The Big 16!

I wonder how feasible college athletics will be when broadcasters finally have to move the costs to the customers, or when the cost of ESPN goes up so much that people say enough is enough.

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Many people have already said that.

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Other moves:

ACC:
West Virginia
Notre Dame

SEC:
Texas Tech
Baylor

PAC 12:
Kansas
Kansas St
Oklahoma State
BYU
San Diego St
Colorado St

Thoughts??
(Look what I did to the Big 12 - UC, sorry, not sorry)

No, but BYU will jump ship for the PAC-12

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If Notre Dame is ever gonna jump to the Big10, this is it. The TV money and subway fans on the coasts are what they want. The need to stop this independence for football arrogance and shift to a full conference is now.

Itā€™s done. Itā€™s over. Itā€™s dead. It was fun playing Navy every year but good-bye.

The ACC standoff was NDā€™s way of having fun. Theyā€™re getting left with such a shitty media money deal vs the big10, itā€™s hysterical

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I dont know. I mean, nothing surprises me anymore, but the Big Ten and ND have negotiated in the past, and they were never willing to come to terms. I think ND wants to keep its personal tv deal for football, and that would be a deal breaker for the B10. ND has never had a reason to join a conference for football, their NBC deal has been too lucrative. In a conference, thereā€™s revenue sharing for tv and bowls. It just hasnt made sense for them to commit to that. Perhaps things will change though. I mean, they did do a temp deal with the ACC for covid football. The B10 fit has always made the most sense for them though.

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The problem for Notre Dame is their personal television deal is now going to be $50,000,000 per year less than the new B16 television deal would be. They have few choices. Accept a much lower payout to remain independent and see what happens to playoff access (50%); Join the B16 (25%); Join the ACC for everything and hope that the television deal can be renegotiated (15%); Create a D1 Ivy League with Stanford, Cal, UNC, UVa, BC, Georgia Tech, Riceā€¦ (10%); Join the SEC (0%). Who knows how this will play out but it may take a while. When ND decides the end game will be on.

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I saw one post the Big 12 will go after Arizona and Arizona State, plus one more all the while the Big 10 wants to possibly go to 20 schools

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I think itā€™s more likely that Oregon, Washington and Stanford would follow USC and UCLA. That would put ND rivals Stanford and USC in the Big 20 and serve as a huge enticement to ND to join. They could continue their rivalry with Navy as an OOC game every year like we do with UC. Everything west of the Missouri River then gets scrambled.

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I think mega conferences are right around the corner. It would seem like the Pac 12 is essentially dead in the water without the two LA schools and their TV contract up in 2024.
It would make sense to me for the Big 10 to add up to 6 more west coast schools from the Pac 12 to give them three divisions: East, Central, West.
Throw in Notre Dame & someone like Pitt or West Virginia and that gives you an even 24 with 8 teams per division and solid geographical alignments.

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Stanford is too well heeled to be relegated to the junk pile new Big 12/PAC 12 mix. And probably Cal due to its research environment is a worthy add as well. Those two are my personal picks for the next two to join the Big 20 from the west.

What a mess.

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Who knew there was such a thing as Bay Area bias in college football! Lol

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Bay Area is a big media market! Ps, I donā€™t care for either team from a fan standpoint

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Seattle has a far more rabid college sports market and Oregon is a unicorn because of its on field success and itā€™s association with Nike and their virtual cult following because of that. Stanford is what the Big 20 needs to entice the Irish to cross the bridge. Football has always had an almost Ivy feel at Cal.

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My Projection on College Football Realignment

Big 20
East

Rutgers
Penn State
Ohio State
Michigan
Michigan State
Indiana
Purdue
Illinois
Northwestern
Iowa

West
Minnesota
Notre Dame
Nebraska
USC
UCLA
Oregon
Washington
Stanford
Cal
Arizona State

Notre Dame keeps Stanford and USC as permanent rivals.

SEC

Adds Clemson and Florida State

ACC

adds West Virginia and SMU

Big 12

Adds Colorado, Utah Arizona and Memphis

PAC/Mountain

Washington State
Oregon State
Wyoming
Colorado State
Utah State
New Mexico
UNLV
San Diego State
Fresno State
Nevada
Hawaii
Boise State
San Jose
Air Force

And nothing at all happens in the MAC

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Ha!

Phil Steele will go nuts trying to keep his magazine up-to-date in the next 2-3 years

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I suppose anything is possible in this era of college sports, but virtually zero chance Arizona and ASU get split up. That rivalry is all they have to play for most years. State legislature and regents probably wouldnā€™t allow it.

I donā€™t see SMU ending up in the ACC.