Here's what I'd like to see from the Big 12

Discussion in 'On The Field' started by Irish Horn, Dec 2, 2018.

  1. Irish Horn

    Irish Horn < 25 Posts

    Expand to 12 or 14 teams and drop the conference schedule down to 8 games with no divisions. The schedule will rotate but with protection for two rivalry games per year, e.g., OU and Texas Tech for UT. The conference championship game should include the two teams with the best conference records with ties being broken by CFP committee rank (or AP poll if rankings are needed sooner). This would give the highest probability of having two top teams playing a non-rematch game every year. I realize the expansion part is hard because there aren't a lot of good football options, let alone schools that have much to offer in terms of other sports, but I think UH and Cincy would be good additions. Perhaps BYU as a football only member? I'm on the fence about USF and UCF.

    Finally, in exchange for dropping to 8 regular season games, I'd make a big push to increase the number of good OOC games played per year, with an emphasis on some late season OOC rivalry games like what the SEC and ACC play. WVU could go back to playing Pitt Thanksgiving weekend. We could play Aggy or Arky. Even if not played Thanksgiving weekend, OU could try to alternate CU and Nebraska. I'm sure Notre Dame would be willing to schedule more Big 12 teams too.

    Obviously to make this work, new members would, at least temporarily, have to receive reduced payouts, but I can't imagine current AAC teams would have a huge problem with that.
     
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  2. slowrider

    slowrider 250+ Posts

    Why dilute the league? The Big 12 has better payouts than the PAC 12 and the ACC. We have gotten a team in the playoffs 3 out of 5 years and have a tie in to the Sugar Bowl. We also have arguably the best basketball conference. What would we stand to gain by adding inferior schools?
     
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  3. SabreHorn

    SabreHorn 10,000+ Posts

    I cannot dislike this enough, Swofford. You did this and really screwed over the ACC by adding multiple schools that share revenue but don't add any money or appeal. Go on back home to Charlotte, and leave the Big XII to people with a clue about finance.
     
  4. dukesteer

    dukesteer 5,000+ Posts

    Addding (or considering adding) schools like UH, Cincy, UCF and USF would be subtraction by addition IMHO. If we are going to add teams, they must enhance the league, not dilute it.

    Probably a long shot but I wonder if we could woo LSU away from the SEC? Maybe entice Nebraska back? (Not that NU is a prized possession at the moment.) For me BYU is a decent option, but not exciting.

    The options are really very limited.

    Personally I still like the PAC 12 option. People worry about a 9:00 PM start time but actually the Pacific teams would probably accommodate Texas and start the games at 6:00 PST. And even if they started at 7:30 PST, it could easily be structured to be only one game per year.

    In the PAC, I like the idea of four, 4-Team pods. Texas and OU could be in the Southwest Pod with AZ & ASU. Or, Tech (or TCU) and OSU could join us in the Southwestern Pod. There would be the Mountain Pod, with Utah, CO, AZ and ASU. The others would be the CA Pod and the PacNW Pod.

    Teams would play each team in their Pod every year, and two teams in the other pods every year, for a total of nine conference games, just like we have now.

    I just don’t see why this wouldn’t work, and it would be one heck of a conference.
     
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  5. SabreHorn

    SabreHorn 10,000+ Posts

    Duke,

    You are absolutely correct about adding the "city schools", which add nothing at all since they have no following, no appeal, and would only dilute the pie.

    I applaud your model, but there are various obstacles.

    1) A&M and/or Arkansas would leave the SEC before LSU. LSU, Ole Miss, & Alabama would remain in a three team conference before leaving.

    2) Nebraska would likely come back if the BigTen would waive their exit fee. It would certainly help their dismal recruiting.

    3) The Christian schools would oppose BYU, who needs to consider scheduling the other Mormon schools - Utah State, Oregon State, Washington State, maybe Arizona State, which appears to be BYU's grad school.

    As for the pod model, I think it is excellent idea, whoever, the PAC would never buy it because of the failed attempt in the mid 80s. Again, they fear Texas!

    :beertoast:
     
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  6. ViperHorn

    ViperHorn 10,000+ Posts

    A couple of observations:
    1. aggy will never leave the $EC voluntary so Arkansas would be the guess. That would set up the Ark-La-Tex cup with ou, the pig people and Texas. (Also, Missouri will leave the $EC the second after they receive an invite from the B1G.)

    2. Seeing the annual Children of the Corn frustration after the Texas game again would be a good thing.

    3. ou cannot go anywhere without OSU by Okie law.

    4. TCU and Baylor would throw a fit at adding BYU, but at the end of the day, they would realize that they were afterthoughts used to fill out the 12 teams in Baylor's case and 10 teams in TCU's case. Show them the additional money, and their objections would go away.

    5. Pull Iowa out of the B1G and add BYU.
     
  7. blonthang

    blonthang 2,500+ Posts

    Just a weird thought here.

    Many proposals for conference realignments/additions/etc recognize a critical stopping point for some schools is maintenance of tradition-rich annual rivalry games.

    I'm no fan of NU or OU, but I kind of miss seeing that game now. UT v aggy not so much.

    But my thought is this --- what would stop a conference from allowing for maintenance of a rivalry game even for years that a within-division or cross-division rotation might kick it out? Why couldn't a conference allow for the two teams to use one of their OOC game slots in those years in which they'd otherwise be rotated out, with the specification that these games would NOT be a conference game, even though they would be between conference foes?

    Regarding NU v OU, on a separate note, seems like they could have made that happen if both wanted it. I mean, before the Big 12 formation, UT v OU happened every year as an OOC game for both, SWC v Big 8, ... every year, so in those days OU played UT and NU every year.
     
  8. DenverHorn1

    DenverHorn1 < 25 Posts

    DukeSteer, in your 4 pod scenario, how do you determine a conference champ? Take the 2 highest ranked teams for the CCG? I like the idea of 4 pods with the existing Pac12 plus Texas / OU / maybe Texas Tech / maybe OSU. By playing everyone in your own pod, plus 2 teams from the other 3 pods, we would have 1 game in the Pacific northwest, one game in California and one game in the mountain pod each on the road, and 1 home game from those same 3 pods. That woukd be 4 road conference games, 4 home conference games, and then a neutral site game in Dallas each year. The Pac12 has all kinds of financial issues, so we would need to make sure it would be good, dollar wise, for UT.
     
  9. Statalyzer

    Statalyzer 10,000+ Posts

    In the SWC in the 90s, we were playing an 11, sometimes 12 game schedule, and we had 7 conference games. That left 4 or 5 OOC games per year.

    Now we have 12 games and 9 conference games, so any Big-12 school adding an every-year OOC rivalry will have 10 of its 12 games be the exact same opponents year after year and only 2 games that rotate.
     
  10. Joe Fan

    Joe Fan 10,000+ Posts

    I would like to see the entire conference get together on a mission to fix the horrible refereeing situation

    Everyone saw this one live (everyone except you know who). This was on 4th down. He did not just take one step, he took two -- left back, then right forward. Watching again still pisses me off, despite the time passed

     
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  11. X Misn Tx

    X Misn Tx 2,500+ Posts

    jmo but I absolutely HATE pacific coast time. i much prefer eastern standard time. 2 hours difference sucks stanky balls.
     
  12. ProdigalHorn

    ProdigalHorn 10,000+ Posts

    But if you live there it's fantastic. I was in Vegas for seven years, and every Saturday during football season, I rolled out of bed, and by the time I had breakfast, the first game was on. All day football, including the late games. None of this piddling around until noon.
     
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  13. PecosBill

    PecosBill 1,000+ Posts

    By the time the B12 gets to the last year or two on the GOR media rights all the members have face a whole new landscape will have emerged and it will have a big impact of Conference membership. The days of adding games of any quality just to compete for eyeballs are over. TV contracts will be negotiated by a whole new perspective of distribution - Streaming TV,Cable, OTC, SVOD On Demand, and about 6 new things like Smartphones, tablets, PC and smart watches that can cast the live images to any screen you choose.
    ESPN/Disney/ABC, FOX, CBS and NBC/Universal are not going to be willing or able to afford the current conference live media distribution structure and pay $$$$$$ millions when AT&T, Amazon, and Apple TV are getting access to the same content.
    The ADs and Presidents will be looking to compete with $100M+ sports budgets and dividing the pie by 5 conferences of 14 -16 teams each will not make sense.
    The big schools will get the lions share and gone will be the days of splitting the conf media $$$ equally or even proportionally.
    Live Quality Content will be the goal and several big media companies will provide the distribution.
    Rutgers vs unknown will not get airtime but it will be available on demand and pay per view.
    Netflix just spent $100M for non exclusive rights show 10 seasons of Friends. NON EXCLUSIVE
    Times have already changed, the contracts have just not run out.
     
  14. envgeo

    envgeo 500+ Posts

    Do a deal with Amazon prime and go independent
     
  15. envgeo

    envgeo 500+ Posts

    SEC rivalries at the end of the season? if you consider UF vs. Citadel each year, then i guess so.
     
  16. BevoJoe

    BevoJoe 10,000+ Posts

    :e-face-tears: Man that's ripe!
     
  17. X Misn Tx

    X Misn Tx 2,500+ Posts

    It wound be fine if I lived there. I mean when my home is in Texas.
     
  18. OUBubba

    OUBubba 5,000+ Posts

    The other thing is that when you do a home-home you lose a home game and the associated $ for one of those road games. You make a lot more money and make your local chamber of commerce happier when you schedule 3 patsies.
     
  19. PecosBill

    PecosBill 1,000+ Posts

    That is why the SEC has 8 conf games....
     
  20. LonghornMD

    LonghornMD 100+ Posts

    Duke.... do we know each other? I had this EXACT conversation with a few friends about a week ago. Verbatim. 4 pods of 4 teams. I even grouped the same teams together, and named them the same as you. Very odd. So obviously I like it. But there are obstacles as others point out.

    Not a lot of great options at the moment. But once a domino falls somewhere, a lot will follow and the landscapes of conferences can change rapidly.
     
  21. ProdigalHorn

    ProdigalHorn 10,000+ Posts

  22. ViperHorn

    ViperHorn 10,000+ Posts

    What fun ... sitting in the Big House, the 'Shoe or anyplace north and east of Oklahoma in late November/early December. ou cannot go without OSU so I suspect that will be a deal killer.
     
  23. ProdigalHorn

    ProdigalHorn 10,000+ Posts

    I suspect they'd take OSU if they had to. If UT is on the ball, part of the deal would be how the divisions are set up. North and South, No cross-divisional games after mid-November, etc...

    Ideally, go from 14 to 18 with two nine-team divisions.

    NORTH:
    Ohio State
    Michigan
    Mich. State
    Penn State
    Minnesota
    Northwestern
    Wisconsin
    Rutgers
    Illinois

    SOUTH:
    Texas
    Oklahoma
    Oklahoma State
    Iowa State or TCU
    Maryland (Yep, that's happening)
    Iowa
    Nebraska
    Indiana
    Purdue

    Eight divisional games, three non-conference games, one conference championship. Neutral site conference title game switches between Dallas and Kansas City or somewhere like that.
     
  24. ViperHorn

    ViperHorn 10,000+ Posts

    That is only 11 games so the 12th game would be a non-conference game. I would add no FCS games.

    From what I have been told OSU is like Texas trying to go to the $EC - academina will not allow it except unlike Texas it is the B1G academina, and the B1G will not take a Church school.
     
  25. ProdigalHorn

    ProdigalHorn 10,000+ Posts

    I'd actually be OK with just one. First, I think it's good to have a "scrimmage" type game. Second, it's detrimental to those programs when you completely cut them off from big paydays. So I'm a little sympathetic bringing in a smaller school for one game. I'd definitely want to limit it to one, and in an ideal world you'd then say you can have one additional conference game against non-P5 teams. So you've got two non-con games that have to be against someone with a pulse (relatively speaking.)
     
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  26. Vol Horn 4 Life

    Vol Horn 4 Life Good Bye To All The Rest!

    With all the things to talk about I can't believe I'm stuck on this. When did Tech become a rivalry game? Did I miss something?
     
  27. WorsterMan

    WorsterMan SEC here we come!!

    Little off topic but I will miss a Horns game Sat. and Big XII football....

    Guess we got Army - Navy & Texas HS Playoffs :popcorn:
     
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  28. SabreHorn

    SabreHorn 10,000+ Posts

    Worster,

    Have you tried TexanLive? $9.99 for a month, and you get the vast majority of the Texas HS playoff games on your computer; also get replays on demand. You can also switch game to game. I recently signed on on two different laptops and watched both games at once.

    It's a one year subscription, but you can cancel after football, and reup for other sports.
     
    • Like Like x 1
  29. X Misn Tx

    X Misn Tx 2,500+ Posts

    generally agree, but with everyone jumping around in conferences, you're a rivalry by virtue of surviving together.

    our rivals should be:
    1 A&B... aTm & ousux
    3 Tech
    4 AB&C... TCU, BU, OSU

    Also loved having Nebraska as a rival

    i'll tell you who won't be a rival, F'ing purdue.
     
  30. PecosBill

    PecosBill 1,000+ Posts

    Like that we share the same legislature? Leave the church schools behind BU, TCU but think about the politics of leaving a state school like TT out when OSU is linked to OU.
    BTW all the church schools have more Reps in TX legislature than TT does.
    Ambitious State Rep working on new education bill as we speak
     
    Last edited: Dec 7, 2018

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