Conference Realignment
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Historical significance > reality
We're still the United States aren't we!
TheFameProtector
- Champaign
KBLEE
- Montgomery, IL
its been said that UT & OU had been talking with the SEC about this move since January. These conference moves take ALOT of time to do. Anyone who thinks we will hear something in the next 5-6 months is just not being realistic. I doubt we hear anything from the B1G for a long time. If talk that there could be 2-4-6 teams form the PAC thinking about joining theB1G are at all true, this is a seismic shift and is not done quickly. There is much more to it than just the sports teams and divisions and schedules.
FeelYourPaign
- So Cal
I find it terribly sad that I think that conference realignment is more intriguing than the upcoming Illinois football season. But it is true for me at least. There are more possibilities in the conference re-org conversation than this football program has shown since Mr. White left town about a thousand years ago. Sorry, but I'm a Debbie downer about this.
Endless team transcon travel Followed by games and classes seems insane.
And when they play an 8:30 tip at Minnesota on a Tuesday, fly back and don’t enter their apartment/dorm until 1-2 am, and have to go to class at 8 am, it’s so much more sensible?
I mean you don't really think "student-athletes" really have those problems right?
Oh this is great theatre.
Also, I'm here for the "Hate, hate, hate!"
Also, I'm here for the "Hate, hate, hate!"
RedRocksIllini
- Morrison, CO
Smashing good theatre. Also depressingly unsurprising waste of tax dollars.
Savage
Maybe not?
Texas Tech (and I think to a lesser degree so will Baylor and TCU as they are private) in the end will most likely be negatively affected by this move. Those three schools benefit from Texas being in their conference. Without a premier school like Texas (and OU to an extent) those three schools aren't getting near the same amount of money for TV contracts. Less money, lots of problems.
So in a way, it kind of makes sense that this gets brought up like this in a political arena.
Yeah, especially if you represent the areas these schools are in, or areas nearby whose economies are reliant on these schools, this move has ramifications that will impact your constituents. UT is also a public entity, and should be accountable in that sense as well. I don't think this kind of oversight activity is a waste of time at all.
It is a waste of time. Nothing is going to change. These people cannot stop UT from going to the SEC nor at the end of the day do they really care. It is all for show like many things political.
Sometimes these hearings just serve to further the public debate. That's a lot of what politics is. There is probably nothing politicians alone can do to stop the SEC behemoth. Fans are probably the only ones who can. Fans are what stopped the European super soccer league that was about to happen earlier this summer, which I think is a pretty close parallel to what the SEC is trying to accomplish. But fans can't force UT to send a representative to answer questions. State legislature can, and should. It's honestly an essential government function (and should arguably be used more rather than less) otherwise the public would know a lot less about how power is wielded on this country.
mattcoldagelli
- Script Illinois Enthusiast
Not necessarily. OU and UT had to do this under cover of night - which necessarily slowed it down - because a) there wasn't any other realignment happening and b) they are the two pillars of the Big 12.
If, say, Kansas wants to come because the future of the Big 12 is not obviously, publicly in doubt, and the B1G is willing to take them, it's not going to take months.
Sounds like globalism.
The Galloping Ghost
- Washington, DC
I thoroughly enjoyed this essay and I think many of you will as well.
Leaving the ACC was a bad idea. But going back would be worse.
I thought that the SEC fans were overwhelmingly thrilled to be adding Texas and Oklahoma to the conference, as if the extra money would trickle down to them. But, apparently, that is not the case. This read gives me hope that super conferences aren't inevitable.
Leaving the ACC was a bad idea. But going back would be worse.
I thought that the SEC fans were overwhelmingly thrilled to be adding Texas and Oklahoma to the conference, as if the extra money would trickle down to them. But, apparently, that is not the case. This read gives me hope that super conferences aren't inevitable.
well there are 5-6 schools in the SEC that will just about never be able to get above .500 in league play anymore. Those schools need to go 3-0 in their non-con so they can pretty much forget ever scheduling another P5 school for an early season marquee payday game, or be at real risk of not winning 6 games.
I do think there are 4-5 PAC schools that are getting real tired of being irrelevant in the FBS top 10, and they likely feel some sort of affiliation with the B1G is their best option - whether that involves straight up joining our league or some other hybrid association . Schools like USC, Stanford, Oregon and Washington , to name just 4, come to mind as almost perfect from an academic/athletic standpoint. If the B1G can pull that off, not sure their is any major reason not too. One would think if that could happen, then ND and another high profile wild card school from the east coast or Texas could also.
They kept calling themselves USC. Took me a bit to realize they meant South Carolina.
I get why people bemoan the changes being made in college football, but the college presidents are going to follow the money every single time. It's up to the fans to vote with their dollars.
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