Speaking as a born and bred New Yorker who loves college football….
The skeptics who scoff at the idea that Rutgers could deliver huge ratings in the New York City TV market are absolutely right. There is no local college that could possibly command the attention of more than a few sports fans in and around New York. An Ohio State-Rutgers match wouldn’t draw any more TV viewers in New York than an Ohio State-Purdue or Michigan-Iowa game would.
The only college that COULD draw huge numbers of viewers in New York is not a local school at all.
In short, if the Big Ten wants huge numbers of New York viewers, they have to bring in Notre Dame. Notre Dame would do FAR more for a Big Ten cable network than Rutgers, Syracuse and UConn combined.
(I should probably note that I’m a faculty member and alum of the finest former Big 12 school.)
Had a colleague crowing about a&m’s possible move to the SEC. I shamed him out of my office. That move would benefit every member of the SEC (they get to play in Texas and have access to Texas athletes) and do nothing for a&m (struggling former power in the Big 12, headed for cellar-dwelling status along with Vandy and Mississippi State in the SEC). No way in hell would the ags agree to that arrangement.
Texas and a&m are having a meeting today - which I’m sure will include some entreaties to the ags to “keep the family together” - but I expect that the invite to the Pac-10 will come very soon and we’ll take it. I guess the question will be is how to deal with the lesser Texas schools (Tech & Baylor) since one is definitely on the outside looking in, and Tech does seem to be causing some concern for the Cal/Stanford contingent.
If they do the 2 teams to BCS, they would not have a champ game (that’s the way I have read it). Pac10 and Big12 coaches don’t like champ game (which makes sense because it’s one more way to get knocked out of NCG), if you are making enough money with television in general, and you have possibility of 2 highly ranked teams bringing in even more money in BCS, then it probably makes sense, but that would have to be weighed against the certain revenue from champ game each year.
Also, just read that Ok St to Pac10 is a done deal. I would have thought the next thing was to get Texas, but maybe they need to keep chipping away at the BigXII to force Texas’ hand.
As a Pac-10 (and Cal) fan, this is going to be strange. There’s a lot of cross-pollination between the Pac-10 and Big Ten – Cal usually plays a Big Ten team OOC, at least every other year – but hardly ever a Big XII team. In my 35 years as a fan, I’ve seen Baylor, Nebraska, A&M and Oklahoma, once each…and that’s it, I think.
Most of you are thinking too small. If adding a playoff game was all that mattered, the Big 10 and Pac 10 would just stop at 12, not divide their revenue any further, and keep whining about the BCS.
The trend toward megaconferences, assuming it happens, means they wouldn’t need the BCS or NCAA at all. If essentially all the football teams that a national audience would care about are in three or four megas, then they can set up their own playoffs and their own championship bowl game and keep all the cash themselves. Why would you not think that’s the strategy?
I don’t know how much clout he currently has, but he was one of the famous “Junction Boys” who played for Bear Bryant at Texas A & M back in the Fifties, and he was a teammate of the great John David Crow (the only Heisman winner Bear Bryant or A & M ever had).
So, he certainly commands a lot of respect among the Aggies, and his opinion would carry some weight.
Not to mention being the national championship winning coach of the 1992 Alabama team, and being the guy who volunteered to come back and coach the Tide on a temporary basis when Franchione left Tuscaloosa for A&M. I love that guy.
Edit: Just to be clear, yes, he’s an A&M guy with VERY strong SEC connections. He’s tough, no-nonsense, and, as far as anyone knows, 100% honest and honorable. He has garnered a lot of respect in Texas and the SEC. His opinion would probably count for quite a bit.
Because I don’t think that’s what they’re up to - the NCAA is so far entangled in the structure and makeup of the individual schools involved that there simply is no possible way for this to have been spontaneously planned in the shadows and then executed in such a haphazard and piecemeal manner that we’re seeing now.
You’re the one thinking too small by just thinking it’s about playoffs and the BCS. The Big Ten’s allotment from the BCS is chump change compared to its BTN revenue. Boosting it to a megaconference only ramps that up even more.
Man the rumors are flying fast and furious around here. I would be surprised if Texas, A&M, OU and OSU were NOT in the same conference when this is all said and done.
They are causing more problems because of being a religious school than because of academics. It looks like they will be left out of all of this and will hope to catch on with an expanded Mountain West.
I heard on the radio coming home from work that Texas and A&M have petitioned for admittance into the Big 10. This was reported by some local station (presumably in Texas).
It might make a little more sense if Cal didn’t get their asses kicked by Texas Tech in the Holiday Bowl that year. Also, he should blame the computers for being left out of the BCS since the human polls actually broke Cal’s way. In short, he’s dead wrong to blame Texas about anything.