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CFT: Texas, OU looking to leave Big 12 for SEC.

SFGFNCGiantsFan : 7/21/2021 5:08 pm
Just saw on Twitter. That'd shake up college football in a BIG way, OU especially.
I know people are going to hate it, but I love this. Get Clemson  
Zeke's Alibi : 7/21/2021 5:13 pm : link
in there as well and I'd watch a ton more college football.
RE: I know people are going to hate it, but I love this. Get Clemson  
barens : 7/21/2021 5:15 pm : link
In comment 15309731 Zeke's Alibi said:
Quote:
in there as well and I'd watch a ton more college football.


I don't know, I don't want Clemson in there. The Big 12 can be sacrificed, not the ACC. I know the ACC isn't the same kind of powerhouse, but there needs to be at least 4 top conferences.
They’re going to shoot it down  
tyrik13 : 7/21/2021 5:40 pm : link
Watch. I think this is just some random reporter trying to make a name for himself
Big OU fan  
BillT : 7/21/2021 5:40 pm : link
The Big 12 has its issues many of which Texas and OU caused. But if you can’t beat em…..
...  
26.2 : 7/21/2021 5:54 pm : link
The top P5 teams should all want this to happen. If the players are getting endorsement deals now, they should want as many players getting those endorsements inside their conferences.
Move Auburn and Ole Miss  
Kevin(formerly Tiki4Six) : 7/21/2021 6:51 pm : link
To the East … move out Vandy and Mizzu
I haven’t checked on the finances of this in a while  
bhill410 : 7/21/2021 8:22 pm : link
But wasn’t the deal with Texas that if they went to SEC they would actually lose money.
Wouldn’t be surprised to see CFB move away from conferences  
Breeze_94 : 7/21/2021 9:23 pm : link
And allow teams to schedule based on proximity instead.

Like there is no reason West Virginia should be playing Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas teams when there is perfectly competent programs a short ride away (Pitt, Penn St, OSU, VT, Maryland etc)

Inter-Conference rivalries don’t mean as much anymore with all of this flip flopping and the balance of power is out of whack. There’s about a 10 legit teams in the SEC every year while the P12, ACC are lucky to have 2 or 3
Texas A&M is pissed  
PatersonPlank : 7/21/2021 11:15 pm : link
their best recruiting line is that they play in the SEC
It's  
DG : 7/22/2021 12:12 am : link
going to take 4 SEC schools to stop the move.
A&M and Mizzou are going to vote against it.

We'll see. Too much $ involved..

I feel badly for Ok. State.


Link - ( New Window )
I don't know about Vandy being moved out  
Bobby Humphrey's Earpad : 7/22/2021 8:17 am : link
Nashville is a key market for the SEC and a lot of new money has moved into that city. Even with Tennessee in the conference, I think long-term it's better for Vandy to stay in conference from a business perspective. If you had to move teams, I'd send South Carolina back to the ACC and Mizzou back to the 12.

This probably is the harbinger of the Super Conference concept - more likely that OU and Texas come over and the Big 12 is left to fend for itself.
What a Mess  
Jeffrey : 7/22/2021 8:20 am : link
Hard to feel sorry for the Big 12. They poached TCU and WV from other conferences and sold their soul to Texas to keep them. Conferences are really becoming a joke in football. The so-called Power 5 dominate and drive all the decisions.
Pros and cons for different groups  
PA Aggie : 7/23/2021 10:47 am : link
(I will try to keep my Aggie bias out of this...)

Texas and OU have the most to gain; money would likely increase, however, being able to recruit kids who want/need the SEC to get them to the next level is huge. Who wouldn't want to see Texas play Alabama, Texas play A&M, Alabama vs OU? But Texas, a national star, has not been good in football for years even though ESPN tries their best to promote them. They will likely get a rude awakening in the SEC...an Aggie speaking from experience. After almost 10 years we are finally getting our act together in football. OU will likely experience the same rude awakening.

The rest of the B12 conference will suffer (collapse?) with the absence of their two biggies, so they will try to get a few others to replace, but it will further erode the conference. So there will be one super-conference and a close second with the Big 10 (or whatever they call themselves now).

But, will the current SEC benefit as much? My opinion, not so much. The existing schools have it set up pretty well in the current format. I don't know if the existing schools want their recruiting bases infringed upon for maybe $10 mil doled out to each school? If they morph the failed Longhorn Network into a SEC2 network, that may work to add a bunch more money for each school?

Bottom line is money though, it always wins. The merger will likely happen, basically one super conference, so the playoffs will be very similar to the regular season, just throw in ND and Ohio State.

The NIL may be one thing that may change the complexion of college football. But again, your top 6-8 nationally notable schools will likely be the winners due to deeper pockets. So the trend of lack-of-parity will be more deeply entrenched.
Today's rumor, the Big Ten will go for basketball  
Bobby Humphrey's Earpad : 7/23/2021 12:10 pm : link
and add Kansas and Oklahoma State, effectively killing the Big 12. That would be some basketball conference.
...  
SFGFNCGiantsFan : 7/23/2021 9:08 pm : link
Both OU & TX notifying Big 12 next week that they're leaving per The Athletic.
Good article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution (below)  
Jimmy Googs : 7/24/2021 12:17 pm : link
And contrary to some of the posts above, it estimates the SEC schools will have a very material increase in shared revenue if this happens. Need some help from Disney though...


Experts: SEC expansion imminent whether Texas, Oklahoma or others
ATHENS – If Oklahoma and Texas are going to join the SEC, it’s going to take a major commitment from Mickey Mouse.

Disney, the parent company of ABC and ESPN, just brokered a deal in December to take over as the SEC’s primary broadcast partner when the league’s current agreement with CBS expires after the 2023 season. That new pact was reported to be worth $3 billion – or $300 million a year for 10 years – for the SEC.

And the 14 existing members were quite happy with that arrangement, which guarantees SEC athletic directors substantial revenue for their budgets over the next decade. So, while everybody certainly would be thrilled about the athletic and academic clout the Longhorns and Sooners would bring to the league, SEC teams are not going to welcome them if it means a smaller piece of the pie.

So, then, here comes a much a bigger pie.

“We have a magic word in our business -- it’s called ‘renegotiation,’” said Neal Pilson, former president of CBS Sports. “Nothing’s going to happen unless you increase the value of the deal and make everybody happy.”

Just to receive the same-sized piece, the addition of Texas and Oklahoma means Disney would have to sweeten their deal by about $50 million a year. But it’s unlikely that a new arrangement gets done without added incentive.

“If Texas and Oklahoma join the SEC, it will be the AFC, the NFC and the SEC,” said Vince Thompson, chairman and CEO of Atlanta-based sports marketing agency MELT. “Other than the NBA (and NFL), it will be third-most powerful sports entity in North America.”

SEC schools currently get $42 million to $46 million each from the league’s annual distribution. Thompson sees that number rising to maybe $60 to $80 million with the addition of Texas and Oklahoma when also factoring in additional revenues from bowls and the College Football Playoff.


The Houston Chronicle, citing Big 12 sources, reported Wednesday that Texas and Oklahoma have approached the SEC about joining the league. That would expand the conference from 14 to 16 teams. Since then, a number of media outlets citing industry sources are saying it could happen within the next two weeks.

The involved parties haven’t exactly shot it down.

Attending Football Media Days in Birmingham, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said, “we’re here to focus on the 2021 season” and otherwise declined comment.

Texas issued a statement that said, “speculation swirls around collegiate athletics. We will not address rumors or speculation.”

Oklahoma echoed that sentiment. “The college athletics landscape is shifting constantly. We don’t address every anonymous rumor.”

For any of this to happen, it will take a majority vote of the SEC’s members. The SEC’s constitution requires a three-fourths vote from the league’s CEOs (presidents/chancellors). That would mean 11 of 14.

There already are some dissenters.

“We want to be the only SEC team from Texas,” A&M athletic director Ross Bjork said on SEC Network. “There’s a reason Texas A&M left the Big 12 — to stand alone and have our own identity. That’s our feeling.”

If Oklahoma and Texas leave the Big 12, it will be just the first domino in what’s expected to be a seismic shift in college football. The sport already has absorbed the onset of name, image and likeness and player free agency via the NCAA’s transfer portal. The expansion of the College Football Playoff to 12 teams now appears to be a foregone conclusion.

All the changes are connected to the expiration of college football’s current TV deals over the next couple of years. That appears to be hastening the long-discussed formation of super conferences and a realignment of the college football landscape.

“This is not a new topic,” said Pilson, who has run his own TV media company, Pilson Communications, since leaving CBS in 1995. “The question of Big 12 schools going to the Pac-10, now the Pac-12, was happening five or eight years ago. I suspect with the new round of television packages coming up for discussion there will be a lot of that going on. … I think we’re going to see another realignment.”

Pilson suspects that Oklahoma and Texas might also be considering a move to the Pac-12, a conference which is in much greater need for their services. In either case, their exit would be a death knell for the Big 12. Its broadcast arrangement with Fox and ESPN expires in 2023.

Count Thompson among those that see Oklahoma and Texas to the SEC as a done deal.

“There is no accident in the timing of this story breaking,” he said. “It’s no secret that Sankey is basically driving this ship, and he’s been driving it for a while, he and Disney. I believe it’s a fait accompli that it’s going to happen, and it’s already been orchestrated. The Big 12 splinters and goes away, and then Sankey leads the other four conferences away from the NCAA.

“There’s a lot of chess being played here, and Sankey has spent a lot of time on Capitol Hill lately. This is very calculated, and it’s right out of Mike Slive’s playbook.”

Slive, the late SEC commissioner under whom Sankey tutored, oversaw the most-recent SEC expansion that brought in Missouri and Texas A&M in 2012. The league expanded to 12 teams with the addition of Arkansas and South Carolina under Roy Kramer in 1992.

At the center of each expansion was ESPN, which is owned by Disney. The deals were exponentially larger each time.

The next one figures to be huge.

“It fits in perfectly with their move to the streaming platforms,” Thompson said. “It’s a content-acquisition strategy. You put Texas and Oklahoma in the SEC, now you’re forcing everybody into ESPN-Plus.”

Said Pilson: “The central thing is sports television remains the most efficient way for sponsors to reach customers. That’s what drives our business. As long as that’s true, you’re going to see rights fees go up and the costs get passed along to advertisers. Sports remains a great draw, a magnet, and it supports the business.”
So this looks to be setting up...  
bw in dc : 7/24/2021 12:38 pm : link
with four super-conferences left standing - SEC, B1G, ACC, PAC12.

I would guess each conference champion gets one of the top four seeds in the playoffs. And then at-larges are selected from the rest of the teams in those power conferences.

Oak St, TCU, Baylor and TT should start discussions with the PAC12 yesterday.

Iowa St and Kansas St should start discussions with the B1G. WVU should start discussions with the ACC.

I have no idea what Kansas should do. Maybe disband their football program... ;)
Moreso 1 Super Conference  
Jimmy Googs : 7/24/2021 12:59 pm : link
and 3 others. No offense to Clemson and Ohio St...
RE: Texas A&M is pissed  
SFGFNCGiantsFan : 7/24/2021 12:59 pm : link
In comment 15309942 PatersonPlank said:
Quote:
their best recruiting line is that they play in the SEC


Yup. That'd now be off the table.
RE: Moreso 1 Super Conference  
bw in dc : 7/24/2021 1:00 pm : link
In comment 15312255 Jimmy Googs said:
Quote:
and 3 others. No offense to Clemson and Ohio St...


Good point - four power conferences.
...  
SFGFNCGiantsFan : 7/24/2021 1:02 pm : link
I wonder what ND does...
The Big 10 is so interesting  
Bobby Humphrey's Earpad : 7/24/2021 1:53 pm : link
Because they want to keep their "reputation" of having the conference with the "major research universities" - I don't think adding a Kansas does that. It also weakens the football.

They really wanted UVA/UNC in the last go around - wouldn't be surprised if they quietly ask about UVA/Georgia Tech this time.
RE: ...  
bw in dc : 7/24/2021 2:19 pm : link
In comment 15312259 SFGFNCGiantsFan said:
Quote:
I wonder what ND does...


They have always seemed more B1G than ACC. But they love the revenue stream from NBC. If they could still keep that for football, I would try to get out of their ACC agreement and skip to the B1G...
RE: RE: ...  
SFGFNCGiantsFan : 7/24/2021 3:23 pm : link
In comment 15312276 bw in dc said:
Quote:
In comment 15312259 SFGFNCGiantsFan said:


Quote:


I wonder what ND does...



They have always seemed more B1G than ACC. But they love the revenue stream from NBC. If they could still keep that for football, I would try to get out of their ACC agreement and skip to the B1G...


I'd prefer Big Ten to ACC. I miss Michigan-ND. I also think Notre Dame & OSU have a home & home later this decade too.
The ACC Grant of Rights agreement runs through 2036.  
Mad Mike : 7/24/2021 3:58 pm : link
That makes it really hard for a team to leave unless they have some way to make it worth the rest of the conference's while to let them go.
RE: RE: Texas A&M is pissed  
PatersonPlank : 7/24/2021 8:50 pm : link
In comment 15312256 SFGFNCGiantsFan said:
Quote:
In comment 15309942 PatersonPlank said:


Quote:


their best recruiting line is that they play in the SEC



Yup. That'd now be off the table.


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