Conference Realignment: What Next?

[Xudash]

I think some of you are being overly optimistic that schools will downgrade football in favor of basketball. Really, the only school that has done that is UConn, and they didn't really have any football history and a ton of basketball success.

Football is still the most popular sport in the country, and that doesn't seem to be changing any time soon, and the non super conference schools will salvage what they can and stay together. Now, out of that you'll still probably get some decent basketball conferences as well, but I'm not expecting Syracuse and Pitt to come back to the Big East.

Yep. Have to agree with you here. Jasper got me thinking about it, and that sent me off on my semi-cathartic lengthy post to arrive at essentially the same conclusion.

I had gotten excited about the idea that some of the P5 private schools, in particular, would take such a hit to their media agreements that they would shift their emphasis, especially if they enjoyed historically strong basketball programs within their athletic departments. It certainly seems more likely that they will still desperately solve for football, while probably ending up with good hoops programs.

Nonetheless, any way you cut it, especially when considering what the SEC and B1G are about to become, members of the ACC, Big12 and Pac(n) are headed to the back seat of the family wagon, and those among them that are smaller, private schools are going to feel some real pain in their athletic departments when the dust settles long term.

The key point along the way for the Big East is the renegotiation of our media agreement. What will that look like, given the success of the conference following the reboot, and given UCONN's addition to it? Obviously, if the new payout per school bumps up to, say, $7 million, I would think that the Big East would simply sit tight at 11, because the only school that could make sense at that point would be Gonzaga at this point.

[Hall2012]

Hear me out - the Big East should add the entire A10. Not just add the teams - purchase their brand too. However, keep the leagues separate and institute a promotion-relegation system between them. This helps boost the conference schedule by raising the level of the bottom of the conference and keeping teams motivated even when they're out of postseason contention. It allows struggling programs to develop young players and build through the A10 and then jump to the Big East when they're ready to compete.

Obviously only half serious. I think it would be an entertaining format, but obviously the current Big East schools would have no interest in a format that risks them getting dropped from the league, even temporarily. So my adjustment is expand the Big East to 14 teams with our current 11 immune from relegation. Hope you enjoyed my ridiculous proposal!

[Django]

Hear me out - the Big East should add the entire A10. Not just add the teams - purchase their brand too. However, keep the leagues separate and institute a promotion-relegation system between them. This helps boost the conference schedule by raising the level of the bottom of the conference and keeping teams motivated even when they're out of postseason contention. It allows struggling programs to develop young players and build through the A10 and then jump to the Big East when they're ready to compete.

Obviously only half serious. I think it would be an entertaining format, but obviously the current Big East schools would have no interest in a format that risks them getting dropped from the league, even temporarily. So my adjustment is expand the Big East to 14 teams with our current 11 immune from relegation. Hope you enjoyed my ridiculous proposal!

No.

[Jasper67]

I think some of you are being overly optimistic that schools will downgrade football in favor of basketball. Really, the only school that has done that is UConn, and they didn't really have any football history and a ton of basketball success.

Football is still the most popular sport in the country, and that doesn't seem to be changing any time soon, and the non super conference schools will salvage what they can and stay together. Now, out of that you'll still probably get some decent basketball conferences as well, but I'm not expecting Syracuse and Pitt to come back to the Big East.

Not saying that they’ll downgrade football. Rather, that they will make moves to maximize revenue from their major asset, which is basketball. Unlike UConn, they’ll still be in an all sports conference that plays football. More matchups against other big name basketball programs means bigger TV revenues.

As an example, with Texas and Oklahoma gone from the Bug XII, conference revenue is going to take a big hit because those were the programs bringing in most of the revenue and then sharing it with the rest of the conference. With football revenue badly diminished, will Kansas get more revenue from basketball by continuing to play regional partners or by having every game be against national basketball brands? They have to answer that question, but I’m suggesting that they do pretty much the same thing as what the football schools are doing, i.e. bring the big money makers together under one tent.

[Jasper67]

I think some of you are being overly optimistic that schools will downgrade football in favor of basketball. Really, the only school that has done that is UConn, and they didn't really have any football history and a ton of basketball success.

Football is still the most popular sport in the country, and that doesn't seem to be changing any time soon, and the non super conference schools will salvage what they can and stay together. Now, out of that you'll still probably get some decent basketball conferences as well, but I'm not expecting Syracuse and Pitt to come back to the Big East.

Yep. Have to agree with you here. Jasper got me thinking about it, and that sent me off on my semi-cathartic lengthy post to arrive at essentially the same conclusion.

I had gotten excited about the idea that some of the P5 private schools, in particular, would take such a hit to their media agreements that they would shift their emphasis, especially if they enjoyed historically strong basketball programs within their athletic departments. It certainly seems more likely that they will still desperately solve for football, while probably ending up with good hoops programs.

Nonetheless, any way you cut it, especially when considering what the SEC and B1G are about to become, members of the ACC, Big12 and Pac(n) are headed to the back seat of the family wagon, and those among them that are smaller, private schools are going to feel some real pain in their athletic departments when the dust settles long term.

The key point along the way for the Big East is the renegotiation of our media agreement. What will that look like, given the success of the conference following the reboot, and given UCONN's addition to it? Obviously, if the new payout per school bumps up to, say, $7 million, I would think that the Big East would simply sit tight at 11, because the only school that could make sense at that point would be Gonzaga at this point.

Completely agree. I think that the Big East is going to bring Gonzaga on board - if Gonzaga is willing. I think that the USC/UCLA move has to have a lot of people rethinking what’s possible in terms of a coast-to-coast league. There have been a number of quotes this year from Val, talking about how the league has to do everything possible to upgrade the new TV contract, that its revenue is “the lifeblood” of the conference. I think we’re in agreement that there isn’t any other move available at this time that can do that.

[Hall2012]

Hear me out - the Big East should add the entire A10. Not just add the teams - purchase their brand too. However, keep the leagues separate and institute a promotion-relegation system between them. This helps boost the conference schedule by raising the level of the bottom of the conference and keeping teams motivated even when they're out of postseason contention. It allows struggling programs to develop young players and build through the A10 and then jump to the Big East when they're ready to compete.

Obviously only half serious. I think it would be an entertaining format, but obviously the current Big East schools would have no interest in a format that risks them getting dropped from the league, even temporarily. So my adjustment is expand the Big East to 14 teams with our current 11 immune from relegation. Hope you enjoyed my ridiculous proposal!

No.

You must be fun at parties

[Django]

Hear me out - the Big East should add the entire A10. Not just add the teams - purchase their brand too. However, keep the leagues separate and institute a promotion-relegation system between them. This helps boost the conference schedule by raising the level of the bottom of the conference and keeping teams motivated even when they're out of postseason contention. It allows struggling programs to develop young players and build through the A10 and then jump to the Big East when they're ready to compete.

Obviously only half serious. I think it would be an entertaining format, but obviously the current Big East schools would have no interest in a format that risks them getting dropped from the league, even temporarily. So my adjustment is expand the Big East to 14 teams with our current 11 immune from relegation. Hope you enjoyed my ridiculous proposal!

No.

You must be fun at parties

No.

[billyjack]

Django's responses-- i keep think his auto-footer is part of his answer. So i keep thinking that "Bob Gibson majored in sociology..." is somehow going to be relevant to the Atlantic-10.

[Django]

Ha ha billy. Do I also need to put he still holds the record for the lowest ERA in MLB?

On another thread i explained clearly my hope is that the B1G annexes our entire conference so you can imagine I’m 100% NOT interested in anenexing an under-performing mid-major let alone 14 of them. I think Hall was 90% joking and realized nobody wants this.

I still think if we add Gonzaga we would be the one non-football conference that the B1G would annex in a P2 break off.

Here’s what it might look like:

East
BC-PC-UCONN-Cuse-St John’s-SHU-Nova-Rutgers-GT-Maryland
Midwest
X-OSU-Mich-MSU-Indiana-Butler-Purdue-Notre Dame-Illin-PSU-pitt
Middle-west
Wisco-Marq-Nwstrn-DePaul-Minn-Iowa-ISU-Creighton-KU-Ksu
West-PAC
Neb-Col-Arizona-Asu-Gonzaga-Wash-Oregon-Stanford-UCLA-USC

For football you could have East and West with 15 team divisions.

I’m a huge fan of all Jesuit schools, and love the San Francisco Dons and their history with Bill Russell and the Duquesne Dukes might have the coolest name and mascot in a great city, but they severely underachieve and just don’t belong in our league. I’m still hoping the Billikens jump up to our level and give us a reason to get an invite. I also hope and pray for Georgetown to turn around their program ASAP and that goes for DePaul too. Above all we need Creighton to get to the Final Four next year!!!!

[Omaha1]

Reported yesterday

Sources: Big 12, Pac-12 won't partner as talks among the two conferences officially end. The two sides had at least three lengthy Zoom calls to explore options within the last two weeks. No strong revenue driver emerged.