More Realignment Rumblings
Per report, Big Ten looking at seven schools (don't know how many they'd actually take):
Don't know anything about "the Action Network", so take it with a grain of salt...
I've gotten to the point where I take anything for Sports Illustrated with a grain of salt.
EDIT: Here's the quote from the "Action Network," which appears to be a blog regarding information for gambling on sports.
The schools being considered by the Big Ten, sources told Action Network, are Notre Dame, Oregon, Washington, Stanford, Cal, Miami and Florida State. Warren would not comment on specific schools as potential members.
Big-10 Commish Warren will be asked a thousand times this season as to who will they take next. Given that there were almost no rumblings on how UCLA and USC will join the conference, it wouldn't surprise me if the next announcements come out of nowhere...and there is sure to be more.
LOL!!! No shit the schools on that list would be 'considered' for B1G membership! That's as generic a list of top candidates as one can make and still be considered a viable 'source' of information... Every single one of us can - and has - named each team on that list as 'under consideration'.
Looks like Action Network was lurking around on MGoBlog last week and found these seven schools were the most discussed. Sadly, they misinterpreted "To Hell With Notre Dame" to mean we want them in the B1G.
HA! I agree, I dont care how big their TV following is..EFF EM.
While I'd love to see FSU and Miami just for recruiting purposes I doubt they are considered because they are not members of AAU. Miami's TV haul would sure be a boon though. I wouldnt be surprised to see the names U of Colorado, Boston U, U of Virginia, U of Kansas, U of Washington and Georgia Tech thrown around. If any Florida schools are considered only U of F is an AAU member.
Think of this a B1G that draws TV audiences from Boston to LA to SF to Seattle to Missouri to Virginia to Atlanta to Denver and the rest of the established schools. That's a massive TV contract waiting to happen. It would cut the SEC off at the knees.
Living in SF, I'd love for Cal to host Michigan occasionally - I estimate 65% pro-Michigan crowds if that happens.
Fortunately for Cal we wear the same colors, so it won't be as obvious as when osu came here a few years back.
But aside from the benefits to all UM people in the Bay Area, I can't fathom another single benefit Cal offers the B10 (B20?) - aside from another excellent academic institution.
I understand - living ~60 miles from Charlottesville, I would LOVE Michigan to come to town every other year for football, and all the other sports. I would welcome that with open arms! Yet still, I can't take off my homer glasses and see any benefit...
I'd love to add Cal -- especially as an Eagles fan who was royally pissed when Chip Kelly released DeSean Jackson.
Great academic institution that can occasionally be competitive in football.
Yeah, great institution. We don't only have to add top tier (competitively) programs.
I'd get more excited about playing Cal (could we play for a giant bong as a trophy and call it Hash Bash?) than Rutgers, Maryland, Illinois, probably the Indiana teams.
The argument against is they probably don't add enough eyeballs to raise the average viewership of the conference but I wonder how much advertisers value those eyeballs.
I was at that game in Berkeley for a mini-reunion (I was an undergrad there) and yikes was there a lot of red. Cal got *waxed* which was a bummer after giving them a good game in Columbus the year before. As I remember it, we were down three scores before I had time to get settled. On the bright side my Worst State Ever shirt got plenty of commentary.
Scroll down a bit to my post on this, I'm pretty sure this is complete bullshit. This is the source.
In fairness to this dude, I’ve met JC Shurburt in real life. Dude helped start 24/7 and looks like this, but fatter,
Time flies when you're having food.
Is he the source source or the author of the article citing the source?
That Washington to Miami road trip will be fun
Even more fun on the way back. IIRC that's the longest flight in the lower 48.
In a conference of 20-some odd teams and no more than 9 conference games, they would play each other once every twelve years or so.
Unless a team was dominating their pod or division then we would play them yearly for a stretch of 8 years.
That's because it's not really Sports Illustrated anymore. This article is from "FanNation, Part of the Sports Illustrated Media Group"
This just seems like someone speculating and passing it on as sourced material... no way in hell would Miami or FSU be considered. This seems like it was pulled from fan twitter
Why wouldn't the Big Ten want to have their footprint in the Florida market? That would be almost as big as USC and UCLA joining (from an added value perspective).
The vast majority of FSU students wouldn't even qualify for admission to MSU, which tells you all you need to know.
You are waaaay overestimating MSU admissions.
/username checks out
I think they would all be great additions. My only reservation would be with Cal. If you already have USC and UCLA, you only need to add one team from northern California to lock down the state. I think if you had to choose one or the other, most would pick Stanford over Cal. Stanford clearly adds more value. If you have USC, UCLA, and Stanford, how much more value or market share do you gain by adding Cal?
Eh, does Stanford add more value though? It's a more prestigious name for sure but Cal isn't chopped liver and has a larger alumni base and probably (?) a larger general fanbase as the flagship public UC.
Stanford's attendance is abysmal even when they're good. I assume that goes for viewership as well.
EDIT: Hard to tell from this cool map that the NY Times did based on facebook likes in 2014 (which were probably fairly relevant / representative at the time). Cal owns the East Bay as expected, Stanford likewise owns San Jose / Silicon Valley and Cal edges Stanford in most SF zip codes but its very close in The City (and also very fragmented as one would expect).
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/10/03/upshot/ncaa-football-fan-map.html
But do you need both?I would argue that you get 90% of California with any 3. Since we have USC and UCLA,, who would be the better 3rd team? I think Stanford. And you’re correct. Cal is nobody’s chopped liver. You just don’t need them both. Offer that spot to Arizona or Colorado or a Texas team and you increase viewership.
The big ten needs to be smart about this. Lets not pull another Rutgers (Maryland was bad enough). A team like Nebraska pulls its weight as do USC and Penn State way back when. UCLA is a package deal but is basically Indiana of football but instead of coaching up their talent like Indiana they coach it down. If Stanford gets you Notre Dame then you pull the trigger otherwise I think you hang tight. Owning the east coast as a whole down the road could be a net gain with:
UNC
DUKE
Virginia
You are taking a hit in overall football tv money but owning a new region so Im not sure.
Hard pass on Miami (what good does a 90s powerhouse team do you today?) Cal Colorado Vtech the AZ teams.
Im on the fence with Washington Oregon. I would kinda like to see Oregon relegated to being a rich mans Boise St.
The Action Network? Is that the GoBots version of ESPN?
It's the App I use to track all my sports gambling wins and losses!
In that case, wonder what their swimsuit issue will look like?
I would think that an East German Judge would have a better idea than most of us. Sorry if this is sexist, or looksist. :)
The Action Network is Brett McMurphy. You may remember him as the guy who broke the Meyer/Smith story, as well as some others.
He's not always right, but he's about as plugged in as anybody covering college football.
The Action Network is what my brother and I called our backyard wrestling league. We’ll, until the kid up the street fell off our homemade turnbuckle and blew out a testicle. The 80s were savage.
not cool story bro
Considering that I'm going through a prolonged bout of painful epiditomitis: wrong time for this story, bud.
The Action Network is the perfect name for a soft porn channel.
The schools in the report: Notre Dame, Oregon, Washington, Stanford, Cal, Miami, and Florida State, per the report.
IMO Drop CAL and acquire in this order.
ND
Stanford
Miami
Florida St
Virginia
Washington
Oregon
Utah to make 24 or another school in an equivalent TV market.
No thanks, Miami. They have an awful college football environment. FSU generates some excitement in Florida.....but "no" to them too.
I'd go after Oregon and Washington (lock down the West Coast), pick up UVA and UNC (lock down the mid-Atlantic).....then call it a day with 20 teams.
Oh yeah, to hell with Notre Dame. They'd be screwed if the B1G did this and the ACC fell apart.
Also, the SEC would likely add schools within their existing footprint...let them have more Florida, Georgia and South Carolina schools.
With 20 teams, I like ND & Stanford as well as one of the pair above. UVA doesn't add much though, their stadium is small, their team isn't very good and don't add more value than Cal in football.
I know the sentiment around here surrounding ND but if they add considerable value to the conference, I'd be in favor. Watching them lose at Iowa at night...getting embarrassed by unranked Purdue, and getting boat-raced by OSU would bring joy to my soul.
I don't think the overall sentiment is of being opposed to adding ND. I know the blog authors are very much for adding ND as am I and many posters.
There is no if when it comes to them adding value. They absolutely would add value.
And I hate them but I also appreciate good, high stakes, meaningful college football and adding them means more high stakes, Big Ten football.
Absolutely do want ND in the big ten. Have wanted this for years, even moreso now that we rarely play them.
How many of the best Michigan memories came against ND? Those moments are memorable because of the stakes and the gravity of the programs. I don't know why people wouldn't want more of those for Michigan.
So, first of all I don't think there's much bang for the buck in Utah. Arizona, Colorado and Texas offer far more. Secondly, If you don't pick up those Florida teams, you give your adversary an opportunity to get them and become stronger than you. You must be bold and think about 20 years from now, not just today.
Awful college football environment? I'd rather go to Miami Gardens for a game instead of Pis-scat-away.
But the ACC is off limits until a lawyer figures a way out of that grant rights deal. That's the only thing keeping Clemson and UNC out of the SEC.
Well, you've trotted out your list of prejudices and preconceptions with little or no rationale--thanks for the contribution. :) Science; it's obviously not just for scientists anymore!
Why drop CAL?
Sure they are not great in Football or basketball, but I think they are strong in olympic sports, they have better academics than most the rest of that list, and they bring you the Bay Area market.
Stanford checks all those boxes as well, with the added benefit of actually being decent occasionally.
Also Stanford could sway ND to join, as they along with USC are annual opponents of theirs. If the B10 convinced them to freeze nd out until they join, it might work 🤷♂️
Fear of being left out of the big picture will make ND join. Add 7 or 8 ACC teams (Syracuse, Boston College, Virginia, N. Carlolina, Duke, Clemson Fl. State, Miami) so that they can all fulfill their current media rights obligations. The tone will change from "they are under contract with me until . . . " to "how do we continue to exist and not become obsolete once the deal is over? We probably won't be in business if we don't play nice with the new league now.
Cal gets you Nor Cal the same way you probably think the Tampa Bay Devil Rays or Miami Marlins gets viewers to MLB. It doesn’t. They bring less than Rutgers. Colorado would be a better add.
I have a friend who teaches art history at Cal, so I would like Cal to join, plz. I want to visit her moar.
I would take Stanford based upon their marching band alone. Sure, throughout the 1980s they had a sign in front of their rehearsal hall: "No fat chicks." And sure, William D. Revelli, who essentially invented/created the modern Michigan Marching Band, wrote to the Stanford president that their band was "a disgrace to a fine university." But Revelli was old and misogyny is funny in every generation, right?
Whaddya mean, ya young whippersnapper?!