BIG 10 Cooled on Expansion

[EdgeCrusher]

Per Yahoo news, and CBS sports, Cal, Stanford, Oregon, Washington not going to be added and Big10 will go into media rights negotiation as is to not dilute the payout to current schools and UCLA/USC.

College football realignment: Big Ten decides on adding new schools - College Football HQ

College Football HQ

www.si.com

GBR

 

[wcbsas]

This puts the remaining PAC12 teams into a pickle. Negotiate their TV contracts with existing membership, seek expansion of their conference or seek membership elsewhere.

This may push a timeline onto them that forces them into an irrevocable position.

 

[TFrazier]

This puts the remaining PAC12 teams into a pickle. Negotiate their TV contracts with existing membership, seek expansion of their conference or seek membership elsewhere.

This may push a timeline onto them that forces them into an irrevocable position.

Many of the schools in the Pac12 would not want to sign away their grant of rights to the conference with the hopes of moving to a new conference. I imagine they are hoping for a short term tv contract with the hopes that the schools could bolt in a few years.

 

[wcbsas]

B12 “where-fore-art-thou”

 

[weaver75]

Many of the schools in the Pac12 would not want to sign away their grant of rights to the conference with the hopes of moving to a new conference. I imagine they are hoping for a short term tv contract with the hopes that the schools could bolt in a few years.

Too many schools for a complete PAC- Big 12 merger? Without B1G expansion I could see the Big 12 asking OR, Washington, Stanford and one or two others to join, while the PAC asks SD State, KU, OSU, KSU to join. The Iowa States and Washington States have a lot at stake if it breaks that way. And OR, Wash and Stanford have to keep B1G available if they can. A pickle for sure.

 

[BleedinHuskerRed]

Per Yahoo news, and CBS sports, Cal, Stanford, Oregon, Washington not going to be added and Big10 will go into media rights negotiation as is to not dilute the payout to current schools and UCLA/USC.

College football realignment: Big Ten decides on adding new schools - College Football HQ

College Football HQ

www.si.com

GBR

Notre Dame must have decided to stay independent. Pride goeth before a fall…

 

[EdgeCrusher]

Notre Dame must have decided to stay independent. Pride goeth before a fall…

Perhaps, my gut thinks that as Notre Dame has not said "no" to the BIG10, AND the Tv contract has not been finalized, there is still a decent chance of them joining before the Tv contract is finalized. An even # of schools makes sense, hasn't stopped the BIG10 before. TBD, obviously.

GBR

 

[wcbsas]

Many of the schools in the Pac12 would not want to sign away their grant of rights to the conference with the hopes of moving to a new conference. I imagine they are hoping for a short term tv contract with the hopes that the schools could bolt in a few years.

A short term contract will be for a lot less $$$ than they might even be getting now.

Not sure what I’d do in their situation (PAC12 leadership). Probably try and be aggressive and get BYU, TCU, Houston, Kansas, OK-State and TTech from the B12.

If I was Oregon I’d have the B12 on speed dial.

 

[EastOfEden]

I'd go back to the BIG on my knees

 

[Plague of Crickets]

Perhaps, my gut thinks that as Notre Dame has not said "no" to the BIG10, AND the Tv contract has not been finalized, there is still a decent chance of them joining before the Tv contract is finalized. An even # of schools makes sense, hasn't stopped the BIG10 before. TBD, obviously.

GBR

Yeah, I think if Notre Dame had made the decision to stay independent they would have let their stakeholders know. The fact that we haven't heard a word from them yet makes me also think that they haven't made a decision. Maybe this is a move by the B1G to put pressure on Notre Dame (i.e., we're moving ahead with our TV contract, so you're on the clock).

 

[DuckTownHusker]

I think it's all smoke and mirrors.

NBC Sees Big Ten Being ‘NFL of College Conferences’

Plan to air prime-time Big Ten and 'Sunday Night Football' games.

frontofficesports.com

NBC is pitching the Big Ten the idea of doing a big weekend blowout of a B1G Triple Header Saturday, followed by Sunday Night Football (NFL).

If they were really slick, they'd work out some cool double features like a Minnesota/Wisconsin weekend where you watch Gophers/Badgers as the Saturday Prime Time game, followed by the other Minnesota/Wisconsin game between the Vikings and Packers on Sunday Night.

Anyway. bear in mind this is the same NBC who basically owns the Notre Dame TV deal.

I smell smoke. If NBC shells out +$1B for this package, I think you might see Notre Dame start getting in the mix. Maybe the Irish don't join immediately, but if you're NBC and you own the rights to ND and B1G, how do you not start pushing for more Irish-vs-B1G games?

Maybe it doesn't happen this offseason, but there's a countdown clock on the Irish, and by extension, I think Oregon, Washington and Stanford.

 

[dwc13]

Just wait for the announcement that Nike has acquired the B1G Ten in a transaction valued at $35B. Per the conference's amended articles & bylaws, Phil Knight is given 17 votes (whereas each member institution retains 1 vote) and only a majority voice vote is needed to approve adding new members.

Immediately after the transaction closes, Knight single-handedly votes to admit Oregon as the B1G Ten's newest member. The ink isn't even dry on the SEC (the regulatory agency, not the athletic conference) filings when Knight spearheads the effort to spin off deadweight so the remaining members will receive a bigger slice of the media rights money. In his sights: Maryland, Northwestern and Wisconsin, whose athletic department is coincidentally bankrolled by Nike competitor Under Armour (founded by Terp alum Kevin Plank), as well as Indiana, Nebraska and Rutgers, whose athletic programs have contracts with Adidas. Hmmm... Knight contacts Eddie Lampert, who agrees to take those athletic programs as part of the ongoing saga of Sears/K-mart in a last ditch attempt to bolster the prospects of Transformco.

Okay, just having a little fun here. There are so many moving parts to conference expansion it's best to sit back and appreciate overall Nebraska is in a very enviable position vis-a-vis many other P5 athletic programs. I wouldn't want to be the AD at, say, Washington State, Boston College or Kansas State. In the grand scheme of things, Trev Alberts has it pretty good.

 

[NU_Alum]

Notre Dame must have decided to stay independent. Pride goeth before a fall…

Perhaps, but it's still early. The B1G might have heard back and doesn't like ND's latest offer. Going into tv negotiations and setting schedules is going to put pressure on ND/NBC.

I think it's all on NBC right now. Can they get to the $75M for ND? If not, I think ND moves. The B1G could easily have a clause in the contract that if ND comes in, they get to renegotiate the tv deal. Or that the price for the current contract increases dramatically.

 

[cthusker]

The BIG can and will survive just fine without ND imo. It has for a long time already so there's no reason to approach ND on bended knee. At some point in time ND is going to have a very difficult time putting together a good enough schedule that will get them into the college playoffs. With conferences growing like the BIG it's going to get increasing difficult for ND to schedule quality opponents.

Bottom line ND would be an excellent addition to the BIG but not at any price. ND must become just another team in the BIG and not attempting to run the conference. There is a lot more long term safety and stability being in a good conference than going it alone imo.

 

[huskrthill]

I wonder if the Big 10 is immediately having regrets about USC and UCLA? They might have been using those programs as bargaining chips for more, but then ended up getting outplayed.