The PAC 10 expansion groundswell

[LA Ute]

I don't like this at all. I don't mind 12 league teams, but anything bigger destroys the perception that cfb has that it is still authentic.

college basketball is ruined because it is more of a stepping stone for players who want to go to the nba. pro basketball is ruined because it is primadonnas making too much money and getting calls their way because of who they are.

college football will be exposed for being all about greed and corruption with this expansion to huge mega conferences. it already is, but because it isn't so overt, we fans still buy off on the notion that it's about tradition, student athletes, and rivalries. it isn't. now it's about money and money and money, traditions-be-damned!!!!

i see the demise of my favorite sport with this.

[Jeff Lebowski]

I think nine teams is a perfect size for a conference. Stupid TV contracts.

[Mormon Red Death]

I'll throw this one out there. its the scenario with the least disruption.


The pac10 and big 12 make a tv alliance with it known that mizzou is gone to the b10+1.
Colo goes to the pac10 and utah goes to the big 12(or have them swap if Colo doesnt want to move). They both send their champs to bcs games and every december they stage a championship game between the two conferences for 22 million dollars (game alternates between dallas, phoenix and the soon to be built LA stadium or even vegas game if they ever build the stadium they want)

The two conferences start their tv network that is on basic cable in every major market from california to texas. 40 million subscribers at a buck a month is 500 million a year.

The conferences also have a bball challenge of one road and one away game. Scheduling is easy for football as each team gets 4 home and 4 away for bball everyone gets twenty conference games.

They could also have a bball tourney that takes the top 16 teams of the two conferences with whatever team wins the tourney they get their conferences auto bid and the reg season champ of the other conference get the other autobid

This way there are no more mouths to feed than before. The new network, the cool bball tournament and football champ game put boatloads of cash in all their pockets and they are on the same level money wise as the sec and the big11

[Hot Lunch]

I don't like this at all. I don't mind 12 league teams, but anything bigger destroys the perception that cfb has that it is still authentic.

college basketball is ruined because it is more of a stepping stone for players who want to go to the nba. pro basketball is ruined because it is primadonnas making too much money and getting calls their way because of who they are.

college football will be exposed for being all about greed and corruption with this expansion to huge mega conferences. it already is, but because it isn't so overt, we fans still buy off on the notion that it's about tradition, student athletes, and rivalries. it isn't. now it's about money and money and money, traditions-be-damned!!!!

i see the demise of my favorite sport with this.

Very well said. I am geeked about expansion. I want it to happen. I want to see both Utah and BYU running with the big dogs of college football. I just wish all leagues were only going to 12 teams. I don't think think the super conference is good for college football. I hope I am wrong if in deed all these rumors play out.

[pellegrino]

And the plot thickens as Mizzou and Nebraska have been given an ultimatum to decide what their future will be.

http://www.statesman.com/sports/nebr...es-729660.html

[LA Ute]

Reality check: Am I too fatalistic in thinking there is nothing Utah and BYU can do but watch this unfold? Is there any positioning or maneuvering they can do? I think not, but thought I'd ask what everyone else thinks.

[Babs]

Very well said. I am geeked about expansion. I want it to happen. I want to see both Utah and BYU running with the big dogs of college football. I just wish all leagues were only going to 12 teams. I don't think think the super conference is good for college football. I hope I am wrong if in deed all these rumors play out.

It's absolutely absurd. And the subtle irony is that the existing conferences were supposed to be the "super conferences" when they formed fifteen years ago.

A Chain Reaction of College Expansion Events Sweeps Nation

Los Angeles Times - Los Angeles, Calif.
Author: KEN MURRAY
Date: Jul 15, 1990
Start Page: 11
Section: Sports; PART-C; Sports Desk
Text Word Count: 1174

Metro, 8 more schools talk of superconference
Date: June 29, 1990 Publication: The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta Constitution Page Number: G/7 Word Count: 411

Representatives of the eight Metro Conference schools and officials from eight Eastern schools are exploring the possibility of forming a superconference that would include 35 percent of the nation's football television audience. The Eastern schools are Miami, West Virginia, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, East Carolina, Temple and Boston College. The proposed superconference would be split into two eight-team divisions for football and two six-team divisions for basketball and

BIG 12, ANYONE? WELL, IT'LL MAKE FOR GREAT TV, BUT SUPER LEAGUE FACES MANY PROBLEMS

Published on February 27, 1994. Article 1 of 1 found.
SOURCE: B.G. BROOKS
ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS STAFF WRITER
America has a new super-conference, which at the moment has neither a name nor a clue.

But for all its unsolved issues, the league has oodles of potential for producing "blockbuster games"(the words of a rival commissioner) and sneaking into as many households (via TV) as Beavis &Butthead.

It will be a conference that will produce an annual national championship contender in football and

I'm impressed with that last line about the big 12. Note that it will produce a contender...not an actual champion. How prescient. lol.

[SeattleUte]

Here's what I don't get. Baton Rouge is 420 highway miles from Austin, Fayetteville about 450 miles away, even Gainesville is just 900 miles and change away. If you've been in that part of the world, you realize that Texas is, yes, essentially a southern, not a western state. (For me, love of the death penalty is a handy rule of thumb.)

So, Texas wants to be in a Super Conference. Why is it fooling around with this crazy-quilt pac 10/Texas schools scenario? Texas, Oklahoma, A&M and the rest of them should just go join the SEC. Does Texas think it's that much better than Florida? Another well-endowed AAU school with vast athletic resources and a hugely populous state. A Florida-Texas axis > California > an expanded Big 10 (for sports, that is).

What am I missing?

[New Mexican Disaster]

Here's what I don't get. Baton Rouge is 420 highway miles from Austin, Fayetteville about 450 miles away, even Gainesville is just 900 miles and change away. If you've been in that part of the world, you realize that Texas is, yes, essentially a southern, not a western state. (For me, love of the death penalty is a handy rule of thumb.)

So, Texas wants to be in a Super Conference. Why is it fooling around with this crazy-quilt pac 10/Texas schools scenario? Texas, Oklahoma, A&M and the rest of them should just go join the SEC. Does Texas think it's that much better than Florida? Another well-endowed AAU school with vast athletic resources and a hugely populous state. A Florida-Texas axis > California > an expanded Big 10 (for sports, that is).

What am I missing?

It seems as though Texas may have to make a choice since the Big 12 may implode around them and the PAc-10 may the one with a standing offer that keeps rivalries intact. Besides if Texas were to be in a conference like the one being described it should dominate it-which would not be so easy in the SEC.

[SeattleUte]

It seems as though Texas may have to make a choice since the Big 12 may implode around them and the PAc-10 may the one with a standing offer that keeps rivalries intact. Besides if Texas were to be in a conference like the one being described it should dominate it-which would not be so easy in the SEC.

I think your last sentence is the key. The Pac 10 is making itself look foolish, pathic. Meanwhile, the SEC is playing indifferent. Texas is listening to suitors who will flatter it. But it's the SEC that can have Texas if it really wants it. In the end that's the safest bet for Texas. Then the Pac 10 will have to do what it can to make the best of the situation. Maybe it should consider retaining its long cultivated aloof identity. Be yourself, Pac 10.

[myboynoah]

Here's what I don't get. Baton Rouge is 420 highway miles from Austin, Fayetteville about 450 miles away, even Gainesville is just 900 miles and change away. If you've been in that part of the world, you realize that Texas is, yes, essentially a southern, not a western state. (For me, love of the death penalty is a handy rule of thumb.)

So, Texas wants to be in a Super Conference. Why is it fooling around with this crazy-quilt pac 10/Texas schools scenario? Texas, Oklahoma, A&M and the rest of them should just go join the SEC. Does Texas think it's that much better than Florida? Another well-endowed AAU school with vast athletic resources and a hugely populous state. A Florida-Texas axis > California > an expanded Big 10 (for sports, that is).

What am I missing?

What NMD said + $$$.

[SeattleUte]

What NMD said + $$$.

A realigned SEC as I propose would make more money than this freak show Scott is supposed to be comtemplating.

Here is my prediction: By the time this is over the Pac 10 will have slaughtered Scott and fed him to birds and dogs. This former head of the women's pro tennis association strikes me as an overly self-important little prick. I've neve seen anyone who thinks he's so smart and powerful but only makes $1.7 M a year in LA.

By the way, none of this is rocket science. It's arithmetic and common sense. Scott is desperate is what he is.

[Guest]

I think your last sentence is the key. The Pac 10 is making itself look foolish, pathic. Meanwhile, the SEC is playing indifferent. Texas is listening to suitors who will flatter it. But it's the SEC that can have Texas if it really wants it. In the end that's the safest bet for Texas. Then the Pac 10 will have to do what it can to make the best of the situation. Maybe it should consider retaining its long cultivated aloof identity. Be yourself, Pac 10.

It is odd to see the PAC 10 run around trying to grab middle-tier Big XII teams - I know it's only to get UT, but still. I'm sure the Tournament of Roses can't wait for the possibility of the Red Raiders rolling into town. Or who here isn't waiting with anticipation for that storied TAMU vs. Oregon State rivalry to be renewed once again!

[Babs]

Here's the thing with Texas

1: Texas has virtually zero allegiance to the Big 12. Of over a hundred years of Big 6/7/8/12 history, Texas has only been a member since the last decade.

2. Texas already watched as this happened with the SWC. They see all the signs again here with the Big 12, and they don't want to risk being left in a lesser or crippled conference. Nobody wants to be the biggest rat on a sinking ship.

3. As far as why they'd go west versus east...that I can't quite figure. There's a lot more history with the SEC teams. The only thing I can guess is that they feel there's more opportunity for success out west, or that the Pac-24 is offering them some really sweet deal.

[Babs]

It is odd to see the PAC 10 run around trying to grab middle-tier Big XII teams - I know it's only to get UT, but still. I'm sure the Tournament of Roses can't wait for the possibility of the Red Raiders rolling into town. Or who here isn't waiting with anticipation for that storied TAMU vs. Oregon State rivalry to be renewed once again!

That's what I hate about these realignments. You lose rivalries that have been around since the inception of the sport. Remember when you were a kid and Oklahoma would play Nebraska every year on Thanksgiving? Ever wonder where it went? Well, ABC dropped the game from its Thanksgiving lineup when the Big 12 conference formed, because the teams now only play each other every other year. Under a new conference alignment, they won't play each other at all.