Yeah that really worked out for Calipari.
Posted on 06/04/2010 6:39:38 AM PDT by C19fan
With realignment seemingly on the way to major college football, there seems to be a new and intriguing alignment thrown out daily.
The latest came Thursday in the form of a report from Orangebloods.com (a Rivals.com member), which said the Pac-10 is prepared to offer membership to six Big 12 schools to form a mega 16-team conference that would cover the western half of the country and break into seven of the nation's top 20 television markets.
According to the report, the Pac-10 is all but ready to extend invitations to Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech and Colorado by the conclusion of its spring meetings slated to take place this weekend in San Francisco.
(Excerpt) Read more at ncaafootball.fanhouse.com ...
It sounds like this is a contingency plan in the event Nebraska and Missouri jump to the Big 10.
This would be a major blow to Baylor. Their football revenue comes from shared purses and counting on big turnouts from visiting schools. When they play Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska and A&M at home, the visiting fans outnumber the home fans. Except for one brief, shining moment about 40 years ago, Baylor has never had a successful football program, but has pulled in the big dollars by being in major conferences. If they get left out in the shuffle, they might be able to move into one of the other lower profile conferences, but the revenues would go through the floor. Geographically, they're in a great place. Texas, A&M, TCU, and SMU are all within easy driving distance. Baylor considers Texas and A&M to be their big rivals. However, A&M considers Texas to be it's big rival, and Texas considers Oklahoma to be it's big rival. Whatever package is worked out, Texas, A&M and Oklahoma will be together. Baylor and Tech would love to stay attached to these schools, but those three are the cash cows of the Big 12 South.
The other teams that would be left out in the cold are Kansas, Kansas State, and Iowa. Missouri would come out pretty well on this, particularly considering that in terms of sports success, they're the weakest of the Big 12 teams (Baylor is competitive in practically everything except football.)
It looks like another landscape change for college football.
TCU should talk to Jerry Jones about using Cowboys Stadium and do a major advertising push in the metroplex. What holds them back right now is stadium size and the absence of fans. Baylor has an excuse that their home market area is around 250,000 people. TCU is in an area with around 8-10 million people, and no dominant college football team taking mindshare. TCU could fill that gap with a couple of more good seasons and a good marketing program.
... and break into seven of the nation's top 20 television markets.
Texas is ranked high academically in a lot of different disciplines, as is A&M. Texas and Oklahoma have national followings, and the A&M fan base is rabid. T. Boone Pickens has dumped a ton of money into Oklahoma State, and their program is on the rise. The Pac 10 would take Tech to get Texas. In terms of both on field performance and academic standings, Texas is the jewel. Oklahoma is valuable because of the national following. When the Southwest Conference broke up, it's my understanding that Texas and A&M wanted to go to the Pac 10 and the Pac 10 made an offer. Ann Richards killed that deal because the Pac 10 wouldn't take Baylor. She's also the reason Baylor got into the Big 12 instead of TCU.
The thing that bugs me is that Kansas and Kansas State may end up outside the BCS after the reshuffling.
I know we are fly over country but come on, there is no place in the BCS for Kansas basketball? It’s a freaking travesty!
That comment was in response to someone mentioning the Pac-10 should invite some of the west of the Rockies schools like San Diego State instead of the major Big 12 powerhouses.
The basis of the network contracts is how strong a football package the conferences can put on the table. In basketball, the conference isn't as important, because in the tournament, anybody who's good enough is going to be there anyway.
Except for football and basketball (and basketball is a way weak sister,) all other sports either break even or have a low profit margin. Almost all women's sports are there to satisfy Title IX requirements.
Crap - I don’t like change.
Besides, “One and Done” is killing college basketball. Of course the alternative is basically letting the best players go straight to the NBA.
I thought the other sports are money losers and the big 2 sports subisidse the others.
One and done is an absolute joke. Only benefits slimball coaches like Calipari.
Yeah that really worked out for Calipari.
There are under the table payments, but if a kid is good enough to play even a couple of seasons in the NBA, he's got the dollars to attend any school in the country for four years as a full time student and still have money left over. Right now, it's my understanding that a bunch of the kids who have NBA prospects are taking easy first semester courses and then just signing up for second semester and never even showing up for class.
Last year, on ESPN Classic, they showed the "big shootout" between Texas and Arkansas. Several things struck me. The first was that the offensive linemen were smaller than current running backs. The second was that there were no black players. The third was that they listed the majors of the players. Many of them were pre-law, pre-med, engineering, and other solid, tough majors. Today, it seems like everyone is a communications major, if they mention their majors at all.
The landscape of college sports has changed dramatically. Anybody remember in the 1960s when Notre Dame wouldn't play in bowl games because they interfered with finals?
If they keep the costs down, other sports can break even. Yes, though, a lot of college sports do lose money. I remember Bo Schembechler getting grilled because he had an indoor training field for Michigan. They asked him if he felt guilty when the women’s sports didn’t have nearly as good equipment. He said no, cause my football team pays the freight for all those other programs, anyway.
If Bo made a comment like that today he might would of been kicked out of Ann Arbor, hee hee.
I wonder where Iowa State and Nebraska would go for wrestling if they were the only two left in the Big XII with it. I would guess they petition hard to be a wrestling member of the Big 10. The only other geographic option would be the Western Wrestling Conference, which even with them in it wouldn’t have a lot of qualifiers.
Exactly. This has ramifications across all college sports.
I think this will be the end of college athletic conferences as we know them. Each sport will basically have their own conference setup.
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