College Sports / Conference Realignment
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If JW is spearheading or at least taking a prominent role in the movement that results in cleaning up and applying rules to govern the entirety of the NCAA/Schools/Student Athletes, how do we keep him here for more than the next few years? Dude is going to be on EVERYONE's top 5 list for every conference's Commissioner opening. Not to mention other opportunities that may be thrown his way, whether it's sport or admin related. I hope he's got a handpicked understudy/successor that he's grooming to replace him when the time comes, lol.
Joel Goodson
- how was I to know, she was with the Russians too?
give him as many honorary degrees as he desires?
We don't do that around here.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
It's a fair question, but you can be a serious power broker as an individual school's AD. Gene Smith and Gary Barta are two recent Big Ten AD's with major influence in the national picture.
Obviously a difficult moment to be trying to get something through Congress even if this in theory has no real partisan stakes to it.
If I were a Senator I would say either reverse the destruction of the conference system or have fun with the free market. I doubt that's how it will go, but who knows. There are a lot of Senators with constituencies that want to certify the Big Two's seizure of the sport in law, but also a lot whose constituencies will be desperate to prevent that. The four influential Democrats representing Oregon and Washington (representing both the big winners and the big victims in all this) are probably a group to watch.
Two comments:
1. That's our AD. Incredible.
2. With all the issues Congress needs to address, spending time on college football should be way down the list or not on it at all.
Just my two cents.
MoCoMdIllini
- Montgomery County, Maryland
That's why Congress loves to have hearings about stuff like this. (Especially baseball.)
Man are we SOOO lucky and really blessed to have Josh in charge of our sports department. I hope he stays here until he is 80 years old.
Impressive article:
www.thechampaignroom.com
Impressive article:
Illinois athletic director Josh Whitman testifies on Capitol Hill
The Illini’s leader talked about the future of college sports.
www.thechampaignroom.com
ptgrd23
- orange county CA
I think B10 would love FSU footprint in Florida TV market. Clemson SC TV market is smaller but they do sell out 81,500 seat stadium every game and have NCAA championships. However if B10 is going for southern USA TV market they might be more interested in North Carolina and Virgina along with Florida State.
The B10 already has national footprint with east coast, midwest and west. The SEC is still south only. Unless adding schools will add to per school TV payout no reason to add more schools to B10. If ACC breaks apart I would be happy to let them all join the SEC.
What could be exciting would be if a school were to leave B10 to go to SEC or vice versa. I suspect if Texas or Texas A&M had applied to B10 they would have been accepted. I doubt B10 had any interest in Oklahoma. B10 already passed on Missouri who was logical add from geographic state school perspective but did not bring much from TV market #24 St Louis #33 Kansas City.
The B10 already has national footprint with east coast, midwest and west. The SEC is still south only. Unless adding schools will add to per school TV payout no reason to add more schools to B10. If ACC breaks apart I would be happy to let them all join the SEC.
What could be exciting would be if a school were to leave B10 to go to SEC or vice versa. I suspect if Texas or Texas A&M had applied to B10 they would have been accepted. I doubt B10 had any interest in Oklahoma. B10 already passed on Missouri who was logical add from geographic state school perspective but did not bring much from TV market #24 St Louis #33 Kansas City.
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Why wouldn't they? Of course they would prefer ND. But if they can't get ND, why not Virginia?
If your goals is to compete against the B1G for college sports dominance, you want to further your reach to whatever major population centers you can and beat out competitors from other conferences there. The theory behind saying FSU and Clemson would not be the top prizes (and I'm not sure I agree with, but that's another thing entirely) is because you already have brands in those areas (SC and Florida) and rather than cannibalize the market you'd rather just increase your market share with the brands you already have. So what does UVA give you? The Virginia and DC markets. You can compete with the B1G (Maryland) for the DC market.
I'd like to agree with you, but if congress doesn't address this, the result will be a slew of court cases. College athletics departments are finally trying to be proactive. If the NCAA hadn't been so arrogant years ago and allowed for some benefits to players (like a plane ticket home to mom's funeral and some basic expense money), the original player law suit may never have been filed.
we disagree here
its ALL ABOUT MONEY and nothing else
there is no friggin way Virginia adds anything close to $75 million a year in in gross revenue
besides, going forward its all about streaming revenue and not TV markets. UVa is a great school, but not a brand in football. Think Rutgers and UMd.
That ship has sailed for those schools out there
You want a comp to UVa? Think U of I from 2008-2021
besides, the atlantic seaboard cities are lousy college tv markets anyway.
You're thinking too narrowly. I'm not talking about tv markets. I'm talking about interest writ large. The theory is that if FSU and Clemson are stuck in the ACC those programs will wither on the vine and die, and Florida and SC will reap the benefits anyway. The same way St. Louis used to have 2 MLB teams, but couldn't support them both, and the Cardinals won out.
The SEC envisions itself the future NFL of college football. When the NFL expands it does so because it wants a team in a certain place. The value of the team is not in its pre-existing brand. It's value is in being an NFL team. The SEC vision is that the UVA brand would become more valuable by dint of its being an SEC team.
Another thing to consider is that this is basically open competition between SEC and Big Ten. The huge disadvantage the SEC has is it is much more regional than the coast-to-coast Big Ten. Moving further Northeast towards DC would be a way to both extend the SEC's relevance and challenge the Big Ten for local interest in a high population area.
I think that the AAU affiliation would make Virginia and North Carolina want to move more towards the Big Ten (which I would prefer over Clemson and FSU). Virginia and NC would be a natural bridge to connecting the eastern portion of the Big Ten to the central region.
However a home run in my view would be Virginia, North Carolina, Notre Dame and FSU (if FSU continues to improve their academics and complete AAU qualifications). I think the major thing that separates the Big Ten from the SEC is the overall academics of the institutions. All but Nebraska are AAU (and they were when they were admitted in to the conference).
However a home run in my view would be Virginia, North Carolina, Notre Dame and FSU (if FSU continues to improve their academics and complete AAU qualifications). I think the major thing that separates the Big Ten from the SEC is the overall academics of the institutions. All but Nebraska are AAU (and they were when they were admitted in to the conference).
Shief
- Champaign Area
I am receptive to potentially adding ND, FSU, UNC, and UVA. That would put the B1G at 22x teams - for being almost all AAU schools, we cannot count lol - but I feel like B1G may as well got to 24x. So, who would B1G target? I would like to see a school in Texas (A&M if they want to get away from UT? TCU or SMU?) to help with recruiting and then either Stanford, Colorado, Kansas, Georgia Tech, or Miami, not in any order.
For the same reason the SEC may be reluctant to add FSU or Clemson, I could see the B1G being reluctant to add UVA. Why add UVA, when you can just try and heavily market Maryland as DC's hometown team for big time college sports? It might make more sense to further expand the B1G's reach into traditional SEC territory and nab Clemson, or finally try and get into Texas which I have to imagine has been high on the wish list (Houston or SMU maybe? Would it be possible to pick off A&M?).
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
All I can do is laugh at AAU discourse anymore.
But something that I think is starting to sneak in the back door of this stuff is what actual carrying capacity is there for more premium football inventory?
Between the four networks and ESPN1, the networks with the viewer and subscriber scale to drive premium advertising revenue, nearly every college football broadcast window already has a Top Brand vs Top Brand matchup to fill it. The marginal impact of adding Clemson and FSU isn't zero, but we're getting into diminishing returns here when they're replacing Wisconsin or Ole Miss rather than Rutgers or Vanderbilt in those slots.
The conferences will do exactly what their broadcaster overlords tell them to do, but the broadcaster war chest is getting pretty tapped out here.
But something that I think is starting to sneak in the back door of this stuff is what actual carrying capacity is there for more premium football inventory?
Between the four networks and ESPN1, the networks with the viewer and subscriber scale to drive premium advertising revenue, nearly every college football broadcast window already has a Top Brand vs Top Brand matchup to fill it. The marginal impact of adding Clemson and FSU isn't zero, but we're getting into diminishing returns here when they're replacing Wisconsin or Ole Miss rather than Rutgers or Vanderbilt in those slots.
The conferences will do exactly what their broadcaster overlords tell them to do, but the broadcaster war chest is getting pretty tapped out here.
An off Saturday followed by a Thursday game X 2 slots. 2 good Friday games. Illinois at Nebraska last year had a very good audience. Fans will cry but they'll watch.
But your point is correct. There are only so many time slots. Personally, I'd love good college football, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
A different topic: How long until Illinois sells Memorial Stadium (field) naming rights? KAMS Drinking Illini Field at Memorial Stadium. LOL, just kidding on the KAMS but not the naming cash. Gotta keep up.
And Clemson is not getting into the B1G. Realistically, FSU & UNC.. ND and A&M are not soon and long shots at that. Georgia Tech may have a better shot than Virginia (maybe).
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