Hence my comment above about these moves being vetted by ESPN and Fox before they were made.
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Couple other thoughts: I don’t think it will be too long before Cincinnati tells Miami they are no longer interested in the Victory Bell game. They dropped us years ago in basketball so I think most of us see this coming. So after we beat them this year, we should preemptively strike and tell UC, we are no longer interested in the game! 
But here is another thought, or something I have been mulling over, and that is how will UC do in this new conference? Yes, they have the B12 name now, and 32 million dollars a year, but will they compete for championships? I tend to doubt it. Absent the brief Fickell period, UC was never a FB powerhouse, unlike a few of the B12 teams. Will UC see some uptick in the recruits they land? Perhaps, with the lure of the B12 brand, they will get a few, but I would expect them to still largely fill their roster with 3 stars and some 2 stars. Maybe one or two 4 stars a year. So not much different than now. Will it make Miami’s life more difficult if we and UC are recruiting the same kids locally? Probably. But ultimately, I don’t see UC in the B12 as any more than a middle-of-the-pack team. Sort of like Missouri in the SEC. And in some respects it could damage their chances at the football playoff. At least in the AAC, they had a chance for an automatic bid. A more realistic chance. I see that chance diminished in the B12. And we haven’t even touched on travel costs for all their teams (not just football) to Arizona, ASU, Utah, and to a lesser extent Colorado each year. Also, let’s be honest, is there that much allure to watching UC play Houston, even if they are in the B12? But that is another discussion that get’s into the bigger picture of markets. Finally, to close on a grim note, I see in the not-to-distant future the G5 schools being completely shut out of the football playoff. I think the days of automatic bids for non-Power 5 conferences are numbered.
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UC is pretty much going to need to win the conference to get in. The B1G, SEC and Notre Dame will take the lion’s share of the at-large bids leaving one or maybe two for the ACC and B12. After last week, the PAC is dead, leaving a P2+2 for as long as the ACC grant of rights can stand up.
Also wouldn’t be surprised to see UC’s athletic subsidy actually increase despite the extra conference money. They have a G5 budget, and they’re going to be trying to build up to the level of the original B12 and now PAC schools in their new conference. Fickell may have very well seen the writing on the wall. Figured that ND or OSU weren’t opening up in the next couple of years and got out while the getting was still good.
“LOVE of money is the root of all evil.”
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In reality, this mess was the near-inevitable conclusion of major college football (and basketball to a lesser extent) choosing to be a minor league first and a university second for decades and decades. A system that resembles pro baseball or hockey certainly isn’t perfect, but is a far healthier ecosystem than where we’re at now.
Interesting tweets from PAC-12 softball players. I completely agree with them and encourage them to transfer to Miami, where the schools are closer together and the academics are excellent!
https://twitter.com/andywittry/status/1687691457119838208?s=46&t=6o6QN4eHhEVbIIqyNNUj5g
And they are correct.
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Yes, the travel demands with these so-called super conferences, is downright absurd, especially for non revenue sports teams. Oh yeah, these schools really care about their student-athletes…what a joke!
It’s an absolute disgrace what this greed has done to college football.
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All sports. Take basketball—UD and X don’t play. Maryland isn’t in the ACC. The Big East as we all knew it doesn’t exist. It’s a real shame.
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TV Football and TV Men’s hoops are driving everything in intercollegiate athletics. Two consecutive PAC-12 commissioners failed because they didn’t understand this well enough to keep the conference alive. Moving numerous PAC-12 football games to 7 pm and 10 pm EDT start times ensured tiny viewing audiences for the 70% of the population that lives in the Eastern and Central time zones and virtually eliminated their value to the TV Networks.
Beyond the PAC-12 leadership incompetence that destroyed a proud historic conference, the ESPN and FOX model for creating two or three super conferences for football and basketball has dragged along all non-revenue programs from every school participating in this huge money grab. That was absurd. Unfortunately University presidents and BoTs went along with this nonsense.
The University administrators should have insisted the coast to coast consolidation of programs apply only to football and basketball, leaving the individual conferences intact to conduct non-revenue and Olympic sports programs in their traditional geographically based footprints.
Unfortunately, the decisions made incrementally over the past 10-15 years has completely unraveled traditional intercollegiate athletics.
Screw ‘em all. I’m investing my sports fandom into D3 Women’s hockey.
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Correction, The LOVE of money is the root of all evil.
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I dont understand why we cant have football conferences for football with that under one tv contract and all the other sports play under different conferences and different tv contracts
Hockey is already in different conferences
Wrestling is already in different conferences
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There is the Pioneer League that Dayton plays in. The University of San Diego is a member of the conference. Every other year, UD has to fly out to that game. The guys miss a lot of classes.
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If I were a Flyer I wouldn’t complain about that trip.
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If they add Oregon State and Washington State (and maybe Cal if the regents decide the D1 expense isn’t worth it) they can call it the Pioneer Trail League. Because that’s pretty much what it will be.
Manifest Destiny
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We have 3 home games scheduled with UC coming up in the next few years. I think it would be stupid to dro the series now.
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Dick I think by the emoji I used it was pretty clear I was kidding about Miami preemptively striking and dropping the series. I am not, however, kidding that UC will eventually drop us.
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Sorry, missed that.