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We won't be grabbed by anyone.... Conferences think in TV markets, not realistic fan bases (hence FIU and UNT in CUSA) . They already get Memphis market and Arkansas dominates Little Rock market. Besides, I'd rather stay in a regional conference like the SBC.
Where do we stand on expansion?
Imagine John Swofford sitting behind his desk at ACC headquarters in Greensboro, NC. Swofford, stunned by Maryland’s sudden departure and concerned over rumors of growing unrest in the ACC, calls the presidents of every member institution to “sound them out” on signing a grant of rights.
His first call is to Eric Barron at FSU. The conversation initially lightens Swofford’s mood. He smiles broadly as Barron reaffirms FSU’s commitment to the ACC. He becomes practically giddy as FSU endorsees Swofford’s recommendation to add both UCONN & Louisville to the ACC. Swofford is feeling good again; that is until he asks about the grant of rights.
Barron says no to the grant of rights and he’s not alone. Stunningly UVA and Georgia Tech also say no.
Virginia Tech tells Swofford they will sign the grant of rights but only if FSU and UVA sign it.
Miami says no.
Clemson hems and haws and says they will think about it.
UNC says yes but they want to be the last that signs. They want their signature to be the one the cements the future of the ACC.
Some endorse the idea of a grant of rights immediately. They do not matter in this tale. It’s enough to say that Swofford will not propose a grant of rights.
What matters most in this tale of woe is what happens next.
In Charlottesville, VA Teresa Sullivan’s phone rings. 40 minutes later and 540 miles away Bud Peterson’s cell phone begins to chime.
Both brighten when they hear the news Jim Delany has for them.
That is all.
Now let’s play fact or fiction…
Fact or Fiction: The ACC’s TV contract pays a paltry $15 million per year for 15 years.
Fact. Barry Svrluga and Alex Prewitt reported in the Washington Post that “…In May, the ACC signed a new television deal with ESPN that will bring in roughly $15 million per school annually through 2027. “
When the ACC TV deal was originally announced FSU and others were very unhappy with the terms including the back loading of disbursements. What we didn’t know then that we do now is the annual revenue is set at $15 million per year per team for 15 years with one lump sum payment in 2027.”
Keep in mind that $15 million number includes T3 rights and endorsement rights to the ACC championship game and basketball tournament.
As the current TV contracts stands the gap between the ACC and the Big 12 is $6 per year without the $40 from the Sugar Bowl factored in or the money available to the Big 12 for a conference championship game.
The current gap between the ACC and the Big 10 is $9 million and that will skyrocket when the Big 10′s forthcoming new contract.
The gap between the ACC and the SEC could be anywhere from $15 to $20 million per year.
Fact or Fiction: Swoffod will try and push a grant of rights on the ACC.
Fiction. Swofford doesn’t have the support for a grant of rights and without all parties being a signatory to the agreement it’s worth nothing.
Fact or Fiction: Clemson has agreed to sign a grant of rights.
Fiction. Clemson has not agreed to sign a grant of rights. However Clemson does fear being left out if the Big 10 invites UNC instead of Georgia Tech and is waiting to see what happens before deciding on a course of action.
Fact or Fiction: The Big 10 prefers Georgia Tech to UNC.
Fact. The Big 10 prefers Georgia Tech over UNC for several reasons. The Atlanta DMA is #9 (2,292,640 TV homes) in the country whereas the Raleigh-Durham DMA is #24th (1,143,420 TV homes).
Academics play a role in the Big 10’s preference over UNC too. According to the National Science Foundation Higher Education Research & Development rankings, (widely considered to be a more accurate reflection of academic prowess than the popular U.S. News & World Report rankings) UNC and Georgia Tech are close enough in R&D expenditures (UNC: 755,284 – GT: 615,833) to be virtually tied.
With academic prestige deadlocked the tiebreaker is TV market and Georgia Tech wins the 16th spot in the Big 10.
Fact or Fiction: Virginia Tech is committed to the ACC.
Fact. Virginia Tech is committed to the ACC until UVA announces their intentions to join the Big 10. Then the lure of SEC money and the freedom of moving on without UVA sees them accept Mike Slive’s offer to become Nick Saban’s footstool.
Fact or Fiction: FSU is committed to the ACC.
Fiction FSU president Eric Barron loves the ACC. He really does. He loves the academic reputation of the conference and chance to pal around with UNC and Duke at wine and cheese parties. However his football coach and a good portion of his boosters want out. FSU will bide their time and wait to see if the SEC or Big 10 has an invitation for them and they know they have home in the Big 12 if all else fails.
Fact or Fiction: The Big 12 will be proactive with expansion.
Fact. Unity abounds in the Big 12, but they must wait on the Big 10 destabilize the ACC enough to get who they want. Discussion are ongoing and offers have been made – just not to UL yet.
Fact or Fiction: ESPN will save the ACC.
Fiction. The Big 10, SEC and Big 12 are all partners with ESPN. Interference from ESPN by paying more than market value for ACC expansion to 16 would be a conflict of interest. ESPN has communicated to all involved they will not have a role in expansion in any way. The ACC is on their own. To those who insist ESPN will throw the ACC a lifeline I ask: If ESPN valued the ACC so much why did they lowball the conference and make them the lowest paid of the major conferences?
http://www.eersauthority.com/expansi...ct-or-fiction/
So what do you think? When the ACC eventually get eaten by the pack of carnivores that are the Big 12, Big Ten and SEC, will the remnants of the Big East and ACC combine? Even after the Big Ten, SEC and Big 12 get done, there will still be some teams in the ACC left searching for a home.
The ACC would end up devouring the remaining teams from the Big East (whoever doesn't get snapped up from the Big 3), so may as well just look at combining the two instead of going through the back and forth crap of ACC taking a couple teams, and then Big East trying to replace them with teams from C-USA, Mountain West, Sun Belt or MAC.
This is also solidifying the need of the NCAA team to allow us to create or delete conferences in-game. The WAC is already dead and gone after this season. Yet we can't delete the WAC in-game. One of either the ACC or Big East will be dead and gone by the end of 2013. Yet we won't be able to delete them in-game. There might be issues with the agreements between the NCAA/individual conferences and EA in regards to the conference in-game and not being able to delete them, but EA needs to get proactive on this.
Rumor: Tulane going to the Big East. Press conference at 1pm.
:fp:
Tulane has next to no mindshare in New Orleans. Only Tulane people care about Tulane and since its a private school with high academic standards, there aren't many Tulane people in a city full of lower income African Americans. This won't help the Big East TV market.
Also, the hits just keep coming. First, we go 0-12 and now fucking TULANE gets invited to play at the bigger kids table. Please let the world end in a month because I can only take so much.
I dunno if I'd call the Big East the bigger kids table :D not any more.
Looks like it's official: Tulane for all sports, East Carolina for football only http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/201...ina/index.html
Fuck. East Carolina too. There goes any chances Tulsa had. :(
So, with no ECU, UCF, Houston, or SMU, the conference should be decided between Tulsa and Southern Miss every year except......well.......0-12.
:bang:
Edit: Forgot about LA Tech. They'll own Southern Miss too.
I really can not believe how far we've fallen so fast. It's surreal!
Maybe the Mountain West will look to expand.Quote:
Originally Posted by SmoothPancakes
Yeah, I was wondering how Tulane got ahead of Tulsa.Quote:
Originally Posted by SmoothPancakes
Idaho & NMSU may get invites to a conference after all (CUSA).
Geez! Gotta say, the stock for the MAC and Sunbelt is up and CUSA's is definitely WAY down.Quote:
Originally Posted by cdj
Maybe. The Mountain West is certainly looking better opponent-wise than C-USA is right now. And Tulsa would fit in rather well logistically with the Mountain West.Quote:
Originally Posted by souljahbill
You and me both. I know that TV markets are pretty much the driving force behind all these moves, but I still held East Carolina, Louisiana Tech and Tulsa as the leaders for getting picked up out of C-USA by the Big East or whoever. I can't believe Tulsa got completely ignored.Quote:
Originally Posted by HWill
May as well honestly. The Mountain West has already basically all but stated they don't want those two and have no intentions of ever picking them up. C-USA is going to need teams if the Big East keeps getting raided, and in turn raids C-USA for new members.Quote:
Originally Posted by cdj
Yep. With the WAC dead and gone (after this season), the way things are going, I'd probably put Sun Belt above C-USA right now in terms of conference ranking, and MAC isn't far behind, especially with East Carolina leaving.Quote:
Originally Posted by souljahbill
At least they don't get stuck without a FBS home with the WAC evaporating.Quote:
Originally Posted by cdj
Cincinnati wants to join ACC
http://espn.go.com/college-sports/st...oin-acc-source
May as well. Ohio State will sure as hell never let them join the Big Ten.
You guys missed the most fun part of the "new" Big East.
Per ESPN, the (current) 13 team Big East will contain 9 former members of C-USA, 2 former members of the Mountain West, 1 former member of the MAC, and, of course, one recently former member of the FCS.
Also, the Big East of 2014(?) will contain only one school that was in the Big East in 2003. That would be Temple. Y'know, the one they kicked out and sent to the MAC.
The Big East is dead. Or at least should be. I don't think there's any carcass to pick clean there, Smooth. I don't think there's anyone, other than Louisville and UConn, that the other conferences would want. Otherwise the other conferences would already have them.
Of course, I don't think the B1G wants G-Tech or UVA either ... but we'll see on that.
Also, that article Natch pasted lost all credibility when they used "Big 10" instead of "Big Ten". :D
Louisville will join the Atlantic Coast Conference, becoming the sixth former Big East school to leave for the ACC, sources told ESPN.
The ACC's presidents and chancellors voted to add the Cardinals Wednesday morning to replace Maryland, which will leave for the Big Ten in 2014.
Louisville is expected to join the ACC in the same season, sources said. Big East rules require a $10 million exit fee and 27 months notice, but the Cardinals -- like several schools before them -- should be able to negotiate a higher buyout to leave before the 27-month period.
The ACC also considered UConn and Cincinnati for membership. However, sources told ESPN the league only wanted Louisville because there is a sense among league presidents that the ACC can add more schools at a later date if the ACC lost any other schools.
The addition of the Cardinals and loss of the Terrapins should provide the ACC an immediate upgrade in football and several areas.
In the past four seasons, Louisville is 27-22, compared to 17-32 by Maryland. Under Coach Charlie Strong, UL is 23-14 in the past three years, including 9-2 this season. The Cardinals can win the Big East title by defeating Rutgers Thursday.
The Cards' future looks strong as well. Of Louisville's 22 starters, only five are seniors compared to 10 sophomore or freshmen starters.
Louisville also has managed to maintain one of the nation's top athletic budgets, despite receiving only $3.2 million annually from the Big East's current media rights deal. The Cardinals' current budget ranks higher than any current ACC member.
In 2011-12, the latest date available from the Office of Postsecondary Education's Equity in Athletics, Louisville had a budget of $84.4 million. The ACC's highest budget was Florida State ($81.4 million), while Maryland's budget was only $57.5 million.
The Cardinals' basketball program will fit in with the ACC's elite basketball programs. Since the 2004-05 school year, Louisville has reached two Final Fours and two Elite Eights.
Louisville is among four current and future ACC schools that have won 20 or more games in each of the past 10 seasons. Only nine schools in Division I have accomplished that, including Duke, Syracuse and Pittsburgh.
Last year, Louisville averaged 21,503 fans, the nation's third-highest number behind only Syracuse and Kentucky. The city of Louisville also has had the nation's highest rated college basketball television market in each of the past 10 years.
Over the last six years, Louisville is the nation's only school that has reached both the men's and women's basketball Final Four, a BCS bowl game, the College World Series and the Men's Soccer College Cup.
The addition of Louisville will not affect the ACC's new media rights deal. When the ACC added Notre Dame in all sports but football in September, sources told ESPN the ACC's media rights deal was expected to increase to about $18 million annually.
When Louisville joins the ACC in 2014, the league would have a 14-team football league in 2014 with Notre Dame a full ACC member in every sport but football.
The ACC will mark Louisville's third football conference since 1996 when it joined Conference USA after being an independent for the past 21 years. UL was in C-USA from 1996-2004 before leaving for the Big East in 2005.
Louisville's departure marks the seventh school in the past year that has announced it is leaving the Big East along with West Virginia, TCU, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Notre Dame and Rutgers.
Because of all the defections, the Big East is scheduled to add nine schools between 2013 and 2015 -- Boise State, San Diego State, SMU, Houston, UCF, Memphis, Tulane, East Carolina and Navy.
Louisville's move to the ACC is the latest in the never-ending musical chairs known as conference realignment. In the past few years, the nation's top five conferences -- SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and ACC -- have announced the addition of 12 new members, causing a wave of disruption among virtually every Division I conference from coast-to-coast.
http://espn.go.com/college-sports/st...ls-source-says
Sources: CUSA adds Middle Tennessee
http://hamptonroads.com/2012/11/sour...ennessee-state
And around and around we go!
MTSU to CUSA confirmed... press conference tomorrow morning.
Personally I don't see where the benefit is unless maybe more money from a TV contract or something.
So wil the Sun Belt entertain the thought of Idaho and New Mexico State, even if they are much farther west than North Texas is?
Speculation that CUSA wants NMSU though apparently UTEP doesn't want NMSU (they're just across the border from each other). I think if we add anyone it will be either App State or NMSU... personally though I'd rather neither but that's just me. Speculation as well that FAU is next to head to CUSA and possibly WKU. I wouldn't mind giving up FAU, though having Florida for recruiting never hurts.Quote:
Originally Posted by SmoothPancakes
All but confirmed... FAU to CUSA. Would rather give up them than give up WKU.
Wow. The dominoes are falling into place. Interesting that Louisville gave up on their oral fixation of going to the Big 12.
Now WKU???? Starting to sound like it. :mad:
Ignore that... someone posting a tweet from an hour ago before FAU dropped.
Mountain West=New WAC. ACC=New Big East. Big East=New CUSA. CUSA=New Sunbelt.
Going after whatever little market share they have in Nashville,Quote:
Originally Posted by gschwendt
What I don't get is, don't these conferences or TV deal makers (ESPN?) realize that these schools have little to no market presence? I mean sure, MTSU is 30 minutes from Nashville, but anyone in Nashville pays attention to Tennessee or Vanderbilt. Same with Tulane to Big East... everyone in New Orleans pays attention to LSU. It's actually quite pitiful watching these programs in major markets that have horrible attendance... just look at FIU, FAU, MTSU & UNT. I guarantee their actual attendance draw is under 15k (FIU is probably closer to under 5k) each whereas Arkansas State is will average 25k with a 22k+ crowd this weekend.Quote:
Originally Posted by souljahbill
Yeah. Just take a look at the Superdome in a Tulane game.Quote:
Originally Posted by gschwendt
http://oi47.tinypic.com/34djy43.jpg
Look its pretty clear we are headed for 4 "Super" Conferences. To me it's just a question of whether the "Big XII" or the "ACC" survives to go along with the B1G, Pac and SEC. The funny thing about all this to me is that when football is banned (my estimation is 10-20 years) and everyone gets their "tv" from the net all of this will be for not and we will probably do this all over again.
WKU & NMSU supposedly up next for CUSA
That leaves the Sun Belt with (football):
Arkansas State
UL Lafayette
UL Monroe
Troy
South Alabama
Texas State
Georgia State
My bet, we look to Georgia Southern, Appalachian State, and Sam Houston State as replacements. In an ideal world, we'd look at USM or the like but they won't be defecting from CUSA anytime soon.
We suck so hard, we're relegated to Sun Belt status......and we're so bad, we'd probably be just the 4th best team. Before his disaster of a season, a bad season was a mediocre one. Now everything about our program has changed.Quote:
Originally Posted by gschwendt
why the hell are there still conferences at this point? i'm surprised more schools havent tried to go in notre dame's direction and get their own private network.
I would agree with that, except that a 14-team conference is a scheduling nightmare. A 16-team conference is a scheduling armageddon. That's the only thing I see stopping the 4 16-team conference idea.Quote:
Originally Posted by CLW
Notre Dame doesn't have a private network, they have an exclusive contract. Because of the other deals in place, I don't think there are any entities out there that could offer an Ohio State or Alabama the deal that Notre Dame has. Look at BYU's comparatively pathetic deal with ESPN. Granted, BYU is not a :6star: school, but they are the only real major other independent out there.Quote:
Originally Posted by baseballplyrmvp
Look at the Longhorn Network if you want an example of why following Notre Dame's path will not be an immediate success.
Also, how truly viable would those networks be? Either you're going to just have the network in your home area, where you're really not reaching any new screens. So you'd have to expand out. If it was "a la cart" with team networks, I would never pick up the Hoosier Network, or Ball State Network or whatever. Even Toledo and Bowling Green, as much as I enjoy watching them play, I doubt I'd be willing to pay extra to have their networks. Same if they were to try and force it onto standard cable packages, I'm not gonna just sit quietly by while my cable bill goes up because Indiana wants to force their private network on cable companies here in NW Ohio. Even Toledo and Bowling Green I'd be against, at least in terms for forcing their way on the lineups and raising bills.Quote:
Originally Posted by JeffHCross
Then you face the recruiting issue. Why the major schools already have a recruiting advantage, that gap in advantage would widen even more. The major schools would have a greater chance of forcing their way onto a channel lineup or better chance of being willingly subscribed to by people vs. that of Ball State or Eastern Michigan. Just look at NW Ohio. Who would be the most popular teams when it comes to channel subscriptions? Ohio State. Michigan. Michigan State. Indiana (maybe). Notre Dame. Good luck to the smaller schools around here getting on TV (or national TV for that matter) and possibly having any chance of swaying or stealing a top player in the nation.
Handy page for tracking changes and when they'll be happening...
http://www.athlonsports.com/college-...ng-all-changes
Actually its EASY. Two 8 Team divisions. In football you play ONLY the 7 teams in your division (no cross division games). Top team from each division meet in Conference Championship. Each team is free to schedule their own 5 game non-conference schedule.Quote:
Originally Posted by JeffHCross
:fp: :smh:Quote:
Originally Posted by CLW
no. 2 divisions of 8 need to have 7 interdivision games AND 2 cross division games. otherwise, you'll see every sec team's ooc schedule be like idaho, north texas, wku, south alabama, and some fcs team. that right there, means they only need 1 conference win to be bowl eligible. every team in that conference could go to a bowl then.
a 16 team conference needs a 9 game conference schedule.