Big 12 in 2016

[Lobot]

McMurphy in particular has been all too willing to toe the company line on this stuff. Annoys the **** out of me. Frankly I wish he was back at CBS where he was allowed to do unbiased reporting.

[red_n_black_attack]

Will the 2-hour video conferences include all ten Big 12 presidents? That's 34 hours of time on either P5 hopefuls that would say no or several G5 hopefuls who aren't really in the running.

Here's hoping we don't get the 3AM - 5AM time slot with each room on the other end darkened and on mute.

[bearcatbret]

I find it interesting that over 25 years ago Cincinnati was part of a group that commissioned a report. I believe that it was towards the end of the Metro where UC had conference affiliations with Virginia Tech and Florida State along with others. The study said that the future was for future 16 team mega conferences. Basically what we hear today. Those members as well as all laughed at the idea. It was too bad that the independents in football back then did not jump at the chance. We know where FSU and VTech went. UC went to the Great Midwest then improved to Conference USA trying to make that a no boundary, mega conference a reality. Those old enough to remember the metro, it was a great basketball conference and UC was wondering aimlessly in the football world where the faculty members even tried to vote football out of the school. Okay, I can ramble on about history....

Getting back to this topic, it appears that the TV powers to be are trying to force football into four 16-team mega conferences. The same people that laughed at the idea 25 years ago. If that is the case, I would suggest to those paying the bills (ESPN, Fox, others) to choose the most deserving 64 teams and drop the dead weight (Purdue, Wake Forest, Oregon State, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, etc.) Quit pretending that academics matter. Speaking of education, I place my UC degree above most others compared to working with people from every major conference.

UC does bring the State of Ohio recruiting into play. Reading how the non Texas schools of the Big 12 do not want Houston in the Big 12 based on recruiting, I would think that Ohio would be a prime market..... Okay, I am done with my rant.

[coach]

It's simple, Ohio deserves more than 1 power conference spot in college athletics and UC has earned it.

[bearcatbret]

Going back several months and very stupid. Eliminate divisions in conferences but keep rivals. If you look at say the Big 10, the weak teams all are rival games and the strong teams are rival games which means that a decent team from the weak teams have a chance...... However, the funniest is when they get to the Big 12. http://www.sbnation.com/college-foot...ons-scheduling

[longtimefan]

Jake Trotter on Twitter: "Confirmed Air Force on list of schools that have notified the Big 12."

[red_n_black_attack]

I find it interesting that over 25 years ago Cincinnati was part of a group that commissioned a report. I believe that it was towards the end of the Metro where UC had conference affiliations with Virginia Tech and Florida State along with others. The study said that the future was for future 16 team mega conferences. Basically what we hear today. Those members as well as all laughed at the idea. It was too bad that the independents in football back then did not jump at the chance. We know where FSU and VTech went. UC went to the Great Midwest then improved to Conference USA trying to make that a no boundary, mega conference a reality. Those old enough to remember the metro, it was a great basketball conference and UC was wondering aimlessly in the football world where the faculty members even tried to vote football out of the school. Okay, I can ramble on about history....

Getting back to this topic, it appears that the TV powers to be are trying to force football into four 16-team mega conferences. The same people that laughed at the idea 25 years ago. If that is the case, I would suggest to those paying the bills (ESPN, Fox, others) to choose the most deserving 64 teams and drop the dead weight (Purdue, Wake Forest, Oregon State, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, etc.) Quit pretending that academics matter. Speaking of education, I place my UC degree above most others compared to working with people from every major conference.

UC does bring the State of Ohio recruiting into play. Reading how the non Texas schools of the Big 12 do not want Houston in the Big 12 based on recruiting, I would think that Ohio would be a prime market..... Okay, I am done with my rant.

RayCom report. I remember it well around the time we went to the Final Four. Louisville and S Carolina were also in conference. It also would've been something akin to a conference network, though they didn't use those words. I think Penn State and Hurricanes were targets in the report too. Coulda woulda....

Big 12 is a good fit for UC. Not ideal, but a good fit for us and for the Big 12.

[red_n_black_attack]

I think the Big 12 expands by only 1 which is UC. Split into two divisions, but play all 10 other teams..each team gets five home and five away games. You get two non-conference games and one "pre-season game" against a lower level team to get added 7th home game. We could play the RedHawks in that game.

The northern teams don't want Houston and I don't think BYU gets in due to Honor Code. It appeases networks on the lowered pro rata amounts.

Thoughts?

[Lobot]

I like it but the divisions aren't even. Having an odd number of teams would be the most big 12 thing ever. I don't think it will actually happen due to all their data pointing at 12 as the magic number.

[Lobot]

Not sure if it got posted but Chuck Carlton seems to think the timeline for an announcement has moved backwards to mid Sept - Oct. I give up.

[red_n_black_attack]

I like it but the divisions aren't even. Having an odd number of teams would be the most big 12 thing ever. I don't think it will actually happen due to all their data pointing at 12 as the magic number.

The Big ten did it for years when Penn State joined. Texas schools in one conference and the other six in the other. Top team in each conference plays in CCG. If tie, top two in playoff standings in CCG. It can be done for 2017.

[Lobot]

Flugaur: 24 hours before dinner with BTM..he sends text: "Bowlsby and Boren are dead set against progressing towards ESPN's interests"

[CincyBearcat95]

Flugaur: 24 hours before dinner with BTM..he sends text: "Bowlsby and Boren are dead set against progressing towards ESPN's interests"

Lo. - what does that mean? Which of ESPN's interests are they dead set against? So many different things coming out now. ESPN wants them to stay put at 10? ESPN wants to go to 16 team leagues? ESPN wants them to incorporate schools from Mexico to improve The Ocho's ratings

[bearcatbret]

The Big ten did it for years when Penn State joined. Texas schools in one conference and the other six in the other. Top team in each conference plays in CCG. If tie, top two in playoff standings in CCG. It can be done for 2017.

The 11-team conference worked perfect because there were the same number of home and away games. That was before the Big 10 included a conference championship game. Just an interesting fact, it was MSU vs Wisconsin in the first BIG game CCG and it was just one week after MSU beat Wisconsin. Wisconsin won the CCG on a fluke. The Big 10 finally caved in to the money of the CCG. I like the 11 team full schedule conference. I still like the "one true champion" concept. The CCG is just a money grab and that is why the Big 12 is expanding.

There was an article about how Houston would be security for the Big 12 in the future if TX and OK left the league. It made some sense. I think Houston is the 13th team added for that reason but I think it will be a couple years out.

All that said, the Big 12 is exploiting the media coverage and will continue to until this is settled.

[Lobot]

Lo. - what does that mean? Which of ESPN's interests are they dead set against? So many different things coming out now. ESPN wants them to stay put at 10? ESPN wants to go to 16 team leagues? ESPN wants them to incorporate schools from Mexico to improve The Ocho's ratings

ESPN wants the league to stay at 10 if they get their say about it. ESPN is on the hook for several million dollars if the league expands at all because they (and FOX) signed a contract that says the have to pay the league more if they add teams. Here's an article on the Big 12 contract:

http://sportsday.dallasnews.com/coll...-less-valuable

They don't have the money partially because they decided to sew up the conference network properties they already had in the ACC Network. Mostly it's due to lack of foresight on their part that the cable subscription model would start falling apart. You'll notice the ACC Net is mostly a digital property that gets rebroadcast on to its' smaller channels. I can get it on AppleTV and my Xbox but it's not a channel of it's own on the cable box. ESPN has a ton of money tied up in bad contracts right now. That's why the let all the talent run to FOX. Disney can't pay the conferences and the talent at the same time during a period where the ESPN business unit is hemorrhaging cable subscribers. Bob Iger at Disney goes into cost cutting mode every few years and ESPN's probably the worst performing business unit comparatively at the moment.