Big 12 in 2016

[Lobot]

Are you referring to a 2 or 4 team expansion proposal? Or is that the number of votes a school has and the horsetrading determines if need 2 or 4 to get to quorum on each school?

Either or. Horsetrading is where it's at. I think we'll get to needed amount. Not sure about BYU. Houston gets there if the trading is successful. If it is 14 I really have no idea who's 14 but I would think UConn based on sports and academics combination. Academically UConn is actually the leader of the bunch unless you want to throw Tulane in. Can't remember if I mentioned this on here but Tulane was in the final 3 during the last go around in the Big 12 because of the AAU affiliation and they took WVU and TCU instead on the combination of sports and academics.

[red_n_black_attack]

One Cougars' fan perspective on the networks:

http://www.cougarboard.com/board/mes...ml?id=16251745


For those that think the BIG12 wont expand because of the networks
IMO before the Spring meetings the BIG12 was trying to negotiate a BIG12 network and both ESPN and Fox told them its just not in the cards because of the current market climate. The BIG12 did not like hearing this but was okay with it. At that time they did not want to expand and use the Pro Rata option and keep things civil.

Then the BIG12 started hearing that ESPN was working with the ACC on their new network that starts in 2019 and the BIG12 was like wait a minute you just told us that it was not going to work for us but it works for the ACC? This had to upset all of the BIG12 egos.

The BIG12 does not care if they cause waves with ESPN and are going to expand. I still beleive that 14 is very much on the table. Even if they renegotiate and get a BIG12 network they will need to expand to get the inventory.

Keep calm people. The roller coaster is not over and we will continue with the ups and down. I'm not convinced that we are a lock or things are already done like some have reported but are chances are still very good.

Just my two cents.

[bearcatbret]

http://www.foxsports.com/college-foo...cenario-080416 Seems to believe that the Big 12 will add two and that it will be Houston and Cincinnati.

[coach]

What you're going to see here I think is some vote trading. We know we have 7 votes with Texas, TCU and Tech voting against. One of those schools will trade the 8th vote on UC to get a vote from the other 7 on Houston.

So the rumor is that the texas schools suport Houston and Byu at 11 and 12? Basically screw the north division and Wv. Go Mountaineers! ha.

[red_n_black_attack]

Separate question - I know people are cutting the cord with ESPN having lost as many as 7 million subscribers over the past few years at roughly $7 per subscriber per ESPN family block. HAs ESPN lost viewer ship and ratings? Advertising dollars drive the TV revenue stream, and many of us are keeping cable/satellite just to watch live sports. The ESPN Family already has ABC. With digital TV, could ESPN open broadcast content? I don't think they'd want it to compete with their ESPN families and not directly against other games shown on ABC, but they could release some content to an open broadcast earlier in the day to go against CBS or NBC (and other ESPN content).

I've watched both football and basketball games on my computer streaming on ESPN3 and was not impressed with the quality. If given the choice, I'd much rather use a digital receiver and watch it on TV. This may help the Networks place additional content and sell advertising.

[red_n_black_attack]

What you're going to see here I think is some vote trading. We know we have 7 votes with Texas, TCU and Tech voting against. One of those schools will trade the 8th vote on UC to get a vote from the other 7 on Houston.

Are you referring to a 2 or 4 team expansion proposal? Or is that the number of votes a school has and the horsetrading determines if need 2 or 4 to get to quorum on each school?

[Lobot]

What you're going to see here I think is some vote trading. We know we have 7 votes with Texas, TCU and Tech voting against. One of those schools will trade the 8th vote on UC to get a vote from the other 7 on Houston.

[blackattack]

http://sportsday.dallasnews.com/coll...xpansion-talks

This says no one has the 8 votes necessary right now...........and Texas politics has made HOUSTON the favorite to be #11.
Some things will never change with the Big12..........Texas holds most of the cards.

[bearcatbret]

http://beta.deseretnews.com/article/...ns.html?pg=all I thought that we all needed to laugh.

[red_n_black_attack]

From Kirk Bohls of the Austin A-S:

“Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby tells me the league is still exploring expansion but has no idea if a plan can be completed before the football season kicks off. Asked if the balking by ESPN and Fox might give the Big 12 an out and cool off the desire for expansion, Bowlsby said: “Nothing has changed. I have put no time frame on the process. I am not planning to comment on the processes until they are complete.” … Hard to blame ESPN and Fox for balking at paying the league so much for new teams without sizzle. I wonder why the two networks ever agreed to such a one-sided term in the first place, but ESPN and Fox operated in good faith when they did not reduce their Big 12 payments after the conference shrank to 10 teams. Mused one powerful Texas backer, “I keep thinking that ESPN could broker something regarding LHN. Would they pay $50 million to end the contract early? Could we take that and buy our way out of the conference? The closer we get to the end, the more likely that becomes, in my opinion.”

I can't blame Bowlsby for saying what he said, even if there are agreements, voting done, or deals in play with Networks.

Here's a thought, the Big 12 could grow stronger through subtraction...minus Texas, adding BYU, Houston, UC. I know that today the value is eyes watching tv and Texas does that better than the three I proposed combined (probably 1.5 times as many); however, as a non-traditional linear conference network the overall value increases because a conference network isn't possible with Texas' LHN.

[bearcatbret]

I took a look at the top football programs (as I see them) from each conference and totaled them. Then I took the Group of 5 who think that they deserve to be included. There is room if all conferences dissolve to form a major league like set up as some have discussed. Feel free to disagree. I am not saying that all of the Group of 5 listed should be included before existing lower level power 5. It is my objective look at where each conference stands and then where the group of 5 think that they stand.

	ACC	SEC	BIG	PAC12	Big 12	Group of 5
Alabama		2
Alaska
Arizona				1
Arkansas
California				4
Colorado				1
Connecticut						1
Delaware
Florida	2					1
Georgia	1	1
Hawaii
Idaho						1
Illinois			1
Indiana	1
Iowa			1
Kansas
Kentucky	1
Louisiana		1				1
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan			2
Minnesota
Mississippi		2
Missouri		1
Montana
Nebraska			1
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New Yourk
North Carolina	1					1
North Dakota
Ohio			1			1
Oklahoma					2
Oregon				2
Pennsylvania	1		1			1
Rhode Island
South Carolina	1	1
South Dakota
Tennessee		1				1
Texas		1			4	1
Utah				1		1
Vermont
Virginia	1
Washingtion				1
West Virginia					1
Wisconsin			1
Wyoming
TOTAL	9	10	8	10	7	10

[swilsonsp4]

From Kirk Bohls of the Austin A-S:

“Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby tells me the league is still exploring expansion but has no idea if a plan can be completed before the football season kicks off. Asked if the balking by ESPN and Fox might give the Big 12 an out and cool off the desire for expansion, Bowlsby said: “Nothing has changed. I have put no time frame on the process. I am not planning to comment on the processes until they are complete.” … Hard to blame ESPN and Fox for balking at paying the league so much for new teams without sizzle. I wonder why the two networks ever agreed to such a one-sided term in the first place, but ESPN and Fox operated in good faith when they did not reduce their Big 12 payments after the conference shrank to 10 teams. Mused one powerful Texas backer, “I keep thinking that ESPN could broker something regarding LHN. Would they pay $50 million to end the contract early? Could we take that and buy our way out of the conference? The closer we get to the end, the more likely that becomes, in my opinion.”

[Lobot]

O man LOBOT... I completely forgot your in Texas... You have way more invested in this move to the Big12 happening than we do.. Can't imagine how great it would be for you to have access to seeing 2 maybe 3 UC games in Texas each year...

Yeah, It would be nice to take a trip to Austin and Waco for a game. Lubbock you pretty much have to fly to. It's 5 hours away with no direct route. Houston would be doable as well.

[bearcatbret]

http://www.outkickthecoverage.com/bi...and-sec-080316 I can see something like this happening and many on here have stated so. However, take a look at the projected Big 10 South. It absolutely stinks. If this goes to a football only type scenario, the Big 10 could easily dump 6 teams. This article and many like it seem to think that the other power 5 conferences already have the best schools not named Texas or Oklahoma. They should just create 4 new conferences (say NE, SE, NW, SW) and take the best 16 teams in those regions or actually the best 64 teams out there. In this case, I am not sure that UC would be selected but if you look at it, you can cut 6 from the Big 10, 3 from the SEC, 4 from the ACC, and 4 from the PAC 12 (just randomly picking numbers), then with just 33 teams listed, UC may be one of the remaining 31 teams to be included.

[coach]

This reminds me a little of the UIL here in Texas. Think OHSAA for those not familiar. The UIL blows up it's alignments very 4 years based on school demographics. The schools that got bigger in attendance move up and the ones that shrank move down. There are 6 divisions here.

The Big 12 Texas schools are probably really familiar how a system like this works so yes I think the Big 12 conference blows up in 2025 mostly because of UT and LHN wanting to move up to either the Big Ten or the SEC. I'm guessing someone out there has already drafted a scenario for the NCAA to blow up the existing conference ties and do a total realignment that makes some damn sense. I'm also betting some schools have already done leg work on it. I think the only things that stops this are the higher up folks in the resistant to change dept. It makes sense to me to have 4 fairly equally weighted big conferences with identical money flowing in so no one league has a $ advantage or maybe you just create a new governing body and ditch the NCAA and amateurism altogether.

I think there is a middle ground here financially that if the big12 has any interest in keeping this group/conference together the other schools would need to have. It's not going to help their cause if the other teams cannot compete. I'm not sure that the other schools involved can afford to take the haircuts that some suggest they would take to get in. It's one thing to talk that, but another thing to write the checks for 8 years. At the end of the day, if you are better off than you were currently, and get the opportunity raise your program's profile it makes sense.