Whaaaaaaat Is Going on?
College football/athletics is getting crazy right now. The Pac 10 is purging 6 from the Big 12, but the Texas Legislature is trying to keep Baylor with the other Texas schools in the Pac 10, which Berkeley, among others, objects to due to religious affiliation. Missouri's trying to get into the Big 10, but is getting a cold shoulder, so might be left in the dark with Kansas and the rest of them to figure something out. But wait, the Kansas legislature is threatening legal action if the Big 12 dissolves. The Big 10 might get Nebraska, and maybe Notre Dame, and maybe Rutgers, Syracuse, and Maryland. So we're on our way to four 16-team super-conferences, great right?
Except that now Congress is signaling that it would not look positively on a four team super-conference system, and may revoke tax exempt status for athletic departments that engage in that sort of system. Plus the facts that apparently Texas A&M, which is in the Big 12, but now the Pac 10, well at least in 2012, has had discussions with the SEC in the past, and there seems to be some interest there, as well as the question of what happens to the Big East if we go purging them? Now we have a bunch of stray Big East teams and stray Big 12 teams, plus the questions of how that all plays out with the current bowl contracts and the BCS contracts.
Not to mention that Boise State is 26-1 in the last two years while Michigan is 8-16, is facing allegations, and experiencing declining quality in recruits.
All this is making my head explode. But to turn this into a more constructive post I guess, my question is: With everybody pointing to a four super conference system and saying its inevitable, don't you guys think there are a number of snags that could keep that from happening that would basically just turn college football into pure chaos? Like we end up with a Pac 16, a Big 10 (with 13 teams), the SEC with 12, a bunch of independents from the Big East and Big 12, etc etc. It doesn't seem like the whole four super-conference thing has a great shot of actually coming to fruition.
Funniest post of the day.
That happened.
But to answer what I THINK you were asking: Yes. There are potential snags with a ground-up wholesale realignment of college athletics.
Now go sit quietly for a while.
I'm just not understanding how if everybody is in a re-aligned 16 team superconference, there will be more money granted per school. Did the size of the pie change?
As I understand it, if/when the B10 expands into states where there currently isn't Big Ten Network coverage, Comcast/whoever will almost certainly quickly start broadcasting the BTN there. So, for instance, the state of Missouri doesn't currently get BTN on Comcast, but if the B10 adds Missouri then the BTN will broadcast there, adding the sizable St. Louis market. Thus, more money. Ditto if the B10 adds Rutgers (broadcast BTN in New Jersey and maybe NYC). Etc.
In sum, the money Missouri, et al are currently getting in their TV deals would be superseded by the BTN money, since Comcast would charge customers a higher rate for the BTN than what those schools are currently getting through their TV contracts (e.g., the B12 has a TV deal with Fox Sports, I believe, which pays out less than what Missouri, et al would stand to make based on something like $0.88 x number of cable TV subscribers in the entire state).
So it is more than just a shifting around of money.
It doesn't seem like the whole four super-conference thing has a great shot of actually coming to fruition.
yes it does. there's a shit load of money involved.
To your question. At some point in time the teams that are presumed to be left out will find their conference wherever it may be. Im not sure if Congress can stop the positioning of markets by each conference but some governing board whether it be NCAA or DC will prevent exclusion from the BCS. So the Missouri's and Iowa State's of the world will have an equal shot as they do presently and in the past.
tl;dr
You know shits going down when they get involved.
Just like how everyone thought they'd bring down the hammer on MLB a few years ago for the steroids stuff? ;)
I suppose Congress could do something, but no way some politician up for reelection is gonna vote to take away money or otherwise harm the elite football program(s) in their state.
I was being sarcastic
The usual response of Congress is something like a drunken four year old flailing around an empty house.
And cut to the part where this whole thing falls flat on its face and the current 11 Big Ten teams bolt and reform their own conference?
so stop using more than 2 a's in your post header
His standup on Comedy Central is halarious, I would recommend everyone check it out if they haven't seen it already.
"What happens everytime you get the chick back and you're about to fuck? Oh my god, I gotta take a shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitttttt!"
What I want to know is whether NCAA Football '11 will let you reorganize conferences. I'd finally be able to get U Chicago back into the B10.
I think this a plea to EA Sports to included a 'Holy Cow Conference Expansion Mode: The Universe is about to Explode'. Once you modify your conferences you spend the rest of your career mode debating the legality of it in front of a Senate committee.
the Recruiting portion of the game can include recruiting schools to your conference in addition to high schoolers to your team. That could be interesting.
My question is where does innovation go from the super conferences? Do they collapse back into smaller conferences a la WAC --> WAC/MWC? Do we see a steady dwindle to independence? Do we see the 4 super conferences merge into a Mech-Streisand/TrapperKepper monster absorbing each other and usurping the NCAA?
Don't you work for one of those companies that moves everyone around once every 6 months?
From there... we invade.
Invade where? Wherever we damn well please is where!
if you're gonna use 7 consecutive vowels in the title of your post, you'd better make sure you bring the goods. If you ask me, this post only quantifies a 4 vowel emphasis in your 'what.'
Please change the title to "Whaaaat Is Going On?"
text animation ever.
If your head does explode, can you make sure someone is there to capture it and put it on Utube. Now that would be cool!
... OP channels James Joyce for first board post.
"With everybody pointing to a four super conference system and saying its inevitable, don't you guys think there are a number of snags that could keep that from happening that would basically just turn college football into pure chaos? "
Yes, but then again, college football has always been more fun because it is so chaotic. If you're looking for sanity, the NFL provides a pretty good dose of that.