The Big 12 expansion groundswell

[Uncle Ted]

why is this LHN thing so poorly executed? How could they not have all of this in place prior to launch?

Because Texas is not BYU.

[Blueintheface]

More from Chip Brown on the Texas-BYU game going to the LHN...



Does anyone need some extra tickets to the Texas game? Price is going up.

A completely different subject but whatever happened to the notion that with BYUtv now showing live sporting events it would lose it's not-for-profit status and thus be removed from distribution? Did I dream that?

[Surfah]

why is this LHN thing so poorly executed? How could they not have all of this in place prior to launch?

Like I said in another thread the LHN launch has been like the Mtn. No distribution and on the Texas boards they're all talking about flooding the cable companies with calls pleading for it and threatening to take business elsewhere. Also lots of posts about sports bars that will have it as Verizon FiOS is the only major carrier right now I believe.

[WashingtonCoug]

That game ending up only on the LHN would be unforgivable in my mind. If Holmoe isn't working on getting BYU into the BIG XII, he sure as hell better be working on making sure that game stays on ESPN2. The schedule sucks as it is. Losing probably the premier game of the season in the first season of independence would not be a good sign.

[falafel]

Spencer Checketts:

"According to @schadjoe on @SportsCenter just now, it is "unlikely" that BYU will get Big 12 invite. So yeah, take that however you want."

:swear:

[TripletDaddy]

Like I said in another thread the LHN launch has been like the Mtn. No distribution and on the Texas boards they're all talking about flooding the cable companies with calls pleading for it and threatening to take business elsewhere. Also lots of posts about sports bars that will have it as Verizon FiOS is the only major carrier right now I believe.

this is what I thought of, too. The mtn part dos.

aTm has looked silly over the past month or so but Texas is looking somewhat incompetent with the broadcast scheduling of their flagship station.

Meanwhile, I have been enjoying streaming HD of women's soccer on my iPad

[UteStar]

I am honored to have played a part in it. I suppose all of you are enjoying this circus from your comfortable Pac-12 perch.

Actually, my post was directed at YOhio who came up with the 'tweet' gem. Your post is food for thought...though it probably broke many Y fans hearts.

[Coach McGuirk]

THey made a statue of Sam Bradford, apparently designed right after being hit by colby claussen,

[dabrockster]

And the hammer hits the nail.

That is the great trap, DDD. They would, of course, say basically the same thing. So, we have naturally let ourselves get whipped up into a frenzy because lots of commentators are saying BYU is a top candidate, and a few internet posts labeled as inside info (my own included) have popped up.

So, while BYU may very well be a "top candidate," none of us really has any idea what that means. And, it may very well be 95 percent business as usual at BYU, while the message boards boil over with nothing but a self-created heat source.

I think your post caused a stir because it seems to go against the grain and to me seemed stretched to cause a stir. A throw out question at a luncheon with a bunch of professors is not what I would consider an inside source nor truly what would be said behind closed doors.. It was a deflector response and that's all it was...

[dixdog]

I decided a couple of days ago that I was done making any contributions to that other board at least until this whole expansion hooplah was worked out. The amount of traffic that board receives does give it advantages in some situations, and I guess I would be at least partially dishonest if I said I didn't enjoy the having a lot of people read my stuff when I have some worthwhile stuff to put together - I am a former news reporter after all. But, too much noise and too much controversy (of a general adolescent type) hit a tipping point in the last couple of weeks, so, I went on cougarboard vacation and decided to spend my unproductive hours on the more quiet, quaint CUF.

At any rate, I heard about the lunch involving Samuelson from someone I would never consider a "source" - it was a marketing professor at the Marriott School. Apparently a bunch of the business/marketing faculty had a lunch meeting with the president yesterday to discuss some proposed changes to some undegraduate curriculum/program, and they also talked about things like trying to expand the size of the MBA program, etc.

Samuelson opened the meeting up for questions at some point and, naturally, one of the faculty asked if he could comment on the football conference situation.

Now, I don't know if this professor had the quote exactly word-for-word correct, but it was clear that there wasn't a lot of ambiguity in the answer - "We are not joining the Big 12."

Mostly over on the other board (but a little bit here as well), there seems to be this bubble of hype that has turned into a deafening echo chamber. Through different back-channel leaks and Chip Brown-esque links, there's this impression that everything at BYU is in total lock-down mode and there is something building towards an inevitable "official" announcement or hour of decision with gargantuan implications.

When I heard the professor's report about the lunch, what it made me realize more than anything is that this bubble of hype with the expectation of some grand official occurance probably exists merely in our own minds.

As I thought about it more, I realized that nobody at BYU has actually been any more tight-lipped than normal. Nobody appears to be in any kind of lock-down negotiation mode. Holmoe has spoken a couple of times to the media just as he normally does this time of year, and nobody has overtly dodged any questions or denied any request to comment. Over and over again this month the answer has been what it has been for a year - "we're happy with independence and we're fully committed to it" - with the usual, "we'll see what the future holds," caveat.

I think it's reasonable to conclude that the Big 12 and BYU have had some discussions with each other recently, but who's to say one or both parties have concluded that there will be no invitation/acceptance right now, for whatever speculative reason?

Sure, there might be a few additional phone conversations back and forth, here and there, but if the gist of it was that BYU is going to stay independent for now, would there ever be any kind of official yes/no announcement? I think it's extremely doubtful there would be. A few people discredited my "rumor" immediately because they couldn't believe the president would speak so "haphazardly" to a group when "no official announcement has been made!"

Well, in fact, lots of "official statements" have been made since about this time last year, and they've all indicated that BYU isn't going anywhere.

Now, I suppose there could be ongoing discussions/negotiations and the answer could swing from yes to no, or vice versa in the near future. But, my own personal conclusion is that things aren't nearly as hot and heavy over at BYU as some of us have let ourselves believe.

So, to conclude this rambling post, I will defend completely what I posted yesterday. The lunch meeting absolutely happened, and I believe with 99 percent assurity that Samuelson pretty unambiguously said that BYU is not joining the Big 12. I'm sure some may come back with a plate full of crow for me to eat if BYU does accept an invitation soon. Frankly, I don't care. I didn't say it, Samuelson did. So I would recommend speculating on why he would say that if it wasn't actually true, rather than making waves towards some pretty inconsequential message board junky like myself.

My major problem with what you wrote has nothing to do with whether we go to the Big 12. If BYU looks at all the options and decides we should stay indepedent, then I am fine.

However, it disturbs me that Pres. Samuelson would say something as arrogant as what he is alleged to have said.

The WCC was a back up plan. If BYU doesn't go to the Big 12 just because it wants people to know that BYU does what it says, then I say BYU is messed up. that is nothing but pride. BYU will be cutting its nose off to spite its face.

[PolyCougar]

CB sleuths turn up charter flight from Addison TX (15 minutes from B12 HQ) to Provo this morning.

This is it!

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/LXJ327

Ummm.... that kinda freaks me out.

IMHO, I don't really see why everyone is treating the Big 12 as dead. The individual and regional networks under the umbrella of a conference and Network partnership is the new way for all of this. ESPN knows this, hence the new move to ESPN:Boston, Dallas, blah blah blah. It'll take a couple years to prove it. But when other schools realize that they have been giving money to everybody to keep everybody else alive, and they could've help improved their own bottom-line, especially in the world of education funding cutbacks... I feel you'll see a dramatic shift in the way things are done. Now I could be wrong, they all may like sharing and helping the little guy even if it cuts into what they could have, in kind of a socialistic setup.

The PAC-12's regional networks was a pretty smart move for itself, I just wonder how equal the revenue sharing will be seen when the ratings sheets come in, and it's obvious that California's schools deserve the majority of the revenue, and everybody else is living large off of them. BIG 12 is setting up closer to the National broadcasters and affiliates system (like NBC-to-KSL) where the local affiliate still airs what it wants depending on whats in the contract (KSL says no to SNL and the new Playboy show). Or maybe closer to a network cable deal, now that I think of it, like Turner owning TBS, TNT, CNN, etc... and they all still function as their own entity.

I think the Big 12 model is the way of the future, if it gets a couple years to show the possibilities. I think all the schools in the conference should be encouraged to start their own networks. All the schools will know immediately what they're worth. You win, and your ratings go up. When I was at KSL our ratings went through the roof in 2001 (thanks Brandon and Luke... and pretty little bonus check for our ratings boost), and I think any school would see spikes in interest if they win, which Boise, BYU, Utah, and TCU have proven that you can do even when the cards are stacked against you.

To me conference alignment will be more for recruiting because of which homes you get close too (all kids want to show off for the home-town). That's actually one reason why I think A&M is shooting itself in the foot while Ol' Miss, and Arkansas are salivating at the chance to recruit better in Texas.

Long story short, markets and TV sets will be the driving force for super-conferences, and the Big-12 model or a hybrid of the PAC-12's regional setup will probably be what lives with them... if the super-64 happens... which I think it will. But anyway... I'm just rambling and typing a lot of periods at the end of sentences now...

[LiveCoug]

Schad says that Pitt is the number one target to replace aTm.

[Jacob]

A completely different subject but whatever happened to the notion that with BYUtv now showing live sporting events it would lose it's not-for-profit status and thus be removed from distribution? Did I dream that?

Yeah, you kinda did. I can't think of any reason showing a live sporting event would affect their non-profit status, so the concern was just some fans who are not knowledgeable about non-profits.

Can you think of any reason a live sporting even would be prohibited while a live dancing event would not be?

[Blueintheface]

Schad says that Pitt is the number one target to replace aTm.

Quick, someone find out where Schad went to school.

[TripletDaddy]

Im confused. Here is a SportsCenter Schad interview here. This is from today.

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/st...new-conference

However, he indicates that BYU or TCU makes sense for the B12.