ACC, PAC-12, and BIG alliance / conference realignment

[Jcuse_44]

I only still go to the restaurant because my favorite item on the menu is still on the menu. But if you take that item off the menu perhaps I will stop going to that restaurant moving forward. The SEC and Big 10 wants to take off way to many popular menu items on their menu because it’s not as popular as their menu items and maybe not bringing as much revenue. However, if you take those popular, but not as popular as your items bringing in the most revenue off the menu, perhaps you will just lose a lot of customers coming to your restaurant that you counted on before since they have no reason to also order your highest revenue menu items since they no longer want to go to the restaurant.

 

[Jcuse_44]

I hate what the SEC and what the BIG are doing to college football but unfortunately they are holding all the cards. Sankey knows that, hence his arrogance. A Super League does not benefit him or the SEC (or the BIG). He is saying that they don't need the rest of us. If they want, the SEC and BIG can form their own NFL-lite league, and they probably will. You can say you won't watch SEC or BIG games, but plenty of people will and not just people in those geographic footprints. I will watch UGA - Texas, Bama-Tenn, Ohio St- Michigan, USC-Oregon. I will watch those games before I watch NC St - Stanford or TCU- OK St. I am just being honest. Now will I watch Rutgers-Purdue or Miss St-Vandy? No, but I will watch the behemoths battle it out (just like millions of others accross the country. Bama-UGA drew almost 12M viewers). I know this will not be a popular take on this board but I'm just being realistic.

They aren't holding all the cards at all. Every other conference can refuse to schedule them. Have fun playing each other's conferences SEC and BIG10. We won't lose any viewers taking you off the schedule, but your programs sure as hell won't be happy with the same schedule every year.

 

[DoctorBombay]

I hate what the SEC and what the BIG are doing to college football but unfortunately they are holding all the cards. Sankey knows that, hence his arrogance. A Super League does not benefit him or the SEC (or the BIG). He is saying that they don't need the rest of us. If they want, the SEC and BIG can form their own NFL-lite league, and they probably will. You can say you won't watch SEC or BIG games, but plenty of people will and not just people in those geographic footprints. I will watch UGA - Texas, Bama-Tenn, Ohio St- Michigan, USC-Oregon. I will watch those games before I watch NC St - Stanford or TCU- OK St. I am just being honest. Now will I watch Rutgers-Purdue or Miss St-Vandy? No, but I will watch the behemoths battle it out (just like millions of others accross the country. Bama-UGA drew almost 12M viewers). I know this will not be a popular take on this board but I'm just being realistic.

Said it better than I could.
All due respect, I see alot of whining about not watching anymore SEC/B1G games but if we're being honest, that is what big-time CFB is nowadays. And as someone mentioned, if the younger coveted demographic will watch , then that's all that matters to the networks, and the conferences.
The fact is if you're a fan of college football you'll be watching. Obviously, if you're a fan of Syracuse then you'll also be watching. To get others to watch us, we have to win. And until any of that happens, we're on the outside looking in.
Finally, what I'm experiencing is preemptive apathy towards this sport. I'll watch the 'Cuse, but anything other than that, I'm become apathetic towards it.

 

[WickedOrange]

I just don't think you can take a hard line on 60, 64, 70 or whatever the number of teams is. There should be a mechanism to promote/demote X # or X% of teams every year to the super conference.

Fixed football conferences/divisions based on geography are dead.

Football divisions should have a couple of each tier (Kings, Barons, Knights, Peasants) loosely based on geography.

it's about the match ups for TV

hey FSU, you're a Peasant

 

[Toga]

Minnesota State just sitting there for the taking.

 

[Atlcuse44]

They aren't holding all the cards at all. Every other conference can refuse to schedule them. Have fun playing each other's conferences SEC and BIG10. We won't lose any viewers taking you off the schedule, but your programs sure as hell won't be happy with the same schedule every year.

I don't think they really care about scheduling teams from outside their conferences. Say they end up at 40 or so teams (20 each for SEC and BIG). Basically they have a NFL model. They do hold the cards,. I hate to say it but we don't matter to them.

 

[Atlcuse44]

To add to my previous post, there may be pressure (from ESPN, FOX, whomever) for the SEC and BIG to drop their dead weight for TV purposes if they form their own league. Looking at you Vandy, Miss St, Rutgers, Purdue, etc... That would be interesting, would they drop schools who have been in the league for decades? Probably ($$$$)

 

[Stern]

They aren't holding all the cards at all. Every other conference can refuse to schedule them. Have fun playing each other's conferences SEC and BIG10. We won't lose any viewers taking you off the schedule, but your programs sure as hell won't be happy with the same schedule every year.

They don't want to play schools in other conferences. That's the point. They want to play each other, and NOT share the money with anyone.

 

[Stern]

To add to my previous post, there may be pressure (from ESPN, FOX, whomever) for the SEC and BIG to drop their dead weight for TV purposes if they form their own league. Looking at you Vandy, Miss St, Rutgers, Purdue, etc... That would be interesting, would they drop schools who have been in the league for decades? Probably ($$$$)

They won't drop any schools they will only add to get to the optimum number (whatever it ends up being) where they have enough so everyone can schedule a full slate each year, and the slice of the pie each school gets is big enough to keep everyone happy.

 

[Jcuse_44]

They don't want to play schools in other conferences. That's the point. They want to play each other, and NOT share the money with anyone.

Im fine with never playing those schools again. Let's form another league. It can be like all the euro soccer leagues. Eventually teams like Penn st and anyone outside of the typical top 3 in SEC and BIG 10 will want to leave because they won't win games.

 

[Stern]

Im fine with never playing those schools again. Let's form another league. It can be like all the euro soccer leagues. Eventually teams like Penn st and anyone outside of the typical top 3 in SEC and BIG 10 will want to leave because they won't win games.

Penn St isn't going to leave and walk away from that money. Plus they have a 100,000+ seat stadium to fill, they aren't going to want to stop playing Ohio St, Michigan, USC to schedule 6 or 7 home games vs the Eastern Michigan's and Toledo's of the world where their best home game is vs Boston College or Syracuse.

If you think SU splitting away from the ACC or whatever is left of it, and Syracuse fans are going to fill the Dome to watch SU vs Akron I don't think that is a rational take. Speaking for myself, I would never go to the games and I wouldn't even watch SU on TV at that point. And yes, I would be home watching Big 10 and SEC games.

I think there are a few safe assumptions that fans are missing.

1) These schools care far less about wins/losses than fans do, its all about getting that big fat TV money paycheck from the conference. Winning or losing is a small part in the overall big picture of what these schools think about in regards to conference realignment and such.

2) No school is going to openly leave the Big 10 or SEC and those conferences aren't throwing any schools out. Not happening.

3) If you think the SEC/Big10 splitting away will "hurt" TV ratings or viewership and fans will stop watching, that is a bit naive. Fans watch what is plastered in front of their faces. So if ABC/ESPN, FOX, CBS, and NBC are carrying those schools and games in the prime TV time slots...people will watch. Plus those games will get all of the coverage and hype Monday thru Friday in the lead up to each Saturday.


I understand where college sports, specifically college football is going. I don't like it. I know Syracuse will probably be left behind at some point in the near future and that isn't good for us Syracuse fans. But let's have some perspective here.

 

[Jcuse_44]

Penn St isn't going to leave and walk away from that money. Plus they have a 100,000+ seat stadium to fill, they aren't going to want to stop playing Ohio St, Michigan, USC to schedule 6 or 7 home games vs the Eastern Michigan's and Toledo's of the world where their best home game is vs Boston College or Syracuse.

If you think SU splitting away from the ACC or whatever is left of it, and Syracuse fans are going to fill the Dome to watch SU vs Akron I don't think that is a rational take. Speaking for myself, I would never go to the games and I wouldn't even watch SU on TV at that point. And yes, I would be home watching Big 10 and SEC games.

I think there are a few safe assumptions that fans are missing.

1) These schools care far less about wins/losses than fans do, its all about getting that big fat TV money paycheck from the conference. Winning or losing is a small part in the overall big picture of what these schools think about in regards to conference realignment and such.

2) No school is going to openly leave the Big 10 or SEC and those conferences aren't throwing any schools out. Not happening.

3) If you think the SEC/Big10 splitting away will "hurt" TV ratings or viewership and fans will stop watching, that is a bit naive. Fans watch what is plastered in front of their faces. So if ABC/ESPN, FOX, CBS, and NBC are carrying those schools and games in the prime TV time slots...people will watch. Plus those games will get all of the coverage and hype Monday thru Friday in the lead up to each Saturday.


I understand where college sports, specifically college football is going. I don't like it. I know Syracuse will probably be left behind at some point in the near future and that isn't good for us Syracuse fans. But let's have some perspective here.

Agree to disagree. If you think the nation wants to watch the same 15 teams and nothing else you are crazy. There are plenty of great programs outside of those two conferences that aren't Toledo and Akron.

 

[TheCusian]

NY native and Syracuse grad Greg Sankey is uniquely evil.


With ever-changing conference lineups, a complicated web of state laws governing NIL and transfer rules that vary by league, many fans, coaches, athletic directors and media members have called for some sense of top-down order in college football. For some, that could possibly come in the form of a "college football commissioner" who could wield power and settle disputes between schools and conferences.

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey is not one of those people.

During an appearance on the Triple Option podcast, Sankey said centralizing power in college football would only be an attempt by the the rest of the sport to catch up with the SEC.

"I've studied it a little bit and I come back to, I don't want to dumb down the Southeastern Conference to be a part of some super league notion with 70 teams that some people speculate would happen," Sankey said. "They want to be us and that's on them to figure it out, not on me to bring myself back to earth."

When faced w the opportunity to make the sport work better for everyone, ensuring its national place, SEC chooses greed

 

[Hoo's That]

I just don't think you can take a hard line on 60, 64, 70 or whatever the number of teams is. There should be a mechanism to promote/demote X # or X% of teams every year to the super conference.

Fixed football conferences/divisions based on geography are dead.

Football divisions should have a couple of each tier (Kings, Barons, Knights, Peasants) loosely based on geography.

it's about the match ups for TV

hey FSU, you're a Peasant

Please take these promotion/demotion schemes to an outside-the-US pro soccer discussion where they belong. US fans will not support them. Curse you Ted Lasso for all this.

 

[Hoo's That]

Please take these promotion/demotion schemes to an outside-the-US pro soccer discussion where they belong. US fans will not support them. Curse you Ted Lasso for all this.

I'm really not kidding about Ted Lasso, orange79 . That show has legitimated the previously alien concept of promotion and regulation in the eyes of people outside the soccer world. It moved it from a niche into the mainstream. How many people on an American football board would be, not just accepting it, but actually advocating it without that show's pointing it out?

 

[OHIORANGES]

Agree to disagree. If you think the nation wants to watch the same 15 teams and nothing else you are crazy. There are plenty of great programs outside of those two conferences that aren't Toledo and Akron.

It won’t be 15 teams
It will be 40 teams and yes, that’s what fans will want to see

 

[longtimefan]

It won’t be 15 teams
It will be 40 teams and yes, that’s what fans will want to see

But a significant portion of the 40 will seldom, if ever, compete for a championship.

 

[pokercuse08]

Agree to disagree. If you think the nation wants to watch the same 15 teams and nothing else you are crazy. There are plenty of great programs outside of those two conferences that aren't Toledo and Akron.

The ratings and the money say they do. I think eventually there will be some discontent when the evolution to that model is complete, but it's not going to be schools like Penn State leaving the superconference/P2, it's going to be schools like Rutgers, Vandy, etc.

And it's not the same 15 teams, it's currently 34 and growing. In other words, a few more teams than the pro sports leagues.

 

[Jcuse_44]

It won’t be 15 teams
It will be 40 teams and yes, that’s what fans will want to see

Fans of those 40 teams sure.