Mike Hopkins to the Phoenix Suns

[TexanMark]

Unbelievable.

Can't believe that the PAC10, 12, or whatever is going to dissolve.

Doesn't seem right, and I have no connection whatsoever to that conference.

I used to love turning on a regional FOX channel at 11pm and watch Petro Papadakis call a USC, Arizona, UCLA, Stanford, etc...game while lying on the couch. Usually I couldn't make it to the end and I'd wake up around 3:30am with a stiff neck and some infomercial on. But still...

 

[IthacaMatt]

The next few weeks may make all the chaos of the last decade look like a warm-up. What do you do now if you are Stanford, ASU, Utah, etc...?

Do these television networks REALLY not want to have conferences on the East and West Coasts?

It's only where THE MOST PEOPLE ARE. If people on the coasts feel disenfranchised from major college sports, how will the ratings suffer?

 

[UpstateSM]

I miss HuskyHooper every time I see this thread

 

[Dinkyspond]

If Hop makes it past this year, it's kind of ironic the Huskies roadies might find him in Piscataway and State College

 

[Dinkyspond]

I used to love turning on a regional FOX channel at 11pm and watch Petro Papadakis call a USC, Arizona, UCLA, Stanford, etc...game while lying on the couch. Usually I couldn't make it to the end and I'd wake up around 3:30am with a stiff neck and some infomercial on. But still...

Washington and Oregon St. have some cool, old-barns as home courts

 

[Todd23]

This is so stupid.

I don't understand how they think they will make more money when all fanbases are turned off by these conference moves?

 

[sufandu]

Do these television networks REALLY not want to have conferences on the East and West Coasts?

It's only where THE MOST PEOPLE ARE. If people on the coasts feel disenfranchised from major college sports, how will the ratings suffer?

They're betting it's like the NFL. They think people will want to watch whatever the highest level of football is regardless of who is playing. The way we influence that is by not watching SEC or B1G football. If we give them ratings, they don't care about anything else.

 

[baggerbob]

They're betting it's like the NFL. They think people will want to watch whatever the highest level of football is regardless of who is playing. The way we influence that is by not watching SEC or B1G football. If we give them ratings, they don't care about anything else.

I don't watch many of their games anyway, might tune in for a brief look when someone is playing an ACC team, but that's it.

 

[General20]

I don't understand how they think they will make more money when all fanbases are turned off by these conference moves?

If you think they are planning for the future you are giving them way too much credit.

I fell into that trap myself in the beginning, but it's become painfully clear that these decisions are driven by college presidents who don't know or care about sports. Don't appreciate the past and don't care about the future. They are seeing a chance to grab a huge amount of short term money and they are taking it.

There is a zero percent chance that what is happening now is good for college sports long term. But random schools like Purdue are making $100 million a year now and are unlikely to regret it, even after the whole thing comes crashing down.

 

[Day2]

The Pac-12 was the only conference that made sense.

 

[tbonezone]

The Pac-12 was the only conference that made sense.

you mean just like bill walton makes sense ?
"i once ate an armadillo with joan baez and dennis hooper...dennis loved the ears..."

 

[Wrinkle]

If you think they are planning for the future you are giving them way too much credit.

I fell into that trap myself in the beginning, but it's become painfully clear that these decisions are driven by college presidents who don't know or care about sports. Don't appreciate the past and don't care about the future. They are seeing a chance to grab a huge amount of short term money and they are taking it.

There is a zero percent chance that what is happening now is good for college sports long term. But random schools like Purdue are making $100 million a year now and are unlikely to regret it, even after the whole thing comes crashing down.

Why would we characterize taking the money as thinking in the short-term? It's about the long-term, it's about the ability to compete at the highest level because you have the money. The longer we collect ACC scraps and the disparity grows the less chance we have of ever competing for championships again

 

[Orangezoo]

Why would we characterize taking the money as thinking in the short-term? It's about the long-term, it's about the ability to compete at the highest level because you have the money. The longer we collect ACC scraps and the disparity grows the less chance we have of ever competing for championships again

It's common sense math. Consolidation pushes programs and fans away from spending their time and money. It adds more competition within the conferences and there is no guarantee you are a bigger winner or long term getting a certain share of money as promised.

Revenue comes from having interest. If interest dwindles that money may have to be allocated differently and it could be less money available. Moving to a pond with only big fish means you risk being knocked further down the pecking order. Essentially long term things may be a long ways off from what you got the first few years and what you expected.

It's most likely the beginning of the entire format of college sports, especially amateur major sports, changing drastically.

 

[Wrinkle]

It's common sense math. Consolidation pushes programs and fans away from spending their time and money. It adds more competition within the conferences and there is no guarantee you are a bigger winner or long term getting a certain share of money as promised.

Revenue comes from having interest. If interest dwindles that money may have to be allocated differently and it could be less money available. Moving to a pond with only big fish means you risk being knocked further down the pecking order. Essentially long term things may be a long ways off from what you got the first few years and what you expected.

It's most likely the beginning of the entire format of college sports, especially amateur major sports, changing drastically.

The simple math is that right now Big 10 member schools are raking in sums that dwarf our conference payouts. I don't believe that Big 10 money is suddenly going to dwindle -- not in the least. It's going to keep getting bigger. I don't know about you but I have no interest whatsoever in the ACC conference from a rivalry or matchup standpoint. If we managed to get a Big 10 invite I would be extremely excited from a basketball standpoint

 

[SU91]

Do these television networks REALLY not want to have conferences on the East and West Coasts?

It's only where THE MOST PEOPLE ARE. If people on the coasts feel disenfranchised from major college sports, how will the ratings suffer?

It’s NASCAR.

 

[General20]

Why would we characterize taking the money as thinking in the short-term? It's about the long-term, it's about the ability to compete at the highest level because you have the money. The longer we collect ACC scraps and the disparity grows the less chance we have of ever competing for championships again

Because all these payouts are based on TV channels that get bundled in with cable packages. People pay for them whether they watch or not. But now people are cutting the cord. Pretty much only older people have cable. A time is coming when they only make money off the people who actually watch their programming, and that's a much lower number.

Also, as stated above, they aren't really working to grow the game in any kind of smart or reasonable way, they are just grabbing for as much cable money as they can get while it still exists.

 

[Niastri]

The simple math is that right now Big 10 member schools are raking in sums that dwarf our conference payouts. I don't believe that Big 10 money is suddenly going to dwindle -- not in the least. It's going to keep getting bigger. I don't know about you but I have no interest whatsoever in the ACC conference from a rivalry or matchup standpoint. If we managed to get a Big 10 invite I would be extremely excited from a basketball standpoint

I would feel exactly the same way I did when we switched to the ACC: devastated.

And yet, I would climb on board, because it's the way we remain relevant with a chance to win a title.

 

[IthacaMatt]

It’s NASCAR.

While NASCAR does fine, outdrawing several sports, their "Premium Events" like the Dayton 500 have half the audience of last year's NCAA Football championship game - which was the LOWEST RATED of any of them to date. If that's what the networks see as their future, to turn NCAA into NASCAR, a regional attraction, then, you get what you pay for.

 

[Wrinkle]

Because all these payouts are based on TV channels that get bundled in with cable packages. People pay for them whether they watch or not. But now people are cutting the cord. Pretty much only older people have cable. A time is coming when they only make money off the people who actually watch their programming, and that's a much lower number.

Also, as stated above, they aren't really working to grow the game in any kind of smart or reasonable way, they are just grabbing for as much cable money as they can get while it still exists.

TV, streaming, whatever the solution people will be paying money to watch these games. Is there any world where the ACC will command more of it than the Big 10, at this point?

 

[IthacaMatt]

TV, streaming, whatever the solution people will be paying money to watch these games. Is there any world where the ACC will command more of it than the Big 10, at this point?

If all the conferences were paid roughly the same amount for the last 10 years, then none of this ever would have happened. As much as people criticize the conferences and their presidents, it's really the networks themselves who seemed to have failed to anticipate the fall out of some of their decisions.

 

[sufandu]

If all the conferences were paid roughly the same amount for the last 10 years, then none of this ever would have happened. As much as people criticize the conferences and their presidents, it's really the networks themselves who seemed to have failed to anticipate the fall out of some of their decisions.

Isn't a lot of the disparity the money generated from conference networks? Wouldn't it be to the credit of the B1G and SEC that they were first to figure it out and capitalize?

 

[Zelda Zonk]

I don't understand how they think they will make more money when all fanbases are turned off by these conference moves?

I think they expect that enough of the current audience will adapt/not care/get used to it, and that the newer audiences—those just being born or just reaching the age of viewership—will just accept it as the norm. It’s all they will have known.

Society seems to adjust to and accept whatever insipidity commerce foists upon it. That, then, becomes the new standard.

 

[IthacaMatt]

The simple math is that right now Big 10 member schools are raking in sums that dwarf our conference payouts. I don't believe that Big 10 money is suddenly going to dwindle -- not in the least. It's going to keep getting bigger.

As to this point, this is what the Networks wanted. I just don't get it, but they have put all the money in the pockets of 2 leagues, at the expense of 3 or 4 others who also drew very good (relatively speaking) ratings for their sports.

I don't know about you but I have no interest whatsoever in the ACC conference from a rivalry or matchup standpoint. If we managed to get a Big 10 invite I would be extremely excited from a basketball standpoint

The ACC blew it when they brought in the Big East teams, but then scrambled the divisions, eliminating match-ups that teams had been playing for years. The ACC killed its own rivalries, regardless of threats of defection.

 

[OttoMets]

I think they expect that enough of the current audience will adapt/not care/get used to it, and that the newer audiences—those just being born or just reaching the age of viewership—will just accept it as the norm. It’s all they will have known.

Society seems to adjust to and accept whatever insipidity commerce foists upon it. That, then, becomes the new standard.

Word.

A demographic that lapped up the weird superfluity that is mobile ticketing will gradually accept anything.

 

[Cusefan0307]

The irony in all of this is the Big 10 never wins anything in the postseason.