Smoke your cigars and enjoy the band while you can....

[michigancat]

Houston is definitely happening. Accept it.

This goes for everyone, but I don't have to accept crap.

[OK_Cat]

Houston is definitely happening. Accept it.

This goes for everyone, but I don't have to accept crap.

Trim 3:16

But it's happening

[Skipper44]

I hope OU is in the same division as UH & Cincy

[MakeItRain]

Cincinnati is a cold weather northern school. We aren't going there. The big 12 will get into Florida and not go further north than Ames.

What if I told you Cincinnati is roughly the same distance north as Manhattan

Exactly. So gross and cold.

God, I'd murder someone for Manhattan weather. I think I'm developing seasonal affective disorder.

[Rage Against the McKee]

I hope OU is in the same division as UH & Cincy

In a perfect world, they would be with UH, Cincy, WVU, TCU, and ISU.

[Skipper44]

I hope OU is in the same division as UH & Cincy

In a perfect world, they would be with UH, Cincy, WVU, TCU, and ISU.

but the world we live in is the a North/South Split and OU bitching about the weak North dragging down the conference and creating a "psychological disadvantage"

[Panjandrum]

I hope OU is in the same division as UH & Cincy

In a perfect world, they would be with UH, Cincy, WVU, TCU, and ISU.

but the world we live in is the a North/South Split and OU bitching about the weak North dragging down the conference and creating a "psychological disadvantage"

I think the odds of a North/South happening again are relatively low.

Everyone is going to want regular access to Texas now that they're all getting two games a year.  You can make that happen, more or less, if you split the Texas schools into two divisions and then ensure that you play one of them in the cross-divisional games each year.  You may get six games in Texas every four years instead of 8, but still.

The reason the Pac-12 divided up the way it did is because everyone wanted access to California.

[DQ12]

God, I'd murder someone for Manhattan weather. I think I'm developing seasonal affective disorder.

Yes.  The thought of MHK seems downright tropical.

[davegladow]

I hope OU is in the same division as UH & Cincy

In a perfect world, they would be with UH, Cincy, WVU, TCU, and ISU.

but the world we live in is the a North/South Split and OU bitching about the weak North dragging down the conference and creating a "psychological disadvantage"

I think the odds of a North/South happening again are relatively low.

Everyone is going to want regular access to Texas now that they're all getting two games a year.  You can make that happen, more or less, if you split the Texas schools into two divisions and then ensure that you play one of them in the cross-divisional games each year.  You may get six games in Texas every four years instead of 8, but still.

The reason the Pac-12 divided up the way it did is because everyone wanted access to California.

I've seen it stated that OU/Texas don't want to diminish the RRR, so they don't want a rematch scenario ... so same division or bust for them.

TCU is going to pitch a fit about anything that separates them from local games (they'll be the final holdout on voting in favor of expansion I'm guessing, because of this), but outvote them, pair them with Baylor (who would LOVE to get away from Texas/OU for an easier path), and tell them to shut up.

8 games gets OU fan base what it wants = more games against other elite national teams.  Pair teams with yearly cross-division rival.  Done.

OU  -  Cin (because Boren wants them so bad)
OSU -  WVU
UT   -  TCU
TT  -  Bay
KU  -  [insert team 12]
KSU -  ISU

If you add BYU, you can stick them in the group of death instead of KSU and have the Cats' cross-division rival be KU. Don't much care either way.

Does this make OU/Texas happy? Guessing yes. Everyone else can and will deal.

[Panjandrum]

I've seen it stated that OU/Texas don't want to diminish the RRR, so they don't want a rematch scenario ... so same division or bust for them.

TCU is going to pitch a fit about anything that separates them from local games (they'll be the final holdout on voting in favor of expansion I'm guessing, because of this), but outvote them, pair them with Baylor (who would LOVE to get away from Texas/OU for an easier path), and tell them to shut up.

8 games gets OU fan base what it wants = more games against other elite national teams.  Pair teams with yearly cross-division rival.  Done.

OU  -  Cin (because Boren wants them so bad)
OSU -  WVU
UT   -  TCU
TT  -  Bay
KU  -  [insert team 12]
KSU -  ISU

If you add BYU, you can stick them in the group of death instead of KSU and have the Cats' cross-division rival be KU. Don't much care either way.

Does this make OU/Texas happy? Guessing yes. Everyone else can and will deal.

A lot of that is true, but two things:

1) I don't believe (my opinion) that we can drop to 8 games if we want pro rata increase for teams 11 and 12.  It stands to reason that if we're going to water down with teams that aren't as big a draw as other schools, the TV partners will overpay for the additional guaranteed conference games.  Therefore, my guess is 9 conference games or bust.

In your scenario, I think the cross division rivals line up more like this:

UT/Baylor (played over 100 times)
Tech/TCU (this is an actual rivalry game)
OU/WVU (this has turned into a pretty good little rivalry)
KSU/ISU (Farmageddon)
OSU/Cincinnati
KU/UConn

The Pac also does nine games because they mandate that all of the Cali schools play each other every year.  Therefore, I'm guessing that as a part of this, we'll follow their scheduling model pretty closely.  Especially since we pretty much have mirror TV deals in T1/T2.

If we go this route, I really don't think we'll have a ton of games against the new schools in football, or at least no more than intermittent, cross-divisional games.  Putting WVU/TCU/Baylor in a division almost guarantees balance, and adding ISU and the new schools to that division make travel for WVU more friendly.

Boren is going to get what he wants, and if a network is in play, I can easily see UConn being a part of it because their basketball programs will be a tent pole for that strategy from November to April.  ESPN is probably going to be more than willing to see the LHN fold into a larger network to get more carriage and money.  They can just keep the studios in Austin to protect the investments already made. I'm just guessing as a concession, Texas will get unequal amounts of money and coverage because, well, duh.

[_33]

Should we just volunteer for the Mountain West?  I just hate talking about this stuff so much.  Maybe a Mountain West team would just trade with us.

[TheHamburglar]

Mt. West roadies!  Colorado Springs?  Ft. Collins?  San Diego?  Vegas? Yes please 

[Panjandrum]

Also, regardless of your feelings about expansion, if a ESPN owned Big 12 network came about because of adding two AAC teams, it's a huge victory for this conference.  Getting in bed with them will change a lot of national narratives in football and basketball since they'll work to protect their investment by pumping up our brand.

There are 8760 broadcast hours in a calendar year (365 days x 24 hours).  Let's assume for a minute that they sell infomercial space or something for four hours a day (2 AM - 6 AM).  That would mean we'd need to find content for 7300 hours.

If we were being equitable, that means each school would have about 608 hours a year.  But, let's say that we do something like this:

Texas                1000
Oklahoma        1000
Kansas         600
West Virginia    600
Uconn              600
Texas Tech         500
Oklahoma State 500
Kansas State     500
Cincinnati          500
TCU                  500
Baylor          500
Iowa State          500

Texas and OU get additional hours, we give UConn a bump for Men's and Women's basketball, and KU gets a bump to push KU basketball on the network.  Since the basketball season is so long, it makes sense.

These are estimates, but that would be about ten hours a week for most schools.  OU and UT would get about 20 hours a week.  That number goes down when you get broad conference shows like a nightly SportsCenter type review, This week in the Big 12, etc.

Anyway, it's doable. 

[HerrSonntag]

Having schools who aren't Louisville and are named after a city is small timey/gross

[deputy dawg]

Should we just volunteer for the Mountain West?  I just hate talking about this stuff so much.  Maybe a Mountain West team would just trade with us.

Serious question:  Would we have the largest stadium in the MWC?

[DQ12]

Should we just volunteer for the Mountain West?  I just hate talking about this stuff so much.  Maybe a Mountain West team would just trade with us.

Serious question:  Would we have the largest stadium in the MWC?

Serious answer: Aside from SDSU, who plays in Qualcomm, yes. 

[Pete]

Should we just volunteer for the Mountain West?  I just hate talking about this stuff so much.  Maybe a Mountain West team would just trade with us.

Serious question:  Would we have the largest stadium in the MWC?

Serious answer: Aside from SDSU, who plays in Qualcomm, yes.

Which means that within 2 years we would have the most empty seats (besides SDSU) per game in the conference.

[EMAWzified]

I've always though the conference should think out of the box and offer better academic schools like Ohio University or Miami of Ohio with the understanding the upgrade stadiums and programs.
Cincy makes my skin crawl.

[sonofdaxjones]

I've always though the conference should think out of the box and offer better academic schools like Ohio University or Miami of Ohio with the understanding the upgrade stadiums and programs.
Cincy makes my skin crawl.

I don't even know what to say here

[Spracne]

I've always though the conference should think out of the box and offer better academic schools like Ohio University or Miami of Ohio with the understanding the upgrade stadiums and programs.
Cincy makes my skin crawl.

I don't even know what to say here

He meant to say THE Miami of Ohio.

[wetwillie]

conference realignment makes fools of us all

[Katpappy]

Why does clicking on this thread seem to depress me, when at one time it kind of excited me. 

[wabash909]

In our quest to become Conference USA I'm starting to warm to the UCONN idea.

[sonofdaxjones]

In our quest to become Conference USA I'm starting to warm to the UCONN idea.

1000 times yes by far and away the biggest potential TV upside and many times an ESPN favorite.

[Shooter Jones]

1. Spend lots of money and figure out a way to make the PAC 12 take BYU.
2. The Big 12 gets Colorado back when this happens.
3. Spend lots of money and make a trade with the Big 10, WVU for the Nubs.
4. Spend lots of money and get Arkansas to join, like give them whatever they want.
5. Be really rough ridin' broke, but maybe take out lots of loans/credit cards and stuff to still buy things we can't afford. Would be very new logo of us.
6. Have my favorite scenario for a Big 12.