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Milner reporting Pac 12 is leaning toward putting CU in the Pac 12 North division.

JimmyBuff

Well-Known Member
According to those same sources, the current “lean” — and that’s all it is right now — is to split the league in a North/South manner with all four California schools together in the South with the Arizonas.

When I expressed mild surprise (”The Northwest schools are OK with that?”), the response I got was: Expect to see major scheduling concessions for schools in the North and perhaps even changes in the TV revenue distribution.

* A nine-game conference season is a lock.


rest is just a bunch of blah,blah,blah other than saying that pac 12 will probably help us out to get us in the Pac 12 by 2011.
http://blogs.mercurynews.com/colleg...the-division-alignment-championship-game-etc/
 
Slow news day...why are they bothering to write this now when they admit that this is far from a decided issue at the moment?
 
I honestly would prefer the NW schools...it would allow the Buffs to be more of a running team but at the same time I'm a little leery of the Pac-12 possibly making the same mistake as the Big 12 having the Texas schools in one division.
 
Good, I hope they go with a geographic split and keep the rivals together and in the same divisions.

It's interesting that there's talk about holding the CCG at the site of the higher-seeded team. I think in most cases that would provide a much better atmosphere and almost a guaranteed sell-out. That downside to this, other than the obvious logistical pieces, is that it would give the home team a big advantage. Which I don't have a problem with because if one division champ had a better season then the other then they should be entitled to an advantage like this, but in the case where 2 teams have identical conference records and didn't play each other it wouldn't be fair. But I'm always an advocate for playing any college games on campus as compared to neutral sites or in NFL stadiums.
 
This also tells me that equal revenue sharing has been decided on. I haven't heard much ruckus from the NW schools after the July AD meetings.
 
A bit leary of this because it has the potential to be another Big XII south situation with the California/AZ div split. I guess I could go for it though if equal revenue sharing was implemented, a 9 conf game schedule and they split the out of division games with one so cal, one nor cal and on AZ team I.E. USC, STANFORD ASU and UCLA, CAL UA that way you get maximum exposure in Cali
 
Horrible idea.

If you put LA, SF, AZ and all the ancillary markets that go for those teams into one division, then the media power and recruiting hotbeds are all within a single division. I can't believe that Larry Scott would allow this.

Edit: Everyone needs to email Mike Bohn on this one. Remind him that it would be a repeat of the Big 12. In 1996, the 3 strongest programs in the new Big 12 were Nebraska, Colorado and Kansas State. Within about 1 recruiting cycle, all the power moved to the Big 12 South and that division has dominated the past decade.
 
I don't trust this one at all. I don't think there's any way the Non-California schools will willingly not be in the LA market.

Honestly, I don't think we can trust any rumors about the divisions in the new Pac-12 until the meetings in October.
 
Somebody should call into the Buffalo Chips radio show tomorrow and ask Bohn about this alleged lean towards an all California/AZ division and the rumored increase in AD funding from CU.
 
Think of the recruiting advantage we might have if we are in a division more aligned with southern cali. There are recruits that don't want to stay home but would love the chance to play at home or close to home on an annual basis guaranteed. We would be the school of choice for those kids. I hope we are in the south.
 
I think it is a pretty good bet that regardless of the "division" Colorado is going to be playing games in California, every year.

I agree. I don't really care if we are stuck in the NW as long as the revenue sharing is equal. That would at least help us avoid the North/South disparity we have enjoyed for so many years.
 
Frankly - I hope they DO split the conference into a "north" v. "south" division.

Just like in the Big 12 - I think the "north" division of the Pac-12 is much easier than the south division.
 
Terrible idea. While the equal revenue would be good, it still would be bad for recruiting IMHO.

As Nik mentioned above, the biggest markets and the best recruiting hotbeds would be in the South - and I do not want to see anything remotely like the XII. I don't think the powershift in the XII had as much to do with revenue as it did with allowing kids to play close to home AND get better exposure via TV (e.g. XII offered games that got more TV exposure than the regional coverage that they would have previously gotten in the SWC).

The networks would most likely be putting more Arizona, So Cal and Nor Cal games on national TV due to the larger potential TV audiences - so mathups between North division teams would tend to get less exposure. Over time I would expect this would tilt the recruiting and we would see the XII part two.

Give me the zipper anyday...and screw the "tradition" stuff. We are coming in with no Pac tradition so I could give a crap. I totally understand the direct rivalry matchups that they have today and they need to be preserved, but I am not sold on how big of a "rivalry" USC and Stanford or USC and Cal really are. When I have worked in Nor Cal all I ever heard anyone want to talk about was the Cal-Stanford rivalry.
 
Give me the zipper anyday...and screw the "tradition" stuff. We are coming in with no Pac tradition so I could give a crap. I totally understand the direct rivalry matchups that they have today and they need to be preserved, but I am not sold on how big of a "rivalry" USC and Stanford or USC and Cal really are. When I have worked in Nor Cal all I ever heard anyone want to talk about was the Cal-Stanford rivalry.

while i tend to agree, you have to be careful....for instance, when the SWC split up "all of a sudden" UT and Rice or UT and Houston became "traditional SWC rivals"....like losing those stadium half full of Hornfans "roadies" to Rice were a tragedy to Texas fans such that they continue to pad their OOC with these teams under the pretend aegis of "traditional rivals". not that this will be the case with the Pac teams....but nostalgia is a crazy, wacko beast....and will certainly be a cloak under which money arrangements will try and be justified....."tradition" will be the given reason, money will be the real one.
 
Again, suppose the revenue is split evenly and the Buffs are in the North, that shouldn't be too bad.

Remember, the revenue wasn't split evenly in the Big 12. Anyone remember how it was split in the old Big 8?
 
Frankly - I hope they DO split the conference into a "north" v. "south" division.

Just like in the Big 12 - I think the "north" division of the Pac-12 is much easier than the south division.

The funny thing is, I don't think I agree with you. Right now Utah is as good or better than anybody in the South outside of USC, Oregon is the top of their game, OSU is back on track and historically Washington is on par or just a step below CU. UCLA, UA, and ASU are not schools that really scare me. I think the North has the potential to be a tougher league with a lot of programs that look like each other. Plus we will unfortunately lose out on a lot of the traveling fan benefits that we were looking for with WSU and OSU on the schedule every year. I just don't see us getting a lot of folks to games in Pullman or Corvallis. Nothing like what we'd get in an LA/Phoenix division, which really sucks. Plus I doubt the NW schools will travel to Boulder the way the LA/AZ schools would. They will travel to Bay Area schools.
 
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The zipper is the only thing that really works, IMO. Just do it already.

And, be sure to put us in the same division as Stanford. Just personal reasons. Thanks in advance.
 
The zipper is the only thing that really works, IMO. Just do it already.

I'd be alright with going North/South, but splitting up the state of California for media reasons.

North: Washington, Washington State, Oregon, Oregon State, Cal, Stanford
South: Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Arizona State, USC, UCLA

If we had to go to 2 paired rivalry games (with the other 4 cross-division games rotating) in order to make the California schools happy, then that could work. I'd take annual games with either Washington/Washington State or Oregon/Oregon State along with a 2-out-of-4-years setup with the other cross-division teams.

The Oregon and Washington schools might have a gripe with this setup, though. They would only play in LA 2-out-of-4-years while everyone else got an LA trip every year.

What's cool with the modified zipper that includes the regional pods/2 fixed rivals is that it satisfies everything except for it being easy for a casual follower to understand the divisions. That branding of divisions is somewhat important, but I don't think it's as important as competitive balance, regional rivalries, and recruiting fairness.

Modified Zipper (what Larry Scott calls the "Hybrid") goes as follows:

California POD: USC, UCLA, Cal, Stanford
Mountain POD: Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, Utah
Northwest POD: Washington, Washington State, Oregon, Oregon State

Divisions split based on east/west relationship of the natural rivals.

West: UCLA, Oregon State, Stanford, Washington, Arizona State, Utah
East: USC, Oregon, Cal, Washington State, Arizona, Colorado

9-game conference schedule includes 7 fixed games: 5 divisional opponents + the 2 regional POD opponents in other division; other 2 conference games are on a 2/4 year rotating basis versus the remaining teams from the other division.

For CU, it would look like this every year:

USC, Oregon, Cal, Washington State, Arizona, Arizona State, Utah + 2 from UCLA/Oregon State/Stanford/Washington.

The great thing this does is that it gives everyone an LA team in its division, which means 2 trips to LA every 4 years. Then, with the cross-division rotation, everyone also gets at least an additional 1 trip to LA every 4 years from that matchup. So, everyone is in LA 3/4 years (and every other state/region too). It's a bit complicated, but the numbers work out perfectly. And it's also a perfect format for expansion to 16 teams since the pods are already in place. If the Pac-12 becomes the Pac-16 through the Mack 10, it can put TTU/UT/OU/OSU into a Southwest POD and pair it with the Mountain POD in order to create a division.
 
Michigan
Michigan State
Nebraska
Iowa
Minnesota
Northwestern


Ohio State
Penn State
Wisconsin
Purdue
Indiana
Illinois


This is allegedly the new Big Ten alignment. Michigan and Ohio St will be a 'protected rivalry' and still play a regular season game.
 
Taking a look at those schools, the Big Ten has got to be one of the most boring conferences in the country.
 
I've always felt that way. B10 football is boring as hell to watch. Yes, it's a solid conference with good teams, but their games bore the **** out of me.
 
Plus you are forced to watch them because they are like the first games on TV in the morning on ESPN. They seem to regularly show Indiana vs Illinois or some garbage like that.
 
I think it is a pretty good bet that regardless of the "division" Colorado is going to be playing games in California, every year.

And CU, nebraska, K-State, Kansas and Iowa State each played in Texas every year too. We see how well that went for that division.

The funny thing is, I don't think I agree with you. Right now Utah is as good or better than anybody in the South outside of USC, Oregon is the top of their game, OSU is back on track and historically Washington is on par or just a step below CU. UCLA, UA, and ASU are not schools that really scare me. I think the North has the potential to be a tougher league with a lot of programs that look like each other. Plus we will unfortunately lose out on a lot of the traveling fan benefits that we were looking for with WSU and OSU on the schedule every year. I just don't see us getting a lot of folks to games in Pullman or Corvallis. Nothing like what we'd get in an LA/Phoenix division, which really sucks. Plus I doubt the NW schools will travel to Boulder the way the LA/AZ schools would. They will travel to Bay Area schools.

Going into the brand new Big XII Conference season (do you guys still remember that "new conference smell"?) CU, nebraska, Kanas and Kansas State had each placed in the final AP top ten poll. Four out of six teams in our division finished in the top ten in the final poll of the Big 8's last season!

And yet our division somehow became a joke.
 
And CU, nebraska, K-State, Kansas and Iowa State each played in Texas every year too. We see how well that went for that division.


I think the idea behind playing in southern california is not the competition - it is the recruiting base.

CU wants to stay in the southern california area to recruit, and because there are lots of alums down there.
 
I think the idea behind playing in southern california is not the competition - it is the recruiting base.

CU wants to stay in the southern california area to recruit, and because there are lots of alums down there.

We're in absolute concurrence on that.

My point is, that it takes more than just playing in the region. You have to make yourself as visible a presence as possible. With four Texas teams in the South division, we average one game in Texas a year (two years on, two years off, one at home one away...). This year we don't play there at all, next year we'll play there twice. Oops...we'll see...

We want to find a way to be in California a lot. It's where our recruits are, it's where our fans are.
 
Plus you are forced to watch them because they are like the first games on TV in the morning on ESPN. They seem to regularly show Indiana vs Illinois or some garbage like that.

Yep. And it probably makes me a sexist to say this, but that damn ESPN broadcast always has the ****ing female play-by-play announcers. They gave a couple the opportunity and they totally suck at it. It makes already boring games that much worse. There have been a number of times I've gotten up too early on a Saturday morning to watch Gameday, then had the droning on of an incompetent chick announcer over the top of a nothing Big 10 game put me back to sleep.
 
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