The Rest of College Football

[Dr. Strangelove]

This move by the ACC is serious and could adversely affect us if they magically land ND/Texas. I am now a bit concerned that future eastern options are shot.

Not advocating expansion for the sake of expansion, but if Texas and Notre Dame go anywhere but the B1G and they do so because the Pac12 or ACC picked up these mid-level teams, then we will be hurt.

[entropy]

Texas isn't worth the trouble

[lineygoblue]

I can't wait until the ladies volleyball teams from Maryland have to travel to Austin for a match ... or when the Tejas baseball team has to play a baseball game in April at Syracuse ...

[Jeff Buchanan]

Two things ......

What's not being talked about in the press is what is most likely to happen in the B1G.

ESPN(Disney) has a big hand in this. I could see them derailing any agreement where the BTN absorbes the LHN. That's a show stopper for B1G expansion that includes UT.

Not sure Delaney is in the driver's seat he fashions himself to be in or needs to be in to drive a deal he wants and needs.

[WM Wolverine]

We don't know yet if they add UConn & Rutgers too.

Plus hard to be geographical when most the top programs are in the south; Miami, FSU, Clemson in the south... Miami needs to be moved north to balance things up.

[entropy]

my top 25..
1. Oklahoma
2. Alabama
3. LSU
4. Boise State
5. Wisconsin
6. Texas A&M
7. Oklahoma State
8. Stanford
9. Florida
10. Virginia Tech
11. South Florida
12. South Carolina
13. Oregon
14. Arkansas
15. Florida State
16. West Virginia
17. Michigan
18. Texas
19. Baylor
20. USC
21. Nebraska
22. TCU
23. Michigan State
24. Iowa State
25. Houston

[entropy]

Texas has him put this crap out for a reason.


September 18, 2011

Options narrowing for Texas
Chip Brown
Orangebloods.com Columnist

Talk about it in Inside the 40 Acres
A source close to Texas repeated to me today the Pac-12 may now be the Longhorns' top option in terms of finding a new conference home.

The Pac-12 might be willing to accept a "modified" version of the Longhorn Network, the source said.

This development was first reported by Orangebloods.com on Saturday, when the Atlantic Coast Conference began moving in a different direction, according to a Big 12 administrator.


Getty Images

Sources have indicated that the Pac-12 is now UT's top option.
Multiple sources said Texas was banking on ESPN to make a marriage between the ACC and Texas that would allow the Longhorns to keep LHN. But that appears to have failed, the sources said.

Orangebloods.com was the first to report Saturday that the ACC was concerned about how LHN would fit into its revenue sharing; sees itself as an east coast conference and wasn't interested in extending into the southwest (no matter how much TV money adding Texas would mean); and had concerns about the academics of Texas Tech, whom UT would be under pressure politically to bring with them wherever UT went.

UT president Bill Powers and athletic director DeLoss Dodds told people inside the athletic department last week the ACC was Texas' best option if the Big 12 fell apart. Now, Texas is looking at the Pac-12.

Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott told a group of reporters that included Orangebloods.com at the Rose Bowl Saturday the Pac-12 would not be flexibile about third-tier rights revenue sharing. Scott maintains that schools have to share the money equally.

If Texas sought membership in the Pac-12, Scott said LHN "would be an issue." But Scott said his league has a great relationship with ESPN, which owns the rights to LHN and is also a TV partner in the Pac-12 (along with Fox).

The list of options for Texas appears to be down to the Pac-12 or trying - come hell or high water - to hold the Big 12 together.

But a Big 12 without Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas A&M does not excite the TV partners of the Big 12, industry sources have said. In other words, there's no way the Big 12 money stays the same if it's Texas, BYU, Louisville and some combination of Cincinnati, Houston and TCU along with the remaining members of the Big 12.

Also, schools like Missouri and Kansas would have to be convinced to stay in the Big 12 when they have other options, sources said.

DeLoss Dodds has told people who matter that Texas does not want to go independent and does not want to go to the Big Ten. Dodds has said the growth in the United States is south, and the Big Ten is not in the south.

It's not a done deal, but it's looking more and more like the Pac-12 with a modified version of the Longhorn Network, probably renamed as something like the Pac-12 Texas Network.

Stay tuned.

[entropy]

ACC begins seismic shift, SEC and Big Ten will finish it

PUBLISHED 2 hours and 19 minutes ago

LAST UPDATED 21 minutes and 19 seconds ago

The ACC officially pulled out a cap gun Sunday, preening and posturing its proactive shot in college football expansion for all to see.

Careful fellas, don’t shoot your eye out. The big guns are up next.

Syracuse is headed to the ACC. (AP Photo)
While ACC commissioner John Swofford announced the ho-hum additions of Pittsburgh and Syracuse, the commissioners of the Big Three BCS conferences – the SEC, Pac-12 and Big Ten – are primed to drastically change college sports as soon as this week.

The ACC accomplished two things with yet another surprising raid of the Big East: It assured itself – and not the Big East -- of a spot in the superconference era. And it was the first shot in a messy, get-yours process that could include the ACC itself getting cannibalized before it’s all over.

“In all my years of college athletics administration,” Swofford said, “I’ve never seen this level of uncertainty and instability.”

And here’s the scary part: Mike Slive, the SEC commissioner, and Jim Delany, the Big Ten commissioner, have been eerily quiet during the process.

While Texas desperately tries to prove it’s not the reason for the madness; while Oklahoma defiantly tries to show it’s not Texas’ lapdog; while the Pac-12 tries to convince us that expansion is about academic fit and not television money; the SEC and Big Ten are in the process of getting down and dirty.

The gloves are off in expansion.

Consider this: The SEC’s gentleman’s agreement of not adding teams to states where current SEC teams reside is likely no longer. And the ACC’s new $20 million exit fee? Chump change. If the SEC wants an ACC team (Virginia Tech, Maryland, Florida State), the SEC could even help pay the exit fee.

Said one high-ranking SEC official: “Every option is on the table now.”

So are the three critical chips left in conference expansion. Two of those schools – Big 12 heavyweights Texas and Oklahoma – have board of regent meetings Monday, where it is expected that their respective boards will approve the search for a new conference.

The third member of that elite free agent club is longtime independent Notre Dame. Irish athletic director Jack Swarbrick has repeatedly said the university values its independent status, and that only dramatic change in the college landscape could force the Irish to join a conference.

That change began taking shape early last week, when the ACC began serious talks with Syracuse and Pitt. The loss of those two Big East stalwarts could mean the end of the Big East – and the end of Notre Dame’s cozy relationship with the Big East that allows it to park its Olympic sports in the conference without a football membership.

If Notre Dame has no conference for its non-revenue producing sports, that could be the seismic shift that pushes the Irish toward the Big Ten. The question with Notre Dame – and with Texas – revolves around unique television deals specific to each university.

Swofford said Sunday that the ACC’s equal revenue sharing deal is “sacred” and that the “fundamental principle is very important to us. I don’t see that changing.”

That statement leaves the ACC in line with the SEC, Big Ten and Pac-12 in their firm commitment to equal revenue distribution deals. It also leaves the four major BCS conferences (assuming the Big 12 and Big East are no longer serious players) in a game of chicken with the two most powerful brands in college football.

Notre Dame’s television deal with NBC and Texas’ Longhorn Network deal with ESPN leave both in a position of strength – but also in a position of weakness. If none of the four BCS leagues agree to take either school without equal revenue distribution, Texas and Notre Dame would be forced to find homes for their Olympic sports in non-BCS conferences — something neither prefers to do.

But here’s their trump card: One or more of the four BCS leagues will eventually break down because the draw of having Texas and/or Notre Dame is too monetarily attractive for television rights deals.

Either way, the dawn of superconferences is upon us. It’s just a matter of where the pieces fit.

And what moves the big guns make.

“We’re very comfortable where we’ve landed for now,” Swofford said, “as long as the landscape is what it is.”

[entropy]

Report: Rutgers in contact with ACC and Big Ten

Posted on: September 18, 2011 6:03 pm
Edited on: September 18, 2011 6:03 pm
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Posted by Tom Fornelli

With the monumental shift of the college football landscape this weekend thanks to Pitt and Syracuse bolting the Big East for the ACC, it leaves a lot of Big East schools scrambling to find a new home while the conference seemingly collapses around them. One of those schools happens to be Rutgers, who had been reported to be one of two other Big East teams, UConn being the other, that may also join Pitt and Syracuse in a new 16-school ACC.

Which could still happen, as a report in The Star-Ledger says that Rutgers is talking to the ACC. Of course, it also says that the ACC isn't the only conference that Rutgers has been talking to, and that the Big Ten is in play as well.
Rutgers has been involved in talks with the ACC about possible membership over the past two days and its lines of communications with the Big Ten have remained opened and "are active," according to a highly-placed college official.

"Rutgers has been in contact with both conferences," the person said.
The news that Rutgers is talking to the Big Ten shouldn't come as a huge surprise. Rutgers was mentioned as a possible target for Big Ten expansion last year before things cooled down and the Big Ten stood pat after adding Nebraska. When the Big Ten was still considering expansion it was looking east, but two of the conference's supposed targets were Pitt and Syracuse.

Two options no longer on the table.

While the Big Ten might be content to stay at 12 teams, it is somewhat hard to believe that Jim Delany would sit still while the SEC, Pac-12 and ACC all tried to expand to 16 schools apiece. The question is, where would the Big Ten go now? Rutgers seems to fit what the Big Ten is looking for both academically and market wise, as the conference believes adding the New York/New Jersey market for the Big Ten Network could increase revenue.

How much, exactly, I can't be sure. Yes, Rutgers is in a wonderful media market, but I'm not sure how much interest that market truly has in Rutgers. Either way, thanks to that market, Rutgers seems to find itself in a nice position at the moment

[WM Wolverine]

Pac 12 most willing to compromise on the LHN (it'll be a regional Pac, Texas Network), most willing to take the backage of Texas Tech & Oklahoma State. It looks like they'll land Texas who are probably the best fit and where I expected them to land.

Big Ten was unwilling to take the Tech problem.

[entropy]

Here are the fake Dan Beebe's tweets in the last day. There is some great stuff in here:

In reply to:


dangit.
6 minutes ago

testing, seeing if @PleaseHireDanBeebe is short enough for Twitter.
6 minutes ago

If the unthinkable happens....I won't be able to afford to tweet to #BeebeNation anymore. DeLoss pays for my BlackBerry.
13 minutes ago

WHICH THEY WONT RT @kbohls: I'm told Pac-12 prez's did not meet today, won't convene as a group until Texas, TT, OU, OSU ask to be invited.
49 minutes ago

Won't someone think of the children?! WON'T SOMEONE PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN?!?!?! #BU #ISU #KU #KSU #MU
1 hour ago

Hello?
2 hours ago

Everything is fine. Everything is OK. I'm in a happy place. I'm in a happy place.
3 hours ago

Direct Message to Jim Delany: You were serious when you said you were happy at 12. Right? RIGHT?
4 hours ago

Direct Message to Larry Scott: I hate you with the fire of a thousand suns.
4 hours ago

Let's have a real good time, let's have a real good time, let's have a real good time, let's have a real good time! #PitBeebe
4 hours ago

I am delighted to hear that Congress will get involved in conference realignment. Time to breathe some sense into this madcap situation!
17 hours ago

I know the ACC Revolution concerns ISU, because Jamie Pollard sent me a link to it and said "that could've been us. :-(" Pretty scary stuff.
17 hours ago

Thank god my Cyclones got out of UConn last night before the ACC revolution struck. They'd probably all be hostages today.
17 hours ago

Direct Message to John Swofford: You'd tell me if you were announcing Texas or Missouri or Kansas at this thing too... right?
20 hours ago

Direct Message to DeLoss Dodds: Am I allowed to tweet #BOOMER #SOONER right now?
20 hours ago

Direct Message to Sheahon Zenger: I don't appreciate it when athletics directors contact me with aliases. Please, give me your real name.
22 hours ago

Direct Message to Referees: Yes, I know I said to use the Crisco-covered football for Nebraska, but obviously not when they kickoff.
17 Sep

Direct Message to Referees: Apparently there's been some confusion about what I wanted you to accomplish at Washington-Nebraska.
17 Sep

[entropy]

What the big12 north should try to pull off..


AF, BSU, Colorado St, Lobos, TCU, SDS, UNLV, Wyoming, BYU, KSU, KU, Missouri, Baylor, Houston

That is what I'd be pushing for if I was KSU and KU right now. That would be a better conference than the BE is right now.

[Dr. Strangelove]

If we don't get Texas or ND and the SEC, ACC,and Pac12 all expand to 16, we are not going to look like much of a winner in all this.

[Mike]

Anyone else watch the OU-FSU game? I'm pretty sure some of our players would be killed in action if we faced them. Good grief, that was a completely different level of play from what we've seen of Big Ten teams this year. Like scary difference.

[whodean]

Alabama v Oklahoma will be a helluva hard hitting Championship game.