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CU has rejoined the Big 12 and broken college football - talking out asses continues

Pretty incredible how little we’re hearing about Stanford and Cal in all these discussions. Hard to believe the Bay Area TV market not part of anyone’s plans (aside from the tattered remnants of the PAC). Stanford will be fine, but have to feel a little sorry for Cal if they end up without a seat.

With the way college football is heading toward super conferences I wouldn't be surprised if those 2 just decided to de-emphasize football and decide they don't want to be part of all that.
 
100% agree. I just think there is some sense to be made with the SEC expanding West and going after the markets of Denver, Phoenix and Seattle, along with the biggest brand left in Oregon. Would hurt a little bit financially (well, not hurt, but other SEC programs just wouldn't receive as much) in the short term, but it would ensure a stranglehold on the West for SEC and ESPN outside of LA in the long term.
The $EC don’t care about what people in blue states think about them or their product. If it can work well financially, they’ll consider (obviously). But, these are folks for whom cultural fit is still a thing. I just don’t see it involving programs in places completely disparate from their footprint.
 
It begs the question, would CU be better off with a full share and equal footing in the Big12 versus a 60% share in the SEC? The SEC would still represent more money total, but I’d argue we would be much more competitive in the Big12 with a full share. I think our chance of competing for national titles is probably close to zero in either scenario (with all due respect to our CSU booster friends).
The administration needs to buy in and fully support football in either scenario for CU to be competitive. If they do that in the Big 12, I think they can be 8+ game winners in that conference. If they do that in the SEC, I think they can be 6+ game winners. Not sure which I'd prefer.
 
100% agree. I just think there is some sense to be made with the SEC expanding West and going after the markets of Denver, Phoenix and Seattle, along with the biggest brand left in Oregon. Would hurt a little bit financially (well, not hurt, but other SEC programs just wouldn't receive as much) in the short term, but it would ensure a stranglehold on the West for SEC and ESPN outside of LA in the long term.
I don't want to have any hope , and I strongly suspect that CU ends up in an also ran conference.

However, the one argument I can sorta, kinda, maybe see from the SEC's perspective is that it is a long term strategic play to get in on the West Coast and isolate the B1G to Southern Cal. As we've seen, the expansion options in the west are not great; the only viable programs left would be (maybe) Utah, Stanford, UofA, Cal? Is the B1G going to dilute the TV contract to add any/all of those 4?

Of course, if I were a fan of those schools I'd say the same thing about CU.
 
The administration needs to buy in and fully support football in either scenario for CU to be competitive. If they do that in the Big 12, I think they can be 8+ game winners in that conference. If they do that in the SEC, I think they can be 6+ game winners. Not sure which I'd prefer.

I would go for 8+ winners in Big 12 vs going above .500 once a decade in the SEC. CU doesn’t have the money and culture like the south and Midwest to be a national contender. Go play some good competitive football in the spiteful conference until they figure out how to salary cap and bring parity back to college football in the next 15-20 years.
 
we wont drop football. But we also wont lower our standards very much to be competitive.

The people who care the most about football left campus a long time ago. Students hardly attend at all. The game is becoming a generation limited one.

Funny thing is, if any of this SEC stuff plays, they may demand it.
 
Our Administration with the likes of the SEC is like a wounded fish swimming in shark infested waters
Imagine our HC bitching behind closed doors about the disparity in admissions, academic requirements and financial package he can offer versus the rest of the SEC 20. We'd be Vanderbilt without the degree prestige unless CU administration allowed the program to operate like it did in the McCartney-2003 era.
 
The $EC don’t care about what people in blue states think about them or their product. If it can work well financially, they’ll consider (obviously). But, these are folks for whom cultural fit is still a thing. I just don’t see it involving programs in places completely disparate from their footprint.

As incredible as going to the SEC would be I find this one hard to believe. At the same time nothing is off the table at this point.

In the end odds are that we'll end up back in the Big 12 along with 2 or 4 other Pac12 schools.
 
CBS was paying a bargain price fir the SEC; there is no way they would pay the kind of money that the PAC would need to remain a power five conference.

True. And they walked when the new number reached $300m from $50m.

That CBS deal is the reason the SEC — which along with the Big Ten produces the vast majority of the games in the 4 million-viewer club — hasn’t been able to create a similar leverage play, and that boils down to unlucky timing. That deal was locked in for 15 years back in 2008

You know about the six-year deals. That length was chosen because they would expire ahead of the existing Pac-12 (June 2024) and Big 12 (June 2025) deals. They also would expire ahead of the SEC’s deal with CBS for its best game of the week. The SEC already has negotiated a new version of this deal with Disney, but the CBS deal won’t end until after the 2023 season.


☝️Those pricks timed it so they could pull us apart. And they were trying to get CBS to outbid Fox.

That money is on the field now. It’s not from Apple, Google or Hulu, though. It’s coming from legacy players trying to win our consumer dollars in a way we wouldn’t have predicted 15 years ago. NBC wants us to subscribe to Peacock. CBS wants us to subscribe to Paramount+. NBC, CBS and Fox still need live sports events to guarantee large audiences watching live to maintain ad rates, which remain the lifeblood of their over-the-air operations.

☝️CBS can not really afford to have no presence. The SEC on CBS accounted for several 4 million viewer games. Thats gone now and their ad rates are going to take a hit. They learned that when they lost the NFL it hurt their ratings across all programing. So they paid to get it back.


If the Pac10 can hold together we potentially *could* get a good bid from CBS. There are still some pretty nice properties in the conference. Can you juice the deal and also add Gonzaga to improve BB for CBS? Can the Stanfords swallow thier pride and add SDSU and UNLV to add two large TV markets for CBS?

Compared to whats in the Big12. Some mergers seem more interesting but nothing from the BigXII seems very compelling to me. The most valuable asset in both conferences is Oregon right now because of its audience. Whats left of the Pac12 has most of the properties that have nationwide name recognition.

There is no scenario that gets merged/leftovers members SEC or B1G levels of money. Maybe were forced into a long term deal with CBS So it has bigger bucks.
 
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I would go for 8+ winners in Big 12 vs going above .500 once a decade in the SEC. CU doesn’t have the money and culture like the south and Midwest to be a national contender. Go play some good competitive football in the spiteful conference until they figure out how to salary cap and bring parity back to college football in the next 15-20 years.
I could see us competitive in the Big 12 (w/16 teams) after some administrative changes. In no way would we ever be competitive in the NIL era SEC. Never.
 
The Pac12 is reaching new heights in comedy


Celebrate Doc Brown GIF by Back to the Future Trilogy
 
I would assume any SEC invite would require CU to agree to like 60% of what most other SEC programs are getting, which would still represent a financial boon to CU's AD. Regardless, without full support into CU football, any admission into the SEC would mean a lot of 0-2 win seasons in that division. A true SEC West version of Vanderbilt, with almost zero chance of ever competing.
Sure, this is a moonshot possibility. But I would say that there are important structural differences between Vandy and CU for purposes of football. Vandy is the only private, small school in the SEC--4,800 undergrad (at least when I was there). CU is a full-sized public school. Vandy has much higher academic standards, and it does not give a bunch of athletic exceptions (at least when I was there).

Vandy does have a huge endowment, and Vandy has been able to put together a NC caliber baseball team. (When I was there, I didn't even realize we had a baseball team, and I almost typed that just now... lol). Occasionally, Vandy puts together a good basketball team, too. But I don't see Vandy ever being able to compete in football. They just hang out for the money, which works really well for them.

CU has some great sports teams... Cross-Country is inspiringly good (as long as Wetmore is here, at least), Skiing, of course. We have a solid basketball program. Lacross is great and soccer is getting there.

We CAN be great at football. We've shown it is possible. But the Admin has to want to be more than mediocre (they clearly don't), and we need money.

SO MAYBE.. and this is a big MAYBE... if we can get into a conference that REALLY pays serious money, the Admin will see the benefits and support the cash cow. Not holding my breath...(on either count).
 
True. And they walked when the new number reached $300m from $50m.

That CBS deal is the reason the SEC — which along with the Big Ten produces the vast majority of the games in the 4 million-viewer club — hasn’t been able to create a similar leverage play, and that boils down to unlucky timing. That deal was locked in for 15 years back in 2008

You know about the six-year deals. That length was chosen because they would expire ahead of the existing Pac-12 (June 2024) and Big 12 (June 2025) deals. They also would expire ahead of the SEC’s deal with CBS for its best game of the week. The SEC already has negotiated a new version of this deal with Disney, but the CBS deal won’t end until after the 2023 season.


☝️Those pricks timed it so they could pull us apart. And they were trying to get CBS to outbid Fox.

That money is on the field now. It’s not from Apple, Google or Hulu, though. It’s coming from legacy players trying to win our consumer dollars in a way we wouldn’t have predicted 15 years ago. NBC wants us to subscribe to Peacock. CBS wants us to subscribe to Paramount+. NBC, CBS and Fox still need live sports events to guarantee large audiences watching live to maintain ad rates, which remain the lifeblood of their over-the-air operations.

☝️CBS can not really afford to have no presence. The SEC on CBS accounted for several 4 million viewer games. Thats gone now and their ad rates are going to take a hit. They learned that when they lost the NFL which hurt their ratings across all programing.


If the Pac10 can hold together we potentially *could* get a good bid from CBS. There are still some pretty nice properties in the conference. Compared to whats in the Big12. Some mergers seem more interesting but nothing seems compelling. The most valuable asset in both conferences is Oregon right now because of its audience.

Can you also add Gonzaga to improve BB? Can the Stanfords swallow thier pride and add SDSU and UNLV to add two large TV markets?
Regarding SDSU, the obstacles have been UC vs CSU systems (UCLA & Cal), value when we already owned SoCal (USC & UCLA), protecting recruiting grounds from too much competition (mostly ASU, UA and UCLA - USC fears no one local in west coast recruiting), and academically only being an R2 for research (Stanford & Cal with some noise from Cal & UCLA).

In short, the bloc of "nay" votes has been broken.
 
I have already assumed we will be a perpetual uncompetitive lovable loser, so it would be neat to see that in the SEC rather than the Big 12... I don't ultimately care if it's the BIG, Big 12 or SEC (the last of these seems like a longshot, but so did USC in the Big 10 a bit ago), I just don't want to see us get bumped down to play with Utah State, New Mexico et al. once the dust settles. I'll take anything approaching major college football.
 
True. And they walked when the new number reached $300m from $50m.

That CBS deal is the reason the SEC — which along with the Big Ten produces the vast majority of the games in the 4 million-viewer club — hasn’t been able to create a similar leverage play, and that boils down to unlucky timing. That deal was locked in for 15 years back in 2008

You know about the six-year deals. That length was chosen because they would expire ahead of the existing Pac-12 (June 2024) and Big 12 (June 2025) deals. They also would expire ahead of the SEC’s deal with CBS for its best game of the week. The SEC already has negotiated a new version of this deal with Disney, but the CBS deal won’t end until after the 2023 season.


☝️Those pricks timed it so they could pull us apart. And they were trying to get CBS to outbid Fox.

That money is on the field now. It’s not from Apple, Google or Hulu, though. It’s coming from legacy players trying to win our consumer dollars in a way we wouldn’t have predicted 15 years ago. NBC wants us to subscribe to Peacock. CBS wants us to subscribe to Paramount+. NBC, CBS and Fox still need live sports events to guarantee large audiences watching live to maintain ad rates, which remain the lifeblood of their over-the-air operations.

☝️CBS can not really afford to have no presence. The SEC on CBS accounted for several 4 million viewer games. Thats gone now and their ad rates are going to take a hit. They learned that when they lost the NFL it hurt their ratings across all programing. So they paid to get it back.


If the Pac10 can hold together we potentially *could* get a good bid from CBS. There are still some pretty nice properties in the conference. Can you juice the deal and also add Gonzaga to improve BB for CBS? Can the Stanfords swallow thier pride and add SDSU and UNLV to add two large TV markets for CBS?

Compared to whats in the Big12. Some mergers seem more interesting but nothing from the BigXII seems very compelling to me. The most valuable asset in both conferences is Oregon right now because of its audience. Whats left of the Pac12 has most of the properties that have nationwide name recognition.
SDSU and UNLV are worthless. **** the Pac 12. We need to ditch it and join a league with schools who actually give a ****.

I don't understand your sentiment at all.
 
Funny thing is, on some of the SEC team boards, THEY are talking matter-of-factly about adding CU because it makes sense.
I refuse to put myself through the anguish of hoping. Because if this was real, the B1G would step up with a competing offer rather than let it happen. I'm not going down the dangerous mental health path of treating this as any more than fantasy.
 
The $EC don’t care about what people in blue states think about them or their product. If it can work well financially, they’ll consider (obviously). But, these are folks for whom cultural fit is still a thing. I just don’t see it involving programs in places completely disparate from their footprint.
Agree this is most likely some reporters fever dream, but Colorado has already been in a league with 1/4 of the expanded SEC, so it doesn’t feel that unthinkable.
 
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