The Rest of College Football

[Dr. Strangelove]

Twitter's exploding right now with a rumor that Clemson's agreed "in principle" to move to the Big12

Take it with a huge grain of salt

[WM Wolverine]

One domino down (if true), how many more fall?

[entropy]

I still think it we will end up with 5 super conferences, with the 5th being an ACC/BE merger of the best of the rest.

[WM Wolverine]

We'll have to wait to see just how much the ACC loses; FSU and Clemson are 2 of their top 3 football programs. Miami is likely facing major sanctions, their #4 program is VT...

After those you just have a lot of basketball schools that are about on par at football with the Big East.

[WM Wolverine]

Sounds like the Big XII is unsure about adding FSU & Clemson. Texas against it of course, they want their own little playground all to themselves. They really need to join ND in independence.

[Wild Hoss]

Didn't notice it above but I find it interesting the Big XII and SEC are partnering for their bowl game, it gives them basically what the B10 and Pac 12 have except without all the tradition.

This is nothing more than a slightly upgraded version of the Cotton Bowl, as one or both league champs will be in the playoff every season.

[Wild Hoss]

Sounds like the Big XII is unsure about adding FSU & Clemson. Texas against it of course, they want their own little playground all to themselves. They really need to join ND in independence.

They should be. Neither program is a prominent one, and neither would be a true league member except on paper, ala West Virginia. Are they going to be playing Big 12 conference games in Talahassee, FL between West Virgina and Florida State? The notion is absurd.

The Big 12 is flailing wildy in an attempt remain relevant as the Big Ten's new ABC contract in 2016 looms, and in conjunction with the BTN and new deal with the PAC-12, leaves them in the dust. They are getting outflanked by larger, more populous conferences on all sides, who have poached their members. The only angles they have left are to drop tou before the SEC and try to string together laughable plans like this.

[Tony G]

The Big 12 is flailing wildy in an attempt remain relevant as the Big Ten's new ABC contract in 2016 looms, and in conjunction with the BTN and new deal with the PAC-12, leaves them in the dust.

I think you seriously overestimate the B1G's market reputation. The Rose Bowl is hardly the jewel it once was either.

[Hannibal]

The Rose Bowl still has a lot of sentimental value. More than people probably give it credit for. It's still a huge draw as long as it's not a rematch of the previous year and both teams are Top 15+

[Tony G]

It loses a lot when one of the conferences has a team in the NC game and the understudy shows up.

[whodean]

Tony, I can't find it now but there was a study done last year about College rankings in terms of number and influence of alumni (basically what TV networks are looking at when negotiating deals with the conferences)...the Big10 had something like 4 of the top 10.

Anyone remember the specifics? It was posted here last year.

[Tony G]

The B10 may have a better alumni footprint but the really big cheese is a conference's ability to draw in the non-conference viewer. U-M has roughly 500K alumni (living). That's nice but not enough to hold great sway

[Tony G]

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2012/01/college_football_average_bowl.html

As usual, the SEC produced the highest average bowl rating this season, followed in order by the Pac-12, Big Ten, Big 12, ACC and Big East. After West Virginia's rating from the Orange Bowl with a built-in BCS audience, the Big East's next highest-rated bowl -- Louisville-N.C. State at the Belk Bowl -- ranked 18th.

[hack]

1 season is not a sample large enough that one would want to draw any conclusions.

[whodean]

The B1G was in 3 of the 4 most watched bowls outside of the National Championship (which got huge ratings), the conference average was dragged down by the bottom of the league like Penn State in the ticket bowl and Purdue in the Little Sleazers.