Big 12 to interview 17 schools about expansion, sources say

[Digetydog]

I question that report - yes, the BE makes more sense for them in basketball, but if they truly want to go P5, then why would they move their football to a lesser G5 conference when football obviously rules all realignment talk?

Uconn fans care about basketball (men's and women's) above all else. If the AAC is weakened by a B12 raid, they are left playing nobody they care about at a tremendous cost. The crowds for AAC teams in football are horrible. I can get free tickets to any Uconn AAC football game I want.

Think about it this way, would we agree to drop to Sunbelt football if we could play in the B12 for all other sports?

Link to local story citing the original story: http://www.journalinquirer.com/sports/r ... 5e64d.html

[Hoop Fan]

At that point maybe we try to join to uconn and Memphis in big east for bball and turn the AAC into a football and other sports league. Tulsa and Tulane could join the mvc easily. Florida schools could join big south with Davidson. Who knows but all options have to be on the table right now.

[Pony Boss]

I question that report - yes, the BE makes more sense for them in basketball, but if they truly want to go P5, then why would they move their football to a lesser G5 conference when football obviously rules all realignment talk?

Uconn fans care about basketball (men's and women's) above all else. If the AAC is weakened by a B12 raid, they are left playing nobody they care about at a tremendous cost. The crowds for AAC teams in football are horrible. I can get free tickets to any Uconn AAC football game I want.

Think about it this way, would we agree to drop to Sunbelt football if we could play in the B12 for all other sports?

Link to local story citing the original story: http://www.journalinquirer.com/sports/r ... 5e64d.html

I prefer SMU being a football only or football and basketball big 12 member than the other way around. None of the other stuff matters, it's really all about football and to a way smaller degree basketball. The other stuff aint worth crap.

[MustangStealth]

This is interesting - from AAC BBS Board:

Mark Blaudschun has a new story up, behind a pay wall, on this subject.

I can't see it, bit somebody posted this recap (and opinion on Blaudschun's source) on another board:

If UCONN gets turned down by the Big 12, they will not maintain the status quo with the AAC according to his source (probably Mike Tranghese - his old friend, former BE Commissioner, UCONN Consultant). They will look to move all sports to BE and try for football only in the AAC, if not they will look to join another conference for football only. From a financial perspective they could make more money and save more money being part of the BE.

If true it's very short sighted. Yeah, the BE got a big contract, but that was a gamble by Fox to launch FS1/FS2. They are really struggling with ratings and likely won't be able to continue at that level. Here are some sources from last season.

Here was a head-to-head comparison on one Saturday in January. The marquee BE game on FS1 between 2 of their top teams got barely double the AAC game on bottom rung ESPNews. The huge B12 mismatch on ESPN2 dwarfed them of course. That was Fox's highest rated game that day of a triple-header. The ESPN family had 10 higher than that.

125K 4:30 PM Xavier/Butler FS1
58K 3:00 PM Tulsa/Temple ESPNEWS
298K 4:15 PM Baylor/TCU ESPN2

Here is a few weeks later, when the marquee BE game is beat by a MWC game that is in the middle of the night for half the country and only on ESPNU.

234K 10:00 PM San Diego St./Colorado St. ESPNU
233K 2:30 PM Georgetown/Marquette FS1

Compare the championship games:

414K 8:00 PM Villanova/Xavier Big East Championship FS1
1.554M 3:20 PM SMU/Connecticut American Championship ESPN

And finally this nugget:

The December 2 Mount St. Mary’s/Seton Hall game on Fox Sports 2 was the least-watched of the season, with just 1,000 viewers. Fox Sports 2 aired the 10 of the 11 least-watched games during the regular season, with a Big East team involved in each of the ten.

Bottom line is that the ratings just aren't there to justify the $40 million/year Fox is spending. Good for them if they can get it again, but I doubt it.

[leopold]

I can absolutely see the Big XII not expanding - IMHO they shouldn't. Also, it's worth pointing out that there are three schools, I think, with interim presidents - They may not like the idea of making '50 year' decisions for a school while being their short term replacement.
If I was UConn I would definitely want back into the Big East, especially if they watch Cincy or Memphis walk out the door - it would be like us going back to the old SWC for most sports if that were somehow possible. Any TV contract the BE would have would happily take the historic conference mate and perennial national power back, and that could definitely help jump start their TV ratings.

[leopold]

Article which explores that no expansion might be the outcome. Bitterness might be high.

By Stewart Mandel, FoxSports - Aug 17, 2016 at 9:47a ET

At this point I’ve written every possible angle I can think of when it comes to Big 12 realignment (though I may have to redo Monday’s Big 12 Expansion Bracket now that we’ve got two more contenders.) What if, after all this, it turns out the conference doesn’t add anybody?

Stewart: I live in Houston and have a few contacts who are very close with UH athletics. They believe Big 12 expansion talk is in fact a cover-up designed to take media attention off the Baylor scandal. They are convinced as soon as the season gets here and either Texas beats Notre Dame, or TCU beats Arkansas, or Oklahoma beats Ohio State, they’ll announce they've found it best to stick with 10.
-- Mark in Houston

Interesting conspiracy theory, and one I can actually believe.

If those potential wins are the way they plan to justify staying at ten, however, what do they say if potential candidate Houston beats Oklahoma, Memphis beats Kansas, BYU beats West Virginia, or we beat TCU and/or Baylor? I can see the candidates possibly going 3-2 against the Big XII members this year. If any of those happen, especially Houston beating Oklahoma, then so much for the 'they don't belong' argument.

[whitwiki]

I question that report - yes, the BE makes more sense for them in basketball, but if they truly want to go P5, then why would they move their football to a lesser G5 conference when football obviously rules all realignment talk?

You're at a bar. There's three women there. Or men. Whatever you're attracted to. You're looking for a long term relationship. You have really good teeth because you care about that for some reason.

First woman is a ten and rich. But there's 16 other dudes hitting on her and one is Jason Momoa. You realize you'll never be more attractive than Khal drogo.

That leaves you with the other two. One is a 7. The other is a six. You find out that the seven is a waitress at hooters and the six is a dental hygienist with some old family mineral rights.

You leave with the 6.

[Charleston Pony]

Article which explores that no expansion might be the outcome. Bitterness might be high.

By Stewart Mandel, FoxSports - Aug 17, 2016 at 9:47a ET

At this point I’ve written every possible angle I can think of when it comes to Big 12 realignment (though I may have to redo Monday’s Big 12 Expansion Bracket now that we’ve got two more contenders.) What if, after all this, it turns out the conference doesn’t add anybody?

Stewart: I live in Houston and have a few contacts who are very close with UH athletics. They believe Big 12 expansion talk is in fact a cover-up designed to take media attention off the Baylor scandal. They are convinced as soon as the season gets here and either Texas beats Notre Dame, or TCU beats Arkansas, or Oklahoma beats Ohio State, they’ll announce they've found it best to stick with 10.
-- Mark in Houston

I don’t know about the conspiracy theory (though anything’s possible in realignment), but there does remain a very real possibility – about 40 percent, if not higher – that the conference will eventually make that very announcement. There are several reasons why.

First of all, nearly a month after the initial announcement about entertaining expansion candidates, I’ve still yet to hear any real enthusiasm or tangible reasoning from within the conference as to why they would do this. The Big 12 presidents, in their July 19 meeting, clearly heard something from their consultants to convince them they could no longer sit put, but with distance they may start realizing the negatives outweigh the positives.

Speaking of which, it’s no secret the league’s television partners want nothing to do with expansion. They’re obligated to pay whomever the conference adds, but they’d rather not. I could see a scenario where this whole thing ends with the Big 12 squeezing a little more out of ESPN and FOX in exchange for staying at 10 teams.

And finally, whether they realized it or not, this public bakeoff the presidents touched off among the various contenders is not healthy for anyone. Schools lobbying politicians and engaging in social media campaigns – all the while still competing in their current conferences – is creating tremendous pressure on all involved. If, in fact, this ends with the Big 12 presidents picking, say, BYU and Cincinnati, there will be incredible anger and bitterness from Houston, Memphis and the like. People may lose their jobs over it.

Of course, there will be unified anger and bitterness if it turns out this whole thing was a charade and the league isn’t expanding at all. But of course hurt feelings are inevitable when it comes to conference realignment.

I agree there is a strong possibility the Big XII ultimately does nothing, but all this talk has at least made them feel better about themselves knowing that virtually all the G5 schools would like to join them. Of course, if any of the other P5 conferences announced they were considering expansion, the reaction from the G5 schools would be the same. I really don't fault any of the G5 schools for campaigning to get a bigger piece of the pie and I don't think it will affect G5 conference relationships in the long run. If any G5 groupings change, I think it will be more for regional/geographic and practical economic considerations.

Let's face it...what's really hurting the Big XII right now is that Texas football is down. It's not good for the conference to have TCU & Baylor among their strongest football programs. For the Big XII to remain strong, it needs Texas to join OU again as a potential football playoff candidate because schools like TCU and Baylor just don't move the needle on a national level.

[Digetydog]

I agree there is a strong possibility the Big XII ultimately does nothing, but all this talk has at least made them feel better about themselves knowing that virtually all the G5 schools would like to join them. Of course, if any of the other P5 conferences announced they were considering expansion, the reaction from the G5 schools would be the same. I really don't fault any of the G5 schools for campaigning to get a bigger piece of the pie and I don't think it will affect G5 conference relationships in the long run. If any G5 groupings change, I think it will be more for regional/geographic and practical economic considerations.

Let's face it...what's really hurting the Big XII right now is that Texas football is down. It's not good for the conference to have TCU & Baylor among their strongest football programs. For the Big XII to remain strong, it needs Texas to join OU again as a potential football playoff candidate because schools like TCU and Baylor just don't move the needle on a national level.

Ding Ding Ding - we have a winner!!!

Texas starts out the season against Notre Dame, UTEP, and Cal. Next, they face OSU prior to the Texas-OU Game. Bottom Line: the Big 12 needs both Texas and OU to go into their game undefeated (or at least no more than 1 loss). Even if another team goes on a great run (say TCU) and wins the championship, the league won't get respect unless they beat "strong" Texas and OU teams.

Unfortunately for the B12 (and Texas fans like me), Texas will probably go into the game with 1-2 losses.

[Comet]

I question that report - yes, the BE makes more sense for them in basketball, but if they truly want to go P5, then why would they move their football to a lesser G5 conference when football obviously rules all realignment talk?

You're at a bar. There's three women there. Or men. Whatever you're attracted to. You're looking for a long term relationship. You have really good teeth because you care about that for some reason.

First woman is a ten and rich. But there's 16 other dudes hitting on her and one is Jason Momoa. You realize you'll never be more attractive than Khal drogo.

That leaves you with the other two. One is a 7. The other is a six. You find out that the seven is a waitress at hooters and the six is a dental hygienist with some old family mineral rights.

You leave with the 6.

You forgot the part where you bang the 7 for a while and then settle for the 6.

[sadderbudweiser]

I question that report - yes, the BE makes more sense for them in basketball, but if they truly want to go P5, then why would they move their football to a lesser G5 conference when football obviously rules all realignment talk?

You're at a bar. There's three women there. Or men. Whatever you're attracted to..

It's the Big 12 we are discussing....right? You're most likely best off if you're into farm animals.

[whitwiki]

I question that report - yes, the BE makes more sense for them in basketball, but if they truly want to go P5, then why would they move their football to a lesser G5 conference when football obviously rules all realignment talk?

You're at a bar. There's three women there. Or men. Whatever you're attracted to. You're looking for a long term relationship. You have really good teeth because you care about that for some reason.

First woman is a ten and rich. But there's 16 other dudes hitting on her and one is Jason Momoa. You realize you'll never be more attractive than Khal drogo.

That leaves you with the other two. One is a 7. The other is a six. You find out that the seven is a waitress at hooters and the six is a dental hygienist with some old family mineral rights.

You leave with the 6.

You forgot the part where you bang the 7 for a while and then settle for the 6.

good point

[Dukie]

On Big Twelve, of course they're not thrilled about adding schools. It was never more than a cynical ploy to exploit their current TV contract. And the best thing for SMU would be for it not to happen, and buy more time ...

[EastStang]

As I have always said, whatever the TV suits want is what will be done. I think a big part of this is being driven by of all people WV who is very upset that they are alone in the mountains. On the other hand you have Okies in the conference and I'd figure they'd be right at home.

[mustangxc]

As I have always said, whatever the TV suits want is what will be done. I think a big part of this is being driven by of all people WV who is very upset that they are alone in the mountains. On the other hand you have Okies in the conference and I'd figure they'd be right at home.

If that is the case, they should simply trade places with UH. That would make UH and both conferences happy.