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Western super-conference (hypothetical, of course)

ScottyBuff

Well-Known Member
The goal: a 16-team "flagship" conference of western collegiate superpowers, that would dominate the media markets, academic research, and fields of play west of the Mississippi.

Due to academic criteria or market appeal, the following moves would have to be made:

Pac-10 drops Washington State and Oregon State.

Big 12 drops Iowa State, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Baylor, and Texas Tech.

The remaining teams merge into a new conference and also add University of Utah.

While Oklahoma, Utah, and Arizona State aren't quite up to the standards of the other schools academically, they are invited due to access to large media markets, and athletic performance.

For divisions, the "Pac-10" schools would go in one division, the "Big 12" teams + Utah in the other.

The athletics, academics, and market share of this league would be superior, or on par, with any other league. Basically it retains the current conference alignment so tradition isn't significantly lost, and travel costs are contained.

The football championship game could be held in Phoenix or Dallas (or rotating); basketball could be in either or Las Vegas.

Voting issues can be approved by a 10-member majority vote, thus preventing a small block of teams from holding the rest of the team hostage.

Adding the two huge recruiting markets of Texas and California would monopolize the talent in the west.

Packaging the Los Angeles, Bay Area, Sacramento, San Deigo, Portland, Seattle, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Denver, Kansas City, St. Louis, Oklahoma City, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Houston, San Antonio, and Austin television markets would allow all teams to rival the SEC/Big Ten in contracted revenue payouts through a national deal or the formation of a conference network.

The academics would most likely be overjoyed to have an "elite" group of flagship research institutions and form a conference wide research consortium.

Football bowl games would include the championship BCS bid in the Rose Bowl, the Cotton Bowl, the Alamo Bowl, the Holiday Bowl. A 2nd BCS bid under the current criteria would almost be guaranteed every year.

BigPac Conference

West Division
Texas
Texas A&M
Oklahoma
Kansas
Missouri
Nebraska
Colorado
Utah

Pacific Division
Arizona State
Arizona
USC
UCLA
California
Stanford
Oregon
Washington
 
No thanks, no SWC schools please. Pac 10 schools first (including the Beavs), former Big 8 schools second, SWC schools at the bottom of my list.

My cousin who is a huge Oregon fan suggested something similar with the Texas schools. I told him, YOU DONT WANT TEXAS!! They will ruin your conference. Keep the SWC out of this!:thumbsup:
 
The goal: a 16-team "flagship" conference of western collegiate superpowers, that would dominate the media markets, academic research, and fields of play west of the Mississippi.

Due to academic criteria or market appeal, the following moves would have to be made:

Pac-10 drops Washington State and Oregon State.

Big 12 drops Iowa State, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Baylor, and Texas Tech.

The remaining teams merge into a new conference and also add University of Utah.

While Oklahoma, Utah, and Arizona State aren't quite up to the standards of the other schools academically, they are invited due to access to large media markets, and athletic performance.

Now wait one cotton-picking-moment. Hey Scotty :finger:
 
I think it is a great idea, and what truly needs to happen with all of the realignment talk. Get over the SWC biases. This would be great for CU and college athletics.
 
Now wait one cotton-picking-moment. Hey Scotty :finger:

:lol:

Sorry OUBuff, no offense meant. Just basing the objective information available such as AAU membership, USNWR rankings, ARWU rankings, etc.

Since it seems that many schools want to be aligned with peer academic institutions just as much as they want to be in a revenue producing conference.

I think OU and ASU are well on their way towards obtaining those distinctions, but I don't have any personal knowledge of any of their academic strengths/weaknesses so must rely on 3rd party info.
 
The goal: a 16-team "flagship" conference of western collegiate superpowers, that would dominate the media markets, academic research, and fields of play west of the Mississippi.

Due to academic criteria or market appeal, the following moves would have to be made:

Pac-10 drops Washington State and Oregon State.

Big 12 drops Iowa State, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Baylor, and Texas Tech.

The remaining teams merge into a new conference and also add University of Utah.

While Oklahoma, Utah, and Arizona State aren't quite up to the standards of the other schools academically, they are invited due to access to large media markets, and athletic performance.

For divisions, the "Pac-10" schools would go in one division, the "Big 12" teams + Utah in the other.

The athletics, academics, and market share of this league would be superior, or on par, with any other league. Basically it retains the current conference alignment so tradition isn't significantly lost, and travel costs are contained.

The football championship game could be held in Phoenix or Dallas (or rotating); basketball could be in either or Las Vegas.

Voting issues can be approved by a 10-member majority vote, thus preventing a small block of teams from holding the rest of the team hostage.

Adding the two huge recruiting markets of Texas and California would monopolize the talent in the west.

Packaging the Los Angeles, Bay Area, Sacramento, San Deigo, Portland, Seattle, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Denver, Kansas City, St. Louis, Oklahoma City, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Houston, San Antonio, and Austin television markets would allow all teams to rival the SEC/Big Ten in contracted revenue payouts through a national deal or the formation of a conference network.

The academics would most likely be overjoyed to have an "elite" group of flagship research institutions and form a conference wide research consortium.

Football bowl games would include the championship BCS bid in the Rose Bowl, the Cotton Bowl, the Alamo Bowl, the Holiday Bowl. A 2nd BCS bid under the current criteria would almost be guaranteed every year.

BigPac Conference

West Division
Texas
Texas A&M
Oklahoma
Kansas
Missouri
Nebraska
Colorado
Utah

Pacific Division
Arizona State
Arizona
USC
UCLA
California
Stanford
Oregon
Washington

Very Creative Idea. However, I do have a problem with some of your teams.

Utah is actually fairly well regarded as a academic school, they are research institution.

This is a idea that I have seen from others, essentially to have a old pac-8, and a hybrid of old WAC/Big 8/SWC
 
I dont like the idea of 16 teams in a conf. way to many teams IMO.....

16 teams actually make more sense. You basically have 2 8 team conferences. Travel and geography is less of a issue because the teams are broken up by geographical regions.
 
I love the creativity. But I hesitate at the idea of conferences booting out their "lesser" schools. Would I have loved to boot Iowa State from the Big 8/12 years ago? Yes, but it just wouldn't feel right.

But there may be precedence for this. Wasn't Temple asked to leave the Big East due to non-competitiveness in football?
 
The speculation is fun, but I think you can drop the notion that Utah is going anywhere without BYU. Their State leaders have basically buried the idea. TCU would be a much better fit in the proposed West Division. IMO.
 
I love the creativity. But I hesitate at the idea of conferences booting out their "lesser" schools. Would I have loved to boot Iowa State from the Big 8/12 years ago? Yes, but it just wouldn't feel right.

But there may be precedence for this. Wasn't Temple asked to leave the Big East due to non-competitiveness in football?

Yes Temple was booted for non-performance in football and basketball and also due to attendance, I believe.
 
The speculation is fun, but I think you can drop the notion that Utah is going anywhere without BYU. Their State leaders have basically buried the idea. TCU would be a much better fit in the proposed West Division. IMO.

Sure the off-season is all about speculation, of course!

The same argument about state politics could be made for Washington, Oregon, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas in my original scenario. The current trend of conference alignment could very end up in this scenario, just over the course of many years and steps. The big budget flagship schools continually separate themselves both academically and athletically from their "traditional" ties with the state schools and medium/small private schools get priced out of competition.

The push from schools like Texas, Missouri, and Colorado to be in a better academic conference, and the Pac-10's lack of options could push this alignment eventually.

IMO, if the Pac-10 had stronger options Wazzou could have been kicked out of the league at a couple of points, but they seem to have a "savior season" in the revenue sports every decade.

If Utah was blocked from joining such a conference, Oregon State, Texas Tech, Iowa State, or Oklahoma State would be next in line to jump into the conference, so the pressure would be on Utah legislatures to give their school a once-in-forever type opportunity.
 
The speculation is fun, but I think you can drop the notion that Utah is going anywhere without BYU. Their State leaders have basically buried the idea. TCU would be a much better fit in the proposed West Division. IMO.

The question has never come up, so I don't think you can just say that the legislature has buried the idea.
 
Wouldn't the biggest obstacle be the whole unanimous vote thing in the PAC-10...I just don't see them getting all the votes to kick a school to the curb, Wazzou would be tough and OSU would be even harder I think.
 
:lol:

Sorry OUBuff, no offense meant. Just basing the objective information available such as AAU membership, USNWR rankings, ARWU rankings, etc.

Since it seems that many schools want to be aligned with peer academic institutions just as much as they want to be in a revenue producing conference.

I think OU and ASU are well on their way towards obtaining those distinctions, but I don't have any personal knowledge of any of their academic strengths/weaknesses so must rely on 3rd party info.

Just play'n... so sweat.
 
University of Washington AD, Scott Woodward in a pre-game interview with Seattle Times staff reporter Percy Allen

WOODWARD TALKS

Woodward also talked about expansion and said the Pac-10 and the Big Ten have reached out to officials at Texas and Texas A&M. "I'd be surprised if our office is not in contact with them," he said. "I'm sure those conversations have happened and are taking place."

When asked if the league might expand beyond two teams, Woodward said that's a possibility. "It could be two, four or a merger of Big 12. ... There's a theory that at the end of the day there's only going to be four super conferences. Now that it's going to look like, God only knows."
 
Yeah, the interesting thing about this round of expansion is the history of the PAC10 and Big10 working together, would not be shocking for them to come up with a coordinated plan to try and carve up the Big 12
 
I would say highly unlikely given the size of tv market.


I agree. I think we can be considered a "buy low" candidate for any conference. Our bargaining power is tied to our potential, which is much higher from a revenue standpoint (TV market) than many other options out there.

Most of the University Presidents and Athletic Directors have longer memories than the standard fans do. CU will be involved, if not the critical "first domino" in any of the next round of conference alignment.
 
Once again, color me surprised about how a school official has no issue talking about the Pac expanding. No way he feels comfortable putting himself out there unless he knows what is coming.
 
How competitive do you think CU would be in that particular 16-team conference?

As competitive as we are in the Big 12. Dropping Okie State, Kansas State, Iowa State, and Texas Tech certainly raises the "floor", but it also removes the lowest academic admission programs.

No matter what conference we are in, we need a better commitment from the admin to compete and we need better community/alumni support financially, no "if's" "and's" or "but's" about it.
 
Where does all the concern about the academic rigor of the teams we play in football come from?

I personally could not care less about how good the schools we are playing in sports are.

It seems to me that the concern is about a "level playing football" or schools actually forcing their athletes to be students as well? I don't think that is really a valid concern. Some of the best football programs in the country are top notch universities. So what's the problem? Why does the administration or the fanbase really actually care if we are playing in the same conference as elite universities like Stanford or against mediocre universities like Kansas State?

I don't get it. I think it is kind of BS, actually.
 
So much for traveling to the Garden Spots of College Football with that line up....It would be like being back in the Big 8 almost. We would play 7 games within the division and 1 or 2 with the other division meaning about one west coast game a year. We could do that now with OOC scheduling....
 
So much for traveling to the Garden Spots of College Football with that line up....It would be like being back in the Big 8 almost. We would play 7 games within the division and 1 or 2 with the other division meaning about one west coast game a year. We could do that now with OOC scheduling....

Certainly, but I don't think these alignment decisions are going to use that criteria as a "top 5" factor in the first place.

Such an alignment "preserves" tradition, dramatically increases TV market power (and therefore revenues), and it places all the schools into an undisputed "heavyweight" conference athletically, academically, and financially.

Buffs04 - In regards to the "academic" issue, it isn't my personal opinion that it matters, but many politicians and school administrators want their programs to be "linked" with great universities for many reasons. Texas wants that badly, Missouri wants that badly, and I think CU wants that badly too. We look at college sports on the field, but the conferences have potential to be more than just an athletic home, but also an academic one. Most of the better academic programs do not want to be associated with "lower" tier schools, but rather in a group with their peers. It isn't about the field of play, it is about public perception. While schools like KSU exploit this difference on the field of play, personally I don't think it should matter, but you know that it does to the university administrators and coaches.
 
how do you schedule for that 7 division games, 4 from the opposing division and 2 out of conference games per year?
 
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