Big XII study suggests title game + 2 new teams

[Oldmins]

Word is that Baylor is holding out for Incarnate Word and Liberty College.

[JasonB]

They said smu! When is this 4 superconference thing happening?

June mentioned that several years ago Right after the P5 formed and kicked the Big East to the curb... I talked to someone who was part of SMU football under both Jones and Morris and he said the schools were still meeting about it periodically, but SMU wasn't even close to being in the conversation for the final 64. That is why June started to freak out and talk about Spring football. The 64 would agree to not play anyone outside of the P4 conferences, so everyone else becomes division 2. June was trying to come up with a way to make division 2 relevant.

[mtrout]

There are like 65 power 5 teams. Crap I didn't think there were that many. Ruh roh

[GreenbeltPony]

I think it's more likely we end up with 4x20 or 5x16, as some university presidents have said.

[JasonB]

I think it's more likely we end up with 4x20 or 5x16, as some university presidents have said.

4x20 is basically 8x10. First round of the playoffs is the conference championship game. That system works the best statistically, but the prevailing through before was that 80 teams stretches things out too much - teams that don't have the resources to commit would have to be pulled in.

[smupony94]

http://www.cbssports.com/college-footba ... expansion/

[MustangStealth]

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/15492344/wish-college-football-expansion-realignment-looked-like

[MustangStealth]

I think it's more likely we end up with 4x20 or 5x16, as some university presidents have said.

4x20 is basically 8x10. First round of the playoffs is the conference championship game. That system works the best statistically, but the prevailing through before was that 80 teams stretches things out too much - teams that don't have the resources to commit would have to be pulled in.

18 actually works better since you can have 9 team divisions play a balanced round robin. With 10 you either skip someone every year or play 5/4 home/road split.

[mtrout]

Big12 teams want to expand about as much as we (other than rgt) wanted tulane in the aac.

[PonyPride]

Interesting article in the Washington Post. Says Big 12 is a mess, but says expansion is not the answer. More of an opinion piece than strict news reporting, but interesting nonetheless.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/ear ... he-answer/

[Pony81]

With the air slowly coming out of the cable TV (ESPN et al) balloon, stadium revenue and merchandising will grow more important. Therefore, UT will be inclined to go to the PAC 12 to get more marque opponents a Royal Memorial stadium. Substituting UCLA (or other PAC 12 teams) for Iowa State must have considerable appeal. Plus Austin has gone Cali and a Pac 12 schedule would resonate real well when the Longhorns are down.

[mtrout]

Agree. Cable has peaked. In 5 years Austin hippies will probably fly a video drone over the stadium and stream games for free. Poor cable networks have to pay bucku bucks for conference tv contracts 10+ more years in some cases

[Charleston Pony]

The "Super Conferences" with a 4 x 16 look was discussed as far back as the early 90's when ESPN and cable TV was coming on strong, but in today's world I think a 4 x 18 structure works well. Sets up perfectly for what amounts to an 8 team playoff. Play 8 division games and division winners playing for conference titles are basically the 1st round. SMU would have to hope those 8 "divisional" games are what would qualify teams for division championship, freeing everyone up to play 4 "non-divisional" games that could keep rivalries going with no adverse consequences for losing those games.

SMU might be attractive to some conference as a lower tier opponent and unless we got into the same conference/division as TCU, we could keep that game going as a non-divisional game. Just not sure we would make it into a 72 team structure as "eligibility" might ultimately be based on athletic budget which would require new entrants to pony up money similar to what today's P5 programs are spending. Nobody would get a free ride, which after all is what lead us to this P5 structure to begin with. That 4 x 18 look would require a lot of schools changing conferences to form more natural geographic match-ups.

Just not sure we will ever see this happen as no matter what the cut-off, there are going to be programs eliminated that want to compete at the highest level.

[MustangStealth]

Just not sure we would make it into a 72 team structure as "eligibility" might ultimately be based on athletic budget which would require new entrants to pony up money similar to what today's P5 programs are spending.

There are currently 65, and probably 20 serious candidates for those last 7 spots if this happens. I would include us in the 20, but probably somewhere in the middle.

[Charleston Pony]

When you look at the list of expansion candidates and consider this is $$$ driven, reality is that SMU would be better off if a 4 x 16 football power grouping was formed. We obviously do not belong with the traditional football factories and might end up in a "next tier" SWC 2.0 that might even include TCU & Baylor is they are not able to sustain their current success and assuming the Big XII is the conference that would be eliminated.