Report: Could The Pac-10 Be Preparing To Make An Offer To Six Big 12 Schools?
by Jon Woods on Jun 3, 2010 1:48 PM MDT
in Buffaloes Football Season
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PrintChip Brown of Orangebloods.com, the Texas Longhorns Rivals site, is reporting that he has been told by numerous "sources" that the Pac-10 is preparing to offer 6 Big 12 schools the opportunity to join a new, 16 team conference. The 6 teams would be Colorado, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, Texas A&M, and Texas. The newly added Big 12 schools would combine with Arizona and Arizona State to form the eastern division and USC, UCLA, Stanford, California, Oregon, and Oregon State would make up the western division.
The thought is the Big 16 (or whatever they decide for the name) would start its own television network that could command premium subscriber dollars from cable providers on par with the Big Ten Network and pay out upwards of $20 million to each of the 16 schools in TV revenue.
Such a merger between the six Big 12 schools and the Pac-10 would build a conference with seven of the country's top 20 TV markets (Los Angeles, Dallas, San Francisco, Houston, Phoenix, Seattle and Sacramento). And such a league would likely command attention from every cable system in the country and command a premium rate from every cable system west of the Mississippi.
Those projected TV revenues would double the current payouts of roughly $9 million to Big 12 and Pac-10 members. If the Big 16 reached its projections, the league would also surpass the SEC's projected payout of $17 million per school reached in a 15-year TV deal with ABC/ESPN and CBS signed in 2008.
Obviously, we have heard numerous rumors of imminent offers coming from a bunch of different conferences to a bunch of different schools that were nothing but neato fabrications so this should be taken with a HUGE grain of salt. However, as a Buff and Sooner and Pac-10 football fan, this would be absolute heaven for me. Seriously, I can't think of anything more perfect and I don't think I would ever need to leave this new conference's own channel. You would have to assume that this would definitely mean Missouri to the Big 10 and possibly Nebraska if an offer was put on the table. Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State and Baylor would be left scrambling. Maybe a possible jump with Boise State to the Mountain West?
Anyways, even though there is only a minuscule chance that this will happen as outlined above, it's still extremely fun to think about on a slow Thursday afternoon...
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Crap!!
Sounds like a great set-up except for the fact that with Texas, Oklahoma, OK St, Tech in our Division, we would probably not make the post-season in the remainder of my lifetime….
It would be rough, very true.
But you would have to think that our recruiting out West (where we already recruit the strongest anyways) would improve. Plus, think if this same thing had happened during the 90’s. We wouldn’t have felt that way then. Things will turn around…. eventually.
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Not to mention conference championships....
Being a member of a “superconference” like this would make it even more difficult than it already is to win a conference championship. BCS implications would be really interesting if all the conferences re-aligned and expanded (assuming the BCS wasn’t ultimately replaced by some sort of playoff).
by highlandsbuff on Jun 3, 2010 2:10 PM MDT up reply actions
Academics?
I can’t see the PAC 10 allowing Tech and Okie State in the conference. Absolutely dreadful academics. No way Stanford or Cal will let that happen
by BradtheAg on Jun 3, 2010 2:09 PM MDT reply actions 1 recs
Yea, very true. But the amount of money coming into the conference would be astronomical. Money talks…
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ASU is light years ahead of Tech/OSU
by BradtheAg on Jun 3, 2010 2:17 PM MDT up reply actions 1 recs
We could call this conference...
The Sweet 16
(I stole that)
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Penalties for leaving the conference
If this scenario actually happened (six teams to the Pac-10 and two to the Big-10), I wonder if any of the teams leaving would end up having to actually pay the penalty for leaving. The mass exodus would likely result in the Big XII conference just folding, since the four teams left in the Big XII (KU, KSU, BU, and ISU) would probably prefer to join up with other conferences rather than try to find eight replacements. Dan Beebe could try to collect penalties, but what could he do if nobody paid and nobody was left in the conference?
I would assume
that the schools leaving…could vote to waive the penalties…hey would have enough votes.
Colorado Rockies correspondent at My Team Rivals (www.mtrmedia.com/rockies) and my own site Rockies Reporter (www.rockiesreporter.wordpress.com) and one of the top Rockies writers at the Bleacher Report.
What about the schedule?
Would you play 2 noncons, the 8 teams within your division and two from the other division? Or would you have a unbalanced schedule mixed between the east and west divisions? Both seem problematic.
I just don’t see the Pac-10 Presidents voting to approve this and the reason is academics. CU, Texas and A&M are the best all around schools in the Big XII and they are research institutions. Tech, Okie Light, and the land stealers (OU) are not. Yes ASU isn’t great either, but will the Pac-10 Presidents add more schools like them? My guess is no. I think it is more likely that CU and Utah are heading west and the Big XII picks up TCU to replace us.
Schedule
With 8 teams in each division, you’d play 7 division games, 2 from the other division, and 3 noncons. One downside there is that you’d have an 8 year rotating cycle for other division teams, so you’d only get to Southern California two years out of eight. That may not get us the recruiting bump we’re looking for in that area. But as badly as we are hurting for money, I don’t see us turning something like this down.
This arrangement would be a horrible move for CU
The money would be nice but at the end of the day, do you want to be in the same division as texas, oklahoma, oklahoma State, texas tech, texas a&m, arizona state, and arizona? Good luck recruiting against those teams. Of course, usc would dominate the other division so the buffs would have almost no chance of winning a conference title. I’m not against joining the pac 10 but I’d much prefer to make it the pac 12 with utah coming along for the ride. At least then we’d have a fighting chance to be successful. The pac 16? That would be a DISASTER for us.
by Denver Dave on Jun 3, 2010 6:23 PM MDT reply actions 1 recs
usc would dominate the other division
You mean like last year?
--Dave
Addicted to Quack, SBN's Oregon Ducks blog
Bohn in the Daily Camera confirms
Colorado athletic director Mike Bohn said he and other school officials have been led to believe the Pac-10 Conference is on the verge of issuing invitations to six members of the Big 12 to join its ranks.
“The longer that we were together in Kansas City it appeared that that rumor or speculation did have some validity to it,” Bohn said in an
interview with the Camera as he left the Big 12 spring meetings here today
Colorado Rockies correspondent at My Team Rivals (www.mtrmedia.com/rockies) and my own site Rockies Reporter (www.rockiesreporter.wordpress.com) and one of the top Rockies writers at the Bleacher Report.
We can't even beat Toledo!!!
Yet, for some unknown reason, people are complaining about not being able to compete in a conference with Texas … From what I’ve seen on the field, we couldn’t be competetive in the MWC conference right now! All I’ve read from people on here about how this will better align us academically (blah, blah, blah) which is nothing more than a scapegoat to say we really need to move to an easier conference to be able to compete athletically.
Yes we are at disadvantage because of our academic requirements, but come on, do we really need to add insult to injury and complain because we can’t put a good product on the football field??
Agreed
I’m laughing at all of the comments about how hard it would be to win this division/conference. We’re not exactly tearing up the Big XII North right now, let alone the conference. I’d be happy to get rid of some of the Big XII opponents (including the Huskers) and be able to see the Pac 10 schools. Plus, road trips to the West Coast and Arizona are much more appealing. I’m just glad that we’re part of the conversation and not sitting on the outside like KU, KSU, and ISU. Any move means more money, and we all know that we need that.
EXACTLY
If we want to be able to even afford the high-profile Head Coach that everyone wants so badly then we have got to start bringing some money into the athletic department. This would be a HUGE step forward
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Funny
There sure are some funny posts here. I think you all have a great sense of humor and some insightful comments.
No one knows what will happen until it happens. Too much speculation right now and that is not a comfortable feeling. I have always had respect for CU. I lived in Colorado for 14 years. CU campus is incredibly beautiful and the academics are super!
If this proposed expansion to the Pac 10 goes through, can you imagine the television revenue that would create? In my humble opinion, there would be no conference in the country that would be able to top a conference such as this one. Should Texas A&M decide to split from UT and go to the SEC, they would live to regret such a move.
Baylor to the Pac 10?
I sure hope this is not true. The Texas Legislature has no right to insist that the Pac 10 replace Colorado with Baylor! This kind of selfishness on the part of the legislature would surely kill any deal between the Pac 10 and the Big XII.
“A source told the Waco Tribune-Herald that the Pac-10 could have reservations about Colorado since it doesn’t field spring sports like baseball, softball, swimming/diving and tennis.”
In my opinion, Colorado does have the Denver television market, not to mention the fact that Colorado is a member of the AAU and those two things should carry a lot of weight.
I would hate to see the Texas Legislature ruin a good thing for UT, Texas A&M and Texas Tech. Besides, Baylor is a private institution.
Baylor
You guys are about to get “Baylored.” This happened to BYU 20 years ago. Sorry. Utah and Colorado were soooooooo close.
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