It’s an absolute fact that the Big 12 currently takes in per school around the same as the other 4 major conference for the first two tier of media rights. Kansas, Iowa, and West Virginia may not be huge markets but Texas is the second largest state in population. Forbes estimates them right behind the Big 10 with $26.2 million per school for 2014. K This is a simple total over number of schools formula so there is no effect from half shares (shouldn’t be any this year anyways as TCU and WVU are fully vested).
I can’t name an expansion effort by the SEC that did not make sense geographically and rivalry wise. Nebraska and PSU were great moves for the Big 10. Maryland and Rutgers is a bit of stretch but they are in neighboring states to members and at least represent a cohesive vision for what the Big 10 wants to be. CU makes more sense in the Pac 12 than it did in the Big 12.
They would go the way of the Southwest, Big East (football), and Metro conferences and be gobbled up by other conferences. The Pac 12 gobbling up Texas and Oklahoma teams is probably the best bet for a start. It’s possible that the remaining teams still have a league called the Big 12, but it would be different.
I’m not saying this will happen, only that willy nilly adding teams to get to 12 may hasten this rather than prevent it. The Big 12 should sit back a couple years and see how the playoff unfolds. It’s not like anyone else is going to snatch up the remaining potential targets out there. They are making good money and playing good football.
Pac 12: $334 million / 12 = $27.8 million
B1G: $318 million / 14 = $22.7 million
SEC: $314 million / 14 = $22.4 million
ACC: $291 million / 14 = $20.7 million (I excluded ND, not sure if correct or not)
Big 12: $221 million / 10 = $22.1 million
I meant Utah; Basically the Pac-8 is one division, and the other is the remaining 4 plus the 4 most attractive Big 12 teams, which to me (assuming Texas refuses) would start with OK and OK st. After that it gets iffy … Kansas would add a lot in basketball, but not much else, K- State brings football, but also not much else. They’d definitely want to add a school in Texas, but TTU is in freaking Lubbock, and all the rest are non-elite private schools (and stuff like that does matter to faculty and administrators making the decisions). There’s no simple fit. Snupzilla, you’ve persuaded me that the Big 12 isn’t hurting that much by staying at 10 teams for now. I still think that they can make *more *by expanding, and it would probably help them athletically … but it depends on how they value prestige/tradition/regionalism vs. hard cash. (Sorry, though, I don’t buy your arguments about most of the recent expansions making sense in terms of regionalism or rivalries; maybe Nebraska makes sense, but IMO the rest of them are all rationalized marriages of commerce and convenience.) UCF in particular, no matter how big it is, carries the stigma of being a directional school, only the 2nd of those in a P5 conference.
As you say, it will depend on how it plays out: if they get a team in each of the next couple years, they can stay put. If a 11-1 Texas team gets skipped in favor of a 12-1 someone else, the fan will be shitted.
Nothing to do with public/private. “Southern California” is directional in the same way that “Central Michigan” and “East Carolina” are. “Stanford” is not.
I guess you could argue that Northwestern is directional, too, but it’s not “Northwestern Illinois.”
Huh. Most of the definitions I saw made a clear distinction between public and private. Public schools can be directional, but not private schools. No big deal either way since it’s not any kind of official designation.
A USC fan (paging GatoPescado…) would shit bricks if he felt you were categorizing USC with Southern Illinois and Central Michigan…which is why I put a smiley on my response. It’s a running joke amongst Pac fans to call USC a directional school.
In case you missed the award show (like I did) yesterday, Marcus Mariota won the Davey O’Brien (best quarterback), Maxwell (best player) and Walter Camp (best player) trophies to go along with the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm trophy he won Monday.
I think he’s up for another one tomorrow, but I can’t remember the name.
Funny thing is, a full game after his season-ending fibula snappage, the unheralded Washington State starting QB still led division I in total passing yardage. I expect in a couple years he will probably be leading the upstart Redblacks to the Grey Cup final.
I’m glad Mariota won, but I thought it was classless of ESPN to rub in what a runaway it was in front of the other two guys. They could have waited till SportsCenter or whatever for that kind of stuff.
