Major college football has been professional football’s minor league system for at least three decades.
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Official realignment thread - SEC formally invites OU and Texas to join the conference in 2025
I’m sorry. Hockey players are hotter.
Best comment so far.
Could be worse..P12 would be inviting CSU, BYU, Boise State, and UNM to the conference.
Not really.
Where we are going is to the lowest common denominator.
I keep hearing academics don't matter any more. That the quality of the university is irrelevant. All that matters is how well positioned that school is to attract entertainment revenue for broadcasters and sponsors.
I became a college sports fan because I love the other part of things just as much. Young people getting opportunities to get education, many the first in their families to go to college. Seeing them mature. Knowing that most won't be able to make a career of it so it's mostly about the other stuff.
Also, because of other missions, including football funding a ton of other varsity sports, that it was about all those opportunities and stories.
Now it's starting to feel like we can fvck all that. I'm trying to find a justification for the top of college football to make players pass admissions, enroll at the university and go to class. Just hire them as mercenaries for the university sponsored club team and cut out all the bull****.
ESPN would like that. They love coaches who cheat, colleges that keep players eligible and sweep scandals under the rug, and college towns/states where the police and AG check with the coach before deciding on how to proceed with a legal matter involving players. Because there's nothing worse than players who are performing assets not being able to make them money.
I thought players were being treated unfairly and deserved a slice of the pie, freedom to transfer, etc. I believe that colleges could do this without compromising the mission. Especially since we're talking about very little money within the scope of a major university where endowments are over a billion dollars and an extra 10 million in sports media dollars or investment in athletes is almost insignificant. Not like professor salaries are higher at the schools with the richest athletic departments. So this was always about enriching the university community in ways other than the direct sports entertainment revenue.
Anyway, this is going down a path that's making me reevaluate. I am entertained by sports. Maybe I need to leave it at that and stop caring who wins the same way I enjoy my computer but don't root for Apple to win market share.
at this point, i am just hoping we have a spot in one of the super conferences. we have very little football leverage and are a part of a conference with less than ideal leverage.
we aren't driving this train. we bought the ticket and now have to take the ride. this has been a self inflicted hobbling of the football program dating back to the end of GB. poor decisions have long term consequences. and the move to the p12 is a cherry on top of the **** sundae we have made. the conference cut a horrible tv deal and let an idiot run the conference at a time when the league needed experience, expertise, and vision. NIL and the national recruiting of the power teams are just extra flames on our death pyre.
hell, usc has EVERYTHING we don't have and even they are struggling to stay relevant as a national power.
all we can do is hope and wait and pray someone remembers what we once built and believes we may be able to do it, at least enough to be interesting, again.
we aren't driving this train. we bought the ticket and now have to take the ride. this has been a self inflicted hobbling of the football program dating back to the end of GB. poor decisions have long term consequences. and the move to the p12 is a cherry on top of the **** sundae we have made. the conference cut a horrible tv deal and let an idiot run the conference at a time when the league needed experience, expertise, and vision. NIL and the national recruiting of the power teams are just extra flames on our death pyre.
hell, usc has EVERYTHING we don't have and even they are struggling to stay relevant as a national power.
all we can do is hope and wait and pray someone remembers what we once built and believes we may be able to do it, at least enough to be interesting, again.
College athletics is an advertising expense for colleges these days I think. When making my college choice, the local sports scene did have an impact on that choice. Anyone who says athletics didn't impact their decision on what college to attend is probably kidding themselves.
@Buffnik: I get what you are saying and that is why I subscribe to ESPN+ because a lot of non-FBS conferences have their sports on that platform and you can watch anytime. Next month, I'm going to start watching European soccer beginning with the German Bundesliga (Dortmound & Lepiz to be specific). I'm going to check out some non-FBS conferences for basketball and then lacrosse in the spring in addition to NHL hockey. I'm carrying myself like a free-agent fan this upcoming athletic season.
@Buffnik: I get what you are saying and that is why I subscribe to ESPN+ because a lot of non-FBS conferences have their sports on that platform and you can watch anytime. Next month, I'm going to start watching European soccer beginning with the German Bundesliga (Dortmound & Lepiz to be specific). I'm going to check out some non-FBS conferences for basketball and then lacrosse in the spring in addition to NHL hockey. I'm carrying myself like a free-agent fan this upcoming athletic season.
With what we’ve learned about football and head trauma, there just no reason a university should field a football team. Yet here we are.
Really? Colorado Utah New Mexico and Idaho are vastly more redeeming than the old Big 8 leftovers. They are states that are all growing as well. Texas I get but Kansas Iowa and Oklahoma are the places some of our friends are from and have family they dont intend to visit unless a relative dies.
Or especially a high school. Maybe the future of the sport is the NFL funding developmental clubs unaffiliated with academic institutions like we see in other countries. We've already seen in a lot of sports in the US that the path to a future in a sport is a club/ traveling team rather than your school's team.
ahoelsken
Well-Known Member
So this fanbase is bitching about not being able to recruiting if we're in the Big 10 while also not wanting two schools in one of our recruiting footprints in this league? (You can easily drive from DFW to Stillwater and back in a day-I've done that drive both ways numerous times).
JFC. There is no ****ing way that adding Texas Tech and Oklahoma State to this league is not good for Colorado football.
This. There was drama and tradition once. There was a time when it all felt special and magical. It doesnt anymore. Journeyman walkons dont make it anymore. Money is everywhere, ruining it. Money is consolidating in a few places and leaving a lot of schools left out. And Kids are being left with life shortening injuries.
I will say this, football/tackling/hitting is taught WAY different than it was before the whole CTE issue came to light. The game is played and practiced in such a way that it really does limit the constant brutal impacts that were prevalent in the early 00’s and before. That’s not to say it isn’t still a violent sport, but the repeated and constant contact that was attributable to many of these CTE issues has largely been eliminated from the game (in addition to better medical protocols). Pair that with the helmets being much better today, and I’m not convinced that it is substantially more dangerous than several other sports. Still, that stigma lingers.
I don't mind CU being in a conference like that and there would be quite some upside for basketball in that case. I think the issue is that college athletic conferences might be more focused on the short term of things than the long term which was the popular thing to do last realignment.
ahoelsken
Well-Known Member
Most ridiculous thing about all of this: UT's willing to throw away nearly $100m in Longhorn network money because they've screwed 2 football hires (Charlie Strong and Tom Herman) and a men's basketball hire (Shaka Smart) up. Maybe shut the **** up until you start winning championships, Bevo?
This is true. OSU and TTU would help recruiting and expand viewership. I'd expect these additions would at least pay for themselves in added revenue while making the conference more competitive.
Problem is, it doesn't close the gap enough to keep USC and others happy. So I think a deal with the B1G is the path forward. Usually I think the speculation is fun to talk about while knowing the final changes will be more modest. This time I think we are headed for seismic changes. From what I'm reading, the ACC is more worried than anyone outside of the Big 12.
here is where the football players come from.
adding Texas enlarges the pool a bit for the Pac12 but the recruiting action is all in the south.
If UT joins the SEC they likely lockup all the valuable talent in the lonestar state. Since the old Big12 fell apart OU and UT havent exactly been lighting it up either. Right now my impression is OU and UT are 2nd choice for kids over playing at an SEC school. They have a SWC problem again. And that recruiting competition is why A&M doesnt want them joining the SEC.
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Ego wins the day. The move doesn't even make sense for Texas. Except that aTm broke up with them, said it was an abusive relationship, and is now more successful, more popular and wealthier than them. So UT has to move into their new situation and put them back in their place. That's mostly what this is - rich boosters getting fed up with rival rich boosters getting over on them.
If UT joins the SEC, I hope they get kicked down a notch like Nebraska did in the B1G.
They are in Texas. Butt****, Texas to be exact.
That is some next level jaded **** right there.
Lets be honest: UT ****ed the Big 8. Then they ****ed the Big12 slowly. ****ed each conference member. ****ed themselves and didnt care when CU NU MU and A&M left. ****ed Larry Scott by not coming. Which ****ed the Pac 12 on day 1. Even if they had joined we still wouldn't be getting SEC or B1G money. Why? because westerners are not as interested in the game as much as their Frozen-Tundra-Abandondoned-Factory-Landia and Shvetty-Ballz-Confederacia cousins are
ahoelsken
Well-Known Member
I don't give a **** about this league. It won't ever recover from the damage Champagne Larry did to it. I care about what's good for this program-and that's one of two things. One, joining the Big 10. Two, the Pac 12 taking in some of the Big 12's leftovers.
3rd largest alumni base in Texas, concentrated in DFW metroplex. Dwarfs the alums of TCU, Baylor and SMU. School's almost as big as those 3 combined. Houston's even a little bigger.
It has been a real long time since TT and OSU were outside the shadow of their bigger rivals such as UT & OU in that regard. Perhaps there is room for those two to grow if they are on their own in different conferences from their main instate rival.
The question is are we willing to cheat? If so how much? Is CU going to have some integrity (admissions, behavior, team rules) or are we willing to risk being a (Insert name here) in the name of a few wins? I cant say that there is cheating in the Big Ten. But Im sure there is in the SEC. And the SEC is where the players are According to the tweet I posted. If the SEC conditions those players to a such a low bar cheating is the only way you attract them and keep them for the very top prospects.
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