Big 12 expansion

Mike Jackson · March 14, 2023

On 3/6/2023 at 12:17 PM, NT80 said:

There is also internal battles going on within the PAC schools about Athletics vs Academics. Many school Presidents want to only align with similar academic schools for expansion since losing UCLA and USC (SDSU, Smut, perhaps Tulane and Colo St.). So far they have snubbed good athletic football programs like Boise and Fresno and the Big12. But boosters and ADs want quality athletics, better normal media coverage (not streaming) and $$ for the programs. It's an interesting battle.

I am watching The Monty Show on YouTube and they are begging Utah to let go of its “academic elitism" and make a prudent move. It has always been a stupid notion to look at an ATHLETIC conference affiliation as a source of "academic" pride if you want to compete at the highest level. Students with the grades and money to go to elite academic institutions are not thinking athletic conference affiliation. Stanford and Cal only nominally care about athletics. I could see them dropping down to FCS and trying to form a west coast version of the Ivy League.

The academic elitism mindset of some of the leaders of the Pac 12 will be in the autopsy report for the Pac 12 if it is dies. Adding SMU and SDSU was a last ditch effort to stop the media rights contract value from dropping to much. SMU can't draw TV viewers in its home market. And the Musty-stangs are certainly not drawing PST viewers.

Edited March 14, 2023 by Mike Jackson

GrayEagle · March 14, 2023

Absolutely agree. If they want academic elitism why not join the Ivy League?

Mike Jackson · March 14, 2023

3 hours ago, GrayEagle said:

Absolutely agree. If they want academic elitism why not join the Ivy League?

Well you can't talk about "academic elitism" without hypocrisy and send "student athletes" across 2 timzones in the middle of the week for a conference game. In the court case filing that will result in players becoming employees, I am certain that conference game travel hardships will be brought up by representatives of the players.

I would like to see the government draw a logical line in the sand between school that plays to enrich themselves, coaches and administrators and school that do it purely to help keep alumni/students engaged. A financial structure needs to be mandated to prevent pros from getting financially rewarded for curb stomping Amateurs. I think the only way to do that is to put travel restrictions on teams that don't want to pay players and 1/3 of all media revenue and neutral site gate/merchandise sale revenue be shared among all FBS team have non-employee student-athletes.

Once a split happens and these greedy programs will see a massive decline in revenue. Also with the salary restraint paying players will introduce, there needs to be a framework for a equitable and return to the student-athlete model with regulated NIL. (Probably all NIL contracts have a healthy percentage of it going a medical insurance program for all student-athletes, that extends month for month past graduation for low cost)

El Paso Eagle · March 14, 2023

1 hour ago, Mike Jackson said:

Well you can't talk about "academic elitism" without hypocrisy and send "student athletes" across 2 timzones in the middle of the week for a conference game. In the court case filing that will result in players becoming employees, I am certain that conference game travel hardships will be brought up by representatives of the players.

I would like to see the government draw a logical line in the sand between school that plays to enrich themselves, coaches and administrators and school that do it purely to help keep alumni/students engaged. A financial structure needs to be mandated to prevent pros from getting financially rewarded for curb stomping Amateurs. I think the only way to do that is to put travel restrictions on teams that don't want to pay players and 1/3 of all media revenue and neutral site gate/merchandise sale revenue be shared among all FBS team have non-employee student-athletes.

Once a split happens and these greedy programs will see a massive decline in revenue. Also with the salary restraint paying players will introduce, there needs to be a framework for a equitable and return to the student-athlete model with regulated NIL. (Probably all NIL contracts have a healthy percentage of it going a medical insurance program for all student-athletes, that extends month for month past graduation for low cost)

There is also a lawsuit against the Ivy League to force them to offer athletic scholarships. One of the arguments is that the NCAA requires minimum standards for support for inclusion in FBS/FCS, and the Ivy League does not comply. Have to wonder if they (Ivy league) will consider dropping to D3.