The Big 10 Expansion Groundswell

[Jeff Lebowski]

I'm going to be honest, I think this really sucks. The history of American football began with intercollegiate competition. There has been relative stability for generations, and now the Pac will be gone, the B10 is a coast-to-coast conference, and the B12 and ACC's days are essentially numbered.

We're heading toward three super conferences, and even if BYU or Utah can make that cut, when it goes to two, I don't really see a path forward for either. Again, kind of shitty.

Here you go. You have earned it.

[All-American]

I'm going to be honest, I think this really sucks. The history of American football began with intercollegiate competition. There has been relative stability for generations, and now the Pac will be gone, the B10 is a coast-to-coast conference, and the B12 and ACC's days are essentially numbered.

We're heading toward three super conferences, and even if BYU or Utah can make that cut, when it goes to two, I don't really see a path forward for either. Again, kind of shitty.

Agreed. When BYU fans started dancing on the PAC's grave on the announcement of USC and UCLA leaving, I could never bring myself to feel the same. Even if it is slightly worse for Utah than it is bad for college football as a whole, it is still bad for college football as a whole.

[Green Monstah]

Here you go. You have earned it.

Who used to be the namesake for the emojI before topper?

[Clark Addison]

Who used to be the namesake for the emojI before topper?

LiveCoug?

[falafel]

LiveCoug?

That's right.

[Applejack]

Agreed. When BYU fans started dancing on the PAC's grave on the announcement of USC and UCLA leaving, I could never bring myself to feel the same. Even if it is slightly worse for Utah than it is bad for college football as a whole, it is still bad for college football as a whole.

Agreed. While I hate to see usc and ucla leave the pac for midwestern farmers daughters, I really hate that this means the end of any sort of regional rivalries in college football.

A lot of Utah fans have been dancing on byus independent grave, and now the dancing shoes appear to be changing feet; but I think all of this schaudenfraud is just a mask from what is really happening: the college football scene is contracting and Utah/byu are probably left out in the end.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Agreed. While I hate to see usc and ucla leave the pac for midwestern farmers daughters, I really hate that this means the end of any sort of regional rivalries in college football.

A lot of Utah fans have been dancing on byus independent grave, and now the dancing shoes appear to be changing feet; but I think all of this schaudenfraud is just a mask from what is really happening: the college football scene is contracting and Utah/byu are probably left out in the end.

You get one too.

[Green Monstah]

You get one too.

:unicornpoopingrainbowsherbet:

[All-American]

Agreed. While I hate to see usc and ucla leave the pac for midwestern farmers daughters, I really hate that this means the end of any sort of regional rivalries in college football.

A lot of Utah fans have been dancing on byus independent grave, and now the dancing shoes appear to be changing feet; but I think all of this schaudenfraud is just a mask from what is really happening: the college football scene is contracting and Utah/byu are probably left out in the end.

I do not think either Utah or BYU get left out when the music stops playing. I think it all ends with about 60 or so teams in and the rest out, with both BYU and Utah making the cut.

Interesting side note: just about every major professional sports league in the US, which expands if and only if the private owners believe it maximizes their value to do so, end up with about 30 teams (NFL and NHL are at 32, while NBA and MLB are at 30). One might think that is the cutoff college football is ultimately working toward. I think that is probably not right; college football is a different product, competing as much on the basis of affiliation and connection with fans' alma maters than on the quality of the product itself (or else the NFL would have completely destroyed it by now). So, adding teams adds fans that are particular to that university rather than dividing already existing fans among others who are just fans of the sport. E.g., including an Indiana among the top echelon of CFB would add thousands of fans who are not otherwise watching or going to the Notre Dame game.

Looking at attendance rankings as a rough and poor proxy. When you look at teams ranked between 50 and 75 in attendance, you see not only schools that are lower-level P5s (Vanderbilt, Washington State, etc.) but others that were recently brought into P5 conferences (Houston, Cincinnati, UCF) and still others that were poached by other P5 conferences (Rutgers, Maryland). I take that as evidence, however nebulous, that these (and the teams with even higher attendance) are value adding.

https://collegefootballnews.com/2020...ram-analysis/3

If you blew everything up and started from scratch, adding as many teams that contributed to the pot by including them, I think you'd end up with 60 or so teams, including BYU and Utah. Now you have to factor in transaction costs and existing institutions, but where there's money to be made I feel like that sorts itself out in the long run. In the meantime, the state of Utah is rising in population, and BYU benefits not only from that but also from the church population. So, they'll ride out the storm just fine in the end.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Thank you, AA. I have been preaching the same thing.

[Art Vandelay]

The other thing that bodes well for BYU and to a lesser extent Utah is football capitalism doesn’t even pretend to care about social issues nor. to SU’s chagrin, academics. BYU brings eyeballs and wallets. Utah brings…umm….losing well attended big games? Both schools are in top 50

[Uncle Ted]

The B1G may be done expanding:

Embedded Tweet

Cool... Oregon and UW can just jump to the Big 12 now.

[myboynoah]

Thank you, AA. I have been preaching the same thing.

Yes. Good heavens, they are expadning the playoff. Why? Because of all the money that can be made. They can now capture some of the magic that we see every year in the BB tournament; the possibility that a smaller school with fewer resources will knock off one of the big boys. Can't market that if you limit the possibilities to only 40 schools. AA is correct. College Football is a different animal.

And it puzzles me to see uofutah fans, and even BYU Fans, complain about the loss of regional rivalries. Huh?!?!?!?!? Really?!?!?!?

[All-American]

Yes. Good heavens, they are expadning the playoff. Why? Because of all the money that can be made. They can now capture some of the magic that we see every year in the BB tournament; the possibility that a smaller school with fewer resources will knock off one of the big boys. Can't market that if you limit the possibilities to only 40 schools. AA is correct. College Football is a different animal.

And it puzzles me to see uofutah fans, and even BYU Fans, complain about the loss of regional rivalries. Huh?!?!?!?!? Really?!?!?!?

By the way, I also see the gravitation by national monopolies toward the average of 31 teams as clear evidence that if we were maximizing consumer surplus (as would happen in a competitive maket), the optimal number of franchises in any one of these four leagues-- certainly the NFL-- is much, much higher than 31.

[Flystripper]

:unicornpoopingrainbowsherbet:

I read that as U-n-I-corn-poopin-grain-bows-herbert I have to ask why is Gary Herbert taking a bow as you and I poop grain corn.

Sorry. I am tired and delirious. Its been a rough couple of weeks at work