Notre Dame Joe

I'm sure the contract lawyers will find things to brief for $700 and hour. but I don't think 6 remaining conference schools could enforce their will if 4 chose to dissolve/depart. I have read that the Big12 is within it's contractual rights to start withholding OU/UT's media pay out but so far there has been no declaration that they will even try.

They seem to be determined to find out how many of the fans won't ppv a game against Toledo. A shame really because UTn is a top performer in the MAC.

Tamyra Mensah-Stock is first Black woman to win wrestling gold for U.S. (msn.com)

There is still time before 2025 for the OK and TX governments to act. It would be politically but not legally difficult to pass a law saying that state institutions cannot lease state property (media rights) without permission

It takes 4 schools to dissolve the Big12 and end some embarrassing litigation. Two are spoken for, KU to the Big Ten, and then ESPN can stick WVU in the ACC and save themselves a headache.

the cultural argument was pretty solid, until the Texas boys decided to take orders from the red necks.

they said that the treacherous twosome started negotiating with the SEC 6 months ago which is the same time as they were quietly planning the playoff expansion. The SEC man in the playoff room must have known that his conference was expanding.

Mike Leach remains undaunted.

I like it because it functions as contrast dye in medicine. If someone posts and Notre Dame forms a division with Louisville, UCONN, Iowa State and the University of Central Florida... I know he is playing CR scrabble and not passing along actual information. I think the jump from 8 vs 9 conference games has a much greater impact than the individual teams. There is really only 1 body bag [at most] in each conference but every other conf road game can be a land mine. The SEC will have to add a 9th conf game to make it work with 16 teams. But they are balancing that with the expanded playoff that will allow even a 9-3 OU team a possible bid. If I were them I would be concerned with the clicks&cruits more than the W-L. What happens when a generation of TX youth grows up knowing OU as an SEC team and themselves as SEC fans. Won't they want to play for the best SEC programs instead of those closest by?

I've asked and cannot get them to think about the question. A few die hard Sooner fans think the Big12 was suppressing their recruiting.

NCAA Calls for A Constitutional Convention (their words) Emmert foreshadowed Friday's announcement two weeks ago when he proposed a smaller governance role for the NCAA in which the decision-making power on a large swath of issues gets delegated to conferences and schools, or even a re-imagined structure where certain sports are managed separately. 1st order of business; make the NCAA smaller by firing Emmert. NCAA to convene constitutional convention to propose dramatic changes to college athletics (msn.com)

Disney/ESPN owns 100% of the SECNetwork and the conference simply licenses their content for cash. That's a different model than the BTN where you NU had to gradually buy equity over a few years. Likewise that means anyone can be booted from the SEC for free while the Big10 would have to buy out the shares of a departing member. Is anyone thinking it's about time to go independent?

That's not even an apples to apricots comparison. In your examples the AD could move new-rugby conferences by himself. What's happening now is the media companies are re-engineering college football so they can sell it for a higher price. And all of the things that made CFB unique are being tossed aside for a point of Disney stock.

They're generally civil cases, breach of contract, tortious interference with contract etc that end with Disney settling for a few million. Bowlsby hinted that he might want something bigger. He mentioned "federal intervention" in the Thamel article. I'm surprised up and coming politicians haven't tried this on as a crusade. There are probably more voters who went to a LEFT BEHIND college than soon to be Power Four.

This is what happens when you let Disney design the football conferences. They make them for what is good for Disney, not the fans, players, or schools. I like that ESPN is behaving like Silicon Valley and making lots of enemies even the casaulty is college football.

I hope he puts them in front of a jury Lawyers, crank up your billable hours. Bowlsby has made it clear he’s dying to go to court, would love to depose you and can’t wait to read all your texts and emails. “Do you let it go on or do you call your partner out?” asked a Big 12 source. “Even though they are our TV partner, I’m not sure they’re helping us at this point.” ESPN is seen as enemy of Big 12 as much as SEC, OU and Texas (yahoo.com)

Yeah Texas leaving the Big12 because they couldn't beat either of those.

That's why Miami to the SEC makes no cultural sense. OF course culture flew the coop a long time ago when ESPN started building conferences that put Missouri in the South and West Virginia in the prairie.

How about Universities period. You don't get to stockpile a billion or so extra dollars and pretend it isn't profit, unless you are a University. The South is defined by the Civil War. Florida and Texas were not important enough at the time to be worth invading by the Union. The Midwestern states may have been small but they still fielded Union armies and begot a few key generals.

I believe your current conference was once the Western Conference. Consider the topography without political boundaries. The midwest is flat and damp. Then it becomes a drier prairie, then mountains or desert.

I've never thought of the great plains as part of the midwest. Part of the culture of the midwest is rust belt industry which sort of fades away west of Missouri. So how long until the Horns start whispering in Bama's ears that teams like Vandy and South Carolina aren't pulling their weight?

the Midwest starts once you pass westward through the Adirondack/Appalachian Mts I understand now that all conferences containing U Texas are destabilized because U Texas starts looking elsewhere for a better deal for U Texas. (It will happen to the SEC too) The question is was UT looking for a Big16 or a PAC16 first? My impression was that the PAC version was basically agreed upon before ESPN surprised everyone with the LHN.

Rumors lol. But that particular rumor is so wide spread, and it has never been flatly denied, that I am willing to accept it as true that OU made overtures to your conference and the answer was anything but YES, C'mon in. with some options you shouldn't hesitate. wABFJsK.gif (500×281) (imgur.com) It won't happen. But my dream is that the other 100 schools tell the NFL-Lites, You 20 something can go form your own league and we will have ours. We'll let you have the best talented players while we settle for 75% of the nations fans. Just don't call asking about a Superbowl between the two leagues, or any other type of bowl because we'll need all of the Rose, Fiesta, Cotton, and Orange.

It takes four schools to break the new-Big12 GOR. Two are accounted for. KU to your conference, WVU to the ACC. This is plausible and likely because Disney owned ESPN can open or close the money hose.

I have been asking that question a lot lately. I think the answer is that the President and BMDs would rather associate with richer partners than win conference or national titles. One rumor that seems plausible is that the other conferences could retaliate by opposing the playoff expansion. We know now that the SEC guys who negotiated it had OU/UT in mind. If everyone else banded together to keep the playoff at four, then treacherous twosome basically moved themselves under a glass ceiling.