Big 12 About To Join The SWC & Big 8?

[carlosphat]

I saw this conference realignment article with tons of predictions including that one.  Has Texas Tech getting stuck in the Mountain West and a bunch of other predictions too.  Some of its stupid, but a lot of it makes sense.  Good offseason read anyway.

http://www.thechaosindex.com/cest-la-tv-college-football-is-about-to-change-a-whole-lot-more-than-you-realize/

[jdennis82]

Another interesting point I hadn't really considered much...

Quote

The people that gave you #MACtion were smart enough to create a brand – mid-week football – that allowed them to get a bigger share of the money pie than they would by playing all their games on Saturdays when the big boys are being paid the big bucks and the mid-majors are, at best, filler content. (That’s not intended to insult the quality of Group Of 5 football at all; it is, however, a harsh financial reality.)  Then, the good folks at the Sun Belt Conference, realizing that they’re heading down a bad road, came up with that festive #FunBelt hashtag to try and gin up a #MACtionlike vibe.
Here’s reality: Those are smart business moves. #MACtion works because the MAC branded themselves well and moved their late-season product to nights when there’s little to no competition from the majors.

I'm really moving past the idea of mid-week games as they present many challenges (attendance, impact on the players/support groups' routine, etc.).  As he mentions, the MAC was the first to this market so, at this point, I think the difficulties outweigh the exposure benefits if CUSA were to consider following suit.

What I found most intriguing was the impact of branding tags like #MACtion and #FUNbelt.  Conference USA really has no similar communal or shared rallying cry.  We can argue which conference is superior on the whole, but in this area they come out ahead.

[EagleMBA]

2 hours ago, jdennis82 said:

Another interesting point I hadn't really considered much...

I'm really moving past the idea of mid-week games as they present many challenges (attendance, impact on the players/support groups' routine, etc.).  As he mentions, the MAC was the first to this market so, at this point, I think the difficulties outweigh the exposure benefits if CUSA were to consider following suit.

What I found most intriguing was the impact of branding tags like #MACtion and #FUNbelt.  Conference USA really has no similar communal or shared rallying cry.  We can argue which conference is superior on the whole, but in this area they come out ahead.

CUSA...#CanUSayAwesome?

Best I can do after only three cups of coffee this morning.

Edited March 31, 2016 by EagleMBA

[VideoEagle]

Is the Chaos index the place where people who can no longer get published in the Bleacher Repoet went? 

[untjim1995]

I've been saying this for a long time. The Big XII is a dead-conference walking. The GOR runs out in 2025. Some schools may be willing to abandon it early and pay the fee necessary to get out of the conference, such as Oklahoma and Kansas. Texas will get LHN money for as long as possible, so if that means in the Big XII, that's fine...as is football independence, too. They just want the cash.

The Big XII currently has three schools that are attractive for the combo of market, academics, and revenue athletics. Texas, OU, and KU. UT and KU are AAU schools, which is attractive academically as research institutions. OU and Texas are huge attractions in football, KU in mens basketball. And all three bring eyeballs,  from their own market to nationally.

After that, you have:

1) WVU, a school that has poor academics, solid athletics, and no market

2.)three little brothers (KSU, OSU, and Tech), academic weaklings with power from their state legislatures, some athletic successes in football and mens hoops, and  some market reach

3.)another little brother school (ISU) with great academics (AAU member), but revenue athletics are just ok, and they have no market at all

4.)Two private schools that are small, have been really good in athletics lately, and have Texas eyeballs

WVU has the opportunity to fill in for any ACC school that gets poached by the B1G or the SEC. Otherwise, they are playing in the AAC . The four little brothers and the two private schools are going to be additions to the MWC and AAC in some combo. And the MWC and AAC will be allowed to stay "qualified" as conferences that can play the Power Leagues. Then the SBC, CUSA, and MAC will get lowered down and the top FCS schools will move up to make up the new division of play. And finally, regionalization that makes sense for travel costs and increased fan attendance will take place for that level.

UNT will play in a conference with the FBS Texas and Louisiana schools currently in the SBC and CUSA West, as well as the biggest schools in the SLC (SFA, SHSU, and McNeese State). It didn't have to be this way, but UNT's leadership just never made any decent strides for our athletics for too long and they finally moved on things (I-A, Apogee, better conference) decades after they could have helped. Imagine what we would have looked like if we hadn't dropped down to I-aa in 1983 and stayed there for 12 freaking years, if we had gotten ourselves into the WAC in the 80s or 90s, and had built something like Apogee in 1991 instead of 2011...there's no way we are about to get kicked back down to the new I-aa. We are in the MWC or AAC today. Make no mistake about it, we did this to ourselves. Our mortal wounds are of our own doing.

[untjim1995]

9 minutes ago, Eagle1855 said:

Is this really a bad thing? I mean, Baylor may end up in the same still-not-P5 conference as UH and they've, by all accounts, done everything right (except protect their female students, which is another issue entirely). It is what it is. To pretend that UNT and Rice and UTEP and the others are in the same division as Texas and A&M this entire time has been little more than wishful thinking anyways.

Our goal should be to always the best of our current circumstances. That's where UNT has failed in the past. And where places like TCU and UH have excelled. 

We aren't ever going to be included in the P5 shift. That ship has sailed. Time to figure out what that means for us in the future.  

I totally agree with you. That ship sailed and we watched it leave.

As for Baylor and TCU, they will end up in a similar situation as UH and SMU. They will play in conferences that will not be power league levels, but they will be allowed to continue to compete against them and even earn a spot in a bowl game against them, just not the playoffs.

[GangGreen]

35 minutes ago, untjim1995 said:

I totally agree with you. That ship sailed and we watched it leave.

 

You might say we pushed it away from dock.