That is what I think as well
Conference Realignment
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ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
It's so clear they don't want to go.
Colorado wanted to go. They never felt at home in the Pac 12 and have many more old rivals in the Big 12, if the money stinks either way better to be among friends.
But the schools that were a part of the old pre-BCS system don't want to do this. They just don't see any other way. It's not just the money with the Apple deal, falling off the cliff of visibility is just too much.
It's tragic, it really really is.
Colorado wanted to go. They never felt at home in the Pac 12 and have many more old rivals in the Big 12, if the money stinks either way better to be among friends.
But the schools that were a part of the old pre-BCS system don't want to do this. They just don't see any other way. It's not just the money with the Apple deal, falling off the cliff of visibility is just too much.
It's tragic, it really really is.
IlliniSaluki
- IL metro east burbs of St. Louis
To think that if Larry Scott would of just made a proper partnership for the PAC Network like the B1G did with Fox for BTN. The PAC might of been just fine or better than fine right now. I know it wasn't his only mistake but it would of been a good form of revenue with Fox/ESPN/whateverpartner helping it get distributed on cable networks around the country and Dish/DIRECTV.
All current Big 10 schools should refuse to play basketball games at Oregon or force them to redo their HIDEOUS floor
Epsilon
M tipping over
- Pdx
It’s kind of a cool idea but in practice it does make games hard to watch.
Joel Goodson
- respect my decision™
better yet, make it a condition on their invite
There was already an East Coast/West Coast rivalry in rap about 30 years ago. Do we really need to revisit that in realignment?
TentakilRex
- Land O Insects between Quincy-Macomb-Jacksonville
Some days I swear that some the folks at ESPN don't understand how much people like..... live sports lol
TentakilRex
- Land O Insects between Quincy-Macomb-Jacksonville
Nah I believe in fighting fire with fire. Hail to the all orange basketball court, the brighter the orange the better
.the national
- the Front Range
This fairly accurately captures my feelings on the matter.
cyclonefanatic.com
WILLIAMS: Welcome to the conversation, hypocrites
You guys probably think that I love this conference realignment stuff, don't you? I gotta be honest with you. I am not a fan of it. I am fascinated by it. There’s a difference. The mix of sports, politics and the media business is right in my wheelhouse - everything that I love rolled into on
cyclonefanatic.com
With the Big Ten expansion are all our games still going to be on tv? It seems as we add teams it will be harder to fit all games on tv even with big ten network and fox. I worry that we will have to pay for a big ten plus to see all our games in the future. I hope I am wrong.
The reason the Big Ten and Sec emerge as the two top conferences was due to the fact it was east to find their games. The big ten was better allowing fans to follow their school football or basketball program. You turn on ESPN Big Ten or Fox. No other conference did that.
The reason the Big Ten and Sec emerge as the two top conferences was due to the fact it was east to find their games. The big ten was better allowing fans to follow their school football or basketball program. You turn on ESPN Big Ten or Fox. No other conference did that.
Gritty, this brings me to a question I've been meaning to ask you. After 7pm on a Saturday (unless U of I is playing) I'm more likely to be watching a UFC match than college football, especially a PAC game. During the college season, ESPN has their main channel tied up, but with ESPN+ and PPV they are providing other venues for eyeballs. What (if any) affect has the UFC had on ESPN's decision making and do you think it will affect their future decisions?
why wouldn't they be? The problem is not going to be whether the game will be televised, it will be what time. If Rutgers is playing UCLA with an 8:00 tipoff, the game won't start until 11:00 in New Jersey. How many people are going to stay up that late to watch a basketball game? I think this has always been the Pac 10s problem. Substantially more people live east of the Mississippi than west. So for far too many people west coast Pac 10 games are aired late night, thus their viewership is much lower. That's not going to change just because they're now in the Big 10, unless they say any west coast vs east coast game tips off at 5:00 local time. Think of an 11:00 kickoff for football, it would feel like 8:00 am to the east coast teams. It's just one of the many things that adds complexity when your conferences now span 4 time zones.
As for will the game be on tv, the stations airing the games currently aren't going to want to be left out. So they'll still air the games, just a different set of opponents will be playing. Or if the Big Ten and SEC want to get greedy, they'll just create multiple channels to air the games. The whole point of expansion from the conference's perspective is to bring in new markets and get new viewers. If you don't air their games, then their is no point in expansion, so they'll definitely be airing the games.
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ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
That was definitely a major blow to their fortunes, they would have been a lot better off with a network partner. But was that deal on offer in 2011? I'm not saying it wasn't I genuinely don't remember and cursory googling turns up nothing.
The Pac 16 was the move. That was seeing the future in the way the BTN was seeing the future, a genuinely innovative and revolutionary idea at that time. Had ESPN not bribed Texas with the Longhorn Network, that would have been a reality and EVERYTHING is night-and-day different right now.
Good question and it remains to be seen. The death of the Pac 12 opens up a lot of FS1 space, in theory. For the life of this TV deal we'll have very good visibility regardless, though it gets a little bit worse with more schools added.
But long term? We'll all be paying for some direct-to-consumer service for our sports at an eye-watering price.
uofi7477
- Silver & Gold Vandals
It your fear comes to fruition, B1G Ten+ is only a nominal fee of $10 per month. How long is the Illini FB Season anyway - three or four months, so about the cost of going out to eat once or 1/2 a tank of gas.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
Hmm, that's a good question. I am not super educated on UFC, I know the best events are PPV, how big time is what they're showing for "free"?
They also want to have stuff that they can sell ESPN+ with, and things with a hardcore niche audience like UFC or soccer (which is what I watch on ESPN+) make a lot of sense for a subscription-based thing, as opposed to more general-interest legacy sports for the mothership.
The other thing I see on google is that the ESPN-UFC deal ends in 2025 and there are multiple suitors for the next one. So who knows if ESPN is even there for the long haul.
The two big things about ESPN are 1. the rumblings that Disney might sell them or just spin them off into their own company keep getting louder, and then 2. the leadership of ESPN knows that someday they will have to be a direct to consumer subscription service, and as unimaginable as that is for the industry (and some of their rights deals expressly forbid it), you get the sense they'd rather lead into that transition in their dominant market position rather than follow.
Anyway, another thing to keep in mind here is that while conference realignment is absolutely a theater of this war, the Western Front, the real bloody trench warfare, is the writer and actor strike. The future of the media industry is being contested there first and foremost.
Mr. Tibbs
- southeast DuPage
or 2 burgers & fries at Five Guys
I was in one a few months back
I ordered 2 fully dressed out bacon burger meals and the guy says $38. I said “cancel the order” and walked out .
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Krombopulos_Michael
- Aurora, Illinois (that’s a suburb of Chicago)
Likely driven by the partial share issues, no?
It's $10 now because it's not a monopoly. Yet. At some point the B1G will be the sole owner/distributor of their media rights. When you can't see it anywhere else but through a B1G membership it will get a lot more expensive.
Have you tried watching a game on Big Ten plus? It is a horrible experience. Hopefully that won’t be their solution
Also with the west coast teams coming into the conference, basketball games could start later than 11 pm east coast time. A game could possibly get done around 1 am.
A 9 pm east cost time tip off should be the latest an east coast team should start a game and a 3 pm east coast start time should be the earliest a west coast team should start
Conference leadership needs to ensure fans still can enjoy a good product otherwise viewership could decline
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
redwingillini11
White and Sixth
- North Aurora
I can understand why some/many are excited at this development. I have to say though, I am disappointed in the sense that these Pac 12 schools are on the path to complete irrelevance if they are going to be exclusively on an Apple TV add on package. There's just no way I will ever justify buying that, which means I'll really never get to see those teams play outside of bowl season. A night game in SLC, or an afternoon game at Autzen are absolutely great television. Not getting to see that because this shell of a conference is going to stick together behind a paywall is a hollow victory.
But, I am looking forward to having the first few years of this new B1G alignment. It should be really special.
But, I am looking forward to having the first few years of this new B1G alignment. It should be really special.
Joel Goodson
- respect my decision™
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
Two stray thoughts.
1. Unlike the hilarious failure of governance that was the University of California-Los Angeles destroying the athletic department of the University of California-Berkeley behind their back, the Arizona Board of Regents controls both UA and ASU and is making a decision for both.
2. Is it possible 8 is a better number for the Pac group in TV money per mouths to feed and TV distribution terms? Like maybe Apple is offering the same dollar figure and they don't really care how many teams the conference is, they have a whole different model.
That could all be nonsense by noon, just thinking out loud.
1. Unlike the hilarious failure of governance that was the University of California-Los Angeles destroying the athletic department of the University of California-Berkeley behind their back, the Arizona Board of Regents controls both UA and ASU and is making a decision for both.
2. Is it possible 8 is a better number for the Pac group in TV money per mouths to feed and TV distribution terms? Like maybe Apple is offering the same dollar figure and they don't really care how many teams the conference is, they have a whole different model.
That could all be nonsense by noon, just thinking out loud.
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