2010 NCAA College Football (1 Viewer)

[Scott Merryfield]

I know it's probably a little early for this thread, but there appears to be some major news happening in college football that could completely re-shape the game.

1. The Big Ten may be extending an official invitation to Nebraska within days, and Nebraska is rumored to have already approved accepting the invite.
2. Several Big 12 schools are prepared to leave the conference for the Pac10 should Nebraska defect. Those schools include Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech and Colorado.

If the above two happen, this could set off a chain reaction. The Big Ten has also been courting some Big East schools in order to expand their Big Ten Network TV market. Those rumored schools have included Rutgers, UConn, Pitt and Syracuse, plus there is always Notre Dame hanging out there.


I think the end result would be four "Super Conferences", the end of the Big 12 and Big East, and a real national championship playoff. The expanded Pac10, Big Ten, SEC and ACC conferences would each have a championship game, and the conference champs would play a four team playoff for the national title.


This would be hard blow for the smaller conferences, which would be left out of the big bowl picture, and may also lose revenue from playing regular season games against the big schools, if those super conferences play more games within their respective conferences. Also, Notre Dame would be forced to abandon its independence or risk being left out of the major college football picture.


In other news, USC looks like they are going to get hit hard by the NCAA, with a rumored two year bowl ban plus forfeiting games and losing scholarships. I guess we all know why Pete Carroll took that Seahawks job. Way to screw the program and bail, Pete!

 

[Patrick_S]

Notre Dame already turned down the Big Ten.


I'm not so sure of your playoff prediction but who knows.


The one thing you are spot on with is it's really early for this thread.

 

[mattCR]

Interesting debate here is where do Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State, Colorado go..

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Originally Posted by Patrick_S

 

[mattCR]

Yep. KSU and KU are in really a mess. Despite the public perception (even printed perception) these two schools have very large academic endowments, and have specific programs at both schools that are amongst the best in the country.. (I could talk about VetMed, but eh) anyway, there is a lot of "eh" feeling, especially at Kansas, where you take a year in, year out top10 basketball program and you move it to a league that it will dominate every year in a walk.


There is a lot of pressure on KU for them to make a call and try, at least lobby, for entrance into the ACC. I can't see how that could happen, but alumni are desperate to stay in a significant basketball conference.

 

[KevinGress]

CU wanted to go to the Pac10 before the formation of the Big12. As far as KU, KSU, Iowa St, Baylor (and perhaps MU), I'm betting that IF the south teams are headed for the Pac-16, then I can see the remaining B12 teams take their BCS AQ and merge with the Mountain West to make the 5th super conference.

Nebraska should announce tomorrow after the regents' meeting. As a Huskers fan, I'll miss the old Big 8 teams, but if they accept a Big 10's offer, it'll be for security reasons.

 

[Carlo_M]

Justice was meted out to USC today. No postseason for football for 2 years, vacation of victories over the time Reggie Bush was deemed ineligible (December 2004 - entire 2005 FB season), and reduction of 10 scholarships per year for next 3 years.

 

[mattCR]

As well as TV broadcast controls on the team. Left that part out. Yeah, they got the hammer. Lane Kiffin has to be rethinking this whole thing.

 

[mattCR]

Texas & Texas AM apparently are lobbying for Big10 entrance...


http://www.kctv5.com/sports/23860558/detail.html

 

[mattCR]

Kansas athletic director resigns, effective end of basketball season.

 

[DavidJ]

Originally Posted by mattCR 


Texas & Texas  AM apparently are lobbying for Big10 entrance...


 


http://www.kctv5.com/sports/23860558/detail.html

Don't buy this one bit, but I'd love it.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Originally Posted by mattCR /forum/thread/301313/2010-ncaa-college-football#post_3699584

 

[Patrick_S]

Unless there is a way to include all of the Football Bowl Subdivision in the mix the idea of the four super conferences and a playoff is pure fantasy.


One good thing about the new divisions is that schools like Michigan would probably have to stop scheduling fluff teams from what use to be division 1-AA. Of course that might be a good thing considering the embarrassment Big Blue experienced when they were on the losing end of one of, probably the biggest, upsets in college football history. A division 1-A team with aspirations of a national championship losing to Appalachian State.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Regarding scheduling, I would expect that the Big Ten would add at least one conference game (they currently play 8). That would mean a reduction from 4 to 3 non-conference games, and could mean the end of the "home and away" series with bigger schools, but not the end of scheduling the smaller schools at home as non-conference opponents.


The reason is that a school like Michigan currently plays 7 or 8 home games a year -- in Michigan's case with 110,000 paying fans. They are not about to give up a home game with its huge payday each year if another conference game (which will be a road game every other year) is added. They will instead give up that road game against Notre Dame, and the Irish would never agree to play in Ann Arbor without a return visit to South Bend.


Meanwhile, the smaller schools will always agree to play in Ann Arbor only, since the money from that road game with 110,000 attendance makes them more than all their home games combined.


The same scenario will play out in Columbus, East Lansing, Happy Valley and all the other big stadium schools.

 

[mattCR]

Nebraska officially announced that they have signed the agreement and are now a member of the Big10. Press conference ongoing now.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

...and Boise State is joining the Mountain West.


Next step is for Texas to decide what it will do.


The dominoes are falling.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

It looks like Texas (and friends) are staying in the "Big 12" (or whatever it will now be called) instead of jumping to the Pac-10. The conference will go with ten teams, which means the conference will lose its conference football championship game. This move may postpone any creation of "super conferences" for awhile.


Rumors are now that Utah may join the Pac-10 as its 12th team and that the Big Ten is looking eastward.

 

[Ockeghem]

^^^


Yeah, I was a bit concerned that the 'Big 12' would have ten teams, and that the Pac-10 would have twelve teams.


There was a rather funny dialogue on ESPN last night about all of the speculative names for these would-be conferences once the dust finally settles....


I've been mulling over the 'North' and 'South' divisions within a potential ten- or twelve-team conference that have been discussed lately. That could get rather interesting, assuming it were eventually to occur.

 

[KevinGress]

The Big 12 moving to 10 teams is merely a short term pause. The Big 10 isn't done expanding, and once they do, the SEC and Pac-10 will. The Big 12 is on no more solid ground than they were 3 weeks ago. And for teams like Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas St. and Missouri, that's probably a good thing. They signed their souls away in keeping Texas in the Big 12 (which it wanted anyways).

 

[Scott Merryfield]

^^^


Yes, no other conference was going to give Texas the monetary deal that the remaining Big 12 schools gave them. The Big Ten and SEC would have required that Texas take an equal share of earnings, and I doubt that the Pac-10 would have agreed to let them create their own TV network, since the Pac-10 wants to emulate the Big Ten and create their own network.


I also agree that the Big 12 could still fall apart eventually unless they can get back to 12 teams. The loss of the conference title game will hurt future TV earnings, and Texas, Oklahoma and Texas A&M will continue to get courted by the Pac-10, Big Ten and SEC. Besides, how happy are the other schools going to be as part of the new "Big Two, Little Eight" conference (reminiscent of the Big Ten in the 1970's)?


The Big Ten still wants to expand its TV market, and if they expand the SEC will probably do the same. This just may take a little longer than it appeared a week ago.