|
Post by sooner2 on Oct 18, 2016 10:16:15 GMT -5
Welll... no expansion. No extension of grant of rights. Expires in 2025. Champ game begins next year. Decision on taking top two teams for that game or re alignment to two five team divisions to come soon.
I think it's the only decision they could make. League is dead. The powers that be know it. Expansion does not strengthen the league. Does not make league more stable . At least not with any of the currently available candidates.
I think they went out of their way to parade around some pretty small schools as possible candidates to leverage the tv networks to pay them to not expand ... since the contracts supposedly would call for an extra 25 mill per expanded school to be paid out to the conference ...regardless of how how unmarketable any of those schools might be.
This way... I think it allows the smaller conference schools to stay financially competitive until the final step in the musical chairs game takes place... with OU and or Texas leaving and setting up the final movement to the power 4 leagues.
Good riddins... big 12. Writing is on the wall. The next biggest question is where do OU and Texas move to... that has huge impact on where the other conference schools wind up. Best chance for osu and tcu or tech to find a new p4 home is for OU and Texas to go separate ways .
|
|
|
Post by Baph on Oct 18, 2016 12:39:32 GMT -5
Important for me that the seed that all this mess grew out of doesn't get forgotten when the harvest comes: The Longhorn Network.
The Big 12 could have BEEN one of the power four. Without TLN, the Big 12 is at 15 teams right now, picks up Louisville back in 2014, sitting at 16 and the future is YOOGE.
Oklahoma Oklahoma State Texas Texas A&M TCU Baylor Texas Tech Houston Kansas Kansas State Iowa State Missouri Nebraska West Virginia Louisville
Football, basketball competes with any conf in the nation, pulls viewership numbers, multiple BCS games per year . . . but . . . TLN, right?
|
|
|
Post by ocmmafan on Oct 18, 2016 15:04:55 GMT -5
What a shame.
|
|
|
Post by sooner2 on Oct 19, 2016 10:32:23 GMT -5
I cannnot fully join in a chorus of hating onlybyexas and lhn for this mess... when my school has also put themselves above the good of the conference several times in the past. evidently in the late 90s ... OU txam and UT spearheaded an effort to decline offers for a big 12 network at the time ... each hoping for future offers for other more school focused networks and/or broadcast deals.
In retrospect... if indeed true... that could have been the worst decision ever. Think about what the first confer me affiliated network could have meant at that time. Think about its influence on the bcs. Think about the time frame... where Colorado was still good, txam was good, and Nebraska and OU regularly playing for and winning championships. Remember that the best leagues at that time easily the big12 and whichever league Miami was in. No s e c megaphone in nightly ESPN talk shows. No acc network deal. The acc was basically fsu's for the taking.
With a network deal and big income ... Colorado could have stayed committed to a quality program and not dropped off. Osu and mizzou would have likely been perrennial top 12 type programs... with OU , ut, and txam and Nebraska all being top 3-8 types.
Think about all the front running that could have gone on with 6 big12 schools in pre season top tens. Think about the impacts such a conference machine would have had on coaching hires?!? Saban doesn't go to lsu... he goes to Colorado instead after bill maccartney. Richt takes the txam job instead of Georgia.
With years of big12 dominance and income ... the big10 woukd not have been able to poach Nebr. . Missouri stays solid in the big 12.
Sure... there would have been a profitable big10 network... their massive population base would have demanded it. But think about what the big 10 would look like if they had only been able to expand with Rutgers and BC and Maryland. No nebraska.
If there have been the same round of expansion in 2006... with the big 12 already having a viable and massively profitable network at the time ... it's not a reach to predict that the acc would have pirated... with fsu and several others such as va tech and possibly Miami joining the big12. With those powerful brands and tv markets... the big12 doesn't have to take tcu.
Maybe in a situation like that... the s e c has to pick around and consider Memphis or Houston or Cincy.
Who knows?
Anyway ... P4 is a certainty with the big12 being the one to be absorbed now.
|
|
|
Post by Baph on Oct 19, 2016 12:28:52 GMT -5
Good god, man. I didn't think I could actually feel worse about this . . . but . . . yeah, congrats on proving me wrong.
|
|