Conference Realignment Thread v. 2016

[Fieldhouse Flyer]

http://www.si.com/college-football/2016/10/14/big-12-expansion-unlikely

According to this SI article, Fox and ESPN might be paying the Big 12 NOT to expand. Wow. What a CF. The anticipated presser on Monday or Tuesday should be interesting.

The present discussion on Big 12 expansion began on July 19th with this post on Page 35. Then on August 15th, I posted this on Page 51:

IS THE TAIL WAGGING THE DOG WITH ESPN/FOX BLOCKING POTENTIAL BIG 12 EXPANSION?

Last week, after ESPN and Fox Sports made it clear that they were unhappy with the Big 12’s plans to expand, the conference’s commissioner, Bob Bowlsby, called executives at both networks. Bowlsby assured the networks that expansion was not imminent, multiple sources said, although the conference is moving in that direction by vetting expansion candidates.

According to SBJ, the conference and the networks could look to come to some kind of compromise. The Big 12 could seek to receive more money from ESPN and Fox in exchange for not expanding.

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This is turning into a freak show staged on a train wreck.

Alternatively, it could be an effective strategy to coerce ESPN and Fox to renegotiate the current TV contract in order to leverage (extort?) more money per year for each of the ten Big 12 schools.

This may have just been a Big 12 shake-down of ESPN and Fox from Day 1 (July 19th), but in any event, there has been no reports of any expansion candidate schools coming close to getting the necessary 8 of 10 votes from Big 12 school presidents. Big 12 expansion will not be occurring.

On Monday, look for the Big 12, ESPN and Fox to announce a new media rights contract for more money per year, with the ‘pro-rata expansion' clauses removed. That should hopefully kill the ‘UConn to the Big East' discussion for another 8 years.

[whiteandblue77]

Today is either a requiem or wedding day for UCONN & Cincy. At 4 p.m. CST the bell will toll or ring on those teams' fortunes.

[Xudash]

Fox Sports President Eric Shanks in recent comments, concerning the Big 12: Shanks essentially warned that any expansion could wind up being a fatal decision for the conference.

Shanks: “We don’t think expansion in the Big 12 is a good idea for the conference. We think it will be dilutive to the product in the short term. In the long term, it’s probably harmful to the future of the conference. Who knows where expansion is going to go. Reading the smoke signals, [expansion talk has] cooled off. I don’t know why. We’re still in discussions with them. We still have a long way to go in the deal. We’ll work through it the best way that we can.”

[aughnanure]

UCONN about to freak out?

https://twitter.com/LegalizeWill/status/788050106436255744

[GoldenWarrior11]

I hope Cincinnati gets selected for the Big 12. They have done enough in football and basketball to show they belong. It would also help Xavier a bit, since they would now be defeating another power conference team during the regular season.

[stever20]

sounds like answer may very well be no...
Chip Brown
‏@ChipBrownHD
No new members were added to the #Big12 during today's Big 12 Board of Directors meeting, multiple sources tell http://HornsDigest.com .

[ConnersvilleBulldog]

B12 votes for no expansion.

Ramp up the UConn to BE rumors.

[stever20]

B12 votes for no expansion.

Ramp up the UConn to BE rumors.

I don't think so. I think it makes it that much tougher to leave the AAC quite frankly.

[whiteandblue77]

I would say this helps UCONN's argument to STAY in AAC... I think if Cincy left them behind it would have been worse for the Huskies. At least they still have the Bearcats to make the AAC a better basketball conference.

[ConnersvilleBulldog]

I agree that it doesn't move the needle like it would if the Big 12 expanded and UConn was left on the outisde looking in. But I could still see them looking at other long-term options. Especially since this was probably one of their last chances of being added to a P5 football conference.