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Will be interesting to see if it can be structured in a way that puts football outside of the equation for Title IX. Might shake up the landscape of which sports are offered across the board.
I swear I have to take ketamine to play on this message board. I meant to say that Husker fandom outside of Nebraska creates excess viewership beyond its population base.
I swear I have to take ketamine to play on this message board. I meant to say that Husker fandom outside of Nebraska creates excess viewership beyond its population base.
Isn’t the inevitable next step in all this consolidation getting rid of the teams that provide no value? How long until the TV execs order the Big Ten to axe a Northwestern or have the SEC kick Vandy to the curb? — Dan in Los Angeles
It’s absolutely the inevitable next step.
The Big Ten is a TV property now. Fox, which owns 61 percent of the Big Ten Network, now controls the conference’s entire TV rights. Fox had a big hand in getting USC and UCLA out of the Pac-12 and into the Big Ten. And when Oregon and Washington found themselves in flux last week, Fox kicked in the necessary money to make it happen — mostly so they could have more Friday night and late-night Saturday games.
The Pac-12 died so that a TV network could get a 1.0 rating for a Friday night Oregon–Minnesota game.
Fox is a for-profit business. It doesn’t care about preserving rivalries or kicking Oregon State and Washington State fans in the stomach. It cares about ratings and ad dollars. And if it really wanted to maximize both, its dream scenario would be a world where Ohio State plays its entire schedule against Michigan, Penn State, USC, Oregon, and never Rutgers, Northwestern, Indiana or Purdue.
The last barrier of defense is university presidents, who I want to believe would not cross that line. But as I’ve said many, many times, the likely end game here is not the Big Ten or SEC acting alone, but an outside entity with a few billion dollars to play with — be it the networks, be it Apple, be it a venture capital firm — putting together an English Premier League of college football with the top 24-32 brands across the sport (most of whom now reside in the Big Ten or SEC).
I’d recommend reading the book “The Club,” about the 1990s origins of the Premier League. You’ll see how eerily similar the circumstances that led to its creation were.
The Big 12 offering Texas and OU an outsized share of tv revenue to try to keep them in the gold was a giant warning sign for the death spiral that college athletics is potentially going to enter into over the next decade or so
We are told Notre Dame is pushing hard for the additions of Stanford and Cal.
That the Irish have full voting rights in the first place is a story unto itself. Because it feels like Notre Dame's loyalty and commitment to the ACC is about as real and meaningful as Lennay Kekua.
Even when you detach yourself from seeing Clemson's side of things, objectively this feels like a problem.
"It's definitely odd," a highly-placed contact said today when we expressed our incredulity.
We are told Notre Dame is pushing hard for the additions of Stanford and Cal.
That the Irish have full voting rights in the first place is a story unto itself. Because it feels like Notre Dame's loyalty and commitment to the ACC is about as real and meaningful as Lennay Kekua.
Even when you detach yourself from seeing Clemson's side of things, objectively this feels like a problem.
"It's definitely odd," a highly-placed contact said today when we expressed our incredulity.
Giving a team that is not fully committed to the conference and won't join for football a full vote to add teams for football is the most ACC thing ever.
With this news, if I ran the B1G I'd schedule a 3-way conference call with Cal, Stanford and Notre Dame tomorrow.
LHR: "Good morning and thank you for joining the call today. Since I know you're all busy, I'll get straight to the point. First up, Cal. Are you guys going to legitimately invest in being better at sports, or would you prefer to simply focus on being a world class academic institution. There's no shame in going the University of Chicago route. I need an answer in 30 seconds ... OK, you're out? Thanks for being honest, and we wish you nothing but success in the future."
<Cal has left the conference call>
LHR Continues: "With Cal off the table, this leaves Stanford and Notre Dame as our last two potential conference mates until 2036. Since one of you will be accretive to revenue and one of you will be dilutive to revenue, the Conference and it's media partners can welcome you both with a lucrative package, But to be clear, it's a package deal.
STILL LHR: "And now, we'd like to hear from Stanford. Same question ... but you have five minutes of deliberation time, though I don't think you'll need it. You're smart folks and I'm sure you've already war gamed this one. While you talk amongst yourselves for a bit ...
Attention Notre Dame: While we're waiting for Stanford to give us a final answer, this is your very last opportunity ever to receive an invitation to the Big Ten Conference. Presuming Stanford says yes in 4 1/2 minutes ... and they will ... this gives you many of your historical rivals under one roof and a chance to belong to the most lucrative athletic and academic consortium in the history of American Universities. I know you cherish your status as an Independent, but 1930 called and it wants its ... a fuck it. Never mind. Yes or no?
If a knothead like me can see this scenario, surely the smart guys and gals who run these institutions can.