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

[meow meow]

I'd take Memphis over Arkansas just on prestige alone.

[bws]

Thamel with a long article on Big 12 expansion issues today in SI..

http://www.campusrush.com/big-12-conference-questions-future-expansion-1528668401.html

Some highlights..

here's a breakdown of the issues facing the Big 12 after consulting with a dozen sources in and around the league.

"I think the next few months are vital for us," Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby told SI.com. "We'll begin to see a few more pieces of the puzzle and undertake a more thorough assessment of what our opinions are."

The near-consensus is BYU and Cincinnati would be next in line if the Big 12 elects to expand. But the cruel reality is that if there were slam-dunk candidates to add value to the league, those schools would have already been added.

UConn came up in a surprising number of conversations considering its geography, lack of relevant football history and void of local recruiting.

Colorado State: This would be another play for TV markets, as Colorado State would theoretically bring Denver. It would also help if the Big 12 adds BYU, giving the league a distinct footprint in the Mountain Time Zone.

There is a lot of collective remorse in the conference over not adding Louisville when it was begging to get in back in 2011.

Houston: To put it bluntly, the Texas schools in the Big 12 don't want to prop up another school located in the heart of their state's most fertile recruiting base

nterviews with officials in other leagues and industry experts revealed that having a league title game in a Power Five conference can conservatively be estimated to bring in $20 million per year. (There are myriad variables: TV deal, marketing, ticket sales, sponsors, etc.) In the Big 12, that would mean $2 million annually per school. That's significant, as it could provide approximately $20 million to member schools in a decade.

[scottwildcat]

Oh boy here we go.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Panjandrum]

The quotes from Bowlsby are meaningful. Everything else he says is just what casual followers have speculated for a long time.

BYU isn't coming. Let's just toss that out right now.

[Katpappy]

Cincinnati & Colorado State would be about the best we can do at this point in time.

[Pete]

Brent Venebles is going to own the North!   

[star seed 7]

Brent Venebles is going to own the North!   

Clemson to the big XII!!

[Fake Sugar Dick (WARNING, NOT THE REAL SUGAR DICK!)]

If we're not stealing from another p5, or snagging byu or nd, probs not worth it.

Would take csu, tho. Cinci can get in line

[Clevey 2 Times]

Nothing to see hear. Just annual bowl season blabbering.

[michigancat]

BYU is by far the best option on the table.

[Pete]

BYU would be fun to hate, I will give them that. 

[Panjandrum]

BYU has three main problems, and if they didn't have them, they'd already be here.

1) They have their own network run by the church, and that network needs BYU sports.  It's like a lighter version of the LHN to deal with.

2) The school is run by the church, who wants to use them as a marketing tool.  That scares presidents of secular schools at some level since their motivations aren't always in line with other conference members.

3) The conference doesn't want to reside in three time zones.

The fact that Bronco split for UVa is telling about what he thinks of their P5 potential.  That was widely seen as the death knell for BYU in a major conference because it means he knew their fate.

[bws]

BYU has three main problems, and if they didn't have them, they'd already be here.

1) They have their own network run by the church, and that network needs BYU sports.  It's like a lighter version of the LHN to deal with.

2) The school is run by the church, who wants to use them as a marketing tool.  That scares presidents of secular schools at some level since their motivations aren't always in line with other conference members.

3) The conference doesn't want to reside in three time zones.

The fact that Bronco split for UVa is telling about what he thinks of their P5 potential.  That was widely seen as the death knell for BYU in a major conference because it means he knew their fate.

If they decide they have to go past 10. Instead of a BYU, CSU, or Cincy they ought to do something radical like a partial or full merger with the ACC. A 24 team super conference with an affiliation with Notre Dame that stretches from the plains to the East Coast. They could create a network or sell inventory to an existing sports network with that.

All other options outside of staying at 10 sound awful.

[wabash909]

The Big12 desperately needs national brand recognition and BYU would give that.  I would actually be OK with a western expansion that also brought in CSU.  They've committed to a new $220 million on campus stadium on par with Baylor which is also relevant.

[michigancat]

BYU has three main problems, and if they didn't have them, they'd already be here.

1) They have their own network run by the church, and that network needs BYU sports.  It's like a lighter version of the LHN to deal with.

2) The school is run by the church, who wants to use them as a marketing tool.  That scares presidents of secular schools at some level since their motivations aren't always in line with other conference members.

3) The conference doesn't want to reside in three time zones.

The fact that Bronco split for UVa is telling about what he thinks of their P5 potential.  That was widely seen as the death knell for BYU in a major conference because it means he knew their fate.

Reason 1 should be the only factor, and as you mention it's a factor we already deal with. Three time zones is a positive, not a negative.

I'd prefer 10, but BYU's positives (huge national following, plus a location in a major market that is outside our current territory, plus the ability to instantly compete in all supports), far outweigh the negatives if we feel we need a dumb ccg.

[mocat]

BYU, Memphis, and Cincinnati are all Delta hubs, wow

[Emo EMAW]

The Big12 desperately needs national brand recognition and BYU would give that.  I would actually be OK with a western expansion that also brought in CSU.  They've committed to a new $220 million on campus stadium on par with Baylor which is also relevant.

A conference that has Texas and Oklahoma needs national brand recognition? 

[ChiComCat]

I think the Big 12 should talk up the fact that we allow teams to run their own network.  Schools that have a problem with that need not apply.

[sonofdaxjones]

Yes, the fact that Big 12 schools retain their Tier III rights is not talked up enough, and is shouted down by the idiots who believe that the Big 10 and the SEC are ultimately going to make bazzillion gazzillion more dollars then the Big 12 schools.   Which is simply not ever going to be reality. 

[Panjandrum]

The Big12 desperately needs national brand recognition and BYU would give that.  I would actually be OK with a western expansion that also brought in CSU.  They've committed to a new $220 million on campus stadium on par with Baylor which is also relevant.

If that's the road that you want to go down, we may as well go to 14, because WVU needs a buddy.

If we did CSU and BYU in the west, and Cincy in the East, it opens you up some options.  You pretty much have your choice for #14 in Houston, Memphis, UCF, USF, etc.

[Panjandrum]

I think the Big 12 should talk up the fact that we allow teams to run their own network.  Schools that have a problem with that need not apply.

ShaggyTexas (i.e. ShaggyBevo) has a thread similar to this that more diverse sets of Big 12 and national fans post in.  The consensus there is that Oklahoma wants a network, views us not having one as a problem, and is the impetus for Boren pushing for expansion.

The reason that Oklahoma is pushing for Houston (their thought) is that we need them to get strong carriage for a Big 12 Network in Houston since Texas has the LHN and can't really help us penetrate that market with only UT conference road games on the network.  We can get Dallas/Ft. Worth because of TCU, but we need Houston to get full carriage fees in their market.

To go further down the rumor rabbit hole, it sounds as if OU has been having preliminary conversations with Fox due to their Sooner Sports TV, and Fox wants the network. They would just re-purpose one of their FSN feeds for it.  Fox has Tier 3 rights for pretty much everyone but Texas, Kansas, WVU, and Iowa State.  The thought is that it wouldn't be too hard to get KU, WVU, and ISU back and get pretty wide carriage in the Midwest.

The other thing to keep in mind is that the Big Ten's TV rights are going to market soon, and it's believed that Fox/ESPN may need to share the cost, so they'll have a split arrangement like the Big 12 and Pac 12.  If that's the case, it's going to keep bumping more programming down a tier.  If so, we already saturate FS1 about as much as we can, so if Fox is going to push a bunch more content to FSN (since they own all of our cable rights) then they may as well make a Big 12 network out of an FSN channel.  They're already paying us a bunch of money for T3, so if they can consolidate those rights and get better carriage fees, you can have a hybrid approach like ESPN has with the SEC where a lot of content between Fox and the Big 12 Network would pretty fluid.

[catzacker]

Western expansion would pretty much be terrible for us.  Oh, great, more games against non-Texas schools?  Yippie. God, what a great North / West division of KSU, KU, ISU, CSU, BYU, and Tech.  Sounds like an eastern division of the mountain west. And I'm sure Tech will just be extraordinarily happy playing all its games against non-Texas schools. 

[HerrSonntag]

Imagine a BYU future... Can you?  Here, i'l try to help.

<The sun rises in the east, birds chirp>
My, what a fine fall morning today looks to bring.  The Big 12 is at some number of teams greater than 10 and life is grand!
Low, what have we here?  The morning paper that still exists and hasn't folded in a figurative sense has arrived.  It ought to contain next year's Big 12 football schedule, grand!
OK, hmmmm... 2 Powderpuff teams to open up the season and a game @Notre Dame. Wowzers!
Lets see, after that we have the conference games...
Baylor
@BYU
TCU
@Bethel College
...
What a great line up! I sure was apprehensive about the B12s new All religious schools rule but its looks to have been really for the best!  Well, no time to be idle, better get started on that coffee cake for this afternoon's group study and write up my first draft of secular movies that people shouldn't watch!



Rejoice, though, for these are only the shadows of things that may be...

[michigancat]

Western expansion would pretty much be terrible for us.  Oh, great, more games against non-Texas schools?  Yippie. God, what a great North / West division of KSU, KU, ISU, CSU, BYU, and Tech.  Sounds like an eastern division of the mountain west. And I'm sure Tech will just be extraordinarily happy playing all its games against non-Texas schools.

Any expansion sucks

[wetwillie]

Western expansion would pretty much be terrible for us.  Oh, great, more games against non-Texas schools?  Yippie. God, what a great North / West division of KSU, KU, ISU, CSU, BYU, and Tech.  Sounds like an eastern division of the mountain west. And I'm sure Tech will just be extraordinarily happy playing all its games against non-Texas schools.

Any expansion sucks

Truer words have never been spoken.