JasonB wrote:Expansion will only happen in two scenarios:
1) The value of the schools that they expand plus the revenue from a championship game will outweigh the loss of revenue from a tv contract that would have to be split to the other schools.
2) The P5 will move down to the P4 and the league will expand by adding big ACC schools.
They are NOT expanding now, so I believe both of those scenarios can be de-bunked. They are essentially saying that it isn't worth it to add UCF and Cincy to the conference.
I believe the most likely scenarios moving forward are these:
1) They expand the playoffs to 8 teams, maintaining the status quo of a P5. The Big 12 will never ever expand at that point. But it makes the MWC and AAC more relevant.
2) They contract to a P4. In this scenario, by letting colorado, Nebraska, A&M and Missou leave, the Big 12 may be forecasting that they see a time in the near future where they simply don't exist. The Big 12 will dissolve and get raided by the other power conferences. Until that time, the Big 12 will simply eat as much revenue as possible, with as few teams as possible.
If the playoffs are expanded to 8 teams I agree that the MWC and AAC become more valuable, but I would argue that both leagues would see this as an opportunity to cannibalize each other to form a new conference that shakes loose a lot of the dead weight programs and/or programs that won't be able to cut it financially. I could see a MWC/AAC merger with a championship game that gives the outright champion a fairly decent shot at entry into an 8 team playoff format. Probably a 16 team league of the following:
West - SDSU, BYU, AFA, CSU, Boise State, Fresno State, SMU, UH
East - UCONN, Navy, Temple, ECU, Cincinnati, Memphis, UCF, USF
You play a conference title game and that winner, if they go undefeated, might be good enough to gain access to the playoff. If you wanted to trim it to 12 you could this lineup:
West - BYU, AFA, CSU, Boise State, SMU, UH
East - Cincinnati, Memphis, UCF, USF, ECU, UCONN