College Football Realignment

[MiamiBuffs]

Beyond the obvious blunder of not letting UT and OU to join the conference, the Pac12 made 2 other major errors which helped seal their fate:

- Not partnering with a major network to get P12N more visibility
- Negotiating with the networks to schedule games earlier in the day

The 2nd one goes back to the map posted by @Creebuzz earlier showing that only 20% of the population lives in the Pac12 footprint. Simple logic: play your games as early in the day as possible and then get your highlights running all day

UT and OU and others declined. They were offered at the same time as CU.

On June 10, 2010, the University of Colorado Boulder accepted an invitation to join the Pac-10 Conference, effective starting with the 2012–2013 academic year.[52][53] The school later announced it would join the conference a year earlier than previously announced, in the 2011–2012 academic year.

On June 15, 2010, a deal was reached between Texas and the Big 12 Conference to keep Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State in the Big 12. Following Texas' decision, the other Big 12 schools that had been rumored candidates to join the Pac-10 announced they would remain in the Big 12. This deal effectively ended the Pac-10's ambition to potentially become a sixteen-team conference.[54]

On June 17, 2010, the University of Utah accepted an invitation to join the Pac-10 Conference, effective starting July 2011.

Pay attention to the dates.

Here was the real reason we couldnt land UT…

Longhorn Network was announced by ESPN on January 19, 2011.[2] The Longhorn network, which launched on August 26, 2011, focused on the Texas Longhorn sports teams of the University of Texas at Austin.

Texas conned the rest of the teams into staying to save their precious money bag channel with the help of ESPN.

Texas A&M and the University of Missouri officially joined the Southeastern Conference (SEC) on July 1, 2012

Texas A&M wasnt having it so ESPN booked them into the SEC.

ESPN sabotaged the P12. FÚCK ESPN!!!!

 

[BerkeleyBuff]

Why not? Because of the hubris among Pac-12 members who still are trying to figure out why 10/12 members were so valuable to other conferences and their media partners but couldn't get anyone to offer the Pac-12 a deal? Instead, most of us went to the conference that lost the Longhorns and Sooners, backfilled by raiding the AAC & WCC with UCF, Cincinnati, Houston and BYU but still grabbed a much better deal than the Pac-12 was being offered.

Nick, I love you, but if I need to explain why additions of SDSU and UNLV wouldn't get the PAC a TV deal on par with the SEC and B1G (because that's what would have saved the conference), then we need to have a conversation about your mental health.

 

[Buffnik]

Nick, I love you, but if I need to explain why additions of SDSU and UNLV wouldn't get the PAC a TV deal on par with the SEC and B1G (because that's what would have saved the conference), then we need to have a conversation about your mental health.

It only needed to get us on par with what the Big 12 offered but unequal revenue in order to keep it together.

 

[MtnBuff]

UT and OU and others declined. They were offered at the same time as CU.






Here was the real reason we couldnt land UT…


They conned the rest of the teams into staying to save their precious money bag channel.

The interest in UT and OU with them wasn't something new.

There was concern within the PAC (with reason) that Texas was hard to work with within a conference.

Had the PAC taken on one of the networks as a partner in their TV network there is a good chance that the overall network deal could have been enough to bring UT and with them the Sooners. They would have also brought two more teams with them, likely OSU and TTU. Adding Texas and Oklahoma to the PAC media footprint would have made the conference worth much more to the networks, especially one that had a part ownership in the PAC12 network. Even without uneven revenue distribution this likely would have been more lucrative at the time for UT and OU.

Also consider that at the time Texas was interested in joining the PAC because they wanted the academic status that came with being in a conference with schools of high academic status. The Big 12 was seen as academically far behind the PAC and the B1G, still is.

The PAC and the B1G could have had Texas (and OU would have gone with them) but there was hesitation because of their history of bad relations in conferences. The joining the SEC didn't give them academic status but they couldn't refuse the money.

 

[BerkeleyBuff]

It only needed to get us on par with what the Big 12 offered but unequal revenue in order to keep it together.

No, it needed to be on par with the B1G and SEC to survive long term.

 

[BuffWarHogFrog]

Transition period when a team moves divisions. In theory it's to discourage teams from moving divisions too often or rapidly or something. Seems kinda dumb.

Huh. I wonder what would happen if this rule applied to players.

 

[BuffWarHogFrog]

Sac State has to have a few alums in the valley who are bankrolling this with their pocket change.

This is where all the kids from my high school went that couldn’t get into real universities but had enough money not to go to community college. (90% of my class went to UC Davis).

 

[BuffWarHogFrog]

Beyond the obvious blunder of not letting UT and OU to join the conference, the Pac12 made 2 other major errors which helped seal their fate:

- Not partnering with a major network to get P12N more visibility
- Negotiating with the networks to schedule games earlier in the day

The 2nd one goes back to the map posted by @Creebuzz earlier showing that only 20% of the population lives in the Pac12 footprint. Simple logic: play your games as early in the day as possible and then get your highlights running all day

It’s funny that people think the P-12 would have survived with Texas in it.

 

[4BienemyTDs]

It’s funny that people think the P-12 would have survived with Texas in it.

If USC and Texas cared anything about the conference instead of about their own ego, it would have easily survived. But, USC and Texas want their johnson's stroked, thus they continue to blow up conferences without recourse

 

[MiamiBuffs]

It’s funny that people think the P-12 would have survived with Texas in it.

Well. We know they couldnt survive without Texas.

Those five schools would have added a lot more value to time zones in the middle of the country. TV probably would have paid more to own those rights and air those games. Would it be $90m per year? Hard to say.

It doesnt matter now. The P2 will probably each expand one more time and then that will be it.

 

[MtnBuff]

Well. We know they couldnt survive without Texas.

Those five schools would have added a lot more value to time zones in the middle of the country. TV probably would have paid more to own those rights and air those games. Would it be $90m per year? Hard to say.

It doesnt matter now. The P2 will probably each expand one more time and then that will be it.

Those schools would have added significant markets. Texas is big and college football is a passion there, plus UT has a national following.

There would still be a difference in value but part of that difference in value for the P2 is due to the SEC having the Texas market and the B1G now having the west coast, and again USC has a national audience as does Oregon to an extent.

 

[Buffnik]

6 of the Top 25 were in the Pac-12. UConn can't even get a Big 12 invite. Because none of those titles were in football, so we are where we are. No other sport matters for media contracts.