Oregon & Washington to the B1G - Clemson & Florida State Next?

[Mavric]

4 hours ago, hskrpwr13 said:

With 10 or 11, teams would still get at least 6 home games, and many years 7. Gate receipts should start to take a back seat to all the t.v. money. And no real incentive to schedule home-home series with tough out of conference opponents. 

 

Six is not enough.  Seven is the bare minimum.

[Mavric]

 

[Sker fer life]

7 hours ago, brophog said:

If things play out tonight the way it sounds, gotta tip your hat to the Big 12. They went from perceived dead to 16 members and despite no major brand value in football they'll have a very healthy TV contract.

Yep,  I was convinced the big 12 was going to be the first conference to collapse, not the Pac 12 which is in total freefall right now.

[Huskerfollower4life]

With all these new teams joining the conference I wonder if Nebraska fans will still travel to watch them play?  I know we got a great fan base but buying tickets every time Nebraska has to go out west will get expensive.  I do believe that HC Matt Rhule can help us get back on track but we got to take baby steps before we run.  Now do I think we can win a NCG that's for a different time to answer bc we aren't even there yet so I'm not even going to entertain that idea. Just have to take things day by day and get better at the small things that can lead to big things.

[BigRedBuster]

12 hours ago, Mavric said:

Seems like the pod system - despite seemingly making a lot of sense - isn't going to catch on anywhere.

 

But it would work out well for a 20-team conference.  Play your pod (five teams, four games) every year and one of the other pods each year (five games).  I would have the winner of those pairings play in the CCG but that probably wouldn't happen either.

 

With Clemson & Florida State:

 

Eastern - Penn State, Florida State, Clemson, Maryland, Rutgers

Central - Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, Purdue, Indiana

Northern - Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, Northwestern

Western - Nebraska, USC, UCLA, Oregon, Washington

Seems like we just sort of switched to a western US based conference that is tied to an Eastern US based conference. 
 

In football, we will be traveling to the west coast more often than the east coast. 

[Husker03]

5 hours ago, Huskerfollower4life said:

With all these new teams joining the conference I wonder if Nebraska fans will still travel to watch them play?  I know we got a great fan base but buying tickets every time Nebraska has to go out west will get expensive. 

I'm not sure it matters. These deals are done BECAUSE they know that the butts are moving out of the stands and into the couch more and more each year. Trying to keep teams in "region" based conferences is exactly what would have sunk any conference that tried to do it. There isn't enough money to focus on trying to get 50-80k people to a location 3 hours 8 times a year. The money is trying to get a large percentage of 350 million to focus on the box in the living room for 8-12 hours 14 times/year.

 

I don't want to be petty, but Nebraska needs to worry more about getting the 80k willing to travel to Memorial again as they are having plenty of issues moving those tickets. I think how many red hoodies show up in Phil Knight land in 2028 is a blip on the "things we should worry about" radar.

[funhusker]

9 minutes ago, Husker03 said:

I'm not sure it matters. These deals are done BECAUSE they know that the butts are moving out of the stands and into the couch more and more each year. Trying to keep teams in "region" based conferences is exactly what would have sunk any conference that tried to do it. There isn't enough money to focus on trying to get 50-80k people to a location 3 hours 8 times a year. The money is trying to get a large percentage of 350 million to focus on the box in the living room for 8-12 hours 14 times/year.

 

I don't want to be petty, but Nebraska needs to worry more about getting the 80k willing to travel to Memorial again as they are having plenty of issues moving those tickets. I think how many red hoodies show up in Phil Knight land in 2028 is a blip on the "things we should worry about" radar.

Agree with it all.

 

Some folks would have an aneurism, but NU at some point is going to need to downsize Memorial Stadium.

 

While modernizing, the capacity should eventually be much lower than current numbers.  But will they do that to “save” the sellout streak, or because they “lost” the sellout streak?

[84HuskerLaw]

Fan attendance IS the best indicator of public interest generally.  The reason PAC 12 (er 6 ?) is disintegrating is lack of fans.  When the crowds are small, tickets are not selling, it’s evidence of lack of interest.  
 

Yes, there are lots of people on the west coast in the urban areas anyway, but do they take the time to watch cfb ?   Presumably the Big Ten office has good info to suggest the answer is YES!   Otherwise, this acquisition is a big miscue.  Time will tell.  
 

The biggest issue with adding west coach teams will be time zones. It will be awkward at a minimum to have eastern zone teams play on the west coast at 8:00 PM pacific (11:00 PM eastern time!!).   And vice versa when teams cross from west to play in the east.  
 

USC, UCLA, etal will not be playing ‘after dark’ much. They realize this. But desperate times require desperate measures.  These schools are desperate no doubt. 

[84HuskerLaw]

Perhaps the more interesting thing may be - what will happen to the Big Ten going forward.  ?

 

How much will this change Big Ten football (the brand if you will) with the influx of all this west coast football.  I think there has been some evolution already as the conference as a group has been slowly adapting from the traditional ‘blue collar” ground n pound, smash mouth, trench warfare style into something more ‘all purpose’ and ‘multiple’ perhaps.  
 

Apparently, Wiscy is going something Frost might like offensively.  Ugh.  Ohio State has been more run and gun than it was back in the day.  It seems like you can find it all if you look around the conference.  Of course, championships have been won with ‘old style’ football. Michigan is a perfect example.  
 

But adding 4 new programs with above average recent stature, coupled with the caliber of talent and coaching across the entire conference, the Big Ten can be clearly shown to be the new and improved, modernized league.  No, this won’t be your grandfather’s Big Ten. This is now the 21st century league (conference doesn’t seem quite adequate now)!  Add in a couple more brand name teams (e.g. ND, FSU, Clemson, VA,  etc), and the BIg Ten is now the BIGGER 20.  Powerful. National.  Diverse. Strong.  Dominant.  Arguably adding two more of these and I think it surpasses the mighty SEC.  This group could represent half or more of the top twenty in the rankings. Teams with only three losses will be contenders at times. 

[brophog]

58 minutes ago, Husker03 said:

There isn't enough money to focus on trying to get 50-80k people to a location 3 hours 8 times a year.

 

Nebraska brings in something like 6-7 mil a home game and adds about that much to the local economy per home game. Those aren't exact figures, but it's in that ballpark.

 

That's very substantial. Football is 4-5 times more profitable than men's basketball in part because of those large stadiums. 8 of the 11 stadiums in the world that are 100k capacity or larger are college football stadiums.

 

TV right now is very risky because no one knows what the future holds. Cable numbers continue to plummet and even ESPN isn't immune to that. They had a massive on air talent purge just a few weeks ago in an effort to cut expenses. Rumors have been swirling for some time that Disney may be looking to sell.

 

Nearly every streaming platform is losing money at the moment in a rampant surge to create/acquire as much content as possible in hopes that it allows them to break away from the pack. Peacock, who has been as aggressive as anyone in growing live sports via a streaming platform, is expected to lose 3 billion this year. There's a good reason Apple's offer was not only fairly low, but incentive based.....no one really knows yet if any streaming partner is strong enough at the moment to carry live sports in the way we're accustomed to with cable. The BIG was smart, imo, not only in diversifying their media portfolio, but in continuing to partner with broadcast television. It's the safest avenue right now and the BIG are as strong as they are in this current round because they prioritized those broadcast time slots.

[Xmas32]

6 hours ago, Huskerfollower4life said:

With all these new teams joining the conference I wonder if Nebraska fans will still travel to watch them play?  I know we got a great fan base but buying tickets every time Nebraska has to go out west will get expensive.  I do believe that HC Matt Rhule can help us get back on track but we got to take baby steps before we run.  Now do I think we can win a NCG that's for a different time to answer bc we aren't even there yet so I'm not even going to entertain that idea. Just have to take things day by day and get better at the small things that can lead to big things.

I think at least for the first few years Nebraska should travel pretty well as a fanbase as the novelty will be there to see some stadiums Nebraska hasn't visited in a while (this goes ever more so if these trips coincide with being later in the year i.e. California in November sounds pretty great as someone living here in Nebraska). There is a pretty big contingent of Big Red fans on the West Coast and I'm sure they are pretty excited to have the opportunity to see Nebraska on the West Coast more frequently. 

[runningblind]

3 minutes ago, Xmas32 said:

I think at least for the first few years Nebraska should travel pretty well as a fanbase as the novelty will be there to see some stadiums Nebraska hasn't visited in a while (this goes ever more so if these trips coincide with being later in the year i.e. California in November sounds pretty great as someone living here in Nebraska). There is a pretty big contingent of Big Red fans on the West Coast and I'm sure they are pretty excited to have the opportunity to see Nebraska on the West Coast more frequently. 

People live in these places and will go to games. It's not like everyone attending road games lives in Nebraska.  A lot of people who attend UNL don't want to live in Lincoln forever, like me. I would wager there are way more graduates of the school living outside the state than in it.

[Husker03]

1 hour ago, brophog said:

 

Nebraska brings in something like 6-7 mil a home game and adds about that much to the local economy per home game. Those aren't exact figures, but it's in that ballpark.

 

That's very substantial. Football is 4-5 times more profitable than men's basketball in part because of those large stadiums. 8 of the 11 stadiums in the world that are 100k capacity or larger are college football stadiums.

 

TV right now is very risky because no one knows what the future holds. Cable numbers continue to plummet and even ESPN isn't immune to that. They had a massive on air talent purge just a few weeks ago in an effort to cut expenses. Rumors have been swirling for some time that Disney may be looking to sell.

 

Nearly every streaming platform is losing money at the moment in a rampant surge to create/acquire as much content as possible in hopes that it allows them to break away from the pack. Peacock, who has been as aggressive as anyone in growing live sports via a streaming platform, is expected to lose 3 billion this year. There's a good reason Apple's offer was not only fairly low, but incentive based.....no one really knows yet if any streaming partner is strong enough at the moment to carry live sports in the way we're accustomed to with cable. The BIG was smart, imo, not only in diversifying their media portfolio, but in continuing to partner with broadcast television. It's the safest avenue right now and the BIG are as strong as they are in this current round because they prioritized those broadcast time slots.

Even if we assume 4 million a game net, that’s only 32 million/year. That’s not enough to sustain and athletic department. The reason the money is rolling in is because schools understand you don’t trip over those nickels, you aim for those broadcast hundies. 

[ECisGod]

So the Pac12 is assumed to be done,  but are they?

 

There is no way they can raid the Mountain West with the MWC having a 32M per team buyout.  What I wonder is will the MWC "dissolve" and join the four remaining Pac12 schools and become the Pac16 in hopes of staying/becoming a power 5 conference?

[funhusker]

8 minutes ago, Husker03 said:

Even if we assume 4 million a game net, that’s only 32 million/year. That’s not enough to sustain and athletic department. The reason the money is rolling in is because schools understand you don’t trip over those nickels, you aim for those broadcast hundies. 

Nebraska will sell home games.  But if the conversation is about being able to easily travel to away games: that’s not important.

 

Home games against USC will make the city and justify high ticket prices a lot more than a home game against Kansas.