My prediction. Wazzou will be taking it up the wazzou.
USC, UCLA to join the Big Ten in 2024
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Mr. Tibbs
- southeast DuPage
reports on twitter that “several” schools have inquired as to joining now that USC & UCLA are in . one has to think this will get leaked out soon
all discussion on divisions and scheduling can be put on hold for awhile .
one has to think there are 2-4 schools out there that would be pretty much basically automatic should they ask to get in . so it should not be a long process
all discussion on divisions and scheduling can be put on hold for awhile .
one has to think there are 2-4 schools out there that would be pretty much basically automatic should they ask to get in . so it should not be a long process
sacraig
- The desert
Worked out for Texas/Texas A&M, OU/OSU. Iowa/ISU, Utah/USU, Florida/FSU, Georgia/GT, UCLA/Cal, etc.
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sacraig
- The desert
I think Arizona's academics are better than you imply, especially in space sciences. Very highly ranked in overall research spending, too.
AZ is an AAU school and adding either of them would put BTN on basic cable in the Phoenix market.
what is basic cable? Is that still a thing?
Buckle up it's only gonna get worse!
Joel Goodson
- respect my decision™
If the BIG is going to invite one AZ school, I'll be pretty surprised if it's not Arizona. That said, I think taking an AZ school is a Plan B or C option.
Dan Wolken sums it up . . .
“It was always going to be the proxy war between ESPN and FOX and the soulless college presidents and administrators who have been sucking on their teat for the last decade, unable to do anything remotely visionary with their sport besides convince television executives to shovel more money at them every decade.
And now here we are, at the precipice of a realignment that will not merely be about rearranging pieces on the chess board. This, finally, is the Big One: The ultimate abandonment of tradition, of rivalry, of geographic sanity and of the unique character that distinguished one conference from another.
In the end, we’ll still have the Big Ten and the SEC standing atop college sports, but they will no longer be college athletic conferences in the same way we’ve known them for a century. Now, with USC and UCLA abandoning their West Coast roots for the riches of a league that was founded in 1896 by a group of college presidents in the Midwest trying to establish some control over college athletics, they are headed for a future as generic, soulless corporate entities that exist purely for profit and excess. The future of the SEC vs. Big Ten will look no different than Coke vs. Pepsi, FedEx vs. UPS and Apple vs. IBM.
And college sports is never going to be the same.”
Lol. Non-sports package cable/streaming services might be better wording. Most of the views would probably come from current Big Ten alumni in the area, but total # of subscribers is big for ad revenue.
sacraig
- The desert
He pretends this hasn't been all about money for decades already. It's not the conferences that should be called out for not innovating; it's the NCAA. The NCAA put profit over a viable management/government/enforcement structure years ago and this is just the end result of that process.
As to Arizona, Tucson is a closer drive from Phoenix than Champaign from Chicago. Also Tucson metro area has a population of approx 1 million itself.
As you've been pumping up Cal and its ability to bring in the Bay area, I think it's interesting that per this article Cal's football team ranked last in the conference in revenue generation in the 2018-2019 season. Arizona football ranked 8th and brought in $10 mil more than Cal, despite a worse record. Not bad given that Arizona's real draw athletically is its basketball program. Stanford was 6th, generating $4 million more than Arizona (with 4 more wins). Oregon was 2nd, pulling in $28 million more than Stanford (with the same record). Washington was 1st.
Miller: 2018-19 Pac-12 Football Revenue Analysis
The Conference of Champions has some work to do to catch up with the Big Boys of college football.
sportspac12.com
(Note, I went with a pre-pandemic article as I thought that was the fairest representation. Pandemic numbers paint a much bleaker picture for Cal)
Per this article Arizona football average 5 year attendance was higher than both Cal and Stanford:
Ranking the Pac-12 teams by 5-year attendance
The Pac-12 ranks for attendance over the past five years are eye-opening
www.google.com
(USC and UCLA came in #2 and #3. #1 and #4 were Washington and Oregon).
And again, keep in mind, Arizona's far more popular in basketball than it is in football. So for any streaming deal they add value there. I don't think that's true of Stanford or Cal.
I agree Stanford and Cal make a lot of sense academically. But Washington, Oregon and Arizona are all also AAU members. And those schools make more sense in a lot of ways. They're big flagship public schools and they outperform the bay area schools (quite significantly in the case of Washington and Oregon) in revenue generation and ticket sales.
Funny, and yes this is a fast changing dynamic.
Nevertheless, cable still is a thing and IPTV packages are still a thing and growing. I also imagine that those who have cable are probably in the upper levels of buying power. If you have lots of disposable income, you just go with the simplicity of adding cable.
I wonder if the next most important target won't be on the east coast. Maryland and Rutgers don't have much cachet. PSU to some extent. Sounds like the buyouts for ACC are pretty high but perhaps something can be worked out if the numbers are big enough.
Miami and Syracuse would be the two I'd like to see.
Miami and Syracuse would be the two I'd like to see.
I would throw Cal in there today as well...UCLA just left there fellow school to fend for themselves
Plus Maryland left the ACC despite that same buyout ($52 million, though they reached a settlement to pay just $31.4 million instead). If being in the Big 10 means $10-30 million more than being in the ACC on a yearly basis it makes sense to pay the penalty, even though it is a large number. You'll come out ahead before that GOR even expires.
there not, But A & M was different because Texas wasn't getting left out of anything. But politics play a part when they can, VA Tech to the ACC was mostly Virginia politics. Politics plays a part when they have leverage, I think at this point any leverage the PAC 12 and California politics had is gone, it will be an every school for themselves mentality at this point.
Joel Goodson
- respect my decision™
Right. Ain't no partners in musical chairs.
Maryland left before Grant of rights, there was a significant penalty, but ACC kicked it up a notch after MD left. In theory all the ACC TV rights are owned by the ACC until 2036, that is a long time to wait to make any money off of an ACC team. They may be able to be pried away a couple years early from what I have read, but sounds like short term it is too expensive for anyone but maybe ND who hasn't assigned Football rights to the ACC
mattcoldagelli
- The Transfer Portal
Exactly.
Just like music, it seems that "real college athletics" = whatever it was when you were 21. I guess the average message boarder gets a pass, but I would expect people professionally covering college sports to realize it was also about money then.
illini80
- Forgottonia
Sorry, but I just see Conference USA v2.0. A consortium of schools that come and go whenever they can sniff a better deal for themselves. If you want to package a TV deal, that’s fine. This is like the Fed chasing inflation when they have no real idea what they are doing. (ie. We don’t know if this will work, but we can always change our mind next month.) I complained when we went to 14 that this would be the result if money was all we were chasing. Turns out I was right.
Agreed. The NCAA as an organization left its’ head stuck in the sand for too long. But we have to remember what the NCAA is and always has been . . . a member-run organization.
Long term I can’t see any scenario in which college athletics remain affiliated with universities with amount of money that is now flowing around in full view. How long until the state legislatures or university presidents say “Stop! This has nothing to do with our academic mission” and cut athletics? The sports will wither and die without that affiliation . . .
This all assumes that 1. the GOR holds up in court and 2. some kind of settlement can't be reached. I don't think either is a lock.
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