10 play TD drives routinely and defense that forces several punts. Routinely going in to the 4th multiple score leads going in to the 4th quarter is the only way to get those multiple 9/10 win regular seasons we are looking for running an option offense.

Culturally and academically it just doesn’t make a lot of sense for Stanford and Cal to insist on playing FBS. If they want to I think Stanford and Cal could go independent. They could do a scheduling alliance with Notre Dame and Army. Who knows how long UMass and UConn are independent but they are decent schedule filler from a revenue standpoint for these new “big 3” independents. WSU and OSU have to go the the a MWC/Pac mashup conference.

Programs that only need to worry about 10s of millions of dollars have iconic stadiums with historic names. If I win the mega-millions. I will have 50 million to name Odus Mitchell Stadium with the field named for DATCU. An expanded Alumni Pavilion can be DATCU branded also.

I heard that it isn’t out of the question for Stanford to shutdown its FBS level football. I could see them doing the Ivy League thing. They would play a FCS schedule and rotate non-conferences visits to their old FBS rivals. And like the Ivy League they wouldn’t have a post season have some kind of “bowl” like MEAC vs SWAC championship.

Yep absolutely ridiculous. The media partners are going to take a bath with these deals with the Super Conferences. There is a huge inventory of conference games that will never be appointment TV for most casual football fans. All these lesser than programs in these super leagues become less relevant with each additional member.

The best case scenario is that the Big 10 comes out and says they will not expand under any circumstances without a raise in the per team payout. I don't think Fox, ABC/ESPN/Disney, CBS and NBC are interested in committing more money to CFB distribution without seeing the viewership numbers for the 1st season of the expanded Big 10 with USC and UCLA. Their commissioner basically said that if you read between the lines of his last statement when asked about expansion beyond USC and UCLA. I would love to talk to someone in the industry to figure out if investing in stocks that own over the air local stations is a good investment. I believe they are currently still undervalued. I think the Pac 12 mistake was the Pac 12 Network letting cable and satellite distributers being the gate keepers of access to their network. Outlets like the owners of StadiumTV would have been their best option. StadiumTV has the flexibility to get on over the air and streaming. Because even now 1/4 of US households don't have home internet. I have never had the need to tether my 65 inch home TV to my iPhone hotspot but I believe watching live sports that way would be glitchy. Not to mention even it works perfectly smooth you still could get a phone call during a huge play. Anything to provide counter balance to the growth of super conferences is what I am rooting for. And the survival of the Pac 12 that minimally still includes; WSU, Cal, Stanford, OSU, Arizona, Utah, and ASU is the most possible outcome that preserves a Pac that can recover. You add 4 MWC teams; SDSU, UNLV, Hawaii, and CSU (secondary choices Boise State, Fresno State, Air Force) and I think you have a stable conference that Big 10 would have to overpay members to leave. I think the SEC and Big 10 growing beyond what their size today is in no one's best interest except the people in those conference admin offices on payroll. Forget NIL and Coaches those conference admins (and NCAA administration) LAST people that deserve more money. I hope everyone agrees with that at least.

None of the MWC teams can leave without some financial help. The help either comes in the form of a closer to full share of the new Pac ## payout or a break on the 34 million they would owe the MWC by leaving. SDSU is the program probably in the best spot financially to make the move and even they might not leave if have to pay the full 34 million and take less than a 70% share of the new PAC payout. Most AAC could leave because I believe the exit fee for them is significantly lower but that isn't a sure thing depending on the number we fans don't have access to easily. Tulane, South Florida and Memphis are wasting their time chasing the PAC if the PAC retains everyone one they have today imo. The travel would be ridiculously costly without all 3 of them joining and another program on or east of I-35. That logistical cost and maybe getting 50% of the new PAC deal which would likely only be around +10 million would not be a financially sound move. Because you also have to consider the buyout for these AAC teams and the +7 million per school they were getting in 2022. If you are getting around a 5 million per year raise and owe 10 million buyout with a 50%, 70%, or 120% increase in logistics costs, the move become less attractive. With that said of all teams listed South Florida seems particularly far fetched. Flying to any of the remaining Pac schools is over 4 hours non-stop and almost 6 hours to the schools near San Francisco and further north. Add in boarding, getting off the plane, and just getting to the hotel you kill a whole day each way. That is fine for football with all games on Saturday or Friday night. But games any other day of week for non-revenue sports and men's basketball that is a killer. And most DI basketball players aren't delusional enough to not take academics serious I don't know where that thought is coming from except from the visit the Pac 12 commissioner made to SMU months ago. When you really look at it beyond just "high level academics" they aren't a fit. Stanford is the only private university left in the current Pac 12. Stanford by is more prestigious internationally than either any of these private schools. Stanford is bigger than any of these schools and more consistent in sports than any of them. SMU only has the Bush Jr family. Not minimizing having a former president as an alumni at all but the pool of prominent alumni is just deeper at Stanford. And if we were crafting a Mount Rushmore of presidents post Teddy Roosevelt, Bush Jr probably isn't on it. Also if I am in the Pac meetings I am cautioning adding any private school smaller than Stanford. They aren't going to bring in casual CFB fans and the potential to do that is what media distributers are looking for. "It is great the UNT & SMU are in large market DFW and already have a rivalry. Sellout a few of those rivalry games. Sellout a few mid season games with TV viewership numbers reflecting that and get back in contact with us". - Media Distributer Representative. Ideally, from a UNT perspective and good of CFB as a whole, I want the PAC to survive with 10 programs. I think the 9 they have now and adding SDSU. But if 9 don't remain together, I want Big 12 to go to 16. Big 12 with with Arizona, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington give me a lot of appointment TV games when UNT isn't at home. But to me original Big 12 (maybe swapping Baylor for Houston) would have been perfect. Greed and political meddling ruined it. I guess we should have all seen this greed directed crumble of CFB coming. But with people like Late Kick with Josh Pate whistling through the carnage of rivalries dead like it is no big deal, I understand why most are oblivious. When it really hits the fan and streaming outlets start seeing how much of their purchased inventory isn't appointment TV there will be a painful market correction.

I don't know at this point I am reserved to let the powers that be ruin CFB and improve from learning lessons the hard way. There are these mythical casual CFB fans that want to watch a semi-pro league extremely loosely tied to CFB tradition that media distributors want to get. They are ridiculously short sighted IMO with the hammer of "conference expansion" growing the sport. This is boxing all over again. Every program out for themselves without considering the possibility that working together in unison for the best of the sport would lift all boats. By the time they look at what the NFL and MLB did to improve their sport through revenue sharing it will be too late. We needed more good games not larger conferences. Long ago they should have capped FBS at 120 teams and 10 conferences (capping membership at 14). They should have expanded the regular season to 14 games (15 for conference championships). And capped Bowl games to 20 which gives you a solid 1/3 playing in bowls. Select the 4 highest ranked bowl game winner for a 4 team playoff. That would insure that there would be more quality out of conference games, all 20 bowl games likely impact the playoff teams selected. Now we are getting more meh gems like Rutgers vs Minnesota and Missouri vs South Carolina. Games they already could have been scheduled annually out of conference but weren't because there was no demand for them. But gems like a regular season match up between Michigan and LSU still won't happen cause they are chicken 💩 to schedule them. 🤷🏽‍♂️

They should take Hawaii. It is small market but it's an entire state with most Hawaii expats living in the western USA. A guaranteed trip to Hawaii at one point in your college career should be a small bonus for recruits considering a school in the conference. I am not sure SDSU or any MWC can afford the 34 million to leave and take a smaller share of the Pac 12 payout (whatever that ends up being it will be less than 17 million per year for G5 additions to the Pac). Maybe if 3 or more leave the MWC, the buyout is neogiated down to something manageable. I think the Pac should take Air Force also. Travel logistics won't be a problem for them. If I were leading the PAC no way I am adding multiple small private universities. If it's about reach of your conference brand small private universities that really not have won big since 1980 doesn't help you much. There just isn't natural affinity for any of these private instutions for casual CFB fans without a direct connection to those schools. I take Tulsa because of its name. With that name it has a better opportunity to capture support of the Tulsa metro area. Sorry SMU putting a D on your helmets and Dallas on your jersey isn't winning you new fans. Memphis, Tulane and USF filing is just absolutely ridiculous from a geographic standpoint. It is a disservice to any college athletes that isn't a football player.

I didn't eyeroll this comment you made some good points. This is bad guess though. I would also add Sam Houston State and Texas State to opponents preferable to North Alabama. Before these games are played a lot could change. The only thing you can rely on is that school isn't going to move geographically. Hell FCS program from a large school you put on your schedule 5 years from now could either be folding their program, transitioning to D-2, or transitioning to FBS.

Come on name one big win than moved the needle under Seth not followed up by a kick in pants? You can't that is why he had 0 bowl wins and 0 conference championships. UNT Football is the but of jokes of fans not familiar with G5 programs. Your frustrations with basketball support are very justifiable. But our region of the country isn't big on basketball. And there is nothing super about the Superpit except its bloated size. It is 20 years overdue for replacement or massive overhaul. It also doesn't help that it has been an attractive venue for events not necessarily directly tied to the university.

I think you are mistaken, first downs are only stopped the game clock momentarily the same way it will be run in the last two minutes with this alteration to the rule. An earned first down without a change of pocession was never treated like a dead ball.

I think that impact will be negliable. In the last 2 minutes the clock will still stop after first downs. And remember that pause only lasted long enough for the refs to set the chains. Teams in the lead could always bleed the clock on first down after the ball was set.

Maybe, but I don't remember the Southland conference myself. So I probably should have referenced the Southland. Because I am only interested in SFA and Sam Houston. I mention SFA and Sam Houston specifically because they are the schools I am familiar with as universities first and football programs second. They also have been successful at FCS. And my contention was never a 1 for 1 swap. Ideally I never want an FCS game unless it is an extra home game for that season. Wyoming just isn't a great fill in because the only good box they check (besides being FBS) is being a state flagship university with a simple name. There are just a lot better options out there to hastily extend a series with Wyoming. Even a game with Texas State would be better attended and they are FBS. Realignment isn't done so I suspect more OOC scheduling opportunities will pop up before 2026.

The claim that I am making stuff up is utter BS? You don't agree with the comparison, I will explain. You so stuck on FBS being so much better than any FCS team. Let's look up Wyoming last matchup with a FCS team near them. They beat down Montana State 19-16 in 2021. They would go on to be 2-6 in MWC and 7-6. And there performance on the field doesn't erase that they only have a small natural market with the state population being around 580k. The University of Idaho shares that challenge Wyoming as in Idaho, Boise State dominates their state's lastest market in the state. The population of Larmie and Moscow are both under 50k. So I compared them for a reason. (BTW Nebraska state population is almost 2 million with Lincoln over 290k so much for making up crap). The fact is that there is little perceived difference between a medicore G5 school in a small town 6 hours away by plane and a well known former Southland Conference rival to casual fans. I take a 7th home game 10 times out 10 if I believe fans want to see that team. And it financially stupid not to do so for a mediocre G5 program you ideally never want in your conference from a geographic perspective. And with their geographic challenges Wyoming going FCS within the next decade isn't far fetched at all with the financial instability of all but the top 30 revenue producing programs. Wyoming is a middle of the pack MWC school..... - No conference championships this century - They are below 0.500 all time -Last division title 2016 and before that the last one was 1993 - Their biggest claim to fame this century is Josh Allen upper tier NFL starting QB that got them that division title -Current power ranking 114 But it isn't about us being "better" than Wyoming. It about games adding to the bottom line income for the program without sacrificing too much. I really didn't want to crush Wyoming but conversations ignoring the reality that the gap between mediocre/bad G5 program and top FCS teams is minimal. I rely on the facts. We should be well aware of that with our own history. Winning against teams people want to see is the most important thing. The attendance at our last 2 bowl games shouldn't make that hard to accept. So Wyoming being a "great" fill-in is debatable at best.

That is just your personal preference. If it is between having an extra home game and still only playing one FCS game a year I take SFA or Sam Houston every time. I never want to play ACU, Incarnate Word, and only tolerate Texas Southern for the novelty of the band. There are plenty of G5 schools that aren't worth scheduling. Especially those teetering on dropping down to FCS. Idaho did it so Wyoming doing it with a state with very similar demographics wouldn't be surprising.