Best Conference Move Of The Decade

[Wild Turkey]

My choice isn’t going to be what you’re thinking but Brett Yormark commissioner of the Big 12 going in early and beating the PAC to a network deal was absolutely brilliant. He tied up network budgets, gave schools hard numbers early and pulled the rug out from under the PAC. Granted he was helped by Oregon and Washington never intending to sign a GOR until they absolutely had to which scared networks off but it sometimes lucky pays off.

Yormark inherited probably the toughest situation in college football and bluffed his way into a solid 4th spot in conference rankings and playing the long game will eventually take the third. He also has built an extremely competitive basketball league with Kansas, Arizona, Baylor and Texas Tech with others like WV that have been historically good.

Securing that early network deal was the move of the decade.

 

[jontaejones]

For getting money for his schools and for his fellow old men cronies, yes.

For giving any college sports fans what they actually want?

He definitely stuck it to the PAC tho, I think their core minus USC/UCLA was better than the B1G core minues Texas/OK.

Klavikoff is like ... 'If I see you on the street, I'm gonna kick your ass.'

 

[Kburjr]

For getting money for his schools and for his fellow old men cronies, yes.

For giving any college sports fans what they actually want?

He definitely stuck it to the PAC tho, I think their core minus USC/UCLA was better than the B1G core minues Texas/OK.

Klavikoff is like ... 'If I see you on the street, I'm gonna kick your ass.'

Watch that throwing around B1G so randomly.

 

[Deep Creek]

My choice isn’t going to be what you’re thinking but Brett Yormark commissioner of the Big 12 going in early and beating the PAC to a network deal was absolutely brilliant. He tied up network budgets, gave schools hard numbers early and pulled the rug out from under the PAC. Granted he was helped by Oregon and Washington never intending to sign a GOR until they absolutely had to which scared networks off but it sometimes lucky pays off.

Yormark inherited probably the toughest situation in college football and bluffed his way into a solid 4th spot in conference rankings and playing the long game will eventually take the third. He also has built an extremely competitive basketball league with Kansas, Arizona, Baylor and Texas Tech with others like WV that have been historically good.

Securing that early network deal was the move of the decade.

His only whiff was adding Cougar High imo. But, I’ll give him a pass on that one because it adds to basketball strength.

 

[Thiefery]

His only whiff was adding Cougar High imo. But, I’ll give him a pass on that one because it adds to basketball strength.

that wasn't his move, it was Bowlsby.. and that only happened after the PAC said it wasn't going to expand

 

[Deep Creek]

that wasn't his move, it was Bowlsby.. and that only happened after the PAC said it wasn't going to expand

My bad. When did Bowlsby leave?

 

[TheReal_NU]

Larry Scott deciding to create a PAC12 Network.

I hear it will be available on your local cable package by 2030.
Also scheduled to be added to Hulu, YouTube TV, paramount plus and Apple TV by 2032.

 

[Red_Alert]

"Hey PAC. Would you like to join an Alliance?" - Big 10

 

[TheReal_NU]

"Hey PAC. Would you like to join an Alliance?" - Big 10

 

[Thiefery]

My bad. When did Bowlsby leave?

officially .. i think a few months after Yormark was hired.. he was guiding him

 

[Huskers4me]

Klavikoff is like ... 'If I see you on the street, I'm gonna kick your ass.'

They are taking different paths, one going uphill and the other going downhill fast.

 

[Huskers4me]

Larry Scott deciding to create a PAC12 Network.

I hear it will be available on your local cable package by 2030.
Also scheduled to be added to Hulu, YouTube TV, paramount plus and Apple TV by 2032.

I cannot wait.

 

[CoalTrain]

For giving any college sports fans what they actually want?

Gave his conference fans a bunch TBH, He got em a stable home, not the best but, stable. Rivalry games like Utah/BYU, TCU/BU, WVU/Cincy, Arizona/ASU, KU/KSU, KSU/Iowa State . IMHO the deepest basketball conference in the country. Could be the most entertaining conference in football and basketball every year in the regular season conference race BUT the downside to that (in football anyway) is that they may never get another team in the playoffs due to the parity.
Some people will piss and moan about travel in the non revenue sports ect, but that ship sailed years ago, other schools teams have had to adapt, so will these.

 

[Thiefery]

Gave his conference fans a bunch TBH, He got em a stable home, not the best but, stable. Rivalry games like Utah/BYU, TCU/BU, WVU/Cincy, Arizona/ASU, KU/KSU, KSU/Iowa State . IMHO the deepest basketball conference in the country. Could be the most entertaining conference in football and basketball every year in the regular season conference race BUT the downside to that (in football anyway) is that they may never get another team in the playoffs due to the parity.
Some people will piss and moan about travel in the non revenue sports ect, but that ship sailed years ago, other schools teams have had to adapt, so will these.

you don't think they will get an automatic qualifier?

 

[CoalTrain]

you don't think they will get an automatic qualifier?

Well I guess they will at first but I’m betting that goes away

 

[Deep Creek]

Gave his conference fans a bunch TBH, He got em a stable home, not the best but, stable. Rivalry games like Utah/BYU, TCU/BU, WVU/Cincy, Arizona/ASU, KU/KSU, KSU/Iowa State . IMHO the deepest basketball conference in the country. Could be the most entertaining conference in football and basketball every year in the regular season conference race BUT the downside to that (in football anyway) is that they may never get another team in the playoffs due to the parity.
Some people will piss and moan about travel in the non revenue sports ect, but that ship sailed years ago, other schools teams have had to adapt, so will these.

I agree. They may get one if the auto qualifier stays. But that parity may have a champion that is 8-4 which won't sit too well with the powers that be. And the 2nd and 3rd place teams may well be 7-5 which won't be good enough for an at large. Soooooooo, the best part will be the entertainment aspect of the regular season being mostly close competitive games instead of blowouts. They'll probably still have a few when a team get decimated by injuries/gets their daubers down, when meeting one that is on a heater. But overall, the teams should be more evenly matched than any other conference.

The non revenue sports travel may well be an issue with the Big 12 because their revenue will be considerably less than the B1G. I don't think it will be as big of an issue with the B1G non rev sports as people think. The B1G's per team revenue is large enough to handle the expense of chartering for all sports. And charter flights allow schools to fly directly from city to city. Not sure if any schools drive to games such as Northwestern vs Indiana, but isn't it about a 3 1/2 - 4 hour drive from Bloomington to Chicago. And I think it is only about a 3 hour flight from Chicago to Seattle?

 

[MAIZEandBLUE09]

The answer is Rutgers sneaking into the B10 a decade ago.

 

[Hu War Yu]

you don't think they will get an automatic qualifier?

Well I guess they will at first but I’m betting that goes away

Obviously, when the playoffs expand, the Big 12 champ will get an autobid but will probably get wiped out by a 10-2 or 11-1 team from one of the other conferences who didn't play in their CCG.

If it stayed at 4 teams, it would just be SEC vs Big, Big vs SEC with an occasional Clemson sprinkled in

 

[jontaejones]

Gave his conference fans a bunch TBH, He got em a stable home, not the best but, stable. Rivalry games like Utah/BYU, TCU/BU, WVU/Cincy, Arizona/ASU, KU/KSU, KSU/Iowa State . IMHO the deepest basketball conference in the country. Could be the most entertaining conference in football and basketball every year in the regular season conference race BUT the downside to that (in football anyway) is that they may never get another team in the playoffs due to the parity.
Some people will piss and moan about travel in the non revenue sports ect, but that ship sailed years ago, other schools teams have had to adapt, so will these.

My point is I don't think anybody prefers the new alignment to the way things were.

But especially basketball fans.

It's all moves made about money with leaders that specialize in business transactions.

 

[CoalTrain]

I agree. They may get one if the auto qualifier stays. But that parity may have a champion that is 8-4 which won't sit too well with the powers that be. And the 2nd and 3rd place teams may well be 7-5 which won't be good enough for an at large. Soooooooo, the best part will be the entertainment aspect of the regular season being mostly close competitive games instead of blowouts. They'll probably still have a few when a team get decimated by injuries/gets their daubers down, when meeting one that is on a heater. But overall, the teams should be more evenly matched than any other conference.

The non revenue sports travel may well be an issue with the Big 12 because their revenue will be considerably less than the B1G. I don't think it will be as big of an issue with the B1G non rev sports as people think. The B1G's per team revenue is large enough to handle the expense of chartering for all sports. And charter flights allow schools to fly directly from city to city. Not sure if any schools drive to games such as Northwestern vs Indiana, but isn't it about a 3 1/2 - 4 hour drive from Bloomington to Chicago. And I think it is only about a 3 hour flight from Chicago to Seattle?

A direct flight from Charlotte NC to Vegas is typically only about 4 1/2 hrs. If the athletes can’t handle a little extra time on an airplane then they need to toughen up. Now, that said the league will also have to try to work with those longer trips as well as far as trying not to schedule back to back long road trips as much as possible but that’s not new to the Big12, they have already been doing that with WVU since they joined.