I don’t trust these rankings
I believe they are based on what US News and World Reports publishes. There is a group of very elite colleges - the Annapolis Group - that agrees with you.
If you can’t add $80-$100 million to the “value” of the BIG TV deal you ain’t getting in.
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That would be only Washington, Oregon and perhaps Stanford from the PAC.
the worldwide leader had an article today that covered how the big12 and pac12 were evaluating a full on merger of the two conferences, as one of three options…all were rejected
i’m wondering if these conferences, including the ACC, are just going to sit back and fight the war of attrition or get proactive before the SEC / big10 does something further to them…like FSU, miami, clemson poached by SEC and oregon, washington poached by big10…
maybe the ACC truly thinks its untouchable until 2036?
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Might be a stretch, but an addition of Army, Temple and Syracuse makes a whole lot of sense.
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If expansion is based off markets, I’d expect the pac12 and ACC to slowly consume the B12
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Markets have something to do with it, but I’ve read its more about specific television viewership of each program. For example, Washington State actually outdrew most of the PAC12…
Either way, I think everyone will wait out the decision of Notre Dame (followed by Oregon and Washington) before making any other moves.
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Can I ask a stupid question here? (Oh, that’s on brand for me you say so have at it? Perfect!) ok here goes: if the MAC and The Sunbelt merged, would that give the combined offering a better chance at getting into the college football playoffs?
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That Washington State comment is surprising
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Gotta remember that Cal, Stanford, and Arizona are in the PAC12. None of those have highly passionate fan bases. WAZZU is a brand. Their fans are a lot like traditional Cubs fans - loyal losers. And a lot of their alums live in the Seattle media market.
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If the emerging Power Conferences decide not to subsidize the G5 and FCS to the extent they are now, an interlocking OOC scheduling alliance with the FunBelt might be interesting. It would be purely a north-south geographical alignment without significant time zone issues.
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You gotta kinda wonder if, with the blood sport that is conference re-alignment, if existing B1G schools and SEC schools that are perennial doormats are looked at as drags on the enterprise. So, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, Illinois, Indiana, Purdue, Mizzou, South Carolina, Miss St., Minnesota and maybe a few others, aren’t asked to shape up or ship out. I mean, a B1G that has Notre Dame is way more watchable than a B1G that has Indiana football
Probably not that likely, but who know at this point …
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Greg Sankey addressed this yesterday at SEC Media Days. He was adamant that relegation or booting existing conference members is not a path they will take. He pointed to Vanderbilt’s recent college baseball World Series victories and to those of Ole Miss and Mississippi State.
Those are decent points by Sankey about baseball in the SEC, but the vast majority of non football powers are just riding the gravy train.
Personally, I think the revenue generators (OSU, Mich, LSU, Bama, etc.) should be asking for a larger share of cash than the drags of each league (Rutgers, Illinios, Vandy, Mizzou, etc.)
If we ever get to that point, we’ve definitely broken college sports as we’ve known them during our lifetimes. College Football would be a professional, taxpayer subsidized 32 team AAA minor league for the NFL.
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No.
Dude, that ship has already sailed with NIL and College Football Playoffs
I kinda liked it back in the day when the only thing you played for was winning your conference, your win was going to the Rose Bowl or Sugar Bowl, and you played college football for your college.
BUT
There’s way too much money to be made, by the colleges, the student-athletes, ESPN and advertisers. I think that the whole NIL thing is really gonna f*ck up some programs and there’s going to be a slew of lawyers involved, like when the star QB for State U signs an $250K NIL agreement for Oklahoma’s leading Chevy dealership and then signs a deal with Oklahoma’s leading Hyundai dealership, or if said star QB ends up sucking big time (see Rattler, Spencer). Or if a kid signs a deal with one school for NIL, then ends up leaving for Notre Dame bc he wants to improve his draft stock, stuff like that. What happens then?
The way I see it, though, is that college students should be able to go to school and profit off their skills. So, if a college kid is a singer and has a chance to back up Taylor Swift, that kid should be able to attend college. Or if the kid is an actor and is in a movie with Tom Hanks, shouldn’t affect their ability to lead in the campus production.
IOW, it’s not like it was 20 years ago.
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You left out the massive law suits that will be filed against conferences by their individual members if conferences attempt to arbitrarily boot members out.
Addressing your last comment about musical and theater students being able to make money on the side by performing with professional entertainers, the football equivalent would be a student football player having a side hustle in the NFL.
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Ringer in the intramural flag football league? lol
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