• You do not need to register if you are not going to pay the yearly fee to post. If you register please click here or log in go to "settings" then "my account" then "User Upgrades" and you can renew.

HuskerMax readers can save 50% on  Omaha Steaks .

From the home page...Alliance announcement today (likely)!

What happens when one of these three conferences expands taking a B12 team or gasp a team from one of the other alliance’s conference? Is this a signal that the three have agreed not to raid each other?

I support the idea of an alliance as a unified voting block to combat the SEC but what if the SEC grabs Florida State or Clemson?

If I’m Sankey (SEC commissioner) I would start making minor subtle moves that would test the alliance. Get Alabama to offer a home and away with tOSU or Notre Dame? Block alliance teams from having coaches participate in SEC sponsored football camps. All sorts to things that can test the fragility of this new alliance.
 

This is obviously an attempt to block the SEC (and ESPN) power grab. It's a way for the Alliance conferences to be able to control the influence of the SEC on matters involving football. The biggest now is the football playoff. The SEC was poised to ensure that four or five of their teams would make it into the playoffs each year. With the Alliance, they will be able to control the participants in the playoff, and make sure that strength of schedule (in particular strength of non-conference schedule) will play into the selection. They also may require a cap on number of participants from each conference (perhaps a cap of three from any conference).
 



Warzone said:
I hate this. Let us schedule our non-con games. IMO it is time to leave the B1G.
Click to expand...
Ignoring the money factor … go to where? The other major conferences are part of this alliance … and if you’re not part of this group the youre on the outside looking in.

I suspect the alliance is going to suggest/recommend cross scheduling with each other … we already try and schedule one game a year with a P5 opponent … we‘ve played Oregon, USC, Washington, Wake Forest, Miami FL … what’s it going to hurt to play Stanford instead of Tennessee or look to schedule UNC, Boston College or Cal?
 




weaver75 said:
SEC teams may then have all four non-conference games outside of p5 schools. If so, most will start the season 4-0 (or 3-0 since they save an easy non-conference game for late), while most of the other 3 conferences will have most everyone with at least one loss. Not sure what that means.
Click to expand...
Well, the good thing is that if they go to the 12-team playoff model where all conference champs get in, it won't matter if a team has a couple non-conference losses. Then the strength of schedule would benefit teams who beef up their non-con schedule.
 
DuckTownHusker said:
"An agreement where each football team in the three conferences would play one opponent from each of the other two leagues on an annual basis."

So forget about ever playing Oklahoma, Missouri, or Texas again (any SEC team, really) outside of a bowl game?

They mention the B1G would drop to 8 conference games (allowing us 4 non-cons), but I can't see our leadership wanting to play, say a schedule of Georgia Tech, Washington and THEN add Oklahoma along with some cupcake like Buffalo.

Unless we get a year with two bottom feeders (Vanderbilt + Cal?) it's going to be hard for them to willingly pick up OU or even Texas anymore.
Click to expand...
You can expect the Big Ten to negotiate a Clemson, Oregon series for us every year and save those Wake Forests and Oregon State's for Ohio State.
 
HuskerJAG said:
This is obviously an attempt to block the SEC (and ESPN) power grab. It's a way for the Alliance conferences to be able to control the influence of the SEC on matters involving football. The biggest now is the football playoff. The SEC was poised to ensure that four or five of their teams would make it into the playoffs each year. With the Alliance, they will be able to control the participants in the playoff, and make sure that strength of schedule (in particular strength of non-conference schedule) will play into the selection. They also may require a cap on number of participants from each conference (perhaps a cap of three from any conference).
Click to expand...

Some talking heads this morning were saying it was a play to make the current playoff contract play out, rather than letting ESPN negotiate against itself for the expanded playoff. More money to be had by letting Fox and others have a crack at it. They really made it sounds as if the SEC was being controlled by Disney/ESPN.
 
Last edited:
Be interesting to see what the announcement is. But if it is a schedule alliance as well, and NU gets to play a Pac 12 and ACC team every year I see that as a win. Tired of watching crap games like Fordham and Buffalo.
 



Recall new ACC commissioner Jim Phillips was AD at Northwestern until earlier this year, so it's not surprising he has a very good working relationship with B1G members. This alliance is a temporary measure designed to put the breaks on the ESPN / SEC CFP expansion proposal that had already been floated around even while they were secretly plotting with Texas & OU. This buys the 3 conferences time to figure out how to proceed.

The CFP needs to go out to competitive bid so that multiple networks will have a piece of the (expanded) pie.
 
I was listening to sports talk radio show here in Cheeseland and they were talking about college football and the transition it will take over the next few years. One analyst suggested that the B1G will rather than try and go head-to-head athletically with the SEC will go the “academic” route … it will shed some of its lesser academic institutions and seek out Duke, Cal, Virginia, Stanford possibly Vanderbilt and create an athletic conference born out of the elite academic institutions in America.

Certainly there is tone of arrogance, as the pickle-headed pinhead thinks Wisconsin belongs in the same sentence as some of those institutions but the conversation really had a rational edge to it … why fight the big bad bully head-to-head … you are bound to lose more than you win … but if you fight with your strengths (academics is certainly one of them) you might win more than you lose.

My biggest concern is that if they had to “shed” some of the lesser academic institutions to add some of these others then who do you think is at the top of that list?

It was an interesting conversation. Get past the emotion it isn’t one that is absurd.
 
Last edited:

You must log in or register to reply here.

GET TICKETS


Get 50% off on Omaha Steaks

Back
Top