NCAA made a big mistake by not regulating the number of conferences and teams in each. This is all being driven by TV dollars and it's not going to end well for anyone but the Top 40 or so programs.
I wonder what world we would have been in if the NCAA had aggressively pursued TV contracts in the 50s-80s rather than restricting it to one game a week and one game per team per year. They lost control by trying to ignore the money that was out there.
A stronger NCAA sounds terrible and yet better than what we have.
Yeah, I'm a Hawkeye fan living in Oregon. I am excited for this as I'll get to see the teams from my youth come and play here, but it's melancholy. WSU and OSU being railroaded here blows. The Civil War and the Apple Cup were great rivalry games.
WSU fan, I may have watched my last college football game. I have no interest in watching MWC games, and have no interest in MWC programs. This sucks.
WSU is going to have to cut athletic spending so much that I doubt we’ll have much left beyond basketball and a token football program. They ran at a 11.5million dollar deficit last year. The MWC payouts are ~4m. There’s no way to budget your way out of that hole. It’s fully possible the state is going to have to bail out the athletics department at this rate.
USCLA started everything, and we can’t fully blame everyone else for going where the money is, but it fucking blows to be left out in the cold with 0 options.
There is honestly nothing I could say to make you feel better about this situation. Im sorry CFB bro. Im still holding out hope for you guys to maybe maintain the PAC name and maybe rebuild with you guys at the top! Youre right though about the money. Maybe there is still some money holding all the rights to the PAC name?
The PAC still owes a ton of money to Comcast. The PAC name still carries a lot of debt.
Anyways is it really the Pac if none of our rivals are around? Best part of cougar football was the spoiler upsets that we were so common in Pullman.
Husky fan. I feel you Coug bro. I absolutely despise this. I don't give one shit about midwest college teams. Fuck the Big 10, fuck Ohio State and Michigan and whoever the fuck is in that dumb fucking conference. Fuck the LA teams for leaving, fuck NCAA and the BCS, and most of all FUCK LARRY SCOTT. I am convinced some entity paid him to ruin the PAC12. Incompetence at that level is almost always driven by a "$pecial interest". I realize I am ranting. I'm just furious and sad for our West Coast regional college football and all its history and culture. Hearts going out to all yall Dawgs and Cougs hurt by this.
I really feel for you guys. ISU fan that really vibed with you guys at the Alamo Bowl, and just generally likes your program. I also thought were going to get left in the wilderness a few years back when the Big XII almost imploded. This all really sucks and I wish the Big XII would give you guys a life raft.
Husky fan here. I'm with you. This sucks all around.
It's bittersweet for me as an Oregon fan. I've watched the Pac-10/12 for 30 years, and I've loved watching my team play everyone in this conference. I know there's a lot of anger out there right now and it's justified. I want to keep playing the Beavers every year, but if they want to tell us where to shove it, I get it.
This fucking sucks.
However, Wisconsin and Washington better be playing for a giant fucking W.
Hopefully they set it to M for mini, instead of W for wumbo.
The axe should be this and the W just gets flipped over into an M if Minnesota wins.
Not actually, because the axe is awesome and shouldnt be changed...but I do like this idea too
Eventually we will have two conferences. So what’s the point?
I love college sports but hate all the money issues. These conferences exist for one reason, and it ain’t to promote sportsmanship or strong rivalries.
Eventually one conference will come out on top and become NFL Jr. All the other conferences will be ignored. It's bullshit but it's inevitable given the financial realities.
All eyes on Stanford and Cal now, I guess. I wonder if the Big XII makes a play for them.
Clemson and FSU confirmed they're all but out of the ACC. I'd say watch for those two next.
FSU has a very tricky contact to figure out first.
If they had an out they would've done it already.
The ACC's grant of rights makes that basically impossible.
Definitely the biggest domino left to fall right now. Big XII might cool down on ASU/UU if they think they have a shot at ACC scraps. I'd personally want VT/Pitt/UL and a 4th team. That last team could be GT/Miami/NCst depending on who is available.
I'd think UVA would be the biggest prize out of the ACC. Academically it's a fantastic school, and there's significant basketball and baseball value add, with the potential to improve football.
UVA brings the NOVA market, too. UNC and/or Duke would be big, too, but I doubt the market is as big.
I don't think the Triangle would be great for football. Basketball wise though it would be fucking massive.
Washington-Oregon-Minnesota-Wisconsin-Michigan, The Apple Division. Maybe a Johnny Appleseed trophy?
I'll be honest, I don't really get why the fans of leaving teams support this. Sure your school will have more money but how does that affect you as a fan? You're going to be competing for less conference championships, less playoffs, less Natties, almost guaranteed. All while travelling further and playing schools with less history and breaking your rivalries. I don't get the upside of these kind of moves for the fans.
Literally nothing but woe for almost every team that has switched from a P5 conference to another p5 conference. Mizzou, Nebraska, A&M, CU, Maryland, etc. All doing worse than expectations and seemingly broke 100 years of history for like, no reason (other than the boatloads of cash that is leading to absolutely no athletic success they couldn't achieve prior)
It's all kind of a prisoners' dilemma though. Maintaining historic rivalries and a good current setup requires that no one else leave either. Otherwise, your most "desirable" opponents take the money and leave you with a situation that's just as awkward, but you've also got way less money than them now. Over time the money is helpful for the facilities and coaching arms races, and that may become more pronounced as donors route more of their money directly to the players. Once the barn door is opened, the horses bolt.
Can we cap sports expenditure for schools already so this whole debacle is moot?
D3 mostly has it right, though even there schools will knowingly provide more sports than they can reasonably support and recruit athletes with unrealistic promises because they want the tuition.
At least that’s simple desperation though; it could happen with any perk that any school offers. At the D1 level, when you think about it, it’s really quite insane that we’ve combined the highest level of purely developmental sport with the second highest level of spectator sport (with commensurate amounts of money involved) and tied it all together as officially sanctioned “extracurricular activities” at our universities.
No other country in the world does that. It’s bonkers, and while I love college football , it makes it a hard system to defend.
Husky fan and I hate this. It is beyond stupid, reeks of corruption, hurts the fans, hurts any college athlete not a football player, hurts the schools left behind... goodbye regional rivalries, history, culture, Apple Cup, Civil War, etc. All to 'stay competitive' in the world of toxic cable deals? These are prestigious research universities. How can they be so fucking stupid and blind? This is completely fucked.
Well some of their lesser rivalries are already there.
Also let me get this right: the Big 10 is 18 teams and not the same as the Big 12?
As far as rivalries, my alma mater somehow maintained them. But meh.
And my interest in watching college football hits the floor.
Ducks lose a couple of Civil War games to the Beavs and choose to fly away. Sounds about right!
Go Beavs. Go Cougs.
Big Ten preview games this season:
Ohio State vs Oregon is going to be insane!
Ah yes, the biggest rivalry in college sports. Checks notes The Ohio State Buckeyes versus the Oregon Ducks. Up there with Michigan-Washington.
I'm looking at it from two big fan bases going up against each other.
I was just trying to make a joke.
Oregon is just happy they'll still play anOSU
Via The Athletic: "One source noted that the Big Ten would likely not act until it sees what happens with the Big 12 and the Pac-12.
The Big Ten does not want to be the one to cause the death of the Pac-12 Conference."
That was Wednesday.