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

[kso_FAN]

Pick a Big 12 all star team from the rest of the teams and play them.

[Trim]

It should've been that the #1 team after the regular season gets to pick their conference championship game opponent.  Pick the best team and get respect for doing so and maybe the bump you need to get in the playoff, but risk losing.  Pick a shitty team and get an easy W (but maybe that loser team is extra motivated!) and get shamed by america and possibly kicked out of playoff contention.

I like it.  Maybe you lost to a middle of the pack team in a fluke?  Avenge your loss.

Great point.  I'd been thinking of an undefeated (at least in conference) team that was on the brink of top 4 nationally, but your scenario is an even better use of my plan.

[POWL]

Have all the teams dress and show up to the championship game then spin a giant wheel like 15 minutes before kickoff to determine your opponent.

or maybe the other 9 have to play Hunger Games style.......talk about your single elimination tourney (am i right ?  )

[EMAWforever]

Think they should have went divisions, so you don't ever have that back to back game scenario.  Play across divisions last couple weeks of the season. 

[TheFormerKCCat]

Pick a Big 12 all star team from the rest of the teams and play them.

I like this idea. A LOT! 

[Skipper44]

Best available offense, defense and Sean's special teams is about as logical as a ccg with a rr anyways

[Super PurpleCat]

4 sets of downs, each school plays 1 down.  Same on defense.  Let the pud schools play special teams.   Fun for all.

[MadCat]

No one loses so no one jeopardizes their chance of making the CFP. 


BRILLIANT

[Panjandrum]

I suggest we move the game to Sporting and the regular season champ plays a team from the EPL.

[Shooter Jones]

these are all stupid ideas.

[That_Guy]

Those are the shitties cell phone cases ever. Great idea to take a perfectly good phone and encase it in 7" of rubber and plastic. How about you just not be a tard with your phone and avoid Steve Dave and your phone will be fine.

They're really the worst. Big, bulky, fall apart easy.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ew2x4]

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20161102/07332435942/nielsen-forced-to-pull-report-offline-after-it-shows-espn-losing-more-subscribers-than-ever.shtml

Interesting write up about ESPN losing tons of subscribers. If it's a valid report, I wouldn't be surprised to see some big changes soon.

[ChiComCat]

I heard someone talk about Disney trying offload ESPN as it has turned into an anchor. 

Strange that they haven't just sold an ESPN streaming standalone package.  Could probably cut some of their losses.

[ew2x4]

I heard someone talk about Disney trying offload ESPN as it has turned into an anchor. 

Strange that they haven't just sold an ESPN streaming standalone package.  Could probably cut some of their losses.

Agree. Also, Sling TV and Playstation Vue both have ESPN, but soon ATT/DirectTV will release theres, and next year Hulu will. All claim to have ESPN. I think they are hoping these services will possibly mitigate some of the loss.

[MakeItRain]

I heard someone talk about Disney trying offload ESPN as it has turned into an anchor. 

Strange that they haven't just sold an ESPN streaming standalone package.  Could probably cut some of their losses.

Because that's incredibly impractical. 33% of Americans do not have high speed internet, 17% of Americans have no access to broadband technology at all. Only 15% of Americans consider themselves cord cutters. As if those numbers on their own aren't enough, you have to also bear in mind that most of those with no broadband access live rurally in the South and Midwest, these by percentage are also the largest consumers of sports and specifically college sports. I don't know this as fact but I'd assume that a large percentage of cord cutters are urban and not as likely to be loyal consumers of sports programming. They are also more likely to fall outside of the target demographic for most advertisers.

You are absolutely losing a hell of a lot more than you gain by making ESPN a streaming only option.

[star seed 7]

Uh, no one said streaming only. Hbo has a separate streaming service, you can still get hbo on cable if you want.

[star seed 7]

I'm sure the carriers heavily influence espn to not have a streaming subscription tho.

[MakeItRain]

Uh, no one said streaming only. Hbo has a separate streaming service, you can still get hbo on cable if you want.

I don't know how to else to read what ChiCat posted. Doing what HBO does doesn't cut costs for ESPN at all. They are still paying rights fees, production costs, and talent costs don't decrease by letting some people stream only. If anything an HBO model would cost ESPN money because they would get less in cable and satellite subscriber fees and they would have a smaller pool of trackable viewers for ad fees. HBO doesn't make money from advertisers.

[star seed 7]

Like I said, the carriers probably have a lot of influence over it, they certainly did over hbo until hbo told them to go eff themselves and nothing negative happened to hbo on cable. Hbo gets more money per direct now sub than they do per cable sub.

Being a cable sub service makes it a bit of a bad comparison though. I think you're right that espn probably wouldn't gain enough app subs to offset the likely lower carrier fees. But is it certain those would go down?

[star seed 7]

Uh, no one said streaming only. Hbo has a separate streaming service, you can still get hbo on cable if you want.

I don't know how to else to read what ChiCat posted. Doing what HBO does doesn't cut costs for ESPN at all. They are still paying rights fees, production costs, and talent costs don't decrease by letting some people stream only. If anything an HBO model would cost ESPN money because they would get less in cable and satellite subscriber fees and they would have a smaller pool of trackable viewers for ad fees. HBO doesn't make money from advertisers.

I think I misread you thinking ChiCat meant having only a steaming service. Poor reading on my part

[MakeItRain]

The first half of this is all about ESPN, and what has happened and what may or may not happen in the future. Those subscription loss numbers weren't accurate, and not that many people give out their watch ESPN passwords.

* Episode Download Link (59 MB):

* Episode Feed: SI Media Podcast With Richard Deitsch - http://feeds.soundcloud.com/users/soundcloud:users:151834971/sounds.rss

[steve dave]

not that many people give out their watch ESPN passwords.

the key is not having a lot of people giving them out but having one incredible person giving theirs out to an absolute shitload of people

[MakeItRain]

not that many people give out their watch ESPN passwords.

the key is not having a lot of people giving them out but having one incredible person giving theirs out to an absolute shitload of people

According to ESPN they track who does this and the number is "negligible."

[michigancat]

Kind of surprising. I know like, fairly wealthy grownups who use someone else's netflix passwords. Of course, ESPN3 is much more niche.

[GoodForAnother]

I have given my logins to like every streaming service away to like dozens of people.  Not Netflix but anything that's included with my cable