The Top 10 Conference Shake-Ups Posted by Anthony Stalter (06/15/2010 @ 3:00 pm)  Real Clear Sports compiled a top 10 ranking of the biggest conference shakeups in college sports. At No. 1 is the conference that has been talked about the most recently, the Big 12. The existence of the Big 12 is now in jeopardy because other conferences can offer more money through television deals. The irony is that that is why the Big 12 was formed in the first place. The Southwest Conference was in trouble due to greed and the fact that one-time power Southern Methodist University had never recovered after receiving the “Death Penalty” from the NCAA in 1986. The Big Eight saw the opportunity to swoop in and expand its television audience into the state of Texas, with huge markets in Dallas and Houston. In 1994 the Big Eight cannibalized half of the old SWC (adding Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech and Baylor) and became the Big 12. But in reality it was Texas that really swooped in to form the Big 12. The headquarters for the conference not only moved from Kansas City to Dallas, with a Texan at the helm, but it considered itself a new conference, leaving all the history of the former Big Eight behind. A lopsided deal favoring the University of Texas left traditional power Nebraska feeling jilted, triggering the latest round of conference realignment that the Big 12 nearly did not survive.
You can check out the rest of the site’s top 10 here. It’s easy to forget how conferences came to be, so it’s interesting to take a walk down memory lane. How quickly we forget that Penn State and Florida State used to be independents, Miami used to be in the Big East and most of the current Mountain West used to be in the WAC (which once again was robbed by the MWC when Boise State recently decided to bolt). Speaking of the Mountain West, the addition of Boise State will only help them gain full BCS privileges soon, including an automatic bid for the conference champion and a greater share of the bowl payout. The conference has been held back due to how the average computer rank of every team in the conference at the end of the regular season has been so low. But assuming the Broncos don’t drop off the face of the earth with their play, that won’t be a problem soon enough. (TCU, Utah and BYU will also have to stay competitive too, of course.)
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Nebraska heading to the Big Ten – are four more Big 12 teams on the move? Posted by Anthony Stalter (06/11/2010 @ 3:30 pm) The downfall of the Big 12 is about to be underway, as ESPN.com is reporting that Nebraska has officially accepted an invitation to join the Big Ten. Nebraska departs the Big 12 to become the 12th member of the Big Ten. Earlier this week, a source told ESPN.com that no other schools are imminent to accompany the Cornhuskers into the Big Ten. The future of the Big 12 is in jeopardy after Colorado agreed Thursday to jump to the Pac-10. The Pac-10 is also reportedly interested in inviting Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech to form a 16-team league. University of Texas regents will meet next week to decide whether the Longhorns will remain in the Big 12 or switch to another conference. The regents announced Friday that they will hold a meeting by telephone Tuesday for “discussion and appropriate action regarding athletic conference membership.”
Rumor had it that if Nebraska left the Big 12, then the rest of the conference would dissolve. It appears as though the Pac-10 is on its way to being a 16-team conference, although as I wrote yesterday, that doesn’t mean that it’ll implement a championship game. (Which is just a ridiculous notion when you think about it.) Joining the Big Ten makes a lot of sense for Nebraska, most notably from a revenue standpoint. Big Ten schools bring in $22 million each year thanks in large part to the Big Ten Network, which can now extend its reach once Nebraska comes aboard. The Huskers now have more security in the Big Ten than they did in the Big 12, which was apparently held together by cheese and crackers. Nebraska and Michigan will finally get to settle the 1997 debate. Too bad nothing will be left of the UM program after Rich Rodriguez gets done burning everything in Ann Arbor to the ground. Even with expansion, Pac-10 could eliminate the need for a title game Posted by Anthony Stalter (06/10/2010 @ 10:12 am)  Expansion talk in the Pac-10 continues to heat up, as ESPN.com reports that Colorado has accepted an invitation to join the conference. Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech should receive invites as well, while Nebraska is likely heading to the Big Ten. Despite adding more teams, the Pac-10 could eliminate the need for a conference championship game by pushing for two automatic bids to the BCS. The coach said it’s possible the Pac-16 would push for two automatic bids to the BCS, one for each division champion. That potential bonanza could open the possibility of the two division champs from one league playing for the national title, and it would eliminate the need for a conference championship game. “The Pac-10 doesn’t believe in a championship game,” the coach said. “And coaches in the Big 12 don’t like it anyway.”
Does anyone else think that it’s ridiculous to have 16 teams play in one conference but no championship game? It’s amazing how these schools manage to eliminate playoff-like games at all costs, even though that’s the structure that most fans want. Fans want to see the best teams play each other, whether it’s in a conference title game or a playoff format in the postseason. But clearly the BCS and the schools themselves don’t want to breed head-to-head competition. They’re fine with crowning a champion based on record and moving on. As long as they can increase revenue, then who cares about the fans, right? I would be shocked if the Big Ten didn’t try to follow in the footsteps of the Pac-10 and figure out a way to avoid a conference championship game themselves. Another interesting takeaway from the article is that expansion might not happen for another two years. So even though Nebraska, Texas and Oklahoma would be joining other conferences in 2012, they’d still play in the Big 12 for the next two seasons. How awkward.
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Nebraska leaning towards joining the Big Ten? Posted by Anthony Stalter (06/09/2010 @ 10:00 am) As long as the conference doesn’t leave them hanging without an invitation, it appears that Nebraska could be heading to the Big Ten. From ESPN.com: The source said the school is leaning toward the Big Ten, but an invitation hadn’t yet been extended, and there was no indication when that would occur. The consensus within the athletic department is that Nebraska wouldn’t separate itself from the Big 12 without some assurance that a Big Ten invitation would come, the source said. The Big Ten has set no date for any announcement in the coming weeks, leaving open the possibility that Nebraska could be left in limbo.
Adding another school would allow the Big Ten to implement a championship game and expand its cable television network. Adding a title game would be exciting for fans of the conference, especially considering the Big Ten usually doesn’t play past the last weekend in November. When other conferences are still getting exposure in December thanks to their title games, the Big Ten is sitting with its thumb up its ass waiting for bowl season to start. It makes sense for them to expand. That said, would Nebraska be a good fit? Yeah, probably. From their point of view, they get security (as everyone can see, the Big 12 is ready to fall apart at any moment, where as the Big Ten will stay intact long-term) and added revenue (Big Ten schools bring in $22 million each year thanks in large part to the Big Ten Network). A Nebraska-Iowa rivalry is also intriguing and the Huskers would no doubt bring competition to a conference that sorely lacks it. We’ll find out by the end of the week whether or not Nebraska is Big Ten bound or will stay in the Big 12. But as of Wednesday morning, it appears that Ohio State, Iowa and Michigan are going to get some new company. TV revenues would double if Big Ten expands Posted by Anthony Stalter (05/16/2010 @ 12:00 pm)  So says a report by the Chicago Tribune: Last year, schools received roughly $9 million each from the conference’s deal with ABC/ESPN and another $7 million to $8 million from the BTN. Add revenue from bowl games, the NCAA basketball tournament and licensing, and you arrive at the estimated $22 million-a-year distribution figure that’s the envy of every Division I school outside the Southeastern Conference. If the Big Ten expands and chooses the right schools, conference officials have seen estimates of television revenues doubling by 2015-16. If the conference could lock up the tri-state area (New York/New Jersey/Connecticut) by adding schools such as Rutgers, Syracuse and Connecticut — granted, a big “if” — it could add more than 9 million TV households. Rutgers is also an hour from Philadelphia and its 2.95 million households. “That’s a lot of homes,” one TV executive said, “and a lot of money.”
As the article points out, if the Big Ten wants to maximize TV revenues, the conference could start scheduling more games during the weekday – specifically on Thursday nights. Ohio State and Indiana will host night games on Thursday, September 2, so maybe the conference is growing less apprehensive of scheduling weekday contests.
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