This is my fear too. Everything that made B1G football special and traditional is poof.
Conference Realignment
- Status
Divisions: Beach, Corn and Rust
TentakilRex
- Land O Insects between Quincy-Macomb-Jacksonville
I still have this conspiracy theory that one of the Pac-12 schools that the Big Ten is most interested in isn't among the foursome of Washington, Oregon, Cal, and Stanford or at least the Big Ten only wants an odd number of Pac-12 teams.
What a perfect picture accompanying that story...the thousand-yard stare of detachment and hopelessness...
If the Big Ten goes to 20 schools, how about this? (I don't really like it but)
Pacific:
USC
UCLA
Oregon
Washington
Stanford
Atlantic:
Penn St.
Rutgers
Maryland
Ohio St.
Michigan St.
Central:
Michigan
Indiana
Purdue
Notre Dame
Wisconsin
Midwest:
Nebraska
Iowa
Minnesota
Illinois
Northwestern
A 10 game conference schedule; Play your division, play another division and play one rival (that way you still get Michigan-Ohio St, Illinois-Purdue, Minnesota-Wisconsin) or something different if the two divisions play each other that year. You could play everyone at least once every three years.
This stinks but we would get the west coast and Notre Dame involved.
Pacific:
USC
UCLA
Oregon
Washington
Stanford
Atlantic:
Penn St.
Rutgers
Maryland
Ohio St.
Michigan St.
Central:
Michigan
Indiana
Purdue
Notre Dame
Wisconsin
Midwest:
Nebraska
Iowa
Minnesota
Illinois
Northwestern
A 10 game conference schedule; Play your division, play another division and play one rival (that way you still get Michigan-Ohio St, Illinois-Purdue, Minnesota-Wisconsin) or something different if the two divisions play each other that year. You could play everyone at least once every three years.
This stinks but we would get the west coast and Notre Dame involved.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
You're dead right on this, broadly speaking. The appeal of viewers isn't so much by market size but market demographics, age, income, etc, but that all viewership isn't created equal is true.
The thing you're missing is that the actual eyeballs are much less regionalized than you think.
A lesser Florida State game isn't going to outdraw a better Clemson game in Miami. It might not in Orlando or Tampa either. The game that wins the week wins nationally.
When forcing grannies who never watched sports in their lives to pay $1 per month in perpetuity for the BTN you go from zero to 1, it's all-or-nothing for the entirety of a TV market.
When we're talking about actual eyeballs it's much more shades of gray, to the extent there is even regionalization which there largely isn't.
So the raw viewership total uber alles isn't *exactly* the end of the story, but it's a heuristic that works dramatically more reliably than "ah, if we show Oregon games that will mean we now have Pacific Northwest viewers"
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redwingillini11
White and Sixth
- North Aurora
It seems inevitable that within the next five years there will be 20+ B1G schools one way or another. In the current setup, we have 9 conference games (3 permanent or rotating-permanent rivals, and cycling through the other 12 at large schools twice every four years). If we just add Oregon and Washington, then it is very conceivable that the B1G just goes ahead and moves up to 10 conference games, and the same system would work.
If we get to 20 teams with Stanford and Cal, then it gets pretty nutty, but you could also conceivably see the B1G just go to 11 conference games and you have a home and away with every conference team every four years. It sounds insane, but with the expanded playoff, the seats for the top B1G teams will be there undoubtedly. Also, if Fox and the other networks are pulling the strings at this point, they will probably go all in to max out the number of big viewer games.
It would kind of suck to possibly be down to only 1 non-conference game. But I guess other than having an easy win on the schedule I won't miss playing most of our regular non-conference opponents.
If we get to 20 teams with Stanford and Cal, then it gets pretty nutty, but you could also conceivably see the B1G just go to 11 conference games and you have a home and away with every conference team every four years. It sounds insane, but with the expanded playoff, the seats for the top B1G teams will be there undoubtedly. Also, if Fox and the other networks are pulling the strings at this point, they will probably go all in to max out the number of big viewer games.
It would kind of suck to possibly be down to only 1 non-conference game. But I guess other than having an easy win on the schedule I won't miss playing most of our regular non-conference opponents.
I just don't see Cal or Stanford as desirable options. Neither has a strong FB following either in the Bay area or nationally. They bring nothing to the table. Maybe Oregon, maybe Udub but the powers at Fox already looked and said no last year and nothing has changed since then. The PAC is dead as a conference. Oregon and Washington plus Utah and the AZ schools will look to the B12 and if the B12 wants to go to 18 then they will all get in, but most likely somebody will get left behind with the rest of the PAC.
redwingillini11
White and Sixth
- North Aurora
Lol who is our guess? Apparently its not USC.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
Big Ten presidents discuss adding 4 Pac-12 schools: Sources
Discussions are in the early stages and are very preliminary, and that the Big Ten could decide to stay at 16 and not expand further.
theathletic.com
"A subgroup of four Big Ten university presidents met virtually on Wednesday as part of exploratory discussions about potentially expanding membership by two or four teams, two sources briefed on the call confirmed to The Athletic. It was not the only call they have had in recent weeks."
Factions of University presidents meeting about conference issues and leaking to the press? Buuuuut, I was told the unanimity and total public secrecy of Big Ten leadership only broke because of the world historic incompetence of History's Greatest Monster Kevin Warren!
TentakilRex
- Land O Insects between Quincy-Macomb-Jacksonville
1. I only acknowledge our My Tribal Chief of Twitter Conspiracy Randos, MHver! Genetics is big dumb, dumb. lol
2. Watch it be Nebraska or Michigan!
3. Big XII guys accuse this account of being Tony Altimore's burner.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
One thing Big Ten power brokers sympathetic to the Pac 10's continued existence might do is coordinate a leak to the press about the league considering adding its schools in hopes of giving the conference leverage to get more money from Apple.
Welp. Florida State making their stance public.
www.espn.com
FSU mulls ACC exit due to revenue distribution
Florida State President Richard McCullough said the school's goal is to stay in the ACC but said it's "hard for us to figure out how we remain competitive" unless the conference makes a major change to its revenue distribution model.
You could still keep the one easy MAC/Sun Belt team win, and your two other former “non-con” games are now guaranteed marquee match-ups in games that truly count against USC, UCLA, Wash, Ore, Miami, ND … whoever.
Makes a tougher road to six wins, but man, that’s lots of quality opponents.
Joel Goodson
- dawgville
Big Ten presidents discuss adding 4 Pac-12 schools: Sources
Discussions are in the early stages and are very preliminary, and that the Big Ten could decide to stay at 16 and not expand further.
"A subgroup of four Big Ten university presidents met virtually on Wednesday as part of exploratory discussions about potentially expanding membership by two or four teams, two sources briefed on the call confirmed to The Athletic. It was not the only call they have had in recent weeks."
Factions of University presidents meeting about conference issues and leaking to the press? Buuuuut, I was told the unanimity and total public secrecy of Big Ten leadership only broke because of the world historic incompetence of History's Greatest Monster Kevin Warren!
unanimity? lol
yet another delusional strawman. Captain Hyperbole strikes again.
Kramerica Industries
- Greenville, SC
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
Oh relax. Consensus-based decision making, let's say.
The point is stories like that were not a thing under Delany, which you agree with.
The subtle thing under the radar here is that with NIL making all player recruitment a relationship to boosters unconnected to the formal revenue flows of the athletic department, how much do these TV distributions REALLY matter in competitive terms?Welp. Florida State making their stance public.
FSU mulls ACC exit due to revenue distribution
Florida State President Richard McCullough said the school's goal is to stay in the ACC but said it's "hard for us to figure out how we remain competitive" unless the conference makes a major change to its revenue distribution model.
The marketplace is changing across so many fronts.
I’m saying this as I can’t comprehend having so much $ that this doesn’t matter, but in theory, could NIL make tv money more important?
I say that thinking if boosters are spending their $ on players NIL $, wouldn’t that leave fewer $ for donations to athletic departments?
Joel Goodson
- dawgville
Hell, yes. The BIG is going to start paying its players (which would make them employees), at least that's its stated intent. Something like 10% of media revenues will be allocated to players.
Don't have to like it, obviously, but the BIG is going to be NFL-like. Us peons are along for the ride.
Yeah but that’s the thing right? Even if they only get 40 mil a year for some number of years that’s still more than Big12 and Pac10 base.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Good points, and I think you are correct. However, let's say you could broadly divide the viewers for any given game into three categories that I am totally making up now:
1. The diehards for each team that will tune in no matter how good either team is or what channel the game is on.
2. Casual fans "predisposed" to hop on the bandwagon for a given team but the kinds of fans who won't tune in if the team is bad and/or are more likely to watch on ABC or FOX simply because watching those channels is a habit or because they're in a market without channels like BTN or ACCN (e.g., many of the people I have met in Chicago who only watch Illinois when they are good at something but then sort of "claim" the Illini as a home team of sorts).
3. Casual viewers in general who just tune into big college football games because they enjoy the sport and prefer to watch "good football."
Group 3 is tuning in (in somewhat fluctuating numbers, I will admit) to most "big games" ... they didn't care about Clemson in 1999, but now they think watching Clemson is exciting. Group 1 fluctuates somewhat based on things like size of your alumni base and the local population, but I think it is mostly the truly massive fan bases at the top (Notre Dame, Texas or OSU), the seriously small fan bases at the bottom (Northwestern, Georgia Tech or Vanderbilt) and the vast majority of us in the middle.
So, that leaves Group 2 ... and I really do think that might be a separating factor for many schools as far as "potential for drawing great tv ratings" goes. In a hypothetical comparison, let's say Illinois and Oklahoma State are relatively even in these categories, with Oklahoma State currently having a larger group for Group 1 and the two schools not being materially different in how they draw viewers in Group 3 if it is a relevant matchup featuring one of our teams. I think what might make Illinois more appealing is that the casual fans we have proven (albeit in isolated instances) we can draw when we have a truly exciting and good football team are coming from a much larger pool of potential viewers than Oklahoma State can draw from ... in other words, I think it's easier for a resurgent Illinois to pile on additional viewers much more quickly than, say, a 10-win Oklahoma State team vs. whatever their record has been lately.
This is all just my conjecture, but I would assume that an "untapped fandom" population is heavily considered for schools who are below the mega-TV draws like Michigan or Alabama. I think schools like Iowa State and Kansas State have maxed out their viewers in a way that schools like Illinois or UCLA have not.
TentakilRex
- Land O Insects between Quincy-Macomb-Jacksonville
Unless can confirm that this Gentics56 is a real insider, our board should dumpster him/her as a source!
If Genetics56 is a legit source, the rest of the B1G should look at Nebraska with a worried eye.
If Genetics56 is a legit source, the rest of the B1G should look at Nebraska with a worried eye.
- Status