More proof the Big 12 needs to add us!!

[cmm27]

Could you elaborate on Bohn's comments? Thank you for the insight.

He alluded to many eyes around the nation being interested in all the renovations and improvements in the athletic arena at UC and how interested people are in the ever improving academic profile of the university. He said that they are always looking to be in the best position and playing the best competition, etc. While not saying anything terribly specific, I believe he was chastised for speaking publicly before about the efforts to leave the AAC.

[bearcattom]

He alluded to many eyes around the nation being interested in all the renovations and improvements in the athletic arena at UC and how interested people are in the ever improving academic profile of the university. He said that they are always looking to be in the best position and playing the best competition, etc. While not saying anything terribly specific, I believe he was chastised for speaking publicly before about the efforts to leave the AAC.

Cool...thank you.

[bearcatbret]

If we step back and try to remember the beginning of the realignment, everyone thought that the Big12 would fold not the Big East. The Big12 held on and the Big East was the one that folded. If TX and OK leave the Big12, I do not see that conference holding onto the "power5" label.

I believe that we all thought that the best fit for UC was the ACC and that may still be true. If the power conferences believe that 16 teams are best, that is still our best bet. However, in the meantime, we are still living in purgatory.

[blackattack]

I work in TV. ESPN is no longer hiring for the LHN based in Austin. Bowlsby sees the LHN as a blocker to launching a Big 12 media property.

I expect at some point...Texas & Oklahoma to crush the B12 and move to the SEC. These schools add significantly to the viewership value of the SEC..enough to pump the $/school to possibly $40-50M.

That opens the door for UC, Boise State, BYU, and SMU (yes, I said SMU).

The SEC made a run at Texas 2 years ago and they balked. So the SEC added A&M. What's changed so much that would make Texas jump at going to the SEC?
I don't see it. The folks in Austin are among the most myopic in the college football business. They still believe that college football revolves around them even though anyone with a brain cell knows those days are long past.

[coach]

The odds of something happening in the near future with the p5 conferences in the next several years is lower than the current aac joining with teams in the west to join into a larger "super" conference. They're not likely to want to share $'s so it would likely take a major player like a texas jumping to the pac 12 or sec(not likely) which would result in the conference having to make a move. All this talk of the playoff and no championship game seems great, but in the end $'s rule the day and not getting into the playoff isn't going to penalize the conference members $'s in a big way. I for one think that adding a western component with possbily a san diego st., colorado st., and boise st. would be a winner. They would have to organize it so as to not make the non big 2 sports burdened by travel which is workable, but it would be a nice conference. I think you have to work with what you have first, and take any move if/when it comes.

[longtimefan]

I work in TV. ESPN is no longer hiring for the LHN based in Austin. Bowlsby sees the LHN as a blocker to launching a Big 12 media property.

I expect at some point...Texas & Oklahoma to crush the B12 and move to the SEC. These schools add significantly to the viewership value of the SEC..enough to pump the $/school to possibly $40-50M.

That opens the door for UC, Boise State, BYU, and SMU (yes, I said SMU).

And Fox has lost a ton on the BE contract. Fox knew they were overpaying (BE schools get more for BB than AAC schools get for FB and BB), but they were after content for the new cable network. What they did not expect was that the BE games would be virtually worthless with historically bad ratings, usually 0.0. The BE should expect a major pay cut next time, and hopefully we'll be P5 by then.

[blackattack]

I for one think that adding a western component with possbily a san diego st., colorado st., and boise st. would be a winner. They would have to organize it so as to not make the non big 2 sports burdened by travel which is workable, but it would be a nice conference. I think you have to work with what you have first, and take any move if/when it comes.

Got me thinking on that one......I kind of like it if the travel can be worked out for non-revenue sports. San Diego State and Boise already have a national brand.
It sure beats the heck out of waiting on Texas to leave for another conference which isn't going to happen unless they get preferential treatment.

[coach]

If you look at the current fpi index for football, a cut of the first 60 ranked teams would include 8 of the members if you could conceive a western alliance for fb and basketball. cincy, ucf, ec, memphis, boise, col. st, sd, and byu. If you can make it work whereby you have an alternating game with the west division teams home/home each year, you can configure a pretty strong conference schedule. There are currently quite a few p5 teams that fall below that cut. Make it work in 2 or 3 divisions with a conf championhip game, and you are going to make it hard for the others to ignore. It may not hold up, but in the short term it's a better solution to me that the current layout we face. Also, i would believe stronger tv dollars, and more leverage if bigger conference come calling. Waiting for the p5 or p4 to come calling with full revenue shares is fool's gold. I also would believe it would be good for recruiting. You still have a critical mass of closer schools, so it's not as if it's wv situation having to go 1000 miles minimum for every road game.

[coach]

Further, this is very much like a business deal. You can sit around and wait for it to come to you, or get creative and make your market. The best way to get into a new market(or conference) is to succeed at what you are doing and draw the demand. If you put together the snubbed in one group, they are likely a bigger tilt on the other competitors as one than fragmented. We might even find out that we prefer that. I'm not a big fan of being in the big12, but we'll see. However, you have to get creative. Maybe a 3 division format with a two game championship with 3 div winner and a wild card. It's hard to believer that winner would not claim the extra champ bowl spot.

[cmm27]

All well and good except that Boise St. and the like rejected the idea just two years ago. Will not happen now or in the future.

[coach]

A different version of it yes, but ultimately once the "no movement" situation ends i suspect all parties will see the need to enhance what they have. There are not a lot options outside of that, but you need to look no farther than our own conference to see how crazy it is. We are hoping to tie memphis right now, and you look at the memphis schedule this year and they managed to not have to play east carolina or ucf which is crazy. It's one thing to miss one of the top teams, but two is not acceptable. There has to be better representation of head to head competition to get the top teams their due. As fragmented as it is right now, it's not going to happen. With houston and temple left, and memphis playing uconn, we will likely finish higher than them in the technical rankings even though they beat us. By not playing 2 of the 3 top teams in the conference, this issue wasn't settled where it should have been.

[bearcattom]

A different version of it yes, but ultimately once the "no movement" situation ends i suspect all parties will see the need to enhance what they have. There are not a lot options outside of that, but you need to look no farther than our own conference to see how crazy it is. We are hoping to tie memphis right now, and you look at the memphis schedule this year and they managed to not have to play east carolina or ucf which is crazy. It's one thing to miss one of the top teams, but two is not acceptable. There has to be better representation of head to head competition to get the top teams their due. As fragmented as it is right now, it's not going to happen. With houston and temple left, and memphis playing uconn, we will likely finish higher than them in the technical rankings even though they beat us. By not playing 2 of the 3 top teams in the conference, this issue wasn't settled where it should have been.

Completely agree. Mr. Aresco clearly punishing UC for our conference desires.

[cmm27]

It was settled when Memphis won on the field. That is fair.

[1977 BearCat]

I work in TV. ESPN is no longer hiring for the LHN based in Austin. Bowlsby sees the LHN as a blocker to launching a Big 12 media property.

I expect at some point...Texas & Oklahoma to crush the B12 and move to the SEC. These schools add significantly to the viewership value of the SEC..enough to pump the $/school to possibly $40-50M.

That opens the door for UC, Boise State, BYU, and SMU (yes, I said SMU).

From a tv perspective, a move to the SEC makes sense. What you are not factoring in is politics. UT maybe the biggest dog in Texas, but there would be three other dogs, including a large state university (Tech) that would make such a decision a political nightmare for UT. Ditto with OU because of OSU.

[coach]

It was settled when Memphis won on the field. That is fair.

I would totally disagree with that. Championships should be decided over the complete body of work in a season. The truth is that the league is not old enough to predict that memphis would be in a position to win this year. The same situation exists for ucf, as they played only east carolina. No Cincy, no Memphis. With no championship game, the schedule was laid out very poorly. The two week bye and promise of a tv game week one is another boondoggle the league dropped. However, when 2 of the 4 top teams have played on 1 of the group, it's bogus. All teams play some bad games and all you have to do is look at the schedules, but you should have to beat more than 1 of the top 4 teams to win the thing with no championship game. Particularly when the bottom of the league is weak.