Eli Drinkwitz (who?) too.
Somehow I managed to avoid all this news until this morning. Glad it has a sorta-conclusion now.
I already had a hard time bringing myself up to watch a Utes football game last season and caught maybe 3-4. I may have a revived interest this season if they perform well in a final F.U. swan song to the conference implosion, but I suspect I’m done after that.
The monetization of all sports just turns me off. Every move has a dollar sign attached. I used to love the NBA but now you can’t watch a play without it turning into some kind of lobbying effort to sway the officials for a 1% improved chance to win. College sports has turned into moneyball as well.
The sad part to me is that university education is already in a serious decline as they focus on the dollars, not the students. This only makes the conference wheeling-and-dealing taste more vile in my mouth.
Just draft the talented 18-year-olds directly into the pros and leave me some real amateur athletics to enjoy.
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The Big 12 and Big 10 conferences are now a total kludge, even their names are kludge. They’re a faustian bargain. The Mountain West Conference is a more real and honest arrangement of how college athletics teams from the western U.S. should be grouped. In light of recent developments, it has a refreshing feel to it.
I clicked on the UU athletics department BIG12 broadcast partway into the meeting, I only watched for a few seconds because the first question asked by one of the reporters was about money, which disgusted me.
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It would be fun to see good athletes, in all sports, abandon west coast schools. Hehe
Does come to $$$$ sadly. Up in the area NE of the Huntsman center are the softball field, soccer field, and outdoor track, all added in the last decade or so I believe. The cost of those didn’t come from the modest admission charged to fans attending those events. Some comes from generous benefactors, but a lot comes from media revenue.
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the big wac didnt last cause the money wasn’t there. It seems to be here.
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The monetization of everything. Subscription services, up charging every step you take, healthcare, education…everything is a profit center now and an “opportunity”.
It’s exhausting.
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I was looking forward to only being in a conference with Deion Sanders for a year. His cockiness bothers me. Of course, he may not be at CU long.
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That is a fair point. The money is here- for now at least. The Big12 deal will last 7 years after Utah joins. We have learned the at the last 2 or so years are lame duck. So that leaves 5 years to see if the Biggest Big 12 ever will last through another media negotiation.
The Big WAC only lasted 3 years. Time will tell whether programs will be looking for the exit.
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One significant cause of the 16 team WAC failing was many of the long time members have established rivalries (Utah-Wyoming, BYU-Air Force are good examples) which were lost as you would usually only play teams in other ‘quads’ twice in a 6 year cycle. (You played 3 in your own quad, 4 against another rotating quad, and one more game (randomly drawn) against one of the other 8.)
The long time members found fans were uninterested in games against Rice, SMU, San Jose State, etc. and 8 of them (Air Force, BYU, CSU, San Diego St, New Mexico, UNLV, Utah, and Wyoming) bolted to form the MWC.
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Bulletin from The Athletic:
In addition to its ongoing exploration of adding Stanford and Cal, the ACC is set to discuss an expansion scenario in which it also adds SMU at a meeting of league athletic directors tonight, a source briefed on the conference’s plans confirmed to The Athletic . Yahoo Sports first reported the development.
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The SEC speaks. ESPN is surely listening. From The Athletic just now:
Greg Sankey called for the 12-team College Football Playoff format, debuting next season, to be reconsidered after the recent wave of conference realignment, the SEC commissioner said Tuesday in his first time speaking publicly since the Pac-12’s near dissolution. Here’s what you need to know:
- On the expanded playoff, Sankey said: “Even here in the SEC, we wanted to see college football be strong nationally. And we have not seen a west-of-the-Rockies participant in the Playoff since, I believe, 2016. So the expansion was about making sure we brought in western football. Well, now what’s happened is western football has come into other conferences. The net of that is circumstances have changed, and I think it’s wise for us to take a step back and reconsider what the format might look like given these changing circumstances.”
- The presidents who oversee the CFP approved the 12-team bracket and its formatlast year, but many administrators are approaching the 2024 and 2025 seasons as something of a trial run.
- The CFP essentially gets to start from scratch again, contractually, with the 2026 season. The 12-team model is what was chosen for the future, but the specifics of how it is set up could change between now and 2026.
What else Sankey said
On changing the CFP format, Sankey said he has not “had any meaningful conversations, but I think we have to acknowledge it’s on everyone’s mind, depending on the outcome of these additional membership movement pieces.”
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“Even here in the SEC…”
Wow, that reads poorly.
“We have to acknowledge (reconsidering the 12 team CFP format) is on everyone’s minds”
This guy makes Lex Luther look like Mr Rogers.
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Many people have said this was going to happen if expansion from the Big 1G and Big XII happened:
Why do we need 12 teams and multiple teams if there are less Power conferences. Josh has nailed it for a while.
I wonder how he defines “everyone.” “Everyone at ESPN”? “Everyone in the SEC”? “Everyone in my office?”
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Remember the SEC Commissioner has been more powerful because of Roy Bud Cramer and his idea for a Conference Title Game and then the BCS. The SEC Commish really has had way too much power since 1991.
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It’s just like when someone says " many people are saying" or " many people come up to me and say " Sir we know you won the election by millions and millions of votes"
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These are classic cases of “weasel words”.
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Hard disagree. Ducks & Huskies saw the GK was in over his head and that they were about to take a huge hit in revenue; this latest “deal” was only delaying the inevitable.
Never forget who really killed the P12: Larry Scott, the B1G, USC, and UCLA.
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Remember “The Alliance” was going to stop the SEC’s move after the Texas and OU acquisition. Apparently, that was just the Big 1G getting their ducks in a row to make a move.
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