Conference Realignment: What Next?

[Hall2012]

Alright, if we're gonna go the coast to coast mega-conference route, we've gotta do it right. So here's the NEW NEW Big East:

East Coast Pod:

UConn
Georgetown
Providence
St. John's
Seton Hall
Villanova

Midwest Pod:

Butler
Creighton
DePaul
Marquette
Xavier
Saint Louis (Unless Notre Dame would like to join, we need a 6th in this pod)

And introducing the Big East West Coast Pod:

Gonzaga
Saint Mary's
San Fransisco
San Diego
Loyola Marymount
University of Portland

[Hall2012]

"Big 12 says ESPN trying to destabalize league"

...join the club

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/31907406/big-12-alleges-espn-trying-destabilize-league-network-says-claims-no-merit

[ArmyVet]

"Big 12 says ESPN trying to destabalize league"

...join the club

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/31907406/big-12-alleges-espn-trying-destabilize-league-network-says-claims-no-merit

ESPN got caught with their pants down. If the Big 12 is going nuclear with a public cease and desist, they probably have verifiable proof and would love to drag the perps into court and hang out the dirty laundry to dry. This could get pretty interesting.

[butlerguy03]

"Big 12 says ESPN trying to destabalize league"

...join the club

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/31907406/big-12-alleges-espn-trying-destabilize-league-network-says-claims-no-merit

ESPN got caught with their pants down. If the Big 12 is going nuclear with a public cease and desist, they probably have verifiable proof and would love to drag the perps into court and hang out the dirty laundry to dry. This could get pretty interesting.

They're public institutions and there is a legit concern about how athletics money affects academics. FOIA should be easy on this one.

[GoldenWarrior11]

Big 12 ADs meeting on Friday, per Dodd. My guess is that the settle on a list of expansion schools, with invitations forthcoming in the next several weeks - with the goal of having them join once Texas/Oklahoma officially join the SEC (which could be as soon as next year, if they pay the exit fees). After the AAC attempted takeover of the Big 12, I think the Big 12 leaders will look to poach four, if not six, schools to put the AAC out of striking distance in regards to who becomes the top tweener league moving forward. If they grab BYU, Cincinnati, UCF, Houston, Memphis and USF, it forever eliminates the AAC as a best of the rest conference. 24 hours ago, I would have guessed that the Big 12 would only invite BYU and Cincinnati; I think they end up coming for blood now that the AAC attempted to take them out.

Grab your popcorn. This is about to get good.

[DeltaV]

The hills of Malibu cry out for Big East basketball. Blue IV yearns to stretch his little doggy legs in Golden Gate Park. Truly, ours is a 21st century Manifest Destiny entrusted by the basketball gods themselves.

West Coast Pod! West Coast Pod! West Coast Pod!

Ugh, noooooooo

There is no need for west coast teams, or a superconference. And no need for expansion, at least right now. We sit at a good size, continue to have 20 meaningful games a year (I mean, University of Portland? Really?), and only expand if something interesting shakes out of the conference realignment tree (Wake Forest, Syracuse, NC State). Some people hope for a Vanderbilt or Duke, but I think they're so valuable academically that they would find a major home even though their football blows.

I think the 'markets' argument that used to exist for the inclusion of schools like St. Louis is out the window; regular cable subscribers are dropping, and people stream the games they want. To get eyes on those games, they need to be good games, not just located in large media markets.

[kayako]

24 hours ago, I would have guessed that the Big 12 would only invite BYU and Cincinnati; I think they end up coming for blood now that the AAC attempted to take them out.

It sounds like a bunch of B12 schools laughed at AAC's attempt and passed over some emails to Bowlsby, who then threaten to use it as leverage for future negotiations (exit fees & remainder of the contract until 2025). But they don't need to take 6 to cripple the AAC. 2 will do the job to completely demoralize them, while minimizing the devaluation of B12.

[ljay]

Sooooo, Big 12 is looking for football schools with some name cache. Do they take a run at UConn? Said cache is basketball related but there is a football team. West Virginia is all alone east of the Mississippi.

[cu blujs]

No, because UConn football will never be on even the level of a Kansas or KState.

I like where BE is, but if you have to think bigger, 18 team with 3 pods is not a bad set up. Each team plays home and home with the schools in its division and each other team once. Back to an 18 team conference season in that case. Without doing the math, I think you could then set it up so that all interdivision games for all teams in one pod vs. the teams in another pod are home one year and away the next. For example this year east plays all interdivision games against the central pod at home, central plays all interdivision games against the west pod at home and the west plays all interdivisional games against the east pod at home, and then flip that the following year. 10 home games for each team if I figure that correctly, same as you get out of a 20 game season. Takes out any advantage in schedule someone in your pod might otherwise have if it gets the better teams from another pod at home and your team has to play them on the road. There is no unbalanced schedule bias. The BET goes to a full week in the Big Apple.if you want to maintain a 20 game season, add two games against from the other pods (one home and one away), but make those essentially non-conference games that don't count in your conference standings. Heck, have a pre-conference kick off interpod challenge within the league where each team plays a games against a team from each of the other pods for pod bragging rights. Do that over the Christmas break at a couple of neutral sites.

[MullinMayhem]

With how aggressive everyone else is getting, we need to add Gonzaga and figure out logistics after. This day in age with enough $ and branding, you just figure it out. The days of conf names making sense geographically are long gone. This is about survival. If the big football conferences keep going in this direction, they're having their own NCAAT as well just without the NCAA, since they will leave. It won't make sense because many watch for Cinderella potential and intrigue, but they would still have enough viewers to make good $. It becomes much harder to push the Big East aside from a tournament like that if you add Gonzaga to Nova, UConn, etc.