Conference realignment "Rumors" "tweets" "etc"

[Brad]

Living out here in PAC12 country, they are always moaning bout how underrated the conference is as well as are the teams.  They claim their late games never get watched on TVs on the east coast and there develops a bias.  Of course when your games start at 10 or 11 pm eastern on a Saturday night it's understandable.

Teams like ASU and Arizona can't start at 1 p.m or 4 p.m. due to heat in early part of schedule.

With that, it might be wise to for the Big12 to evaluate the benefit of all those west coast home games that no one on the east coast will watch.  They need more eastern influence.

[GoBulls84]

10 minutes ago, Brad said:

Living out here in PAC12 country, they are always moaning bout how underrated the conference is as well as are the teams.  They claim their late games never get watched on TVs on the east coast and there develops a bias.  Of course when your games start at 10 or 11 pm eastern on a Saturday night it's understandable.

I think the biggest part of their late games never being watched is Larry Scott completely fumbled the bag on the conference network. Dude made the wrong decision at pretty much every turn when it came to the network, and pretty much every other decision, while he was commissioner. The Pac-12 getting raided (and possibly decimated) now is a direct result of his ineptitude at the top.

[BullyPulpit]

13 minutes ago, Brad said:

Living out here in PAC12 country, they are always moaning bout how underrated the conference is as well as are the teams.  They claim their late games never get watched on TVs on the east coast and there develops a bias.  Of course when your games start at 10 or 11 pm eastern on a Saturday night it's understandable.

Teams like ASU and Arizona can't start at 1 p.m or 4 p.m. due to heat in early part of schedule.

With that, it might be wise to for the Big12 to evaluate the benefit of all those west coast home games that no one on the east coast will watch.  They need more eastern influence.

The real solution for the TV partners is to rethink the timing of games. These conferences are going to have national footprints and need to adjust the TV schedule accordingly. Their main networks (FOX and ABC) should feature an 11 am kickoff for an east coast game and then have 2 pm, 5 pm, and 8 pm games set for the rest of the day. That will allow marquee west coast matchups to star in the 8 pm timeslot, when appropriate. There really isn't a reason for them not to switch to an earlier schedule at this point. They are going to be investing billions each year in the product and should want to try and squeeze as much juice as they can from it. 

[BullyPulpit]

4 minutes ago, GoBulls84 said:

I think the biggest part of their late games never being watched is Larry Scott completely fumbled the bag on the conference network. Dude made the wrong decision at pretty much every turn when it came to the network, and pretty much every other decision, while he was commissioner. The Pac-12 getting raided (and possibly decimated) now is a direct result of his ineptitude at the top.

That along with their hubris in standing pat when Texas and Oklahoma were taken from the Big 12. They managed to hire two myopic idiots in a row to run the conference. They should have moved to take, at a minimum, OK State and Texas Tech. The goal should have been to further destabilize the Big 12. Instead, they have left themselves vulnerable to losing teams to the Big 12. If USF doesn't change conferences this time around, it will be thanks in large part to the ineptness of the PAC. 

[Cubanbull]

1 minute ago, BullyPulpit said:

That along with their hubris in standing pat when Texas and Oklahoma were taken from the Big 12. They managed to hire two myopic idiots in a row to run the conference. They should have moved to take, at a minimum, OK State and Texas Tech. The goal should have been to further destabilize the Big 12. Instead, they have left themselves vulnerable to losing teams to the Big 12. If USF doesn't change conferences this time around, it will be thanks in large part to the ineptness of the PAC. 

Adding those Big12 schools would not have kept USC nor UCLA in the fold, in fact they would have probably used it as an excuse to leave. The problem the PAC and the Big12 have is that now they are made up of schools that neither the SEC nor the BigTen think will add to their conference value. The PAC will be least stable because Oregon and Washington think the BigTen will eventually come for them. The Big12 has no one in that boat. 

[BullyPulpit]

25 minutes ago, Brad said:

Living out here in PAC12 country, they are always moaning bout how underrated the conference is as well as are the teams.  They claim their late games never get watched on TVs on the east coast and there develops a bias.  Of course when your games start at 10 or 11 pm eastern on a Saturday night it's understandable.

Teams like ASU and Arizona can't start at 1 p.m or 4 p.m. due to heat in early part of schedule.

With that, it might be wise to for the Big12 to evaluate the benefit of all those west coast home games that no one on the east coast will watch.  They need more eastern influence.

Although not a perfect measure of a conference's success, the PAC is 8-22 in bowl games since 2017. I think that has a lot to do with the perception of a weak overall product. 

[BullyPulpit]

1 minute ago, Cubanbull said:

Adding those Big12 schools would not have kept USC nor UCLA in the fold, in fact they would have probably used it as an excuse to leave. The problem the PAC and the Big12 have is that now they are made up of schools that neither the SEC nor the BigTen think will add to their conference value. The PAC will be least stable because Oregon and Washington think the BigTen will eventually come for them. The Big12 has no one in that boat. 

I never said it would have kept USC and UCLA in the fold, but it would have prevented them from potentially losing out to the Big 12 in the quest to be the best of the rest after the SEC and B1G take who they want. Instead, the PAC is now faced with the prospect of losing teams like ASU, AZ, Colorado, and Utah to the Big 12. Their failure to be proactive in strengthening the conference may have ultimately led to their demise. 

[Cubanbull]

1 minute ago, BullyPulpit said:

I never said it would have kept USC and UCLA in the fold, but it would have prevented them from potentially losing out to the Big 12 in the quest to be the best of the rest after the SEC and B1G take who they want. Instead, the PAC is now faced with the prospect of losing teams like ASU, AZ, Colorado, and Utah to the Big 12. Their failure to be proactive in strengthening the conference may have ultimately led to their demise. 

Unfortunately teams in a conference make those decisions and when you have a conference where everyone is not in same boat it’s hard to do so. USC,UCLA,Oregon,Washington and probably Stanford had no interest in getting what they would consider dead weight into their conference. The first two were probably already thinking of leaving, the other three probably didn’t imagine the LA schools leaving and even now think they could get a life raft. This is same issue Big12 had with Texas and OU for a long time, when they refuse to add anyone. Those three could eventually land in BigTen and never look back at those that got screwed by their decisions 

[Cubanbull]

And the ACC will be going in a similar direction because those like Clemson,FSU,UNC etc that think they can get into BigTen or SEC will block any additions of schools that could keep league alive when they leave. 

[BullyPulpit]

8 minutes ago, Cubanbull said:

Unfortunately teams in a conference make those decisions and when you have a conference where everyone is not in same boat it’s hard to do so. USC,UCLA,Oregon,Washington and probably Stanford had no interest in getting what they would consider dead weight into their conference. The first two were probably already thinking of leaving, the other three probably didn’t imagine the LA schools leaving and even now think they could get a life raft. This is same issue Big12 had with Texas and OU for a long time, when they refuse to add anyone. Those three could eventually land in BigTen and never look back at those that got screwed by their decisions 

You are probably correct. I am not sure what percentage of the membership would be required to approve a new member, but those 4 may have been able to block it. Adding OK State and Texas Tech likely would have strengthened the conference's ability to get a new, more lucrative TV deal at renewal. We will just have to sit back and hope that some miraculous lifeline falls at USF's feet.