And in a parallel universe

[sufan]

Sounds pretty exciting:

Politics of Conference Realignment May 24 Gregg Swaim: "Mr. "Big Time" sports:

"It was widely assumed just over a month ago that if the Big 12 were to raid any ACC teams it would happen after new commisioner Bob Bowlsby took office, but it looks like most of the raiding could be wrapped up before then…at least unofficially, and with good reason."

"As of today it appears that both Florida State and Clemson will soon officially announce they are “exploring options” and will later announce they want out of the ACC. At which point the Big 12 will make a formal offer and the two schools will join the conference for the 2013 football season.

"But the SEC isn’t waiting around for the Big 12 or Big Ten to grab all of the good teams left on the shelf, and we fully expect to hear news within the next week or so on Virginia Tech exploring their options ,which would be the SEC. Georgia Tech finally appears to now realize what is going on, and doesn’t want to get left out of the BCS picture (not to mention the big money), and would jump at the SEC. But if they don’t offer could wind up in the Big 12.

"And while news is a little harder to come by in the Big Ten, we’ve even been getting some whispers of the conference looking at Boston College (of course Notre Dame) and Rutgers."

"Duke and North Carolina are begging North Carolina State to stay, and it looks like the Wolfpack are considering staying in the sinking BCS ship that is indeed the ACC"
Will the real, true, actual insider please stand up?

 

[Cuseman78]

People are still reading what this guy writes?

Stop reading the tabloids, ladies.

 

[sutomcat]

Sounds pretty exciting:

Politics of Conference Realignment May 24 Gregg Swaim: "Mr. "Big Time" sports:

"It was widely assumed just over a month ago that if the Big 12 were to raid any ACC teams it would happen after new commisioner Bob Bowlsby took office, but it looks like most of the raiding could be wrapped up before then…at least unofficially, and with good reason."

"As of today it appears that both Florida State and Clemson will soon officially announce they are “exploring options” and will later announce they want out of the ACC. At which point the Big 12 will make a formal offer and the two schools will join the conference for the 2013 football season.

"But the SEC isn’t waiting around for the Big 12 or Big Ten to grab all of the good teams left on the shelf, and we fully expect to hear news within the next week or so on Virginia Tech exploring their options ,which would be the SEC. Georgia Tech finally appears to now realize what is going on, and doesn’t want to get left out of the BCS picture (not to mention the big money), and would jump at the SEC. But if they don’t offer could wind up in the Big 12.

"And while news is a little harder to come by in the Big Ten, we’ve even been getting some whispers of the conference looking at Boston College (of course Notre Dame) and Rutgers."

"Duke and North Carolina are begging North Carolina State to stay, and it looks like the Wolfpack are considering staying in the sinking BCS ship that is indeed the ACC"
Will the real, true, actual insider please stand up?

Is there a Darwin award for posting on the Internet? If so, I nominate this peach.

 

[Scooch]

This is of course all happening before the new BCS/playoff format is decided.

Of course.

 

[Scooch]

Who the heck is Greg Swaim, by the way?

I keep reading his stuff being referenced on this site, and it seems like he either has serious psychiatric delusions, is a raging alcoholic, or is a robot.

 

[HtownOrange]

"Which is exactly why Notre Dame is talking to both the Big 12 and ACC. The Irish have plenty of money, but if they want to ever have the chance of playing in a BCS title game, will need to join one of the so-called “Fab Four” conferences."

Has anyone informed Notre Dame they are leaving the Big East? They might like to know?

"This thing is happening fast, and it’s indeed like the Titanic. Only a few lifeboats left, and if you aren’t proactive you may get left behind. Even those schools like Louisville and BYU, who have been very proactive, may also get left behind."

I haven't even heard the alarm bells ringing...
"Please don’t tell me how great your school has been in women’s soccer or that your equestrian team has been incredible. Once again this picture is only about football, TV markets, and the dollars your school can generate. It’s not even about the distant second sport of basketball, as members of the hoop strong ACC conference are sadly finding out."
He got something right, but is it that big of a deal? We got it right many years ago, it just took a long time to find a conference that cared about football.

 

[Bonz44]

Sounds pretty exciting:

Politics of Conference Realignment May 24 Gregg Swaim: "Mr. "Big Time" sports:

"It was widely assumed just over a month ago that if the Big 12 were to raid any ACC teams it would happen after new commisioner Bob Bowlsby took office, but it looks like most of the raiding could be wrapped up before then…at least unofficially, and with good reason."

"As of today it appears that both Florida State and Clemson will soon officially announce they are “exploring options” and will later announce they want out of the ACC. At which point the Big 12 will make a formal offer and the two schools will join the conference for the 2013 football season.

"But the SEC isn’t waiting around for the Big 12 or Big Ten to grab all of the good teams left on the shelf, and we fully expect to hear news within the next week or so on Virginia Tech exploring their options ,which would be the SEC. Georgia Tech finally appears to now realize what is going on, and doesn’t want to get left out of the BCS picture (not to mention the big money), and would jump at the SEC. But if they don’t offer could wind up in the Big 12.

"And while news is a little harder to come by in the Big Ten, we’ve even been getting some whispers of the conference looking at Boston College (of course Notre Dame) and Rutgers."

"Duke and North Carolina are begging North Carolina State to stay, and it looks like the Wolfpack are considering staying in the sinking BCS ship that is indeed the ACC"
Will the real, true, actual insider please stand up?

This article is almost a month old now...I would say that it appears Clemson will not be making any such announcement. The bloggers strategy seems to be to throw everything at the fall to see what actually sticks so when something does finally happen they can claim to be the first to know/publish it.

 

[KaiserUEO]

Who the heck is Greg Swaim, by the way?

I keep reading his stuff being referenced on this site, and it seems like he either has serious psychiatric delusions, is a raging alcoholic, or is a robot.

the bobby davis of twitterland.

 

[sufan]

Who the heck is Greg Swaim, by the way?

I keep reading his stuff being referenced on this site, and it seems like he either has serious psychiatric delusions, is a raging alcoholic, or is a robot.

Haven't you heard: He's Mr "BigTime Sports" and provides "insider information" from "insiders".

http://www.gregswaim.com/gswai/

Obviously an extremely trustworthy person, whose postings are among the most valuable on the web, perhaps second only to the "dude" himself.

 

[All4SU]

the bobby davis of twitterland.

More like the Zach Tomaselli...

 

[Scooch]

Haven't you heard: He's Mr "BigTime Sports" and provides "insider information" from "insiders".

http://www.gregswaim.com/gswai/

Obviously an extremely trustworthy person, whose postings are among the most valuable on the web, perhaps second only to the "dude" himself.

Ah, got it.

So not exactly Pete Thamel is what you're all saying?

 

[Chip]

Ah, got it.

So not exactly Pete Thamel is what you're all saying?

Swaim often covers his tracks by tweeting "this stuff changes every day". I've continued to follow him on twitter because when there's a huge car accident, I simply can't look away.

He actually tweeted once that Clemson should consider that they will get more revenue for football games against Texas than they will for football games against Duke.

 

[Chip]

Don't look now but Swaim is saying the Big 12 and Clemson are no longer talking. Relationship has ended, Clemson is not going anywhere.

Which probably means Clemson is going to the Big 12.

 

[tep624]

The paranoia that this tool creates and the fact that people actually buy it is ridiculous. I've said it before and I'll say it again. If the Big 12 was so strong and so great, Nebraska, Colorado, Missouri, and ESPECIALLY Texas A&M would not have left it. The only conferences to expand thus far and not lose membership are the Big 10, Pac 10, SEC and ACC and I think that pretty much speaks for itself. The Big 12 is not and will no be stable as long as it is a Texas, and by Texas I mean UT, centric conference. The strength of the Big 10, SEC, Pac 12 and ACC are that those conferences do not revolve around one particular program. At one point in time the ACC was dominated by the North Carolina mafia, but with the recent expansion, that really has become a moot point. With Pitt, Syracuse, V Tech, BC and Miami you have 5 former BE members and can form a voting block with GT, FSU, Clemson, UVA, etc, that assures that the conference can't be dominated by anyone set of schools. Any new schools that come to the Big 12 better understand that you're going to do whatever Texas, Baylor, TT, TCU, OK and Ok St. want as long as you are a member of that conference. The Kansas schools, ISU, WVU, and any other outliers they add to get to 12 teams are going to be exactly that, outliers.

 

[MaxwellCuse]

That sumbitch even bears a physical resemblance to Zach Tomaselli.

 

[Chip]

The paranoia that this tool creates and the fact that people actually buy it is ridiculous. I've said it before and I'll say it again. If the Big 12 was so strong and so great, Nebraska, Colorado, Missouri, and ESPECIALLY Texas A&M would not have left it. The only conferences to expand thus far and not lose membership are the Big 10, Pac 10, SEC and ACC and I think that pretty much speaks for itself. The Big 12 is not and will no be stable as long as it is a Texas, and by Texas I mean UT, centric conference. The strength of the Big 10, SEC, Pac 12 and ACC are that those conferences do not revolve around one particular program. At one point in time the ACC was dominated by the North Carolina mafia, but with the recent expansion, that really has become a moot point. With Pitt, Syracuse, V Tech, BC and Miami you have 5 former BE members and can form a voting block with GT, FSU, Clemson, UVA, etc, that assures that the conference can't be dominated by anyone set of schools. Any new schools that come to the Big 12 better understand that you're going to do whatever Texas, Baylor, TT, TCU, OK and Ok St. want as long as you are a member of that conference. The Kansas schools, ISU, WVU, and any other outliers they add to get to 12 teams are going to be exactly that, outliers.

It was pretty funny (yet very sad for me that I was even following...sigh) last night on twitter watching those who believed all his crap start calling him out on it because of his turn on Clemson. He even replied to a few, with such great comebacks as "you only have 55 followers". He's a pro.

I do think there's someone in the Big 12 feeding him info. But I think it's a chest puffer who really has no clue what's going on.

To Bees point, I'm sure there really are conversations happening. There are informal conversations every day about companies merging, I'd bet it's the same thing. You always talk to your peers, see what's out there. Probably 95% of the conversations go nowhere, but if you don't have them, you'll never know what opportunity you could be missing.

Just makes very little sense for Clemson or FSU to go to the Big 12. FSU may still do it, but there will be a lot more due diligence than Swaim's source's claims of "will be done by June". Best case for Big 12 is that the talks heat up after the playoff decisions are made. Worst case is that FSU has no reason to go anywhere after the playoff decisions are made. If FSU goes sooner, then it will be pretty clear they have more than one hot headed BoT member, and that group has much more power than the school President.

 

[JJReddawg]

Someone needs to setup a Politifact type site for sports reporters. That way when one of them posts a rumor, you can refer to the site and see that they've reported 50 rumors with one of which came to fruition. It wouldn't stop them from posting rumors altogether, but it might have them gather more information prior to reporting some off-the-cuff frivolous rumor that has no merit.

Any volunteers?

 

[TexanMark]

Someone needs to setup a Politifact type site for sports reporters. That way when one of them posts a rumor, you can refer to the site and see that they've reported 50 rumors with one of which came to fruition. It wouldn't stop them from posting rumors altogether, but it might have them gather more information prior to reporting some off-the-cuff frivolous rumor that has no merit.

Any volunteers?

Orangeyes will have it ready by dinner. He has to play 18 first.

 

[Chip]

Someone needs to setup a Politifact type site for sports reporters. That way when one of them posts a rumor, you can refer to the site and see that they've reported 50 rumors with one of which came to fruition. It wouldn't stop them from posting rumors altogether, but it might have them gather more information prior to reporting some off-the-cuff frivolous rumor that has no merit.

Any volunteers?

Also need to vet what these clowns take credit for. Like Swaim saying he's the one who first broke aTm to the SEC. I just asked 2002, and it said it broke the rumor first.

 

[baggerbob]

Was reading where it is going to be 12 presidents who determine playoff format. One from each conference and Notre Dame, so SEC isn't getting their way. Only 2 would vote for top 4, SEC and BIG 12, other 10 will vote against. Might be top 3 conference champs plus 1, which is probably the only option which would pass. In that scenerio, no incentive to play a championship game in the BIG 12.

 

[PhatOrange]

Just too

Sounds pretty exciting:

Politics of Conference Realignment May 24 Gregg Swaim: "Mr. "Big Time" sports:


"But the SEC isn’t waiting around for the Big 12 or Big Ten to grab all of the good teams left on the shelf, and we fully expect to hear news within the next week or so on Virginia Tech exploring their options ,which would be the SEC. Georgia Tech finally appears to now realize what is going on, and doesn’t want to get left out of the BCS picture (not to mention the big money), and would jump at the SEC. But if they don’t offer could wind up in the Big 12.

It's great entertainment value though, it's Jerry Springerish.

So according to Swaim, the SEC isn't waiting around and will jump by inviting Virginia Tech (to go to 15) which in turn would force GT to the Big 12 because the SEC would rebuff them.

Well remember FSU's end game is the SEC to - not the Big12.

I could understand the SEC jumping at VTech - to get into Virginia with a giant state school - but if the SEC isn't going to wait around then why wouldn' they just invite FSU and VT right now? This would effectively shut the door on the Big 12 becoming more powerful and the Big12 would be stuck with LVille and Cincy.

The SEC is NOT in cahoots with the Big12 and there's no way the SEC wants to see the Big 12 become the big boy on the block.

His latest 'info' just makes no sense. BC and the Big 10 ? You can't make this up.

 

[rrlbees]

Was reading where it is going to be 12 presidents who determine playoff format. One from each conference and Notre Dame, so SEC isn't getting their way. Only 2 would vote for top 4, SEC and BIG 12, other 10 will vote against. Might be top 3 conference champs plus 1, which is probably the only option which would pass. In that scenerio, no incentive to play a championship game in the BIG 12.

What you just described there is exactly why the "big boys" have considered breaking away from the NCAA. They do not want to share money with everyone and allow everyone to have a say in things. It is what first spurned the talk of super conferences and a 4x16 (or some similar model). Who are these 12 presidents besides B12, PAC10, B10, SEC, ACC and maybe BE?

 

[Moontan]

What you just described there is exactly why the "big boys" have considered breaking away from the NCAA. They do not want to share money with everyone and allow everyone to have a say in things. It is what first spurned the talk of super conferences and a 4x16 (or some similar model). Who are these 12 presidents besides B12, PAC10, B10, SEC, ACC and maybe BE?

There are 11 conferences*. One would guess: 1 from each conference + Notre Dame.

Here they are: ACC, Big XII, NNBE, B1G, C-USA, MAC, MWC, Pac-12, SEC, Sun Belt, WAC

 

[rrlbees]

There are 11 conferences*. One would guess: 1 from each conference + Notre Dame.

Here they are: ACC, Big XII, NNBE, B1G, C-USA, MAC, MWC, Pac-12, SEC, Sun Belt, WAC

Yep. And my point is that the SEC does not want to share money nor decision making with the Sun Belt. So to the point of these presidents making the decision on playoff format, I would not be surprised if it caused a separate meeting amongst the big boys who would say What.

 

[TexanMark]

Yep. And my point is that the SEC does not want to share money nor decision making with the Sun Belt. So to the point of these presidents making the decision on playoff format, I would not be surprised if it caused a separate meeting amongst the big boys who would say What.

If you take the Top 6 + ND you have 7 votes...that is pretty much the Mendoza Line anyways.